Social media marketing can be tricky at times. If you can even find the time throughout your busy day to post, you have to carefully consider a number of factors to get the most out of your social media posts. Posting too little or too much, or at the wrong time of day, can make the difference between successful posts and ones that goes unnoticed. Ideal posting schedules and frequencies vary from platform to platform and can change at any time. Without a little guidance, it can seem like a puzzle that you are forever trying to solve.

Activity and engagement on social media sites will peak at certain times throughout the day and week. These peak hours are when you want to be making your own posts to maximize the chance they are seen by your target audience. Posting during off-peak hours will likely result in your post being missed. By the time most of your audience is back on social media sites, the post will be buried in the never-ending wave of content from other businesses and users. 

So when is the ideal time to post on social media sites? SproutSocial has analyzed the content engagement of over 20,000 companies to provide us with the times of day when clients are most active and engaging on popular social media sites. Based on their findings, these are our recommendations on when you should be posting to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

When to Post on Facebook 

Facebook tends to have the most engagement throughout the middle of the week and falls off on the weekends. Wednesday has the most overall engagement and would be the best day to post if you were only able to make one per week. Tuesday through Thursday is a fairly forgiving safe zone with strong activity as well. Outside of these optimal periods, you should simply do your best to avoid early morning and late evening hours if possible. We recommend posting at least once every day so while engagement may be less than ideal on the weekends, posting on these off-peak days is still better than not posting. 

Recommended Posting Times: Tuesday through Thursday, 8 a.m. through 3 p.m. 

Worst Posting Times: Evenings after 6 p.m., early mornings before 7 a.m. and weekends. 

When to Post on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a unique social media network given its focus on a professional audience. Engagement on the platform is very high on the weekdays during typical work hours. Wednesday and Thursday are the two days with the most interaction while days at the beginning and end of the week show less engagement. Weekends tend to have limited interaction as users spend more time on the more personal social media sites. It is recommended to post once a day on the platform. Try to get weekend posts done but if you can’t, make sure you at least post once per day during the work week within normal work hours.

Recommended Posting Times:  Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. through 2 p.m. 

Worst Posting Times: Hours outside of the typical work week. 

When to Post on Instagram 

Instagram is one of the most popular social media sites and is only growing in popularity. The simplistic visual-based platform makes it easy for users to quickly view and interact with posts. This may be why Instagram is one of the few platforms with better than average weekend and evening interaction. Wednesday and Friday around 10 and 11 a.m. are the times with strongest engagement. As with most other social media sites, engagement still tends to be strongest mid-week while tapering off as the work week starts to come to an end. 

Recommended Posting Times:  Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Worst Posting Times: Early mornings before 8 a.m., late evenings after 8 p.m. and Sunday. 

Fine Tuning Your Posting Schedule 

Even if you follow recommended posting schedules, you may find that engagement is low at peak times or that it spikes for you at times that may not be considered ideal. Your social media posting habits will constantly be changing based on your own discoveries. Do not feel forced into a specific schedule if it does not work for you. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to social media marketing. Experiment within the recommended posting windows and find out exactly when your particular clients are most active. From there you can pinpoint exactly when to post to get the most interaction. These windows may constantly be evolving, and you must do the same. If you can do that, your social media marketing will be far more successful. 

The post The Best Times to Post on Popular Social Media Sites appeared first on 220 Marketing Group.

If you are a devoted tweeter, you should be posting your most important content between 1 pm and 3pm Eastern (10 am to 1 pm Pacific). This will give you the best click rate, especially early on in the week. For best results, you should avoid posting after 8 pm throughout the week, and 3 pm on Fridays

Twitter will require a little more upkeep to be successful as the half life of a post is about 2.8 hours

To reach your fans on Facebook, you should post between 1 pm and 4 pm to get the most interaction to your post. The best time overall to post during the week is at 3 pm on Wednesday

According to bit.ly, although traffic on Facebook begins to increase around 9 am, it’s best to wait until 11 am to post your update. Similarly to twitter, traffic from Facebook begins to wane after 4 pm, and posting should be avoided altogether after 8 pm and before 8 am

If you are taking advantage of the benefits of  Tumblr, you will be on a completely different schedule. To get the best results here, you will need to wait until at least 4 pm Eastern, and posting after 7 pm will help get you the best return on your investment.

While it’s not the best idea to post on a Friday evening with Facebook and Twitter, this is the time that Tumblr will give you the best opportunity to post.

So what does all of this information mean? Mainly that each social networking site has it’s own culture, and each community has its own habits that you will have to adjust your strategies to. By analyzing the times your posts get the most attention, and maybe by doing some experimenting, you will be able to find the formula that works best for your network of people.

Because each site has different optimal posting times, it’s best to set up a schedule of when you will post on each social media site and stick to it. Setting up reminders will help you stay on track, and help you make the most out of your valuable time.

What is the time of day that you get the most results from your posts? We’d love to hear your feedback and see what has been working for you.

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The post The Best (and Worst) Times to Post Social Media Updates appeared first on 220 Marketing Group.