If you’re reading this post, it is because you are not sure about the best time for you to post on Instagram so you can get more engagement. You want your post to be seen, get more likes and comments. But, of course, you need engagement for your business. Well, you are on the right page. So here, we will be discussing everything about when to post on Instagram to reach more people.
Can’t I post at any time?
People ask this common question because they are not even sure that there’s the best time to post on Instagram. In reality, you can post at any time of the day, but if you want your post to go far and reach more people, then you need to be strategic about when you post.
In most cases, the best posting time depends on the audience you want to reach. So businesses have slightly different peak posting times because of their audience’s behavior and demographics. However, there are best practices to help you find your sweet spot and deliver outstanding results.
In general, it is crucial to post when your audience is online because recency is a factor that the Instagram algorithm favors. So, all other things being equal, a more recent post will come upon the user’s feed before an older one.
Thankfully, recency is one of the easiest things to optimize when it comes to posting on Instagram. However, beyond this, your marketing strategy for Instagram is also key. Is your goal to drive traffic, increase engagement or build awareness? How do you define success on Instagram? Have you had a previous post that has been successful? These are some of the things that will guide you and could determine your posting times.
The best time to post on Instagram
Generally, the best time to post on Instagram varies from 10 am to 3 pm. However, the level of engagement depends on the day you are posting, and it may differ dramatically. For example, Wednesday is the best day to post on Instagram. Your post will likely do well on the day, but the peak time is around 11 am. Other times that are generally good to post on Instagram are:
- 7 am from Wednesday – Friday. This generates lots of engagement because people tend to check their phones immediately after waking up.
- 11 am – 3 am during the weekdays. People always check their phones when they are on lunch break and towards the close of work after they’ve used up all their mental energy.
- If you are posting on weekends, the best time to post is around 10 am on Sunday, when people eat brunch and hang out with others.
How to find your optimal post time on Instagram
As mentioned earlier, different businesses may have slightly different optimal post times. To determine your own, here are a few tips:
- Review your best performing posts
Your strategy is crucial here. Be sure of the type of performance you are looking for: engagement or brand awareness. Your approach may be determined by the kind of performance you want. For instance, if you are looking for engagement, go through your past posts and look for the ones with the highest impressions. Check the time that you posted them. Look for how they are different from other posts that didn’t get as much engagement. Instagram analytics is going to come in handy here. Note how these posts are different from the others and try to make up for the differences in your next posts.
- Find out when your audience is online and active.
Recency is a factor that Instagram uses to rank posts, so you must post when your audience is online, so the post doesn’t become stale by the time they come online. But, again, your analytics may help you determine when your audience and followers are scrolling through their feed.
A critical key to success is for marketers to know their audience. For example, if your target audience is sports fans and the demographic is Gen Z, then you would expect their social media habit to be wildly different from CEOs and tech executives.
You need an analytics tool to break down necessary information into a heatmap and help you with tests and experiments by predicting certain times when your audience is primarily online. This will help you find your best time.
- Check out your competitors post times
The time that your competitors are posting on Instagram may indicate the best time for you to post as well. This may be even more accurate if their posts keep getting more engagements than yours. The fact that you are in the same industry and are targeting the same audience, yet their posts are doing better, states that you are missing something. That thing can be the posting time. Keeping an eye on your competitors can help you determine what’s working for the audience in your industry.
Tip: most brands tend to post right on the hour, so you send in your posts a few minutes before or after the hour mark, so you are not forced to compete for the limited space.
- Time zone is crucial.
Since you know your audience, you know what time zone they are in and when you can reach them. If you are serving a global audience, you can’t be using your time zone alone to determine when to post. You should never use your time zone, but the audience’s since you are trying to reach them. The best thing to do is to run tests and experiments to determine the peak time for your audience and use scheduling apps to post on Instagram.
Conclusion
Determining the best time to post on Instagram is crucial for your business because it ensures that you can reach more audiences and achieve your Instagram marketing goals. This article discusses how you can achieve optimal posting time for your business.
Author Bio
Opal Miyamoto is a freelancer and a blogger from the United States and works for dissertation writers UK. She is very friendly and communicative. Opal is always open to new connections. Her hobbies are cooking, painting, traveling, and writing, of course.
Categories: Geeks and Nerds Stuff
