With over 1.2 billion social media users sharing the minutia of their days, it’s tough to get a word in edgeways. Capturing the attention of your followers and fans is not only a matter or alluring content, but also perfect timing. While off-peak posting gets your more prominence and lower bounce rates, it’s the peak hour postings get more traffic and more interaction from your audience.
Timing is everything
Prime time for TV is also prime social media time. Reports show that most social media activity happens on tablets and other handheld devices between the hours of 7 and 10 pm. Post your social media updates at these times to maximize exposure.
| Smartphone function | Percent of Panelists | HH:MM per Month | Weekday Peak Usage Time Period |
Average Use in Peak Hour (MM:SS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gaming (App & Web) | 81.7% | 9:11 | 7PM-10PM | 1:17 |
| Social Networking (App & Web) | 90.6% | 8:12 | 7PM-10PM | 1:04 |
| Messaging General (Apps) | 97.3% | 7:42 | 11AM-8PM | 1:05 |
| Voice Calls | 97.7% | 8:00 | 3PM-5PM | 1:18 |
| Browsing (Apps) | 99.4% | 7:08 | 10AM-10PM | 0:47 |
| Any Phone Functions | 100.0% | 52:18 | 4PM-6PM | 6:27 |
Blog posts tend to generate more traffic when they are posted in the morning with 11 am being the golden hour. More users read blogs in the morning, while the average blog gets most of its traffic on a Monday.
Best time of the day to post:
- Facebook: 1-4pm
- Twitter: 1-3pm with 5pm prime for retweets
- LinkedIn: 7-9am and 5-6pm
- Google+: 9-11am
- Pinterest: 2-4pm and 8pm-1am
Posting on the right days of the week is also essential to social media success. If you are sending newsletters or emails, your mail is more likely to get opened on Tuesdays. Social media posts start to pick up traffic on Friday afternoon and peak on Saturdays and Sundays. While only 11% of weekend posts are market related, they get 69% more traffic than their workday counterparts.
Posting more than once a day (but not so much that you put readers off) is another way to increase unique views and inbound links. Be cognisant of time zones and post at times when your demographic is online. If you are posting in the U.S. the Eastern and Central time zones cover 80% of the population.
Sources
KISSMetrics.com
Bitly.com
Infographics.com
Mashable.com
