As noted in our previous post, “3 Ways to Effectively Advertise on Facebook Without Spending a Dime“, posting on social media at certain times can maximize visibility and extend your reach with every post. While we can generalize the best posting times for all audiences, industry-specific information is most useful as not all audiences interact with social media the same way. It all comes down to what content your brand is sharing and who your target audience is.
The First Step in Social Media Posting: Understand Your Audience’s Geography:
Before we dive into what the best posting times are for different industries, it’s key to understand where your audience is located geographically. There are six time zones in the United States alone, although the Central and Eastern time zones represent roughly 80% of the U.S. population. For standalone brick-and-mortar businesses, it’s easy to know what time zone you should use. But for online stores and businesses with multiple storefronts, the best time to post may depend on your audience’s daily schedules.
If you are unsure where your audience is located, Google Analytics provides detailed geographical data on your site visitors that will help. Simply click on the “Geo” tab of your Google Analytics account and you will see a map similar to the one below. You can adjust the dimension to see what the most popular cities/regions are as well.
Note: If your audience is evenly dispersed across the United States, you may want to stick to Eastern times, as they represent 50% of the U.S. population.
The best times to post on social media by industry:
The following posting times were collected by TrackMaven from January 1, 2016 through July 31, 2016. The results are based on engagement rates from over 17.5 million social media posts by 17,737 brands. Although TrackMaven analyzed 75 industries, we will list data for only a few of these industries. The data is listed in Eastern Standard Time (EST). After you have an understanding of where your audience is located, you can adjust the following data to a different time zone, if necessary.
Consumer Goods
Facebook: Sunday at 11:00 am
Twitter: Wednesday at 11:00 am
LinkedIn: Friday at 8:00 am
Instagram: Tuesday at 6:00 pm
Pinterest: Tuesday at 12:00 pm
Consumer Services
Facebook: Friday at 4:00 pm
Twitter: Monday at 1:00 pm
LinkedIn: Sunday at 6:00 am
Instagram: Saturday at 10:00 am
Pinterest: Tuesday at 9:00 am
Financial Services
Facebook: Saturday at 5:00 pm
Twitter: Thursday at 12:00 pm
LinkedIn: Wednesday at 9:00 pm
Instagram: Friday at 9:00 am
Pinterest: Monday at 9:00 pm
Information Technology & Services
Facebook: Tuesday at 9:00 am
Twitter: Wednesday at 1:00 pm
LinkedIn: Wednesday at 1:00 pm
Instagram: Thursday at 2:00 pm
Pinterest: Friday at 8:00 pm
Management Consulting
Facebook: Wednesday at 2:00 pm
Twitter: Friday at 4:00 pm
LinkedIn: Sunday at 5:00 pm
Instagram: Tuesday at 6:00 pm
Pinterest: Thursday at 12:00 pm
Marketing & Advertising
Facebook: Saturday at 9:00 am
Twitter: Thursday at 4:00 pm
LinkedIn: Tuesday at 4:00 am
Instagram: Wednesday at 1:00 pm
Pinterest: Tuesday at 9:00 am
Online Media
Facebook: Wednesday at 4:00 pm
Twitter: Friday at 3:00 pm
LinkedIn: Friday at 4:00 am
Instagram: Monday at 12:00 pm
Pinterest: N/A
Retail
Facebook: Monday at 1:00 am
Twitter: Friday at 11:00 am
LinkedIn: Thursday at 1:00 pm
Instagram: Tuesday at 1:00 pm
Pinterest: Tuesday at 9:00 pm
If your business needs help with its social media marketing strategy, feel free to contact Young Marketing Consulting.
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A performance-driven marketing strategist with twenty years of experience growing international brands and organizations, Tim Young spent time at the Corporate Executive Board (now Gartner) and the Entrepreneurs' Organization before founding Young Marketing Consulting in 2013.
His areas of expertise include brand growth and identity development; lead generation and conversion; search engine optimization (SEO); customer satisfaction evaluation and improvement; customer segmentation and CRM work; ROI analysis and improvement; market research; and product development.
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