Commentary

Best Times To Post On Social Media For Consumer Engagement

While social media may technically operate 24/7, recent research from Sprout Social analyzes engagement and usage data from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to reveal Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days for engagement across all four platforms. Further, post-pandemic, platforms like Facebook and Instagram are seeing less “off” time and increased engagement during evenings and weekends compared to previous years.

Sprout Social’s “2021 Best Times To Post On Social Media” report was collected by analyzing engagement data from 20+ customers over the past year on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, as well as in select industries, including media, tech and travel.

Across the board, those seeking engagement with consumers needn't bother to post on the weekends.

With Facebook’s status as the most-used social media platform in the world, there were few completely "off" times for posts. Weekends, late night and earlier morning all showed more consistent engagement than in the past, becoming much more opportune times for brands to get eyes on their content. However, the best times are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 9 a.m.–1 p.m., while Saturday ranks as the worst day in terms of engagement and usage.

Similarly, sister platform Instagram reports its best engagement happens Tuesday 11 a.m.–2 p.m. and Monday through Friday 11 a.m. Its worst day is  Sunday.

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Twitter’s best times are Wednesday 9 a.m.– 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday 9–11 a.m. while Saturday remains the off-day for views.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn’s best usage and engagement happens in the middle of the week between Tuesday through Thursday 9 a.m.–noon, while Sunday is its worst-performing time.

In terms of specific industries, Twitter and Instagram were extremely consistent for engagement with media posts. With relatively high engagement times going around the clock (relative to U.S. central time), the global audience for media such as news and entertainment is clear.

While Facebook also has a large global audience, engagement on media industry accounts was specifically high in the U.S. morning, perhaps reflecting a tendency for audiences to habitually check in for a longer, single period of time during the day versus quick visits throughout the day.

With media, the best times to post on Facebook are Friday 7 a.m. and Tuesday 6–9 a.m., while Saturday continues to be non-performing. Instagram’s best days for media are  Tuesday 1–5 p.m., Wednesday 11 a.m., and Thursday 8–9 a.m., with Sunday being the worst. Twitter performs best in the early week, with Monday 6 a.m. & 9 a.m. and Tuesday 7 a.m. Saturday is not recommended.

As brands and agencies prep the return of travel and tourism, the best time to assure consumer engagement with this type of content on Facebook happens on Tuesday and Wednesday 9 a.m.–1 p.m. as well as Friday 10 a.m.–noon. Instagram’s best tourism engagement happens Thursday 7 a.m. and Monday 11 a.m.–3 p.m, while Twitter is best for travel and tourism content on Monday 10 a.m.–2 p.m. and Wednesday 8–9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday are again not recommended.

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