I’ve often seen articles that suggest a “best time” to post on social media sites. However, every time I do, a few questions cross my mind…

a. If everyone is posting at these times, and I do too, couldn’t my post get lost in the deluge of posts and in the swarm of activity that happens during these ‘peak hours’? I mean, the goal IS to be seen.

b. What time zone are these articles referring to?

They often give a general 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm time slot, for instance. However, let us bear in mind that 12:00 pm in California is 9:00 at night in Paris, France. So are they suggesting that this is valid for only those living in the US? Or can these suggestions be generally applied to anyone, anywhere ?

c. What measure are they using to decide these recommendations?

Is it that in general, people post more on weekends (anywhere in the world) as they have more time? Or after 5:00 pm as work is over and they’re ready to de-stress and do some people-watching online, so they head to Facebook?

Social media is constantly evolving and so are the demographics. In only months, data can become obsolete. I therefore strongly suggest that though you do bear in mind the suggestions outlined in such articles, you should still do the following four things to help you better decide when is the best time for you to post online.

1. CONSIDER YOUR AUDIENCE.

The particular audience you have could fall into a group which might not necessarily be active during one of the “peak” times suggested. Ask yourself a few questions. Who is your specific audience? The group that YOU serve and intend to reach, who are they, and what is their behaviour like?

-Are your clients students or stay-at-home moms?

-Are they male or female?

-When might your target group be particularly active?

Each of these groups may have slightly different user habits. Stay-at-home moms might be more active in those hours when their kids are away at school, right after lunch and during their toddlers’ naps, so around 1:30 to 3:00pm. Or alternately, in between breaks while doing chores and right before they pick up the older kids. College-age students may have more fluid schedules and so your focus could be on posting more content, more frequently that they can engage with whenever they happen to come online.

2. CONSIDER YOUR TIME ZONE.

What time zone are you located in? For instance, are your users based predominantly in the US, Europe or down under in Australia?

Is your client base global or confined to one location?

One of my clients has clients based from Finland to Australia, literally all over the world. His business reaches everyone. Alternatively another client of mine offers services geared towards English speakers living in Paris. In each case their posting schedules vary.

I was based in Paris for more than seven years, and I found that for me, though I was based in Paris, I still had a fairly strong network in the Caribbean, US and Canada – countries which were roughly six to eight hours behind. Therefore posts made after midnight in Paris tended to receive a great response and engagement from those three groups as it was actually around 7:00 or 8:00 am in the Caribbean and US.

3. WHERE ARE YOU POSTING?

One also needs to bear in mind that different networks have different rhythms. Twitter is more immediate with a news feed that constantly changes, while Facebook rotates a bit more slowly. Pinterest and Instagram are different beasts altogether.

These different platforms also offer different levels of engagement. Why do these two things matter?

Some posts will have a longer life and so the likelihood of someone seeing it on a particular network will be higher. A tweet only lasts a few minutes, so it may be best to tweet more regularly. While on Instagram or Pinterest a photo post will last and be relevant for longer. Instagram, however, has some planned changes for how posts are seen in their stream. So this may affect posting schedules in the future.

On Facebook, if you are considered to be quality content by the algorithm, you are more likely to appear in the news feed and for an extended time. On the other hand, if you aren’t, your post might not even be served to your audience.

4. TEST, TWEAK, TEST

Finally, I cannot overemphasise the importance of doing your own tests and observations on your page. Try posting in the “peak” times and seeing what your engagement is like, then also try some other times of the day as well, then compare. You might be surprised by the results.

Nothing beats exploring and learning how to interact with your clients on your own. Action builds strategies, and experience is the best teacher (both in the bad sense and the good). So why not learn from your own experience and thus build some solid strategies in the long term? Test it, tweak it, then test again!

In addition, please remember that all these steps take time and a well planned strategy. If you do not have the time, energy or frankly the interest to invest in your social media, get help. Your company’s online presence and image is worth the investment.

I can help you in any step of the way, be it with strategy planning, content creation, assessments, or in actually doing the work. You can drop me a line at hanniffa@ouisocialmedia.com .

Hanniffa Patterson is a social media strategist, consultant and trainer.