Wondering the best time to post on social media?
It’s an often-asked question!
Timing is key to maximize social media reach and engagement. You need to put out content when your target audience is online and most likely to pay attention.
The best time to post on each social network varies due to the times people are likely to be active on each platform, and how differently they engage on them.
We’ll cover all the major platforms, including Tumblr and WhatsApp.
Let’s go!
How to Find Your Best Times to Post
The most important rule in determining when to post on social media is to decide what works for your business.
Your goals, target audience, and industry should influence when you publish content.
But it always helps to have some good general data to start with! Then you can work out exactly when the best time to post is for your account.
Plus, I’ll recommend some third-party scheduling tools that make it easy! They do all the figuring for you. If you purchase a plan via one of my links, I may earn a referral fee.
Best Time to Post to Instagram
Timeliness is important on Instagram, as their algorithm likes to show fresh content. That means nailing those best times to post on Instagram is very important.
Getting your audience at the right moment will increase reach and engagement.
Then more people will see your stuff!
The best times to post to Instagram are:
- Between 2pm-3pm daily (CDT)
- 5am Tuesday to Friday – good engagement as people get up
- 11am – 3pm weekdays – good engagement while on a lunch break or finishing for the day
- 11am Sunday – good engagement as it’s brunch time or relaxing with friends
There are even sweet spots for different industries. For example:
- Tech – 10am Wednesday
- B2C – 10am & 1am Fridays
- Education – 8am Mondays
- Healthcare – 1pm Tuesdays
- Nonprofits – 3pm Tuesday and Wednesday
Want to know more? Check out this article on the best time to post to Instagram and see how their own analytics can help you nail your own best time.
Looking for the easy button? Tailwind Smart Assistant figures out your best times and sets up your personalized posting schedule.
Load your photos and videos and compose your captions. Use their hashtag finder to add the perfect array of hashtags to attract your best audience.
Sit back and let Tailwind post to Instagram automatically at the best time, every time!
Try Tailwind for Instagram for free!
Best Time to Post to Facebook
Like Instagram, Facebook uses ‘timeliness’ as part of the algorithm.
FB likes to show users new, fresh content and rewards content that gets engagement.
So, the best time to post to Facebook for your account is a key thing to understand.
There are loads of ideas about when this is. A few top times include:
- 1pm – 3pm weekdays
- 9am – 3pm weekdays
- 11am – 1pm Wednesdays
- 1pm – 3pm Thursdays and Fridays
- 8pm Thursdays
There’s also some difference between businesses that are B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to customer).
Monday and Tuesday are the best times to post if you are B2B. Tuesdays are best for B2C companies. Aim for around noon EST for the best reaction while people are scrolling on lunch.
When you look at specific niches, Wednesdays seem to win out.
These include media, education, tech, and finance. Avoid those weekends as people aren’t as into your stuff then general.
Need more personalized info? Check out this full post on the best time to post to Facebook and see how Facebook Insights can teach you more.
Best Time to Post to X, formerly Twitter
Twitter is known to be fast-paced and constantly moving. This may make the idea of best time to post seem unimportant.
But that’s not the full story.
While X averages 5787 tweets per second, there are still plenty of sweet spots to aim for and test your audience.
For example, the best days to tweet are Wednesdays and Fridays. Peak time for both is around 9am, with people checking their feed before work starts.
But the worst day is Saturday. By then, the constant stream of tweets has worn people out and they need a break!
There are also peak spots for engagement. Between 2am and 3am is a weird hot spot. But engagement drops during working hours.
The best click-through rates tend to be on Mondays and Thursdays between 1pm and 3pm.
Need something a little more personalized? Check out how to find the best time to post on Twitter and what tools can help with the job.
My personal favorite is Missinglettr because it’ll show you your top time of day to get clicks!
Best Time to Post to LinkedIn
Because LinkedIn is the professional social media network, there’s no surprise that business hours are the best time to post.
But which business hours? For what time zone?
Generally, the best times to post are Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Wednesdays see best results from 8am until 1am, then again around noon.
Thursday at 9am and again at lunch break time from 1pm to 2pm are great, while 9am Friday is worth testing.
The key is to use the time zone where the biggest amount of your audience lives.
There’s no point using Hong Kong work hours if your audience is along the East Coast of the US!
That means understanding your audience and their location is really important.
To help you with this, check out the best times to post on LinkedIn and how to use their limited analytics for a little help.
I’ve only found one easy way to nail your best times for LinkedIn, and that’s with the scheduler Missinglettr. Try it out, or see the blog post for details!
Best Time to Post to YouTube
Posting videos to YouTube is a bit like sending out a TV show. You want the videos in front of people at peak viewing times.
This means posting them earlier to give them time to be indexed and show up.
Thursdays and Fridays are the best days to post your new video. Post them between 12pm and 4pm.
That’s because the peak viewing times are Saturdays and Sundays between 9am and 11am. So, by uploading them a couple days early, you can get YouTube to show your videos to the right people.
Don’t wait until those weekend peak times to post as you might miss people entirely.
To get your posting time just right, be sure to read best times to post on YouTube.
Best Time to Post to TikTok
TikTok is pretty new to the scene in terms of social media marketing.
But that doesn’t mean people haven’t been studying it. We already have some ideas about when’s the best time to post.
If you know the platform, the best times to post might not be a surprise. They are:
- 6am – 10am
- 7pm – 11pm
In other words, before people start work and after they finish.
There’s also a couple of spots that are best for engagement:
- Tuesday 9am
- Thursday 12pm
- Friday 5am
These times are worked out on Eastern Standard so you might want to check that’s where your audience is.
If it isn’t, then try tweaking the times to your top time zone.
To find out where your audience is based and optimize your posting times, check out the full post on the best time to post to TikTok.
Best Time to Post to Pinterest
Since Pinterest dumped the chronological feed a few years back, posting time might not seem too big a deal.
But there’s more to that story.
To give your Pins an early boost, you want your followers to react with them shortly after you Pin them.
That means Pinning when your followers are most active. Pins appear in the follower’s home feed, they click and save, and the algorithm gets those positive signals.
The best time to Pin on Pinterest is still a bit tricky.
One study found that Saturday was the best day between 8-11pm.
Other good windows included 9pm, 2-4pm and 8pm to 1am, all EST.
But the important thing is to use analytics to check when your audience are busiest. This article on the best time to post on Pinterest will help you do that.
Want to make it simple? Let Tailwind study your account and create a Smart Schedule just for you. Try Tailwind for Pinterest and schedule your Pins for free!
Best Time to Post to Tumblr
Tumblr is a popular place to post microblogs and media to build an audience.
That means posting when your audience is around.
With Tumblr, much of this audience is going to be in the 13-24 age group. That means the best times to post is between 7pm and 10pm Monday to Thursday.
Post activity is highest at around 4pm. Notes tend to see a peak of about 10pm.
Remember, you want to check where your audience is and use the data to fine tune when to post.
If that’s the middle of the night for where you live, use the ‘Publish On’ option on Tumblr to select a peak time.
Best Time to Post to Snap
Snap is often the app people using while sitting in bed – when they should be asleep!
That’s because nearly 70% of users are 13 to 29-year olds.
It’s one of the most nocturnal of social media apps. Not surprisingly, that this shows in the best time to post to Snap.
The best time is between 10pm and 1am. There’s no particular days that are better or worse than others.
But don’t send out all of your snaps at the same time.
Instead, vary them by a few hours either side so that more people will see them.
Vary your Stories posting time with your normal snaps too.
Best Time to Post to WhatsApp
Of all the apps mentioned here, WhatsApp is the hardest to pin down the best time to post.
With 400 million people using it daily, it’s busy no matter what time of day. Or what day of the week.
But there are a few things to help you figure out when that best time for you could be.
For starters, people don’t use it when they are asleep! So, once you know your audience time zone, post when they’re awake.
Evenings can be a good time to try to capture people’s attention. Users tend to check it as they’re relaxing or watching TV.
You can even try spots such as early morning before work. Or during the lunch break.
The key thing is to have an idea of what time zone the majority of your audience is in.
Finding the Best Time to Post on Social Media
Finding the best time to post on social media is a bit tricky. There’s definitely some detective work to do.
General ideas of when to post can be a great starting point. We’ve given you the best times based on recent studies.
But it’s best to dig into when your audience is around, and fine-tune from there.
Sometimes the platform’s analytics give great clues. With others, Google Analytics can be a great help.
The easiest answers are usually found in scheduling tools. Check the in-depth articles on these networks to learn more about your favorites.
What’s the Best Time to Post on Instagram
What’s the Best Time to Post on Facebook
What’s the Best Time to Post on Twitter
What’s the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn
What’s the Best Time to Post on YouTube
What’s the Best Time to Post on Pinterest
What’s the Best Time to Post on TikTok
We’ve also got cool infographics for you below!
The team at Unmetric analyzed the engagement and timing patterns of the top 100 brands from various industries. They cover Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Scroll down and check it out.
Tell us in a comment – what’s your best social media site and when’s your best to post on it?
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