So, when should I post to get maximum engagement?
Unless you’re a celebrity or influencer, your social media audience is unlikely to be sitting waiting for your next post, wringing their hands in anticipation, but does this mean that it doesn’t matter when you post, or how often? Read on to get some tips!
Keep it consistent!
Consistency is key when it comes to your social media content; although your followers are unlikely to be waiting for your post, your brand will be strengthened in your audience’s mind each time they see a post from your account, particularly if you use brand colours, logos, or other recognisable elements in your posts. If you usually post once a day and then suddenly reduce this to once a week, or once a month, your followers will quickly move on, leaving you without a potential customer/client when they next need a company that makes your product or offers your service.
Instagram in particular favours ‘recency’ when its algorithm sorts which posts to show to users. The chronological feed went out when the Instagram algorithm took over in 2016, but fresh, engaging content will usually be favoured over older engaging content! And that’s the first key to success – curating engaging content. No matter how often you post or which times you choose to post at, if your content is weak then you won’t receive the engagement you need to propel your stats upwards and your business forwards.
Choose your audience
Your audience may be spread all over the world and, as such, it’s difficult to ascertain an optimum time for posting, due to time differences. However, Instagram (and Facebook) has clever tools that allow you to see when the majority of your audience is online, giving you the key to optimum posting times. In addition to this, it’s worthwhile doing a little competitor digging (who doesn’t love having a nose at the competition?) to see what’s working for them, paying particular attention to which posts have the most engagement and the times at which they were posted.
Bear in mind that different times will work for different industries; for example, food and drink posts are more likely to go down well at mealtimes, both weekdays and weekends, whereas business-related posts from professional services are better served to a more work-focused audience on weekdays only, giving them the weekend to digest more casual topics.
And there’s nothing quite like experience – the more consistently you post, the more likely you are to see a pattern within those posts, pointing you to the most popular topics, and the content which is most appealing to your audience. Take all these factors and implement your new-found knowledge into your social media strategy; a sure-fire way to boost engagement and follower count across your social media platforms.