When’s the Best Time to Post on Social Media?

As a marketing consulting firm, we’re often asked when the best time to post on social media is, especially since social media is 24/7. Someone is always tweeting, blogging, and posting on Facebook. You can’t be online all day and still run your business, so how do you know when is the best time to reach your target audience?

Here are some difference ways to determine when your audience is online:

Social Media Tools

There are many great social media tools available. Hootsuite (https://hootsuite.com) is one of my favorites. It has an AutoScheduling functionality which schedules your messages at the best times to reach your audience.

For those of you who tweet, SocialBro (www.socialbro.com) is great because it provides daily reports on the best time to tweet.

If you blog using Google+, like we at Blue Dog Marketing do, Timing+ (http://timing.minimali.se/)  analyzes your historical post data to determine what time of day has the most potential for your posts to have the greatest impact.

Learn from the Research of Others

The best times to post on social media is a hot topic and there is a lot of research available. I found the information below on the best times to post in several different places on the web:

v  Facebook – between 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday

v  Google+ - between 9 – 11 a.m. weekdays

v  Twitter – between 1 – 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday

v  Pinterest – The optimal time to post is on Saturday morning. Other times are weekday evenings and weekends.

v  LinkedIn – post both before and after business hours, 7 – 9 a.m. and 5 – 6 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday

Keep in mind, if you have customers in different time zones, accommodate your posting times accordingly.

You don’t always have to be posting, but you do have to be regular and consistent. Your audience expects that, so pick days and times to tweet, blog or post and stick to them.