What is the best time to post on social media? I asked myself that question many times. When are my followers more active on social media, in the morning, during lunchtime, or in the evening? I usually post daily at least once on Facebook and Instagram whenever I have some free time, and hope for the best, but that might not be the best approach, as I have recently discovered.
Of course, each social platform has its own “best time” for the general user population. According to a blog post by Hannah Macready, a freelance writer in Digital Marketing, the Hootsuite team has recently analyzed thousands of social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and others and came out with these overall “best days and times” to post in 2024:
- Facebook: 7:00 AM PST on Tuesdays
- Instagram: 11:00 AM PST on Wednesdays
- X: 7:00 AM PST on Mondays
- LinkedIn: 9:00 AM PST on Tuesdays
So given that Pacific Standard Time (PST) is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time (EST), the best time for me to post on Facebook would be at 10 AM on Tuesdays. But what about the other days of the week? According to the same article, these are the overall best times to post on Facebook:
- Mondays: 8:00 AM PST
- Tuesdays: 7:00 AM PST
- Wednesdays: 7:00 AM PST
- Thursdays: 8:00 AM PST
- Fridays: 7:00 AM PST
- Saturdays 10:00 AM PST
- Sundays: 11:00 AM PST
OK, but that does not mean that my followers and target audience are most active during these times. Luckily, there was a way to find out the best posting times for me, without the need to resort to paid tools. On Facebook, I usually use the Meta Business Suite to post simultaneously on Facebook and Instagram and, occasionally, to schedule my posts ahead of time. Meta Suite is also great for its analytics tool, which actually gave me the best times to post for each day of the week based on my followers’ browsing habits. Below is an image generated by Meta Analytics showing that for me, the best time to post on Facebook is 9 AM PST (12 PM EST) every day of the week.
For Instagram, the best times to post for me are 12 PM PST (3 PM EST) on weekdays and Saturday, and 3 PM PST (6 PM EST) on Sundays.
Luckily, I don’t have to post daily at these exact times, as that would be hard to keep up. Meta Business Suite has a planner where I can schedule single image, image carousel, reel, and video posts ahead of time, making it easier to plan out weekly or bi-weekly postings at the most efficient time for maximum impact. One fact needs mentioning, though. Meta Business Suite is a free tool, but it’s only available for business accounts or pages on Facebook and Instagram, and not available for personal profiles. To be able to use Meta Suite on both platforms, the two business accounts need to be connected, which can be very easily accomplished.
There are many tools that can help you get insights into your own audience’s habits. Google Analytics is one of them, although I couldn’t find a way to add my social media accounts to it, so I only use it for my website analytics. There are other tools, such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Tweriod, and more, which may or may not be free, but they usually offer free trials.
Is it imperative to post on social media at peak times? No, of course not. Especially if you only have a personal profile and you don’t use it for marketing purposes. But if you do use social media for brand awareness and product marketing, it is a good practice to pay attention to your audience’s engagement and behaviour at different times on social media platforms.
Will I post only at peak times? Probably not always. But from doing research for this blog post, the importance of good timing really caught my attention and I believe it’s something I will be definitely considering and pursuing more diligently in the future.
When do you post on your social media accounts? Do you have a preferred time? Please leave me a comment below.