There is no wrong or right time to post on social media. However, there have been studies that suggest there are certain times and days in the week that can aid the success of your posts on different social media platforms.
Facebook is a social media site generally used for private use or as a B2C company. It is very easy to share content, interact with other users and monitor the day to day updates of your target audience. So what time is best to post?
Research shows that most Facebook activity happens on a Thursday and a Friday – The most content shares happen around 1pm and the most clicks around 3pm (Contently: 2015). Consumers usually check Facebook on their breaks, commute or later on in the evening – the more people want to go home- the more they check Facebook!
Weekends and evenings are also a popular time for target audiences to be on Facebook, often checking their feeds when they are relaxing at home
Twitter is now one of the top go to sites for B2B and personal use – short updates mean that the average person can have a quick scroll on their breaks and on their commute.
B2B profiles have a 14% greater engagement rate Monday – Fridays than B2C users, whereas B2C users have a 17% greater engagement rate on the weekends (Contently: 2015). With peaks during the weekdays between 7:30am – 8:30am and again at 5pm – 6pm we can see that a large number of users check their twitter on their commute to and from work. For B2C there are not any specific peaks during the day – it is more of a general frequent update.
LinkedIn is a professional networking site and is very much B2B – 64% of social referrals to a corporate homepage are directed through LinkedIn, making it the most popular social networking site when driving traffic to a business homepage or website (LinkedIn Pulse: 2015). Whilst company pages/profiles may not be as popular, individual professionals use it to connect with colleagues, previous clients and potential leads.
Monday- Friday work hours are the most popular times to use LinkedIn with peaks at 7:30am – 8:30 am, as well as 5pm – 6pm – the general office commute time.
Latergramme, a service that lets you schedule Instagram posts, ran an analysis of over 61,000 posts to see at what time and what day seemed to gain the most interaction (likes and comments).
Their studies found that Wednesdays around 5pm had the most post ‘likes’ with Thursday coming up in a close second place. Businesses who use Instagram are primarily B2C, with over 300 million active monthly users – the use of hashtags and location can help you to target specific consumers.
To summarise, the best time to post on Facebook and Instagram (B2C) is towards the end of the week and weekends with peaks on Wednesday’s and Thursday’s. LinkedIn and Twitter (B2B) have shown that the best time to post is during commute hours (7:30 – 8:30am & 5 – 6pm) Monday – Friday, This is when most professionals and companies share and read posts to engage with their target audience.
It is important to know which social media network is better suited for your business. Before creating a social account, it is key to ask yourself who am I trying to target? When will my targeted audience be socially active? Knowing when and where to post your content can help generate more leads and keep your networking site relevant.
Waypoint is a Winchester marketing company specialising in delivering marketing strategy, content development and lead generation.
If you need help with your social media marketing or any aspect of your lead generation please call Waypoint on 01962 862760 or email info@waypointdigitalmarketing.com
