Forget the benchmarks – Here’s how to really find out when you should post.
There are reports everywhere on the topic, and it is something that marketers have talked about and debated since the beginning of social media.
When should I post on different social media channels?
Everyone is going to tell you a slightly different answer. Some might tell you the evening, others will tell you afternoon. Some will say weekends are the most important, while others will tell you weekdays.
Quite frankly, I have had enough. The answer to the question ‘When should I post on social?” is a simple one.
WHEN YOUR AUDIENCE IS ACTUALLY ONLINE
Yeah, that’s right, I said it… There is no standard good or bad time to post
So how do you know when to post and where to post it?
That’s easy – Look at your analytics. Here is how you find the information to tell you when you should post on social media.
When to post on Instagram:
First things first – in order to get the information you need from your Instagram account, you need to make sure that it is set up as a business account. For quick instructions on how to do that, click here.
If you have a business account, here is what you do
Step 1: Hit the little graph in the upper right corner.
Step 2: In the followers section, select “See More”.
Step 3: Scroll to the bottom and make sure to select “Hours”.
This information is going to tell you exactly what time your followers are online every day of the week. If people who currently follow you are online at those time, others with similar interests might be as well, making it a great time for you to be posting your content!
When to post on Facebook:
Facebook also has the same great tools as Instagram within their analytics.
Step 1: At the top of your business page, select insight.
Step 2: Down the left side, select “Posts”.
Step 3: The graph at the top of the page will show the hours.
This graph at the top of the page in step 3 will tell you everything you need to know! You can hover over the top bars that show each day of the week and the line graph will change to show you when the peek amount of your followers are online. So for us, the peek time our people are online is at 9:00 PM. We now know posting around 8:45 is the best time to get their attention.
Posting on social at certain times is not something that you can learn from a study or mass amounts of data. In order to be the most effective, you need to post when your people are actually online. Facebook and Instagram both provide you with those tools so take advantage of them! These are valuable tools that can help you interact with your current following, while also welcoming in new friends!