How do you know when to schedule Facebook and Twitter Posts?

ByAndrea Rickett

In order to keep your reach and SEO (search engine optimization) up, it is important to continually post to your Facebook page and Twitter account multiple times a day.  However, certain times are better than others. So, how do we know when to post in order to reach the most people? Unfortunately, there is no clear cut answer, but there are some guidelines that will help you to maximize your reach when posting to Facebook or Twitter.

1. Time of Day – Generally speaking, mornings and afternoons are definitely better to post content then evenings and nights.  There is some online debate between mornings and afternoons though.  To find what the best time during the day for you to post is, try posting a couple throughout the day and seeing how people respond best.

2. Type of Day – Weekday vs. Weekend – Weekdays are better for posting content on social networks than weekends.  This one is pretty self explanatory, as people are generally more out and about and away from their computers on weekends compared to weekdays.

3. Social Platform – Each social network has its own culture and users, and this will affect the best time of day to post. A study by bitly, a popular URL shortener, did a study across Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr to see how the time of day something was posted affected how “viral” that post could become.  The results indicated that it varies between social networks, with the best time to post to Twitter being between 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST, Monday through Thursday. Facebook being between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. EST, and Tumblr being 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. EST on Monday and Tuesday, with content posted after 7 pm receiving more clicks on average than midday posts.

4. Analytics – Analytics can be a powerful tool in helping you decide when (and also what) to post.  Look at your previous posts, the time of day you posted them, and the amount of reach and interactions were generated from them.  This is a great way to identify specific trends for your audience and play to those trends in the future when posting.