It’s the age-old social media and content marketing question: when’s the best time to post on social media?
Your social analytics can give you an indication of when your audience is engaging with your content, and there are tons of blog posts out there offering you sound advice on when you should post your content on social media. But it’s not enough to just know when your visitors are online, but when they’re engaging online (i.e. clicking, sharing, emailing, and even printing).
We took a look at our proprietary data based on 14 million sites using social media our tools worldwide (that’s about 3 billion page views a day), to help you optimize when you should post your content, including the day, time, and social network. Here’s what we found for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Facebook, Twitter in the daytime. Pinterest in the evening.
First, we looked at clicks and shares to see when users are consistently engaging with content the most during an average week. Keep in mind that all times are Eastern Time.
| Shares | 9AM-11AM, 12PM | 10AM-12PM | 10AM, 2PM | 3PM, 8PM |
| Clicks | 3PM-5PM | 3PM-5PM | 1PM-2PM | 8PM-10PM |
Most sharing to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn happens in the morning, when people get to work. Consequently, clicking (which is different from sharing) tends to dominate Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn in the afternoon hours. Pinterest users have the most activity in the evening hours when readers both share and click content as they’re winding down after work.
Tip: So, if you’re looking to increase clicks on your company’s social channels, try posting your content in the afternoons. instead of the mornings
Aim for the peaks every week.
We also looked at the peak of the week to see what day and time had content engagement spikes in an average week.
| Clicks & Shares | Thursdays, 9AM-12PM | Fridays, 2PM-3PM | Tuesdays, 10AM-11AM | Wednesdays, 1PM-2PM |
It’s interesting to see that each social network has a different peak day and time; not everyone engages with all social networks at the same time. Common sense if you think about it.
Tip: If you’re posting your content across social networks, maximize engagement by posting on the peak day and time of those networks.
As much as data can be useful, don’t forget to think about the human aspect of sharing. Think about your own behaviors and habits on social networks. When are you most likely to share content and using what social media network? When do you have breaks at work? What social network do you find yourself scrolling through when watching TV at night? Chances are, your audience’s behaviors may not be that far off from yours.
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