What’s the Best Time to Post on Social Media – For You?

Social media marketing can be a tricky landscape to navigate. Although businesses and consumers have never been more connected, that potential doesn’t automatically translate to increased conversion. Users have access to a variety of different platforms, each with distinct cultures and usage trends, which makes tailoring and timing your messages to get every post just right a real challenge.

The most important consideration for any social media marketing effort is identifying the goal — what response are you looking for from each post? Consider Twitter, for example: in general, Twitter is a more casual and fast-paced network where users sign in for short bursts of information. For most audiences, peak views and clicks on a tweet occur during lunch break hours for businesses or commuting hours, but users are less likely to spend time holding conversations about your posts during the day. The same tweet scheduled for 8 p.m. will be seen by fewer people, however, users are more likely to retweet and hold conversations — which boosts your engagement — when they’re relaxing at home than when they are on a rushed lunch break.

Each goal and target audience require a specific nuanced response. Expert digital marketing agencies and social media marketing teams have a wealth of data to help optimize scheduling, but identifying the goal is an important step in beginning to tailor any marketing effort.

B2B Interaction

Effectively targeting other businesses, such as non-profits or clients, can be challenging to master, but thankfully most industries operate on a schedule, making it easier to nail the timing. Monday through Friday during industry business hours is always the most effective time. Refining that window more, though, is pertinent. We can do this by timing your LinkedIn updates and B2B Twitter posts for the very beginning and end of the work day, when people still haven’t started or have just finished working and are looking for a distraction. Lunch break hours also work well as long as we avoid times when an audience is busy working.

Driving Exposure

If the chief aim is to have as many people see the post as possible, timing your posts during peak traffic for your network of choice is important. Some industries, like real estate and development or healthcare post more formal, thoughtful content, which means catching people in productive moods during B2B hours works well, too.

If you’re trying to get the word about hospitality-related information, like a restaurant advertisement, for example, Twitter and Facebook posts are the best tools to use during their peak viewing hours: lunch breaks, commute times, mid-evening and early on the weekends.

Eliciting Engagement and Sparking Conversation

The times when most people are viewing social media aren’t necessarily the best times to get people talking. Users may have downtime at work to scroll through their timeline, but not quite enough to commit to a conversation about an article or engage with a social media post.

Generally, targeting non-peak hours earns more clicks and allows people to be more invested in content, since the total amount of content presented is lower. If you really want to maximize active engagement like retweets or shares, most success is typically found on weekday evenings and early on the weekend — depending on the audience.

Taking advantage of the immediacy of platforms means being timely with content as well. As many as one in two Twitter users utilize the platform while watching TV. Responding to things as they happen in real-time, especially for industries like sports, is the easiest and most sure-fire way to get any kind of engagement. Although instant responses are best for platforms like Twitter, things like the new Trending Topics section on Facebook reward timely efforts as well.

The general usage trends and culture of each platform can help to build a basic social media marketing strategy, but in order to effectively tailor your business’s social media presence, access to analytics is key. Digital marketing agencies often set up campaigns according to these principles, then analyze the response data to optimize scheduling for the best possible performance. An agency the expertise to make the most out of your data, that way you can focus your efforts on perfecting your business instead of marketing it.

We provide the skills and services to deliver the strategic social media marketing that you need. Appleton Creative is an award-winning, full-service digital marketing agency located in Orlando, Florida. Appleton works with local, national and international clients to deliver custom content, persuasive online ads and expertly crafted campaigns. By implementing valuable and shareable digital content strategies, Appleton can create the perfect social and online marketing experience for your brand and audience. Your Internet advertising goals are worth a conversation: contact us at 407-246-0092 or info@appletoncreative.com.

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