You might be using social media channels only for your personal needs – to connect to your friends and relatives. But, if you’re a business owner, be sure that keeping your business pages on social networks is as important as having a proper business website. Guess what, the vast majority of the world population have an active social media account.
According to the Digital 2020 Global Overview Report, out of the total population, which is 7.75 billion people, nearly half of them are present on social networks. To be precise, there are 3.80 billion social media users. This research also shows that Facebook is the most popular channel, followed by YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Weixin/We Chat. The graph below shows you more details about other networks.
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So, if you’re running a company, consider maintaining the digital presence of your firm as active as possible. When it comes to posting on social channels, one of the main challenges is finding the right timing. It’s essential to figure out the time slots when your audience is checking their social media feeds. Otherwise, only a few users would see your posts.
How to Choose a Social Media Channel for Your Business and Why Timing Matters?
Before we go deeper into time frames suitable for your company, we’ll cover two important steps when starting your digital marketing:
Think about the type of social media channel perfect for your business.
Whether you’re in the healthcare industry, an owner of an SEO company, or a manager of a flower shop, your preferred social channel won’t be the same. For instance, if you’re running a restaurant, Instagram could be a great tool for you. You could post beautiful photos of the dishes, as well as the atmosphere of your restaurant. Thus, you’ll be able to attract new customers.
Another essential factor to consider is your audience. What is their average age, occupation, and lifestyle habits? Once you have all these data, you’ll know exactly what social network makes an ideal choice for your business.
Analyze your content.
When should you post your content? One way to figure it out is by analyzing your content and its performance. For example, choose similar content for your business page and try posting it at diverse times a day, for two weeks. Then, use Google Analytics to review the periods when you had the most traffic to your social channels. These insights can be helpful because you’ll know when your audience is present on social platforms.
There are two major reasons why good timing plays a significant role in your social media campaign:
- It increases your digital engagement rate. By posting at the right time during the day, you’ll have more likes, shares, follows, and retweets.
- It enhances the traffic to your website. Here’s how it goes: your followers are scrolling through your business page and they’re exploring your content. If your audience is curious about the posts they’ve seen, then it’s likely that they will visit your website to learn more about services or products that you provide/sell.
To summarize, the timing of your digital campaign is vital for the success of your online presence.
Finding the Perfect Timing for Your Digital Campaign
In case you decide to promote your company on several social channels, you’ll need more detailed reports. In addition, you’ll want to learn an ideal timing for each social network. That’s why Sprout Social analyzed the results from more than 20,000 customers as well as the content they have posted on social platforms. By reviewing the data from this study, we covered several industries in this article and their posting times for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Since LinkedIn is quite different from the first three networks, we’ll explore this channel separately. So, regarding the type of business, you can get all the insights you need.
Consumer Goods
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If you’re in the retail business, your goal is to reach out to your new customers while staying connected with those who are already your loyal customers. When it comes to social channels, you should consider promoting your products on Facebook and Instagram. On the other hand, Twitter is great for maintaining communication with your followers. Remember, it’s crucial to be as responsive as you can on this network.
Once you’ve made your social media calendar for each network, try scheduling your posts according to these peak times:
- Facebook – Wednesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 11 a.m. are the best time slots. However, Sunday is the worst time to post.
- Instagram – Wednesday at 3 p.m. is when you should publish your IG posts. But, avoid posting on Sunday.
- Twitter – Sunday at 11 a.m. is an ideal time for posting, but you should skip Mondays.
As you can see, it’s likely that your followers will engage with your content on Wednesdays and Fridays, concerning Facebook and Instagram. Aside from these days, be sure to focus your attention on Twitter every Sunday.
Media Companies
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Media companies can take advantage of social channels differently from retail firms. For example, each time there’s a new article on the website, you can post a brief preview on Facebook and Instagram. Be sure to mention to your followers that they can visit your site for a full article. On the other hand, Twitter is an excellent platform for exchanging ideas and opinions among the journalists, but for interacting with your followers, too.
As Sprout Social’s research demonstrates, these are the peak times for media companies:
- Facebook – Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 5 p.m. Also, Friday from 8–9 a.m. On another note, Sundays are the days when Facebook users are not truly active.
- Instagram – Friday at 9 a.m. The study shows that publishing posts during the weekend isn’t a good routine.
- Twitter – Wednesday at 9 a.m. and Thursday at 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. Just like with Instagram, Saturday posts should be omitted.
For the media industry, it seems that posting on weekdays (from Tuesday to Friday) would result in a better engagement rate. Yet, you should pause your social media campaign during the weekend.
Educational Institutions
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Speaking of educational institutions, social networks can be beneficial for all your current and future students. So, if you’re managing an educational profile on social platforms, try using Facebook for posting vital information and communicating with students. Furthermore, Instagram can be the place where you can present campus life via Instagram Live or IGTV. Also, Twitter is a perfect solution for any kind of update.
Here’s how you can schedule your posts on these three platforms, regarding the best timing:
- Facebook – Wednesday at 9 a.m. and Saturday at 5 p.m. Avoid posting on Sundays.
- Instagram – Friday at 10 a.m. Much like with Facebook, Sundays aren’t great for Instagram posts, too.
- Twitter – Saturday from 5–6 p.m. is the peak time, while Sundays are the worst days.
So, based on these data, your priority should be publishing posts on Wednesday and Friday morning, and on Saturday afternoon. For all three networks, students would usually skip browsing any educational profiles/pages on Sundays.
Tech Companies
To stand out from your competitors, there are plenty of ways to make the most of your social media presence. You can be targeting B2B or B2C audience, but either way, focus your attention on creating compelling content. For instance, use Facebook and Instagram to emphasize your case studies. Moreover, Twitter can be your perfect field for engaging with your followers.
Tech companies should keep their activities on social platforms for the following periods:
- Facebook – Wednesday from 9 a.m. until noon, but the timing isn’t right on Sundays.
- Instagram – Wednesday at 6 a.m. and from 9 to 10 a.m. Also, Friday from 7 until 10 a.m. The Sunday rule works for Instagram, too.
- Twitter – Tuesday at 9 a.m. Yet, Sundays are not popular days for posting.
Users interested in innovative technology are usually spending their time on social networks on weekdays (from Tuesday to Friday). But, there’s less engagement on Sundays.
Healthcare Institutions
Taking care of patients is the primary goal of any healthcare institution. Aside from regular appointments, as a healthcare provider, you should consider using social media channels for educating your users. In addition, social networks can be the place for organizing Q&A sessions with your patients.
In order to have better engagement with your audience, here’s when you should post on social platforms:
- Facebook – Wednesday from 10 a.m. until noon. But, posting on Saturdays and Sundays is risky, because your users probably won’t see these posts.
- Instagram – Tuesday at 8 a.m. Be sure to avoid publishing posts on weekends.
- Twitter – Wednesday from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. is the most popular time, while Sundays are quite the opposite.
To sum up, social media users tend to check healthcare industry pages on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, while they have other priorities on weekends.
The Right Timing for Social Media Campaigns on LinkedIn
Speaking of building an online presence on social media, LinkedIn might not be a proper solution for every industry. This network has a more professional purpose than the other three platforms.
Yet, you can try promoting your business page by sharing interesting posts, searching for your potential clients/customers, and contacting them. Also, try to incorporate videos in your LinkedIn content calendars. According to Business Insider, video content on LinkedIn generates much better engagement than text posts.
As for the timing, here’s when you should publish your content:
- Wednesday from 8–10 a.m. and noon,
- Thursday at 9 a.m. and 1–2 p.m., and
- Friday at 9 a.m.
This is a rule that works for any type of industry. So, your followers are usually browsing their LinkedIn profile in the morning or while taking a break at work. By posting at these periods, you should expect higher engagement rates. Also, the research suggests that posting on Sundays isn’t a good move.
Final Thoughts
Since they can attract new customers/clients, social networking sites can be beneficial for your business. It’s crucial that you choose the proper channels for your type of industry. Once you’ve made your choice, you should find the most suitable timing for posting your social media content. This step is essential in order to have a successful digital campaign.
We hope that these tips will help you improve your engagement rates. Just like we mentioned earlier, you can use Google Analytics to evaluate your digital content. If needed, you can change your time slots occasionally and test the outcome.
About the author: Nikola Radojcin has been a social media enthusiast for a number of years. He currently works at Clockify where he makes sure the company is up to date with modern consumer needs.