Throughout 2020 and into 2021, social media became a great way to keep in touch with people. People used it to look for new trends and hobbies, as well as to find out what is happening in the world.
Brands had to change their way of thinking. They had to think about how they could do new things in a digital world. Social marketers also had to change because there was so much work and the number of people interacting with them online increased.
In 2021 we did a review of the best time to post on social media. We found that there are many changes in the data for 2021, with increased and varying engagement across platforms and industries. Brands were changing how they operated online, which led to new patterns of interaction. This data can help you understand what the landscape is now on social media.
We worked with our team to see what people are doing on social media. We looked at the past year and found out how often people use it, by platform and industry.
We found out when to post on social media. We also found out the best and worst days. Use this data to help you schedule posts for your social media accounts or read on for more information about how this data can be applied specifically to your account.
What’s in it:
- Best time to post on Instagram
- Best time to post on Facebook
- Best time to post on Twitter
- Best time to post on Linkedin
- Best time to post on Pinterest
- Best time to post on Snapchat
- Best time to publish videos on Youtube
- Best time to post on Tumblr
- Best time to post on socical media by various industry
- Something to help to find the best time to post on social media
- How we gathered the data
- Conclusion
Best time to post on Instagram
Throughout 2020, Instagram added new features like Reels and Stories. Instagram also made it easier to find things on its Explore page. This was a good thing for people who live in places with lockdown measures that stop people from going outside or exploring. This has been helpful for brands because they can use social listening to stay up to date on the trends that these users are following.
Different times of day is the best time to post on Instagram. The time is different depending on the day of the week. On weekdays, it is a good idea to post between 11 am and 2 pm. On weekends, it is better to post in the evening or at night when people are home from work or school.
- Best day: Tuesday
- Best time: Tuesday 11 am – 2 pm, Monday through Friday 11 am
Instagram is a good place for brands to post pictures. You can show your design work and other things you have made. You can also do Instagram Live, which is like Facebook Live. It was popular in 2020 and it allows people to stay connected with less curated content that is shorter and sometimes more viral-ready.
Best time to post on Facebook
Facebook is the most used social media platform in the world. There was so much engagement, and it is a part of social commerce, you could almost do it all day long!
In the past year, there were few completely “off” times for Facebook. Weekends, late-night, and earlier mornings all showed more engagement. This is a good time for brands to post their content and get people’s attention.
- Best day: Tuesday
- Best time: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 9 am – 1pm
Facebook has a lot of people on it. This is because it has users in many different countries, and at all times of the day. So for any brand that wants to reach an international audience, Facebook can be a good place to advertise.
While this might sound like a lot, it is possible to plan your posts on Facebook so that you post when people are the most in need of your product. That way you can reach more people.
Best time to post on Twitter
In 2020, people often used Twitter as the first place they would go for information on news stories such as COVID-19 and the election of a new US President. To help with this, it had trending topics that you could click to read about current events.
Twitter had high engagement throughout each weekday in 2020. There were increased periods of high engagement in the evening. This could be because people were tweeting about developing news and updates, as well as a place where people can have fun with viral tweets and memes.
- Best day: Wednesday
- Best time: Wednesday 9 am – 3 pm, Tuesday through Thursday 9-11 am
Twitter is a good way to find out the news. It’s also a place where people can talk to brands and companies. Brands should have a customer care strategy in order to have good feedback from customers on Twitter, and they should look for different ways that are better than just reacting to individual issues.
On Twitter, brands have to focus on more than one thing. They need to share new content and also help people with their problems. Review the times we found in the article so that you can decide what is best: publishing new things or helping customers who have questions.
Best time to post on Linkedin
On LinkedIn, people are often on their phones and the engagement with LinkedIn content is consistent during the week. But on weekends, there is less engagement compared to weekdays than other social networks.
- Best day: Tuesday and Wednesday
- Best time: Tuesday through Thursday 9 am – noon
A lot of people use LinkedIn to find work. That is why a lot of people use it during their workday. They don’t have to stop working when they are looking for a job.
LinkedIn is more specialized than other social media websites. It attracts people who want to hire employees and people who want to find jobs. LinkedIn is also good for making content.
LinkedIn is a good marketing tool for B2B strategy. It can also be used by any company. It’s ideal for employee advocacy and giving employees the power to share content about their own brand or professional development on their profiles.
Best time to post on Pinterest
Pinterest is a website that drives a lot of traffic. It’s hard for bloggers to keep up with the best marketing practices on Pinterest and to constantly create new pins. You might already know that the Pinterest algorithm favors fresh or brand new pins! So, when you make new pins, make sure you post them at the most optimal time. If your Pinterest is used for driving blog traffic, knowing the right time to post on Pinterest is important.
- The best times to post on Pinterest are on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., 9 p.m., 10 p.m., 11 p.m., and 2 a.m., 3 a.m, 4 a.m.
- Don’t post on Pinterest in the evening. People will be too busy to look at it then.
So, basically, Pinterest looks for signals of user engagement to rank pins on Pinterest. This means your targeted audience will have a greater chance of seeing your pins if you pinned at the optimal time of the day.
Best time to post on Snapchat
Snapchat is an app that people usually use at night. So when you post about your product or service, remember to post during the day.
- The best time to post your snaps is late at night between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. The majority of people who use Snapchat are active during these hours.
- There is no best day to post on Snapchat. Some people use it every day of the week.
Best time to publish videos on Youtube
The best time to post a video on YouTube is in the afternoon. That is when most people are watching videos. You should also make sure that your video is indexed by 7 p.m. because that’s when YouTube gets the most traffic.
- On Thursdays and Fridays, it is best to post on YouTube.
- Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays are the worst days to post on YouTube. People go back to work and have less time to browse on YouTube.
Best time to post on Tumblr
Teens and millennials mostly use Tumblr. They use their phones to access it, so if you want to reach them, make sure you post images, blogs, videos of your brand on this platform.
- Do not post on Tumblr during the day. That is when most people are at work. You should post at night, around 10 p.m., when most people have finished with their work and are able to access Tumblr.
- The best days to post are Saturday and Sunday because most people are active on weekends.
Best time to post on social media by various industry
We looked at the best times to post on social media. We also looked at how different industries’ engagement changes across networks and overtime throughout the week. You can use this data to get more specific insights on when brands tend to be most successful.
For these findings, we focused on data from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We looked at how people engaged with these social media platforms.
Best time to post on social media for education sector
Many people use Twitter and Facebook during the day. It’s frequent and there are many opportunities to engage with it. Instagram is less frequent but should not be ignored by universities and other educational institutions. They can use it to show off their visual identity and student life through videos.
A social marketing strategy for education needs to have different purposes. It needs to attract new students and keep current ones up-to-date. Schools often have more than one account on each platform, so that they can target people with different messages at the right times.
The best time to post on Instagram for education
- Best day: Friday
- Best time: Friday 4 am Thursday 2-3 pm
The best time to post on Facebook for education
- Best day: Tuesday, Wednesday
- Best time: Wednesday at 9-10 am
The best time to post on Twitter for education
- Best day: Monday
- Best time: Monday 6-9 pm, Thursday 10 am
Best time to post on social media for information technology sector
It might be surprising to find out that Instagram has a lot of peak times to post which is good for tech businesses. There are two reasons why this is so: First, Instagram posts can be creative and show infographics or reports. Second, Instagram posts can show what it’s like inside a company and also what employees want people to know about the business.
Similar to B2C, IT and tech buyers turn to social media for research on buying decisions. Social platforms are also good for staying in touch with customers. We should create a community around our product and offer customer care when we cultivate an effective presence across social networks. This can have a direct impact on our bottom line and customer experience when done right.
The best time to post on Instagram for information technology
- Best day: Monday
- Best time: Monday 10-11 am, 2-8 pm, Tuesday 10 am – 1 pm, Thursday noon, Friday 11 am
The best time to post on Facebook for information technology
- Best day: Tuesday, Thursday
- Best time: Thursday 3-4 om
The best time to post on Twitter for infomation technology
- Best day: Tuesday
- Best time: Monday 11 am, Tuesday and Wednesday 9 am, Tuesday 2pm
Best time to post on social media for food and restaurants sector
In 2020, restaurants had to change their menus and service. They had to do more take-out and delivery. This meant that they needed to communicate with their customers.
Instagram is still popular. It stays active, even if people aren’t taking pictures of the restaurant experience. You can make Instagram posts about your menu and delivery options or show pictures of the kitchen.
Facebook and Twitter sometimes have different engagements. But they are still good ways to connect with other people. You should try to find a way to give people interesting information about them. This will make sure that you keep their attention.
The best time to post on Instagram for food and restaurants
- Best day: Monday
- Best time: Monday 9 am – 1 pm
The best time to post on Facebook for food and restaurants
- Best day: Friday
- Best time: Friday 1-2 pm
The best time to post on Twitter for food and restaurants
- Best day: Thursday
- Best time: Thurday 8 am – 2 pm
Best time to post on social media for healthcare sector
In 2020, healthcare services and institutions faced a challenge trying to respond to global audiences. They were trying to understand new information from quarantine measures.
In our 2019 data, Instagram didn’t get a lot of engagement in this industry. But when people stay at home, they are using online sources to find answers to their questions. Educating and informing audiences is the key to success no matter what platform you choose (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook).
Best time to post on Instagram for healthcare
- Best day: Monday, Tuesday
- Best time: Sunday 8-9 am, Tuesday 8 am and 5-8 pm
The best time to post on Facebook for healthcare
- Best day: Tuesday
- Best time: Monday through Friday at 11 am
The best time to post on Twitter for healthcare
- Best day: Tuesday
- Best time: Monday 9 am, Tuesday 8 am – 1 pm
Best time to post on social media for media sector
Twitter and Instagram are very popular, with people on them all the time. People are getting a lot of news and other entertainment through these sites. Lots of people in the world use these sites.
Facebook is a big deal and people use it in all countries. But the engagement on media industry accounts was especially high in the US. This may be because people check Facebook more often during one long period of time rather than checking it throughout the day.
On any platform, it is important to get accurate information. It is more important because you have to do it quickly. If you do not, people will get bad information on social media.
The best time to post on Instagram for media
- Best day: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thurday
- Best time: Tuesday 1-5 pm, Wednesday 11 am, Thursday 8-9 am
The best time to post on Facebook for media
- Best day: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday
- Best time: Tuesday 6-9 am, Friday 7 am
The best time to post on Twitter for media
- Best day: Monday and Tuesday
- Best time: Monday 6 am and Tuesday
Best time to post on social media for tourism and travel sector
Businesses in the travel and tourism industry had to be creative when people were not allowed to go outside. They did this by creating digital experiences, like on social media and their website.
Our data shows that people responded to the tourism brand’s efforts on social media. There was a lot of engagement, especially on Facebook and Instagram. Even if there weren’t any pictures posted from the tourism brands’ traditional travel photos, people seemed to like these posts. Social marketers in the tourism industry should be creative and flexible with their strategies.
The best time to post on Instagram for tourism and travel
- Best day: Thursday
- Best time: Thursday 7 am, Monday 11 am – 3 pm
The best time to post on Facebook for tourism and travel
- Best day: Wednesday
- Best time: Tuesday and Wednesday 9 am – 1 pm, Friday 10 am – noon
The best time to post on Twitter for tourism and travel
- Best day: Monday and Tuesday
- Best time: Monday 10 am – 2 pm, Wednesday 8-9 am
Best time to post on social media for money and finance sector
For social media engagement with financial institutions, we focused our data on Twitter and Facebook because they have a lot of data and it is easy to see when people are most active.
This doesn’t mean that Instagram should be off the table for every bank’s or financial institution’s social media strategy. Individual finance brands need to carefully evaluate how they can stay in touch with their customers while also maintaining compliance with important regulations on social media for the industry.
It is interesting that there were many different times when people on Twitter were active. This might be because the audience follows international news. Meanwhile, Facebook follows a typical pattern of activity around the US working week.
The best time to post on Instagram for money and finance
- Best day: Monday and Thursday
- Best time: Monday and Thursday 11 am to 1 pm
The best time to post on Facebook for money and finance
- Best day: Wednesday
- Best time: Wednesday 9 am – 1 pm, Monday 5 pm, Friday 11 am
The best time to post on Twitter for money and finance
- Best day: Monday and Tuesday
- Best time: Monday and Tuesday 1-3 am, Friday noon – 3 pm
Best time to post on social media for nonprofit sector
All three of the platforms we reviewed showed good engagement during the typical workday hours. It was hard to find a time when people are not engaged with these sites.
When you have a lot of people who like your organization, you can find the best time to talk to them. This is especially good when you want to talk about things that are important for your organization.
To do a good job on social media, you need to show people different things. You need to do different things on each social media platform. You need to post one thing on Facebook and something else on Twitter. Followers might not be following you if they don’t get anything new from you!
The best time to post on Instagram for nonprofit
- Best day: Wednesday
- Best time: Wednesday 10 am – 6 pm
The best time to post on Facebook for nonprofit
- Best day: Monday,Wednesday
- Best time: Wednesday 10 am – 5 pm
The best time to post on Twitter for nonprofit
- Best day: Wednesday
- Best time: Wednesday 10-11 am, 2-4 pm
Best time to post on social media for hospitality sector
Hotels and hospitality brands faced unexpected challenges in 2020. This was the same as with tourism. They needed to change their social media content or marketing. And they had to stay in touch with customers who needed clear updates on travel restrictions and limitations throughout the year when they changed.
This customer service focus is shown when the industry has a lot of people that are interested in it. This usually happens during the weekdays and during the daytime, but sometimes it happens in the evening, too.
As people start to plan new travel in 2021 and beyond, they will need help. They will do this by setting up a reputation and review management strategy.
The best time to post on Instagram for hospitality
- Best day: Friday
- Best time: Wednesday noon, Thursday 3-4 pm, Friday 8 am – noon
The best time to post on Facebook for hospitality
- Best day: Friday
- Best time: Monday 11 am, Friday 8-11 am, Tuesday and Thursday 4 pm
The best time to post on Twitter for hospitality
- Best day: Thursday
- Best time: Wednesday 3-5 pm, Thursday 10-11 am
Something to help to find the best time to post on social media
Find when your audience is most active online
Many social media algorithms are prioritized to show the newest information. This is because people care about what is new and they check their feed often.
Posting on Facebook and Instagram is a good way to get people to see your post. You can show them what you have, like pictures or videos. Make sure that you post when people are likely to be looking at their phones, like early in the morning or late at night.
Twitter and LinkedIn do not let you see how people are doing on their accounts. That is why you need to do research about what your audience wants, and if they are happy with the things they are seeing.
Meanwhile, for your Facebook and Instagram strategies, you can know when your followers are online by looking at your analytics. PineChatBot’s Best Time to Publish feature provides a map of when followers are active.
Find your top-performing posts from the past
When it comes to deciding when to post your content, you should take a data-driven approach. This means that you add the content at times when you know it will get the most views.
The first step is to find the posts that were successful in the past. You can look at your analytics or on social media. Then, you want to see which posts did well for a certain metric, such as:
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Sales/Traffic
Look at the competition
To win on social media, you should look at your competitors. Look at their posts. See what they are doing that is working.
Here at PineChatBot, for instance, we have learned to avoid posting on the hour because that is when other brands post. We want our content to be seen by people who are not also looking at posts from other brands. So we post on the:15 or:45 mark instead of publishing on the hour.
It is worth listening to your industry. You might learn something that is worth doing or you might learn what not to do. (You can also find out when people publish new information.)
Audience’s time zone is important
If you want to catch people in the morning, post at 6AM. It can be hard to catch European innovation executives because they are in a different time zone than America. You need to post your message at 6AM Central European Time, or even earlier if you want to catch Eastern Europe too.
At PineChatBot, our channels catch people across North America (PST through EST) by posting in the morning or early afternoon. For channels that want to catch the UK, post earlier in the morning.
Brands can create a new handle that they use for people in their area. This way, they can talk to them in their native language.
Test and optimize
You do not know what will happen if you press the publish button. You can do all the research and find out as much as possible, but you cannot know for sure what will happen once you publish.
Sometimes, people do systematic tests to see how good their posts are. Sometimes, they post the same content at different times to see which time has better results.
Monitoring for changes
Social media is always changing. People who use it are also changing. For example, more people are using social media because they do not have work and can be on it all the time.
People are changing their habits. They used to check their feeds during lunch, but now they do it during meetings. If people stop checking their feed, you might need a different strategy.
How we gathered the data
We understand that these reports would make you wonder where our data is coming from. We want to be clear about it.
Some of our customers have told us about their experience with PineChatBot. We asked them for their information and then we used data science to collect it all together.
Conclusion
The best times to post on social media are different for every industry and business. In order to find your optimal time, you should first analyze the types of messages that resonate with your audience at a macro level. You can then look at how those posts have performed over time before determining what works best for you specifically. We’ve gathered data from some of the most popular industries in our country to help guide you in finding out when is best for each type of company or brand.
FAQs
Social media platforms are a method of communication. Users can create profiles, post photos and updates, and chat with other members in a similar way to online communities like Myspace or Facebook.
Each social media platform has its own soul. What mean by this is that each social media platform has its own type of user–which means, for example, that some platforms are more conducive to organizing activities with coworkers than others. And because posts vary on different platforms, the optimal time of day will also be different depending on which platform you’re looking at.
The best time to post on social media for b2b is when your followers are online. This can vary according to their workplace, but in general, this would be between 9 am and 10 am. The second best time slot is noon-1pm when they are likely near an office computer again if they take lunch before 2 pm. But it varies by industry so there’s no one-time slot that fits all industries well – you should experiment with different times of the day to find what works best in your industry.
The best time to post on Instagram actually occurs when the number of your followers and friends overlap in large numbers (i.e., at around noon for an account with 400-500 followers and friends); this is because larger account seems to be engaging accounts in large numbers during these times because their chances of receiving engagement are higher than accounts with lower follower and friend counts.
Facebook is a time-sensitive place, so there is no best time to post. What you want to do is look at your page and see how many people are active on it before making a decision, as there may be certain hours of the day during which they either log in more often or the general public has the most activity on Facebook.
It’s important to understand that Twitter posts don’t occur in a vacuum and social media activity is cyclical. This means there are times when posts will resonate better with followers based on what else might be happening at that particular time.
Post scheduling is an important aspect of social media marketing, as it allows you to determine when your post is going to be seen. PineChatBot could be the best tool for scheduling posts on social media. It is a super-powerful tool with supreme features to save your precious time.
