In 2023, the global social media user base surged to a staggering 4.9 billion individuals worldwide. Projections suggest this figure will continue its upward trajectory, reaching around 5.85 billion users by 2027.
Users aren’t sticking to one platform: On average, they’re active across six to seven different ones monthly. This underscores the imperative of embracing a multi-platform strategy for successful social media marketing.
Facebook currently has 3.05 billion monthly active users worldwide and is predicted to reach the 3.07 billion mark by Q1 2024. 2.064 billion users access Facebook every day, which accounts for 68.11% of the platform’s monthly active users.
Stay Up to Date on These Ever-Evolving Platforms
In light of the exponential growth of social media users globally, simply being present on these platforms isn’t enough; understanding the best times to schedule posts becomes paramount for maximizing visibility and engagement.
Does It Really Matter When You Schedule Your Posts?
A successful social media marketing strategy hinges on knowing the optimal times to publish content across platforms. The significance of timing varies by platform but can profoundly affect visibility, engagement and overall effectiveness.
Why Timing Matters
Here’s why pinpointing the ideal posting times for social media platforms is essential:
- Maximize reach and engagement by scheduling posts when your target audience is most active. This increases the likelihood of broader exposure and more interactions, such as likes, comments, shares and clicks.
- Maximize conversion rates by posting at peak engagement times. Aligning content with these periods boosts click-through and conversion rates for marketing objectives like driving website traffic or generating leads.
- Stay ahead of algorithm changes by ensuring your posts align with peak engagement times. This strategy ensures your content remains prioritized by social media algorithms, staying ahead of updates.
- Gain a competitive edge by tracking competitors’ posting times and audience engagement patterns. Strategically schedule content to reach your audience first during peak engagement periods.
- Maximize ad ROI by timing campaigns to align with your target demographic’s peak activity. Running ads when your audience is most engaged increases the likelihood of connecting with potential customers, optimizing advertising effectiveness.
How to Know When Your Audience Is Active
Are you tired of posting on social media only to see minimal engagement? Timing is everything when it comes to capturing your audience’s attention. To help you maximize your social media presence, it’s important to understand when your audience is logging in on various platforms.
If you want to check when your own Facebook or Instagram followers are logging in (and we suggest you do), follow these simple steps:
- Log in to Facebook’s Business Manager and select the Page you want to check.
- Select Insights from the top navigation menu. Once in Insights, select Posts from the left sidebar navigation under “Tools.”
- Select Insights from the left sidebar navigation and change the selection to “Posts.”
- Once here, you will see a graph titled “When Your Fans Are Online.”
- Log in to Facebook’s Business Manager and select the Page you want to check.
- Select Publishing Tools from the top navigation menu. Once in Publishing Tools, select Creator Studio from the left sidebar navigation under “Tools.”
- In Creator Studio, toggle to Instagram (find the icon in the middle of the top of the page). Connect your brand’s Instagram account if you haven’t already.
- Select Insights from the left sidebar navigation and change the selection to “Audience.”
- Choose your account from the dropdown menu, then find “When Your Followers Are on Instagram” in the middle of the page. Switch from the default “Day” to “Day & Hour” to see the times when followers are most frequently online.
Scheduling Your Posts for the Right Time
Consumer behavior varies depending upon industry, time zones and platforms along with many other factors. You may want to analyze your strongest channels to gauge the best times based on your audience behavior and platform(s). You also may decide, for efficiency’s sake, to choose a posting schedule that suits both your audience and your needs.
Social Media Tools Can Help
In a world where every minute counts, nobody wants to spend hours each week tied to their computer, scheduling posts on multiple platforms. At EVR, we’re all about efficiency. We leverage scheduling tools to slash the time spent on this task, guarantee reliability (no more missed posts due to hectic meetings) and ensure our content reaches its audience when it matters most.
Scheduling tools are some of the most useful items in a social media manager’s toolbox, whether you work at a small startup or a multi-national enterprise. They’re also an incredible resource for freelancers, entrepreneurs and anyone else managing social media while running a small business.
That’s because these tools can save you time, streamline your work and help you grow your social media presence. Social media management tools can help you drill into your analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, both holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors’ to find new opportunities for engagement.
Adam Connell, digital blogger, provides an unbiased comparison of The 15 Best Social Media Scheduling Tools (2024 Pros and Cons), which you can peruse to determine which ones might best suit your needs.
Hootsuite boasts its Best Time to Publish feature, which tells you the best times to post on every platform. The recommendations are based on your past performance and are tailored to your unique audience and their activity patterns on social. And Sprout Social provides detailed scheduling recommendations by platform, which may make your eyes cross a bit—look for the darker spots which indicate the sweet spot.
Click to view TikTok and Pinterest peak engagement times from Sprout Social.
Overall Best Times to Schedule or Post
- Mondays from 10:00 a.m. to noon
- Tuesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
- Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
- Thursdays 9:00 a.m. to noon
- Fridays from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.
- Best days to post on social media: Tuesdays and Wednesdays
- Worst days to post on social media: Sundays
Every social platform offers unique advantages based on your objectives, content and audience. If you’re not seeing the engagement you hoped for, it might be time to reassess your social media KPIs. Plus, understanding your peak engagement days can give you a leg up in achieving those goals!
How to Find Your Own Best Times to Post on Social Media
Social marketers thrive on data for effective content planning. As social platforms change, so do brand-consumer interactions. Staying updated on new trends can lead to surprising audience connections and uncovering new segments. And while posting at peak times sounds great, analyzing your own social data might reveal different active hours for your target audience.
Finding the perfect time to post on social media can feel like cracking a secret code. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, dive into your own insights to discover when your audience is most active. Experiment, track and tweak until you find your sweet spot.
Once you test some of these theories, you may find an increase in not only post reach and engagement, but new followers, as well. Then, it’s time to celebrate!
