The Best Times to Post on Social Media in 2020
Did you know that over the past three years, engagement on social media has declined by over 50%? As the algorithms of various social networks such as Facebook increasingly reduce the natural reach of posts, posting at the best time becomes crucial to hope to maintain some visibility on your social media.
Today, Internet users use each social network for different purposes. These various uses therefore imply different behaviors. Thus, each social network corresponds to a distinct way of consuming or sharing information. These distinctions are reflected in criteria such as connection time, frequency, or average duration of use.
This article looks at the preferred connection days and times for Internet users on each network. In 2019, Canadians spent an average of 1h48 per day on social media per day.
So what time of day do these 108 minutes take place? When to publish on social media to be visible to Internet users in 2019?
When do businesses post on social media?
Before delving into the specifics of each social media, it is interesting to study how companies publish on social media. According to a study by Hootsuite, companies publish almost 80% of their social media content between Monday and Friday. The following graph illustrates the distribution of posts from Monday (left) to Sunday (right) for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
When to post on Facebook in 2020?
Research by PewInternet has shown that Facebook is the most popular social network on a daily basis. Indeed, 74% of Facebook users connect to it every day. More than on any other social network (Instagram 60%, Twitter 46%, LinkedIn not included in the search).
To know when to post on Facebook, the best solution is to go and check for yourself in the statistics of your page, in the “publications” or “posts” tab. You can thus study the connection peaks of your audience according to the hours of the day.
You can also see which of your posts received the most engagement to determine when they were published. This method will allow you to identify trends in your level of engagement and adjust your posting schedule accordingly:
Best time to post on Facebook in 2020:
From 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
Between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday
During the week, the 12 pm-3pm range remains the most effective for the number of “likes”, comments and shares. Tuesday has lower engagement than the other four days of the week. Weekends still show a peak of one hour in the middle of the day.
But with the new Facebook algorithm continually shrinking the reach of corporate posts, posting at the best time isn’t enough – check out our guide on how to drive more engagement on your Facebook posts. And if you are wondering if your business page is optimized, then this guide is for you.
Use Facebook's automatic schedule suggestion!
Facebook has recently introduced an auto-suggest feature in an attempt to respond to the many managers who are wondering when to post to Facebook to maximize the reach of their post.
Perform the following process:
Home of your page> publication tools> scheduled publications> create
You will then see a tab appear allowing you (or not) to check “suggested”. When available (Facebook continues to implement it gradually), this feature will tell you exactly when is the best time to post on your Facebook page.
When to post on Twitter in 2020?
Twitter is used by many Internet users as a kind of digital newspaper. Indeed, the reactivity and the instantaneous aspect of the network ensure to find information always fresh, very often before all the other media.
Best time to post on Twitter – B2B:
If you are targeting other businesses with your tweets, the best time is:
12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday, peak arriving at 3 p.m.
Best time to post on Twitter – B2C:
If you want to reach individuals outside of their work:
Before 9 a.m. from Monday to Friday
At noon and at 5 p.m. Monday to Friday
Here again, the most effective method for your business is to analyze your audience statistics, test different times, measure results, and optimize your strategy.
Note that on Twitter, information primacy can be a determining factor in the reach of your Tweet. Being the first to talk about a major novelty related to your industry, no matter what time of day, is still a powerful way to engage Twitter users and get them to retweet your Tweet.
When to post on LinkedIn in 2020?
LinkedIn is the platform most used by professionals. So it makes sense to post during working hours.
Research conducted by Hootsuite shows that many companies publish their articles “on time”, that is, at 7:00 or 9:00 for example. So, to stand out from this trend and not see your post drowned in a stream of synchronized posts, it is recommended to post on LinkedIn 15 minutes before the hour.
Best time to post on LinkedIn:
7.45 a.m. from Monday to Thursday
10:45 am Monday to Thursday
12:45 from Monday to Thursday
5.45 p.m. Monday to Thursday
The best practice for your business is to test each of these hours, and analyze which one best matches the information consumption habits of your LinkedIn audience.
When to post on Instagram in 2020?
Instagram’s news feed doesn’t fully take timeline into account in its presentation, but timing is still important. Almost exclusively used from a mobile device (the computer version does not allow you to publish content), Instagram is particularly visited outside working hours.
The best times to post on Instagram:
From Tuesday to Friday
Between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
As Later’s research shows, Wednesday and Thursday are the two most significant days Instagram engagement is:
Some studies also show that from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., engagement with Instagram posts tends to increase. Even if your audience is less connected at these times, the lack of competition at these times of the day would allow your photo or video to stand out more easily, and therefore generate more engagement from your audience.
Now it's up to you to find your ideal method
The best time to post on social media depends above all on your business characteristics: your target audience, your industry and your social media platforms. Here’s how you can customize your posting schedule to get the best results possible:
Tailor your posting times to your industry
Study the characteristics of your target audience
Perform content testing
Analyze your results
1. Know the averages for your industry
The best time to post on social media doesn’t just depend on your choice of platforms, but also your industry. To give you an idea, here are some averages for Facebook and Instagram by industry, according to studies from SproutSocial and NukeSuite:
Mode: Monday to Friday between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. then between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Beauty: Thursday, Friday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Gastronomy: Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Technology and IT: Monday at 11 a.m. and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon
Financial industry: Monday, Tuesday and Sunday from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Other consumer products: Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
These averages can be your guide as you plan your posting schedule, but they aren’t set in stone! The next three steps will help you make them more precise and more relevant to your specific business.
2. Study your audience
Defining precisely who your audience is is essential in choosing when to publish. Identify the following criteria:
his average age
its geographical location (its time zone!)
his pace of work
his time spent in transport
his favorite social networks
the devices she prefers to use (phone, tablet, computer …)
3. Test the same content several times
The best way to identify when to post for the best possible results is to test the same (or slightly declined) content at several different times. Testing is an essential step in identifying your best opportunities.
Monitoring your competitors can also be a profitable tactic. Identify the most popular posts from your competition, and see if hours seem to return frequently among the most effective posts.
4. Analyze your results and optimize your strategy, continuously
The behaviors of your audience are changing, and so are social media algorithms.
Regularly measure the results of your various tests, assess what worked and what did not. Even when you’ve set an optimal schedule, keep a proactive approach and keep testing to make sure you stay aligned with your audience’s behavior at all times.
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