When managing your social media accounts, there are likely two main questions that linger in your mind before you post:
- What time should I post this?
- How frequently should I share content with this particular audience?
These questions are loaded because they vary from platform to platform. However, we have researched and tested various outputs to provide you with the preferred time and frequency you should post for each social platform below.
LinkedIn is a platform that was created for networking and building professional connections. When using this channel, an individual might share updates such as getting a new job, or when a business account shares a post, it may feature services they offer.
Regardless, what you decide to share is often heavily impacted by an in-depth understanding of your target audience—this also applies to when and how frequently you should post.
First, let’s take a look at when you should post. For starters, evaluate your habits when you are building your posting schedule. Chances are you do not spend much time, if any, surfing through LinkedIn during your weekends—knowing that information, you will likely not see as much success on anything shared Friday through Sunday.
Next, think about when you have your business-focused mindset; weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm. Out of that window, the best days to post are Tuesday to Thursday during business hours because we all know what it’s like to have a case of the Mondays.
Now that you have three days to choose from and ample time in that window to test, try posting various times and days to see how your audience responds. Sharing with your audience is a process of trial and error that varies from industry to industry—do not feel discouraged if you do not immediately see success. Like all good things, this takes time.
Second question: how frequently should you share content on LinkedIn? Let us preface with: quality will always win over quantity. The recommended amount of posts you should share on LinkedIn is two to five times, according to Hubspot. We recommend you stick with two posts as you start testing. Then, as you begin to understand what performs, and if you have a wide variety of content to share, feel free to expand and adapt with your audience.
Instagram is designed to share the “highlight reel” of your life or behind the scenes of your business. Because of its more personal approach, this channel has a different posting time and frequency.
For what times you should post, we have the flexibility to share the content any day of the week. However, it needs to be in a way that makes sense—your posting cadence should always take your audience and content into account. For example, do not share anything directly business-related like a blog post or resource on the weekend. Instead, share fun team photos or acknowledge your support of a national holiday.
When you plan what specific time to share a post, scheduling them around the lunch hour, early morning, or late afternoons will perform the best.
- On Monday to Thursday, shoot for some time between 11 am and 1 pm.
- For Friday, aim for 3 pm.
- When sharing on Saturday, mornings will be the most effective.
- And for Sunday afternoons, 6 pm usually, when most are winding down from the weekend, will curate the best results.
Regarding how frequently you should share content, stick to two to three times a week. We do not recommend posting to Instagram more than twice in one day. Stories can be shared more frequently than actual posts—daily and more than once on the same day. Instagram is another great example of quality being more important than quantity—don’t try to over-share and miss the mark. Think of the brands you enjoy engaging with and share your content in a way that mirrors that experience.
Facebook is similar to LinkedIn and Instagram as you can share business information and team updates—the best of both worlds. Facebook is a balance between the two platforms, so we see a combination of when and how frequently to share content.
For post timing, you can share content on Facebook almost every day of the week—Sunday is the only day we don’t recommend.
- Just like on Instagram, stick to content you would share with your friends and family on Friday and Saturday.
- On Monday through Thursday, you can share both business-focused and team-focused posts.
- For timing, the lunch hour will receive the most traffic.
- So you should share between 12 pm and 3 pm.
For frequency, if you have ample evergreen content created, you can share it up to five times a week. However, you do not want to post more than once a day. Otherwise, it may feel like you are spamming your audience. If you are new to posting on your account, two to three times a week will give you a sturdy foundation and enough engagement with your audience.
Twitter is a platform we recommend be used to share articles, timely updates, or relevant resources with your audience—meaning our health care, finance, and of course, marketing clients will see the highest levels of engagement on this platform.
Similar to LinkedIn, Twitter has a more buttoned-up feel to it for professionals. We recommend you stick to tweeting Monday through Friday and during business hours. Typically your early morning tweets, around 8 am, will see the most engagement. What we do not encourage are late-night tweets—avoid the hours of 9 pm to 5 am.
While quality is still important, quantity is vastly different for this platform and you can share anywhere from one to five times a day, five days out of the week. If that feels a bit excessive for your current capacity, shoot for once a day two to three times a week.
Posting Elsewhere
While other platforms may fit your business plans, such as YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, and even Yelp, the few mentioned above are the most popular amongst not only businesses but most target audiences as well.
The recommendations in this blog post are not a one size fits all approach, but these dates and frequency amounts are what works best for most businesses. Nonetheless, you should also perform internal testing to see what time receives the most engagement from your specific audience.
If you are in the process of developing a digital marketing plan or deciding if you should post on social media, you can contact us here. We have a team ready to help you reach your digital marketing goals.
