When is the best time to post on Facebook?

One of the most challenging questions facing social media managers is when to post their brand’s content for maximum exposure. When is the best time to post on Facebook? Many websites and agencies will claim to have the secret formula. The truth? It all depends on your audience. There is no one-size-fits-all solution – it’s all about careful analysis and making sure you always have your users and customers in mind. This post is all about leveraging your particular target demographic for maximum engagement with your social media content.

Whenever you post to Facebook, you want to make sure the most possible followers are seeing it – which increases the chance that multiple people will share your content. Different users have different social media usage habits; some demographics are more likely to check it in the morning over breakfast, some are more likely to read their feeds on their break at work.

A study by media management firm Vitrue found that users are mostly active in the morning, and posts made before noon are 39.7% more effective than those posted after. These are useful statistics to consider, but don’t fall into the trap! Your own userbase may be vastly different, and thinking about general trends will only hold you back.

There are numerous methods and tools that exist to track social media engagement that can help you make important decisions about the best time to post on Facebook.  Here are some of the most effective:

Nobody knows your audience like you do. Keep an eye on user engagement indicators such as likes and comments to get a feel for when people are most likely to post. Think about your target demographic. If your customers are largely young people and students, you’ll find that they might be more likely to get on Facebook in the morning or evenings. Conversely, if you target business clients, the ideal timeframe might be during office hours.

No one knows your customers like you do – embrace it!

The Facebook Pages administrator controls give you unprecedented control over the engagement statistics of your page. In the Insights section, under the ‘Posts’ tab, Facebook helpfully outlines a useful timetable of when your fans are online.

This graph gives you an excellent visual representation of your best time to post on Facebook. In the graph above, we can see that this Facebook page’s fans are usually online around around 5pm at the peak, with a constant stream of activity through the middle of the day. For this page owner, posts late at night wouldn’t receive much engagement at all.

The Facebook Page management tools are also great for determining what days your users are most active on.  You might find, for example, that your demographic doesn’t use Facebook much on weekends. Use the Page management tools as a helpful guide to your peak traffic days.

There are numerous third party apps that can help you work out the best time to post on Facebook. One of the most popular and effective social media analysis tools is Sprout Social, which provides detailed reports on what posts are receiving the most engagement. From the statistics provided by Sprout, you can gain powerful insight into when your users are online and viewing your posts.

Think about building a plan with an application like Sprout Social. Not only can it give you the insights as to your personal best time to post on Facebook, it also allows you to schedule your posts, so you’re always posting them at the right time. If you get into a rhythm of posting, your fans will come to expect your posts at a certain time and day.

It’s important that your focus always be on your personal audience and their consumption habits – not the habits of the Facebook population as a whole. For a truly targeted presence, you need to be thinking about the best time to post on Facebook for your audience specifically.