Using social media has often been thought of as a very inexact science. Even though posting regularly on social media is a great way to increase the amount of visitors your site receives, there are of course times when posts don’t have the intended effect. In most cases, this is simply down to the time of day, or even the day of the week you have decided to post online. That’s why you need to do research into your audience so then you can find out when they are more likely to be online. 

Here, we will take a look at when it is the best time to be posting onto social media, and what kind of reaction you should expect from the people who see your posts. 

Facebook 

Research has found that the best time to post on Facebook is either Thursday or Friday. This is because it is on these days that engagement on Facebook is considered to be at its highest. Engagement levels are also considered to be quite low on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so these could potentially be days when you should avoid posting anything major online. It has also been found that you are more likely to get shares if you post at 1 pm, while you’ll get more clicks if you post at 3 pm. 

This information tells us that Facebook is certainly the social media platform to use when the weekend is approaching. Perhaps posting some sort of messages asking people who plans they have for the weekend could be a great way to put this to the test before you start sharing content. Remember, all audiences are different so try and find out when your target audience is going to be online before you start putting all your eggs into one basket. 

Twitter 

When it comes to Twitter, there are very few things you can do wrong. Posting on any day is likely to get you fairly decent coverage, but there are times of the day when you should expect an increased activity. You are more likely to get views when you are tweeting at either 12 pm or 6 pm. This is probably because people are either on their lunch breaks or they are commuting home. You are also more likely to receive a retweet if you post at 5 pm. 

The interesting thing about Twitter is that you are more likely to get a reaction from your audience when you post during working hours. This is no doubt because people are either sitting on computers or with phones nearby and they are checking Twitter while they have a few minutes of spare time. If you can, try and increase your presence during the working day and you should start getting more coverage for your tweets. 

LinkedIn 

Much like Twitter, LinkedIn is more likely to be beneficial for you if you are posting on there during the working day. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are the best days to be posting, while 7 am-8 am along with 5 pm-6 pm are the best times of day if you are looking for a lot of coverage. This is probably because of people checking their LinkedIn pages before they go to work, as opposed to Twitter users who log on during the working day. 

LinkedIn is a site that is mainly used by business professionals, so it’s important to bear that in mind before you start posting. Make sure that you are professional and you try and reach out to your audience in a mature manner. If you can find at least one day a week to post on there, then you should find your popularity rising. 

Instagram 

Instagram really does deserve a category of its own, mainly because coverage on this site remains consistently high throughout the entire week. The only time there is a slight increase in activity is on Mondays, while Sundays are a slightly quieter day. If you are looking for the best time to post, then you should aim for any hours that are not working hours.

Because Instagram remains popular almost throughout the week, there really isn’t a bad time to be posting updates on there. Just try and use appropriate hashtags and encourage people to leave comments and should get good engagement levels regardless of when you are posting. 

Google+ 

If you are looking to post on Google+, then you should be looking to send updates on any weekday, Monday through to Friday. 9 am-11 am are considered to be the best times of the day to be posting, while Wednesday at 9 am is thought of as the best time in the entire week to be posting. 

While Google+ is being increasingly ignored by many users, it is still a very effective social media tool that should be used whenever possible. As long as it remains effective throughout the working week, then it is still well worth keeping track of and posting updates whenever possible.