While we all love to post and update our social media profiles in the hopes of creating good exposure for ourselves, the times we post may either benefit or hinder our accounts. There are several factors on a social media platform that may have followers see or miss the content. Depending on the algorithm of each one, some are easier to overcome than others. However, by keeping the concept of time in mind, we may be able to manipulate the system and have more users able to see and interact with our content.  

Facebook

Best time- Wednesday at 11am and 1pm. Best recorded engagements are during the times of 9am-3pm. 

Worst time- Weekends before 8am and after 8pm. 

Why: Wednesday in general is a great day for posting on social media. The reason being is because it’s the middle of the week and several people need a distraction and a way to connect with others as a way to create something to look forward to for the rest of the week. On the other hand, weekends in general are the worst times. This is because the majority of the demographic on Facebook are families. Many put their phones down more often during those two days to spend quality time with loved ones. 

Twitter 

Best time- Mondays and Thursdays between 1pm and 3pm. 

Worst time- Fridays after 3pm and the weekend after 8pm. 

Why: A lot of the times people tweeting have the news in mind and are either commenting on it or announcing their own news. Mondays for Twitter are more popular because followers are catching up on the weekend news and getting ready for the new week ahead. Thursdays are also a popular day because it happens to be the collective day for more people to host events or release new products such as movies or music. This is to beat the weekend rush and to build exposure before Friday arrives. 

Like Facebook, weekends also aren’t the best to tweet. Many users are using this time to unwind with families and gather with friends while they have the time.  

Instagram

Best time- Thursday at 3pm, 5am, 11am and 4pm or 6pm to 9pm on weekdays.  

Worst time- Any day in the late evening 

Why: Instagram is the rare platform that will have noticeable peaks during multiple days of the week. A lot of this has to do with the visual elements it possesses and how specific each account may be for the industry you’re involved in. For instance, if the profile is more of a personal lifestyle account, then it makes sense to post on peak times such as the ones demonstrated on Thursdays. Users happen to be on their phones in general more during those times. During weekdays such as 6pm through 9pm, mass users will be on the platform as they finish work for the day and are commuting home.  

Pinterest

Best time- Any night between 8pm and 11pm. 

Worst time- Any evening between 5pm-7pm. 

Why: The majority of users happen to be mother’s so their free time for platforms such as Pinterest revolve around their children’s schedule. Starting at 8pm, their young child may be asleep, creating personal time to plan and gain inspiration on the social platform. Times such as 5pm-7pm may heavily revolve around children since it’s dinner time and the moments where they are being helped with homework or have an after school activity. 

Tik Tok

Best time- 7pm-1am on weeknights 

Worst time- 6am-9am on weekdays 

Why: TikTok followers have been known to enter the app and spend a larger portion of time scrolling through videos. Since this happens to be more normal to use a longer amount of time, users will only log on early in the mornings or late at night while in bed. During the day a majority of people are working and won’t put aside a significant amount of time for videos. 

Tumblr 

Best time- Monday through Thursday 7pm-10pm

Worst time- Daily before 4pm

Why: The majority of users who have Tumblr work during 9am-5pm, so they won’t have time to log on to the platform.  This type of platform is also more set to act like a blog, so there is more content that takes more time to read and/or produce. During the evening, users will have that time to gather their thoughts or unwind with the app. 

YouTube

Best time- Daily between 2pm and 4pm. 

Worst time- This actually happens to be the times of the year, May, December and September.

Why: While 2pm-4pm is a high traffic volume and competitive, Google will take it’s time to index YouTube videos and place them at the top of search results. This is because Google values video content more than the written word since there’s less room on the site. That way when 7pm-10pm rolls around for Youtube’s true peak times, there will be an advanced level of engagement. 

Youtube actually has bad times in the year. This is because most content creators are in their teens or early 20’s, so they are either in class during these times or are starting new projects. The end of December is only a bad time because the content is trumped by the holidays and family time. 

Snapchat

Best time- Weeknights between 10pm and 1am 

Worst time- There is no set bad time

Why: Most of the users are in a younger age range and go onto Snapchat several times per day. Since this is the case, there is no bad time to post Stories or for companies to post news because there will always be someone having a purpose to log on. However, with more free time in the evening, the best time to post late at night is because more users will have the time to interact with others. 

LinkedIn 

Best time- Tuesday between 11am and 12pm

Worst time- Sleeping hours of 10pm-6am 

Why: LinkedIn is a business-centered platform that will have professionals only logging on during working hours, either to connect with others or look into potential new hires. Since this is a more professional platform, it’s not considered to be the best action to try and network during hours for personal time. Tuesday was made to be a peak time because the beginning of the week is when more employers post new jobs, specifically in the later morning after business meetings. Employees are more likely to apply to more early in the week due to this reason.  

Reddit  

Best time- 8am-10am

Worst time- Before 8am or after 8Pm 

Why: Since Reddit functions primarily by users voting, it’s best to post early in the morning so there’s time throughout the day to receive that engagement. The times between 8am and 10am are perfect because people are commuting to work, checking their phones after they’ve woken up or while eating breakfast. This makes the times before 8am and after 8pm the worst because the engagement on this site is at its worst. Since this is a site that heavily relies on engagement to even be seen by followers, posts should be made during the times people are awake.