I am often asked the question, “When is the best time to post to social media?” “What are the best times to send an email blast?” Unfortunately there isn’t a simple answer here.
- Your industry
- Your clientele
- What you want to achieve
- What is your purpose
- Which platform you’re posting to
Yes, a lot of this goes into account as we post to social media, submit blogs, and send out email blasts. What is the point of being creative and having a great message if no one sees it or takes action? Kind of defeats the purpose wouldn’t you say?
Remember, these times are based on our clients, make sure you watch your stats, reach and most importantly, CUSTOMERS, to ensure when the best time to post is.
Here are a few pointers. When it comes to Facebook, look at your analytics. Facebook did a great job of providing a ton of statistics for your page. Use them.
Also, take note as to what gives you great engagement, what time and date received the most views.
For a few industries this is what we have seen has great results for Facebook:
** Be sure to pay attention to your social reach, it is crucial to the success of your Facebook campaign.
Twitter is a beast, but we find it to be an awesome beast! You can post as much as you want on Twitter–just try not to post back to back. For all industries we have seen great results on the weekends, especially after 10 p.m. . Furthermore, take advantage of TV-related hashtags. If your industry can get creative enough to relevantly join the hashtag, do it! If you refuse to tweet on the weekends, then take your tweeting to Thursday after 12 p.m. But don’t expect a ton of RT (retweets) or even MT (modified tweets) if you tweet outside this scope. For events or lively venues like a sports bar, tweet when there’s something exciting going on, and encourage live tweeting from event attendees. For retail ventures, take advantage of late night shopping activity. Most retail stores have online shopping. Tweet a late night special or get creative with trending hashtags.
This is for all of you eager and hungry professionals out there. The best time is during the week around 7-8:30 a.m. or 5-6 p.m. After all, LinkedIn is business, and has a more professional atmosphere and not somewhere users are looking for nickel beer night.
Google+
There’s not a whole lot of engagement going on with Google+ for your average business, but your information does get indexed fast when you use it! Any day of the week between 9-11 a.m. is what we recommend. Make sure your blog posts to Google+ and then you reap the many benefits of blogging.
We don’t believe there is a right or wrong time for Pinning; but we have noticed that our repins tend to happen around the hours of 2-4 p.m. and 8-11 p.m. on Saturdays. So if you have a secret board that is ready to be released, we would suggest those time frames.
Blogging (not necessarily “Social”, but HIGHLY relevant)
If you can only blog during the week, choose Monday and Friday at 11 a.m. However, we have seen that any time is good if the content is good. Google will find the blog no matter what time it is published. However, if you want some great shares, try 9 p.m. on Saturday. We’ve noticed a trend with this time frame when it comes to B2B blogs, but it is not necessarily as effective for B2C.
Email Marketing (not necessarily “Social”, but also HIGHLY relevant)
Now for the tricky art of email blasts: For a long time, Tuesday at 10 a.m. was the golden time frame for email blasts. We have found that this is not the case with our broad base of clients. Our B2B and various B2C clients do very well on Wednesday from 2-5 p.m. and restaurants and retail are shining on Thursdays from 2-5 p.m. If you are a national brand and have clients from sea to shining sea, the best time is Tuesday or Wednesday from 12-1 p.m.
I hope these times help make your campaign even more successful. But remember the Marketing 101 principle that, depending on the time of year, your clientele’s behaviors will change. You must change with it.
PS. Don’t forget to make sure your social profiles are up to date!
