I have seen many people in the digital market who still believe in the best time to share a post on social media. Not just these people, there have been so many studies to uncover the ‘best time’ to post on social channels like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc.
These studies focused on different days and time periods to generate more traffic from social media posts such as:
Thursday and Friday between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. (by Hubspot)
Early afternoon during weekdays and Saturday (by Buffer)
We cannot question results of these studies as all of these are based on a sound logic and give marketers a right direction to get maximum benefit from social media posts. But the problem with the studies is that every one of these talks about different ‘best time to post’ that makes it hard to believe them. Moreover, it clarifies that there is no perfect time to post to social networks.
To find out the perfect posting time for Facebook, you need to consider a number of factors like the industry, type of products, age of the audience, the profession of the audience and location, to name a few.
There is an abundance of content on the Facebook and a person’s News Feed can show him around 1500 stories every time he logs on Facebook. People with a large number of friends get more stories on their News Feed, which makes it difficult for the businesses to get their story noticed.
Irrespective of the time you post your content, you are sure to compete against 1,500 other posts in the News Feed. In such a hugely competitive market, timing is just one factor from a number of other factors in determining success of your post.
Let’s assume that a study showed that the best time to post on Saturday is 6 p.m. Now every brand will push its post at the same time to ensure that the target audience sees it. Now due to the competition, it is not possible for every post to appear in the News Feed as it also includes updates from friends, families and other businesses. So, chances of the best time converting into the worst time are high in such situations.
Now the question is, “what is the right time to post to Facebook?”
As there is no ‘best’ time to post, you can use some strategies to gain maximum visibility for your content on social media sites. When you are ready with the post, look at two approaches and choose the most suitable one to find the right time for your content posting.
When your data tells you
When it comes to digital marketing, data is the biggest weapon for any brand. And luckily, Facebook has ample amount of data for the page owners. By having a comprehensive understanding of your audience on social media channels, you can improve the performance of your content.
When it is relevant
Businesses post different types of content but every content piece might not work best in-the-moment. So you should look for the time that is most relevant to your content. For instance, if you are selling food items or snacks, the right time to post content related to it is around 11 a.m. or 3 p.m. as this is the time when people look for snacks options to order online.
If you still find it difficult to decide the right time to post to Facebook, you can take help of Facebook insight to find your best time. You just have to click on the insights at the top of your page and you will get a wealth of data to decide when to post to Facebook.
In the online market, it is the quality of your content that will help you win, not the timing when you post the content.
For instance, you must have noticed that one of your friends posted a picture of his wedding, baby’s arrival or other such important moment of the life where people rush to like the post and wish the person. No matter when it was posted, it will still be at the top of your newsfeed because of the virality of the post. So it is the quality of your content that you need to focus on, rather than the time to post to Facebook.
