The Art of Timing in Social Media

Generating traffic to your brand’s website through engaging and thought-provoking social media content is a strategy used by almost all brands, or it should be. If you are still not getting the amount of followers you anticipated, or the increased engagement you were promised the answer may not be in the quality of your content, but rather in when you are publishing it. Posting during low-traffic days of the week or times of a day can cause you to miss reaching a bulk of your target audience, and can prove to be a wasted effort no matter how awesome your content is. Here are some guidelines to follow when posting to the most popular social networking sites:

Facebook:

Let’s start with the big one, the giant, the all-mighty Facebook. With over 1 billion users, and nearly a third of those using Facebook Mobile, this platform has the opportunity to drive the most traffic to your site. Eighty percent of people check their smartphones before brushing their teeth in the morning, which is why it is no surprise that the best time to publish content on Facebook is between 6-8 a.m. during weekdays. 2-5 p.m. on weekdays is the next best time to post, as many working people do not check their Facebook during working hours. Keep this in mind when scheduling your next batch of content, and remember to check Facebook Insights to get a more detailed analysis of your reach.

Twitter:

Unlike Facebook, the best times to post on Twitter is not the weekdays; in fact, engagement rates on Twitter are actually 17% higher on Saturday and Sunday than on weekdays. For this reason, the best times to post on Twitter are between the hours of 1-3 p.m. on weekends. Weekdays are still great for tweeting, but the weekends are when your story and brand will really be recognized.

LinkedIn:

Being the most “professional” social media site, it may come as a surprise that people don’t typically use LinkedIn during work hours, but rather right before and right after work hours. 7-9 a.m. and 5-6 p.m. are the best times to post to LinkedIn, and Tuesday and Thursday are typically considered the best days to generate the most traffic.

Google+:

Google’s social media platform might be the trickiest platform to pinpoint a best time to post content. While 9-11a.m. is typically considered the best range for posting, what it really comes down to on Google+ is your audience. Timing+ is a tool for Google+ that analyzes your brand’s last 100 posts and helps identify the times that earned your content the most traffic. Use this and you’ll for sure nail down the best time to grab your audience’s attention.

While original, visual content is great for engaging users, you could be wasting all your creative juices by not publishing this content at the right time. Don’t forget time zones as well, which makes things even trickier if your target audience is spread across the country! At Alloy, we understand the complex relationship between the different social media platforms and their engagement rates. If you’re ready to make news and start getting the most out of your published content, direct message us at @alloy_crew!