Find out which times are best to post on social media and how to boost your engagement rates
Getting your audience to engage with your social media profile more means besides providing regular, high-quality content, you’re also aware of the best times to post it on your channels.
Whether TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube, understanding when your audience is most active can help leverage your social media marketing strategy results.
In this article, you’ll find research we compiled to give you a hand with your posting schedule for each platform. We’ve also included some practical tips to help you monitor your audience’s behavior efficiently. Take a look!
What’s the best time to post on social media?
First, it’s important to note that the ideal posting schedule is not the same for every platform. Because each has unique characteristics, peak engagement times, and other factors that impact content delivery, one size does not fit all.
Another thing to consider is that even though research may suggest the best posting schedule, that doesn’t mean it’s ideal for your clients across the board, as there is no exact formula for user behavior on social networks.
We’ve gathered data from studies by SocialPilot and SproutSocial, which show general information on the best times to post on the major social networks. We’ve also got some handy tips for you on how to monitor your posting schedule.
Best times to post on TikTok
Let’s start by talking about one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in Brazil in recent years: TikTok! For this sensation, like many other platforms, there is no specific ideal posting schedule.
But research across different time zones in countries such as the USA, Australia, the Philippines, and Germany, has shown a few behavioral patterns that suggest:
- The times to post on TikTok are during the morning hours (6 am to 10 am) and in the evening (7 pm to 11 pm),
- with Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday being the ideal days of the week.
To make sure you’re posting at the optimal times for your audience, it’s important to keep an eye on your TikTok Analytics metrics. They’ll provide suggestions on the best periods and days when your followers are most active.
To access this tool, go to your profile, click on the three dots, select Creator Tools and then click Analytics.
Best times to post on Instagram
As you may already know, the performance of Instagram content is influenced by algorithms. That means the sooner you can get followers to engage with new content, the more relevant it will be and the more likely to reach a wider audience.
To put it differently, knowing the best times to post on Instagram will help propel interactions and keep content running through feeds for longer.
Here are some guidelines to follow (according to SproutSocial’s global engagement survey):
- According to SproutSocial’s global engagement research, the best days for posting are weekdays, during morning hours and around lunchtime – on Mondays at around 11am, Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10am and 1pm, and Thursdays and Fridays between 10am and 11am.
- On weekends, engagement is weaker, but around 9:00 am is considered a good time to post.
Also, keep an eye on Instagram Insights (available for business accounts) to check whether these times make sense with your profile’s actual performance.
Best times to post on Facebook
If there is one place where diversity thrives as far as audiences go, it’s Facebook! With a whopping 2.7 million monthly active users on the platform, it’s a very relevant channel for digital marketing strategies.
To set a posting schedule for your Facebook content, use the Analytics reports to monitor your audience behavior. That way you can tailor your posting schedule to the preferences and habits of followers, increase your engagement rate and increase the effectiveness of your digital marketing Facebook strategy.
But like with the other social media platforms we covered, there are periods of high engagement to look out for (if you don’t have access to Analytics reports data ). According to SproutSocial, these are:
- Monday to Friday, at 3 am;
- Tuesdays between 10 am and 12 pm;
- On Saturdays and Sundays, engagement is weaker, so they’re not considered the best days for posting.
Best times to post on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social network that’s geared towards enabling connections in the professional world, and we’ve also got a couple guidelines when it comes to posting times. According to research by SproutSocial, engagement is highest on weekdays, with Tuesday between 10 am and 12 pm being the best time to post.
Wednesday and Thursday also stand out as high-engagement days. Wednesdays are best between 8am and 2pm, while Thursdays can generate more interactions from 9am to 12pm.
But don’t forget to check the insights on audience behavior provided by the platform. That’s how you can analyze what content performed as expected and when it was posted.
Best times to post on YouTube
Last, we have YouTube, one of the largest video-sharing social media platforms. It deserves special attention when it comes to posting content.
For guidance on the best times to post on YouTube, we can refer to a compilation of studies conducted by SocialPilot, which includes information from Frederator Networks, Boosted, HowSociable, and InVideo. Generally speaking, these are the best times:
- between 2 PM and 4 PM on weekdays;
- between 9 AM and 11 AM on weekends.
However, this can also vary depending on what works best for your channel. It’s a good idea to keep track of the metrics that are available in YouTube Studio under the “Analytics” tab.
Track your audience behavior data through Reportei
If you’ve read this far, it’s clear that making the most of your TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube content means knowing how to prepare a posting schedule with the best posting times. You’ll also need to understand what works for each profile, page, or channel.
While you can find data to support your posting schedule choices on each platform, wouldn’t it be more practical if you could access all the data you need in one place?
Automatic reports on Reportei can help you there and can also show you how successful your social media strategies are. Our reports include charts you can look at to gauge the best days and times to post based on your audience’s behavior. You also get data on your main content within the selected period.
