We know – you clicked the title with the hope that you’ll see the strict answer here: you need to post on Tuesday, between 2-3 P.M. We really wish it was so easy and uncomplicated! Unfortunately, we won’t beat around the bush – it isn’t.
Timing is critical – as lousy timing can lead you to heartbreak and massive disappointment. Your content won’t attract any new followers, generate any traffic, and you’ll get zero shares – it will most likely feel like all your effort, all your creative work was FOR NOTHING. On the contrary, good timing can make you feel like you rule the world – and your posts are deeply appreciated and highly needed.
But what is good timing? Is it associated with luck?
Many websites, blogs, and even youtube guides with the most influential marketing gurus claim that they know the precise answer – what time is THAT time. That one day of the week. That one particular hour.
Ugly truth? They can’t be right as there isn’t one solution for all types of accounts – it’s just impossible, no matter how much we’d love it to be different.
Today we’ll teach you how to figure out how to find out YOUR best time to post. It will be only yours – and it won’t apply to any other account. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s dive in!
Why you need to know when your followers are most likely to see your new post
You’re not spending that amount of time creating valuable content to let it disappear and go unseen. Smart move to make the algorithm work in your favor? Check when exactly your audience is active on this social media platform and engage with them during that time.
If you post when your followers sleep or are highly busy during the day, you won’t get any likes or comments when your new content goes live. The algorithm may interpret it as a sign that it isn’t exciting or it’s low quality – and we don’t want that because it’s the easiest way to waste our efforts!
Each account has a different audience – and it changes everything.
You won’t ever find two accounts with precisely the same audiences: each one has an entirely different following base. The differences may not be diametrical, but they indeed are visible in statistics – and that’s why we can’t ignore the data and read the facts from the tea leaves. Data from statistics is the number one trustworthy source of information about your profile.
Each audience has:
- different daily habits
- different patterns of SM content consumption
We also can’t not mention timezones. People live in different parts of the globe – that’s why you need to analyze where your followers are from and make the time of your posting convenient for them – at least for the majority of them.
Find out what time is most beneficial for you – basing on the success of your previous posts.
Testing is part and parcel of marketing. It applies to content marketing as well! We need to know what hours were the most profitable for you in the past – when your posts got the highest results, and the algorithm pushed your content up the feeds, and it managed to get a satisfying reach.
When is your community most active on Instagram? How to find out? Like we mentioned before – data from statistics in our best buddy (and best advisor). You can’t say you know your audience, and you take care of your profile’s growth when you’re not tracking post performance at all.
Where to start?
You have access to 3 reliable sources of valuable insights:
- Instagram Insights
- Your website Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts
- Creator Studio (via Facebook)
Instagram Insights is the most elementary one – if you have a business or creator account on Instagram, you have direct access to it – just hit the “Insights” icon from your profile. Here you can check all the most primary analytics related to your posts and your audience. Is it the best source of insights when to post? It’s a good one if you want to have a general outlook, although the time of your followers’ activity is presented in 3 hours time slots, which means you don’t have the precise answer – you need to go to Creator Studio to see it in detail.
However, Instagram Insights can be a smart and quick start to find out the average times your followers are most active on a typical day. Check out the demographics as well – where do they come from? Which part of the world? Analyze the top locations (by cities and by countries) to come to know what time zones apply there.
GA and GSC can point you out meaningful information about your official website – where your visitors come from, what parts of your website get the most of their attention, which devices they use, how many of them decide to click your social media referrals, what brings you traffic.
Creator Studio is a feature you can find on Facebook – and once you have your IG account attached to Facebook – you can track and monitor what’s going on on your Instagram profile. Benefits? It gives you specific, extensive data. It certainly brings together all the features you need to measure your content performance.
Draw conclusions!
Investigating your follower base will give you the most benign insights. You need to know your people to develop a long-term connection with them! Who might they be? Young parents scrolling the Gram when kids fall asleep? Busy business women checking facts from the world at the peep of day? Are they more likely to check SM in the early mornings or in the late evenings?
After a while of posting accordingly to the results of your research, you’ll see higher reach – and it will be the biggest reward for your effort, right? The increase in engagement will be inevitable, as your posts will rank much higher. Repeat the research at least twice each month – and every time you feel like your reach is dropping down and your content isn’t getting the love it deserves. Analyze what can impact your followers’ daily patterns – of course, they change with time!