Discovering the Best Time to Post on Social Media
In starting my summer Instagram project, I knew I would need to create consistent content three times a week that would also be engaging for followers of the page. I went into this project with the plan to create content that engaged users on Instagram to interact with the page. I decided to use the best practices recommended by social media managers to reach my goals. I post three times a week and discovered the best time for me to post is three o’clock in the afternoon. The Instagram analytics tool is helpful in providing the best day and time to post.
Using the Instagram analytics tool, helped me understand when my audience was most active on Instagram and engaging in posts and stories on the platform. Now that I know and understand the best posting time is in the afternoon at three o’clock, I will aim to post during that time. In reviewing the Instagram analytics tool, I also learned all days of the week are a good day to post. Every day of the week is almost even on the number of followers being active on certain days than others. Hubspot reccommends the best day to post on Instagram is Friday.
Understanding the best time to post for the audience of my personal interest project profile Instagram page has been beneficial in engaging users on my posts. It is beneficial to social media managers to understand what days and times are best to post on social media to increase engagement. Depending on the social media platform it may benefit you to post on Facebook in the morning and TikTok at night, even though you have a similar audience on both platforms. Users of social media platforms have different habits of how they choose to use it and when. It is important to understand your audience’s habit of using the social media platform you are reaching them and what time they are most active on the platform. When you know what time, they are most active on the platform you can better reach them increase the chances of it being seen more times depending on the social media platform and the algorithm of each social media platform.
A lot of factors come into play when trying to decide the best time to post. Oberlo provides what they recommend and discover the best times to post on each social media platform. However, they overall recommend, “The best way to determine the best time to post on social media for your brand is to experiment.” It is good to try posting at different times and days to see which time you get the most engagement.
Gaining engagement on a post is important for it to succeed for more followers and social media users to see the content. Iconosquare suggests that “It is crucial to driving as much attention to your post as you can within important factor explained the first 15–20 minutes because the algorithm favors those posts that get an initial spike of likes.” Understanding your best time to post and having an engaging caption can help your posts and page grow and succeed.
Instagram can provide the best day to post and the time for each day. What if you could receive deeper and more analytics to finding the best post day and time? With Hootsuite, you can! Hootsuite best describes their analytics as, “Get actionable insights on the best times to post without the heavy data crunching. Whether your goal is building awareness, boosting engagement, or driving traffic, set yourself up for success.” Hootsuite is an excellent tool in assisting you to find the best time to post your content.
Discovering your ideal posting time is beyond understanding the analytics from the social media platform. It is about understanding and knowing your audience on each of your brand’s social media platforms. You may need to take time to test different days and times then evaluate the posts to see what was successful.
