The Best & Worst Times to Post on Social Media

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Have you ever wondered if your tweets, pins, news updates, and other shared content were getting passed over because you aren’t uploading them at the right time? If so, you might be on to something!

While there isn’t a specific “golden hour,” or perfect time of the day to post to your social media platforms, between our well-tested guide showcasing when we would likely post to these eight important social media sites, and some trial and error on your part, you will definitely see more engagement per post from your followers as you hone in on the best moments to upload your content.

Note – All suggested optimal posting times are listed in Eastern Standard Time (EST). Why? Nearly half of all Americans live in this time zone, and by default this makes it the best time of the day to reach out to the largest audience within the United States.

Twitter

Best Time – Twitter fans are more active throughout the weekdays, especially from 12pm to 6pm. Traffic really starts to pour into Twitter in the late morning hours.

Worst Time – Twitter engagement sharply drops after 8pm, and users are much less likely to interact with your tweets when the weekend rolls around.

Facebook

Best Time – If you post content to Facebook on Monday through Friday anywhere from 12pm to 4pm, your posts have the best chance of users engaging with it. Facebook is at its most popular on Wednesdays, with its popularity spiking at about 3pm. Keep in mind that Facebook’s traffic begins building as early as 9am, and only starts to trail off around 7pm, so feel free to experiment throughout the day to see what works best for your audience.

Worst Time – People tend to access Facebook far less frequently on the weekends, and usage rapidly drops off from 8pm to 8am.

Pinterest

Best Time – Pinners dedicate their time to exploring Pinterest when they can, and users are at their most active from 2pm to 4pm in the early afternoon, and interest picks up again at night from 8pm to 12am. This trend flips on the weekends, where pins should be uploaded in the morning, when dedicated pinners are free to enjoy and share your content. Keep in mind that Pinterest is still popular in the late evening hours on both Saturday and Sunday.

Worst Time – Pinterest traffic sharply declines from 5pm to 7pm, and throughout the average workday hours of 6am to 12pm on Monday through Friday.

LinkedIn

Best Time – Since LinkedIn is mostly used by business professionals, this site is at its busiest on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays during the hours of 7am to 6pm. Users are especially engaged with content between 7am and 8am.

Worst Time – The weekends and after-hours. The vast majority of people use LinkedIn for career-related functions, and when folks clock out work for the day, they tend to leave LinkedIn behind too.

Google+

Best Time – People who use Google+ are the most active Monday through Friday, but this social networking site is at its peak traffic time from 9am to 11am. Wednesday tends to be the most popular day of the week for Google+ fans.

Worst Time – Before 7am in the morning, after 6pm at night, and any time on the weekends.

Tumblr

Best Time – Tumblr users are notoriously nocturnal: 42% of the site’s activity takes place between 5pm and 1am. Traffic builds up on Friday and Saturday, and Tumblr is at its most popular on Sundays. If you want to post content on the weekdays, do it later in the afternoon or early evening.

Worst Time – Mornings, from 1am to noon, especially on weekdays.

YouTube

Best Time – Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays are the perfect days to upload videos to YouTube, because it’s the time of the week when people naturally start to look for an interesting distraction from the daily grind. YouTube’s traffic usually peaks from 2pm to 6pm, making it the prime time to share your videos.

Worst Time – Nighttime. Traffic declines rapidly from 7pm to 4am. Consider holding off video releases until later in the week, because more of your future viewers are likely to be more focused on work, school, etc. on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

Instagram

Best Time – Every day is a great day for Instagram, as its mobile-focused users enjoy the platform all week long. If you’re looking for likes, the best times to post photos is after work hours, and around dinnertime. Instagram fans are more active from 5pm to 12am through the weekdays, and all throughout the weekend.

Worst Time – People are less likely to use Instagram from 6am to 2pm on Monday through Friday. Maybe it’s the lack of interesting photo ops in the office?

The Bottom Line

While we feel that these are some of the best times to post fresh content so your audience is more likely to interact with it, these suggestions aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Feel free to experiment to learn what time of day works best for your followers. We also recommend trying out official stat-tracking features like Facebook Insights and Twitter analytics, as well as powerful third party tools, like Bit.ly, Timing+, and Hootsuite, to help fine-tune your post times. Once your social media sites are set to the schedules of your fans, you’ll be one huge step closer to social media mastery- Great job!

References:

Huffington Post

HubSpot

Charity Digital News

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