When are the best times to post on social media

The boundaries are constantly being pushed with management tools that help businesses extend reach, maximise engagement and ultimately increase conversion. There is a ton of research out there that will show the best generic times to post on different channels, but the truth is that there isn't a one size fits all approach that will be successful for every brand. It depends on the industry you are in, the unique audience you are targeting, the types of posts you publish and the consistency of them. 

Start by thinking about the geographical location of your customers. At Yellow we know our audience is in New Zealand, so we would avoid posting at times suggested for other time zones. With comprehensive tools available at our fingertips, you’ll be able to find your own audience and target them accordingly. 

There are several social media management platforms that have analytics tools to find you key information. These insights can identify your businesses posts’ performance individually, your profile as a whole, and indicate what you are doing well. This will ultimately help you understand the best time to publish content based on your time zone, demographic and media consumption behaviour.  

Think about the time of day you would typically spend on social media and which platforms you are on. Put yourself in your customers shoes and consider if their behaviour is similar. Is it while they commute to and from work, on their lunch break, after dinner?  

It's easy to ascertain when the best generic times are by platform, based on overall engagement. There is an overwhelming number of choices to help manage your social media channels and these platforms can give you guidance, help assess your current strategy, and pinpoint your business ideal post times. 

Some recommended tools are Later, Sprout Social and Hootsuite. Each have unique features and capabilities such as determining your audience demographic, engagement, most active users time online and a profile summary.  

• They identify audience demographic like gender and age to guide your strategy. They know where your followers are located from top cities, countries, and even languages used. 

• At a glance they can rank posts by engagement rate and determine your best performing posts. Their analytic tools can suggest how well your content performs, indicate when your audience is most active and the best time of day you should post content for engagement. 

• Automatically calculate when your audience is most active online and suggest personalised posting times to get you more likes, comments and views on your content.  

• Give you a clear understanding of your profile performance going beyond just personalised posting times, also help attract the right followers and improving your marketing strategy through overall performance. They help you cut through the white noise, then summarise with visual and intuitive reports. 

If your audience is not engaged, it's like putting on a play with no audience. If your content is relevant, conveys your brand tone of voice well, and includes useful information, customers will more likely engage with you.  

Every business has a unique audience, so it is important you find the best window of time to post to your customers. There is strength in delivering your business message through social media. We encourage you to listen to your audience and tap into these management platforms to discover these insights.