Nowadays, businesses are no longer contented with the number of views their content gets. They want engagement. They want people to like, comment, share, and engage with other commenters. This is when the marketing strategy and the content made a difference in your business. When your target market cares enough to share and comment on a post, this is when you know that you made the right choice. But when do you post this content? When is your market available? When are they engaged on social media?
The answer to those questions is that the timing varies by audience and industry. This isn’t like how you secure a network using zero trust security wherein there are predetermined risks and concerns. Figuring out when to post on Facebook is tricky because the social media platform changes its algorithm consistently. The right time to post on Facebook isn’t the same for everyone, though there are general rules that can guide you.
The Best Times to Post on Facebook for Maximum Engagement
According to Sprout Social, a study of its 20,000+ customers’ content found out that in general, Wednesday between 11 AM and 1 to 2 PM are the best times to post content on Facebook. It is the middle of the week. Businesses are in the thick of things. The timing is perfect because people have lunch breaks between 11 AM and 2 PM. They spend their time having their lunches and keeping up to date with what’s happening on social media.
Aside from that, the study also showed that the most consistent engagement happens from Tuesday to Thursday, between 8 AM and 3 PM. Basically, it is when people are at work that they check their news feeds more and are also more likely to engage with brands and people. You may want to avoid posting anything before 7 AM or after 5 PM because that’s when Facebook has the lowest engagement.
People are a lot busier before 7 AM because it’s the start of the day. The tasks are all lined up—get the kids to school, prepare for work, eat breakfast, shower, and commute or drive to work. After 5 PM, people are packing up after work and rushing home to avoid traffic. They don’t have time to check social media before rushing out of the office door.
The Worst Times to Post on Facebook
The worst time to post on Facebook is on Sundays. While businesses thought people have more time to browse their social media feeds on weekends, studies found that consumers spend Sundays away from their phones and laptops. Though there are slight increases in engagement between 9 AM and 2 PM, the rate is generally low. Your content might not get the attention it deserves.
Customizing for Audiences
The best and worst time to post content on Facebook also depends on your audiences. Who are you trying to target? If your market is asleep in the middle of the day because they are on night duty, then the times mentioned above will not work for you. For example, there’s a slight difference between when business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) brands should post content.
The best days for B2B brands are Mondays and Tuesdays while B2C brands are better off posting on Tuesdays. If you are a B2C brand, the best time to post is at noon when people are on lunch break and checking their social media. For B2B brands, the best time is any point during standard working hours—from 9 AM to 2 PM.
But aside from knowing the best times and audience, it is equally important to post regularly. Most businesses post three to four times per week. This keeps them on their target market’s news feeds but at the same time, doesn’t spam or overwhelm their feeds.
Finding the Best Time to Post on Facebook for Your Business
How can you know which time is best for your business to post content on Facebook? Look at Facebook Analytics. It will give you a big picture of how your audience behaves while interacting with your brand. Through analytics, you’ll gain a perspective of when your page receives the most engagement. When you go to the Posts section of the Insights page, click on the When Your Fans Are Online to manually check the best time to post on Facebook.
You can also do an A/B Testing. You can post similar content at different times to see when your customers are more engaged. For example, you may find out that although 9 PM is not a peak hour for your customers to be online, they are more engaged at that time. They are sharing and commenting more. This means that’s when you should post content on your page.
There are many ways and methods to determine the best time for your business to post content on Facebook. It will take a lot of experiments to identify your posting schedule. The key here is to try and try and try. Posting content on Facebook is free. Once you pinpointed your posting schedule, start spending on boosts to get more audience and engagement.
