By the end of 2024, about 5.17 billion people will be using social media with each person spending an average of 141 minutes of their time on social media daily. With so much content out there for them to consume, reaching your target audience could come down to one thing — the best time to post.

Making simple tweaks to when you post on social media rather than what you post might improve your digital marketing results because more people will actually see your content. In this guide, we share what it takes to master the art of timing on social media so you get greater visibility and create deeper connections with users on your social media platforms. 

Does it matter when you post on social media?

Yes, it does matter. Knowing the best time to post on social media helps you make sure your target audience actually sees your content.

Brandwatch's most recent State of Social report found that Wednesday is the day consumers are most active on social media platforms, with Thursday not far behind. Sunday, meanwhile, is the quietest day. 

Best times to post on major social media platforms

Your ideal posting time for a strong social media presence will depend on the target audiences and their behavior on each social media site. However, there is some general data on peak times for users on social platforms that can give you a good place to start testing.

Facebook

It may not be the newest social media platform, but Facebook still has a staggering 2.9 billion active users. It's also the second most popular social media platform, behind only YouTube, with around 68% of adults in the US using it.

Best times to post on Facebook

Facebook typically sees the most engagement between 9am and 1pm on weekdays, particularly on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Posting mid-morning to early afternoon reaches users as they're settling into their workday or taking breaks to scroll through their feeds. A B2B company might take advantage of this by posting some thought leadership content just before lunchtime for their audience to enjoy with a coffee.

Weekends do have potential, especially for leisure content. For example, a fashion brand could play with afternoon posts, such as an image of a styled outfit from its latest collection, to reach users as they're considering a new outfit for an evening out.

Tips on finding your ideal posting times for Facebook

Use these tips to help you master Facebook engagement rates: 

  • Navigate to the Facebook “Insights” tab and click “Posts” to see when your followers are most active. The best times to post will be just before these peak times so that you can catch users when they’re online.
  • Better yet, use a comprehensive social media management tool to test different time frames and track the engagement each time you post. Fine-tune your schedule based on what garners the most likes, comments, and shares.

Instagram

Instagram has more than two billion users and 80% of global marketers use Instagram to advertise their business.

Best times to post on Instagram for high engagement

The best time to post on Instagram is regarded to fall between 7am and 9am and 10am and 2pm, with Tuesdays through Thursdays seeing the highest levels of engagement.

Users often scroll during their commutes, mid-morning breaks, or lunch hours.

If a B2B tech company is at a major industry conference, it might want to consider posting content early in the day so attendees know where to find them and what to expect, while non-attendees can experience some FOMO watching fun videos happening on the showcase floor. The company might also combine this with behind-the-scenes footage or a clip of their keynote speech later in the day, with its audience following the conference activity already.

While the consensus is that the morning is best, it's worth it to experiment with posting on evenings and weekends, especially if you qualify as an entertainment brand. A cinema brand, for example, might post content in the afternoon or early evening to tempt anyone without plans to go watch a movie. Different brands will find different times work for them. 

Tips on using finding your ideal posting times for Instagram

Just like Facebook, Instagram's native analytics tool, Instagram Insights, can help you figure out the best times to post:

  • Head to the "Insights" tab and click "Audience."
  • Check when your followers are most active by the hour and day, and use this personalized data to help you schedule posts for maximum engagement.

The analytics from a third party social media management tool can give you a more holistic view of how your audience really behaves on the platform, what they're interested in, and when they're most likely to interact with you.

X (formerly Twitter)

X boasts a loyal user base that tends to view the platform as a way to connect with others who share their interests.

Best times to post on X for maximum reach

Between 9am and 12pm on weekdays seems to be the best time to post on X, with Wednesdays and Fridays often seeing the most engagement.

But don't rule out evenings, especially if you have a truly global audience in industries like entertainment or sports.

A B2B tech company might use X to post breaking news in innovation in its field, making sure to time that announcement with in the. most favorable slot for maximum engagement. It might also host live conversation threads every Wednesday, in which readers can get answers to questions they have or voice concerns and be heard.

Of course, not all events will fall into the generally accepted 'peak' time frame. A fashion brand could start posting live during important news-worthy fashion events like the Met Gala and still get amazing engagement

How to refine your X posting schedule

Premium X subscribers can see detailed engagement metrics for each post (previously tweet), including impressions, reposts (formerly retweets), and likes. Look for patterns to identify which times and days generated the most interaction.

Scheduling posts is often a big challenge. You can't be online 24/7, but a scheduling tool or, even better, a more comprehensive social media management tool can help you stagger your X posts around the clock and see exactly what's performing the best. 

LinkedIn

LinkedIn's billion-plus professionals share industry insights, business updates, and thought leadership. The key here is timing your posts on social to engage them during their work day.

Best times to post on LinkedIn

The best time to post on LinkedIn is generally between 8am and 10am and 12pm and 2pm on weekdays. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays typically see the highest engagement.

Unless you've done extensive audience analytics and find otherwise, avoid posting late in the evening (for your target audience) or on weekends. It makes sense that social media engagement on LinkedIn tends to drop significantly once standard business hours are over.

How to refine your LinkedIn posting schedule

LinkedIn offers powerful insights that will help you know exactly when to post.

In addition to traditional analytics, the "Followers" tab gives you more information about your audience’s job roles, seniority, and location/time zone so you can tailor your posts to match their professional rhythms. Its built-in scheduling tool makes it easy to plan ahead and hit those peak engagement windows.

Third party social media management tools can also help you understand your presence on the platform so you can craft the perfect social messages at optimum times.

TikTok

This relative newcomer to social media already has almost a billion monthly users. It's fast-paced but highly visual, with unique video content that relies a lot on current trends. To capitalize on this platform, it's crucial to know what's current.

Best times to post on TikTok

TikTok tends to have an early morning/late night rhythm with best time to post falling generally between 6am and 10am and 7pm and 11pm. Meanwhile, it's generally thought that Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday usually see the highest engagement.

Since TikTok's audience is younger, global, and more diverse, this is a great platform to really experiment with what works for your audience.

For example, a B2B tech company could experiment with early morning video content like TikTok lives that lead its audience through a quick brainstorming and planning session for their day.

Tips on finding your ideal posting times for TikTok

TikTok's analytics offer good data to optimize your posting time. 

The “Content” tab has everything you need to monitor your video metrics once you've posted. And in “Followers,” you can actually see when followers are online.

Post during key activity windows when new content trends emerge and experiment depending on what your audience engages with. A third party SMM makes it so much easier to schedule your posts and to see what content resonates.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual discovery engine that people use to find inspiration for everything from home decor to fashion.

Here, the "social" aspect involves users liking and commenting on your pins and, even more importantly, saving those pins themselves. When users save your pins, they become discoverable for that person's audience and when they are widely saved, Pinterest will prioritize your pins as users search.

It's essentially audience-generated curation, and it's an exciting platform to get involved in.

Best times to post on Pinterest

The best time to post on Pinterest is generally between 8am and 11am and 2 pmand 4pm on weekdays, with Saturday mornings also seeing high levels of engagement.

Saturday might be surprising since every other platform seems to see a drop in engagement on the weekends, but Pinterest users are still browsing for ideas and planning for future events and activities like holidays, seasons, or events like Teacher Appreciation Day. Scheduling your posts around these seasonal trends and upcoming holidays can be highly effective.

A fashion brand might lean into seasonal trends and planning by posting early on Saturdays and maximizing the opportunity for engagement from consumers looking for inspiration.

Tips on finding your ideal Pinterest posting times

Pinterest itself offers analytics to help track a pin's reach and build a better content strategy.

Under “Audience Insights,” as well as "Trends," track activity patterns and trending interests and match your post timing and content to those patterns.

Users are more likely to be searching for this content, and your pin could give them what they want. 

Review the saves, clicks, and impressions of your top-performing pins, and use that data to inform your future activity.

Is there an overall best time to post?

The short answer — not really. While we've given you some guidelines for each platform based on very general research, you have to find the sweet spot where your own audience is most engaged.

As our hypothetical company examples demonstrate, what works for one brand might not work for another, even if they're on the same platform. For example, our State of Social Media report notes that, on average, the best day to post is Wednesday. The consumer tech industry confirms this advice but if you're in entertainment, the best day for you to post is actually Friday.

The best thing you can do is become intimately familiar with your social media analytics. This will tell you what your audience wants from their social media experience with you.

Factors that affect the best time to post on social media

Several variables influence the best time to post on social media (for you) and can help you tailor your strategy more closely to your audience's needs and desires. Let's look at what they are.

Your unique audience

Followers aren't just numbers. They're real people. And as real people, they have specific habits unique to them. Are they checking social media during a morning commute, or are they night owls scrolling to wind down in the evening? Pinpointing when your audience is online helps improve engagement because they're more likely to see new content when you post. 

Your industry

Industries have rhythms like people do. A B2B tech company may be more successful posting during business hours while a lifestyle brand might see more traction in the evenings. The natural flow of your industry can help catch your audience when they're in the right frame of mind to engage with your content.

The competition

Your competitors' posting time can impact your own results, but not in the way you might think. Yes, you should test social media posts that align with when your competitors put content out to see if yours performs better than theirs. However, if you're creating quality, valuable content that doesn't perform, consider also testing less crowded times to see if your posts gain more engagement and visibility. 

Time zones

The world is very connected through social media networks, so don't forget about your global audience. Posting at 9am EST might work well for your East Coast followers, but completely miss someone in Beijing. One thing you can do to make this easier is use tools to schedule and stagger posts at optimal times for different regions.

Platform algorithms

Every social network has its own algorithm that dictates what content gets seen. Posting when your audience is most active increases engagement, which demonstrates to that platform's algorithm that this content is valuable and that people like it. The algorithm will continue to push that content to existing audience members and to new eyes who are scrolling through the platform. 

Current events, trending topics, and seasonal changes can all cause what worked last month not to work this month. And that's ok. Timing your content to match what people are talking about can give you an engagement boost because you're connecting actively on topics that your audience cares about. 

Tools and strategies for finding your best posting times

We've talked about the what and the why. Let's look at the how.

Social media analytics tools

Nearly all the social media platforms we talked about have built-in analytics tools, so you can begin testing content and seeing what works. 

Third-party tools can complement and go far beyond the functionality of these built-in ones to provide more detailed data. You can use this to track when followers are most active, what content they love, and which times yield the best engagement.

These social media management tools also help you establish patterns over time so you get better at predicting audience behavior.

Conducting your own social media experiments

You have general information about what tends to work for each platform. Now, it's time to post on social media at different times to see what works for your brand. Start by posting at the times we've given you, but watch the data. Over time, you should see patterns that translate to the best time to post for your target market. What works for one account or platform may not work for another.

Maximizing your social media strategy with perfect timing

There are a couple of key takeaways here.

The above list is the starting point for uncovering the best times to post. However, there’s just no hard and fast rule about the best time to post on social media, so experiment with posting at different times and refine your schedule based on real data. This is what will transform your social media strategy.

Talk to our experts at Brandwatch to discover tailored strategies that get results. Our best-in-class consumer intelligence and social media management tools can help you understand what time to post to get results.

Frequently asked questions

How frequently should you share content on social media?

The ideal posting frequency is different for each platform and audience. On a fast-paced social platform like X, people expect multiple posts per day, while on other social media platforms like Instagram or LinkedIn, posting a few times a week might get the most engagement. It's more important to focus on what your audience wants rather than a hard rule about when to post on social media.

Does the timing of tweets impact their effectiveness?

Yes. X posts, which were formerly called Tweets, have a shorter lifespan compared to other kinds of content, so it's even more important to get the timing right.

Is Monday a less effective day for posting on Instagram?

It depends on your audience. If Mondays are busy, going against general best practices and sending social media messages in the late afternoon or early evening when people have more downtime may yield better results. Just test different timings to see how your audience responds.

When is the optimal time to publish articles or ads on LinkedIn?

Your best bet is to post on LinkedIn roughly between 8am and 10am and 12pm and 2pm on weekdays, particularly Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. 

Should you post on Facebook in the morning or in the evening for better engagement?

Again, what does your audience want? When is their peak time? Also, what is their specific time zone? Generally, mid-morning (9am to 11am) and early evening (6 pm to 8 pm) are good windows for posting, but knowing your specific audience's activity patterns can help determine the true best times to post .