The Best & Worst Times to Post on Social Networks

Do you feel like you’re providing useful content for others but no one is noticing?

Maybe you’re posting at the wrong times.

In May, bitly posted a report detailing the best and worst times to post on social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr). All the plots and information were based on EST. Here’s a summary of bitly’s report: Twitter:

Best time to tweet for click-throughs: Early afternoon Monday to Thursday: 1pm- 3pm.
Most traffic from 9am – 3pm.
No posting after 8pm and 3pm on Fridays.
It appears Twitter doesn’t work on the weekends.

Facebook:

Best time: Wednesdays at 3pm.
Most traffic from 9am – 4pm.
Links posted midweek from 1pm – 4pm have the highest click rates.
Wait until 11am if you want a lot of click-throughs.

Tumblr:

Best time: Friday evenings.
Most traffic from 7pm – 10pm on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Post after 7pm for more clicks.
No posting before 4pm.

What about other social networks like Google+, Pinterest or LinkedIn? LinkedIn:

Best times: Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Most traffic before and after business hours.
Post between 7am – 9am OR 5pm – 6pm.
Don’t post from 10am – 6pm OR on Mondays and Fridays.

Pinterest:

Best times: After 12pm and Saturday mornings.
Post between 2pm – 4pm OR 8pm – 1am.
Don’t post between 5pm – 7pm OR in the late afternoon.
Traffic fades after 5pm.

Google+:

Best time: 9am – 11am.
Most traffic after 9am during work hours.
No posting after 5pm.
Worst time: 6pm – 8am.

There are variables when it comes to the time zone and social network – thankfully there are apps that can calculate the best times for you to post. SocialFlow: A social media optimization website that helps businesses and brands increase audience engagement on a variety of social networks. It’s all about the right message to the right audience at the right time. They provide an instant analysis of what’s going on in each social network and insights to your target market such as likes and click-through rate.

Tweriod: Informs you of the best times to tweet and get the most exposure. It analyzes your past tweets and your followers past tweets. The first step is simple, just sign in with Twitter. Once the app has finished the analysis (approx. 30 minutes) it will DM you the report. This will include the top 4 times to gain more exposure, an hourly graph of when your followers are online the most, and ‘your @replies graph’ which measures engagement and best times.

Statigram: Shows you statistics of your Instagram account, manages your community on a user-friendly platform, shares active photo contests with you, and more. You know how you can’t access all of Instagram’s features and freely browse Instagram on the web? Well, Statigram has made all of this possible. Once you have found what times are best for you, take a look at Buffer. This app allows you to upload tweets all at once and then progressively throughout the day it will release them for you. It also has a LinkedIn autopost feature!