Mastering Social Media: Best Times & Days to Post on Facebook

April 19, 2014

Figuring out the best times and days to be posting on social media is really about determining when your fans are most likely to engage with your brand in an effort to allow your business to maximize ROI.
Keep in mind that there is no ultimate, overarching answer that fits perfectly for every brand concerning the best time and day to post to Facebook. However, taking into consideration the information researchers have uncovered in terms of trends that work well for most brands and then doing your own investigation, tweaking the times in one direction or another, you’ll quickly be able to determine the best social media strategy for your company.

When are people listening online?

In a study by Buddy Media Inc., Facebook posts of 200 Buddy Media clients were analyzed. This sample represented brands in a variety of industries, including:

• Entertainment
• Media
• Retail
• Automotive
• Business and Finance
• Fashion
• Food and Beverage
• Healthcare and Beauty
• Sports
• Travel and Hospitality

In order to measure the success of the Facebook post, researchers paid specific attention to comment rates, “like” rates and engagement rates.

Times of Day

According to the research, most businesses make the mistake of posting during core business hours (10a.m. – 4p.m. EST). The reason this is a mistake is because during normal business hours, people are actually less likely to engage with the content you post. Simply put, people generally aren’t listening to what you have to say during these times.

As you can see in the chart above, although the highest percentage of brand posts occur between 10a.m. and 4p.m. EST, engagement rates are highest very early in the morning, at the end of the work day and also very late at night. That’s when the most people are listening and therefore more likely to engage with the content you post to Facebook. Buddy Media researchers found that businesses that post on Facebook outside of normal business hours actually had 20% higher engagement rates, a statistically significant difference.

Days of Week

The Buddy Media study also showed that 86% of posts are published between Monday and Friday. User engagement with those posts hit a peak later on in the week on Thursdays and Fridays. More specifically, engagement rates were 18% higher on Thursdays and Fridays in comparison to the other days of the week.

What this Means for You

If your company typically only posts to Facebook during your business hours, you may be missing out on an opportunity to engage more people with your content. Try experimenting with posting earlier in the morning or later in the evening to see if your engagement rates change. Also, knowing that every industry is different, it would be beneficial to your company to experiment with scheduling posts for different days throughout the week. Maybe Thursdays and Fridays work well for your business and then again maybe they don’t. Evaluate which days generate the most engagement for your brand. Then maybe try sticking with your top three days for a while to see if your engagement rates change.

There are many different social media platforms and dashboards that you can use to schedule your Facebook posts ahead of time so that you aren’t restricted to posting only when you’re sitting in front of your computer. Here at MayeCreate we use HubSpot’s social publishing feature to schedule Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn posts in advance.

A Few Quick Tips:

Keep your posts short. According to the social media study by Buddy Media, posts that are 80 characters or less have 27% higher engagement rates.

Avoid URL shorteners. The Buddy Media study revealed that engagement rates are 3 times higher for posts that used a full-length URL.

For more information about Facebook posting, check out this article: How often do I need to post to Facebook?

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