Effective social media posting times

Social media is a great way for all companies to increase their reach, and promote business. However, this always needs to be focused on the user, and what they will get from interacting with, or engaging with your company. So sending out spam is a bad idea. In fact, many of the companies use algorithms, and use regulations to make sure businesses are conforming to user experience standards. This means sharing top quality, engaging content. But, once you’ve chosen a platform, and produced some top quality content, is there a specific time you should post? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design, we are Preston’s leading web design and web marketing experts. And we work with companies and clients around Preston and the North West, including Southport and Manchester. As a result, we have produced this guide to effective social media posting times.

Social media platforms

As part of your web marketing, you will no doubt be well versed in social media. From Facebook to Instagram, LinkedIn to Twitter, the social media options for consumers are always growing. Which means that for companies and businesses looking to expand reach and potential, the platforms are already in place. And interestingly, consumers can be found interacting with, and maintaining multiple profiles across a range of social media platforms. Instead of choosing one over the other. Which means that even if you choose two or three social media sites to focus on, you won’t be excluding too many of your consumers. As long as you put the research into the most popular platforms for users in your target demographic. Which can differ by age, gender identity, and even profession.

Effective social media posting times

So is there a “best” time to post to social media? And does this differ by platform? Well, every year, more research is released providing evidence about the proposed “best times to post” but this is always determined by individual companies own research, and the behaviour of their users. Which does skew the results somewhat. And that’s without taking into consideration the algorithms involved. For example:

Facebook and Instagram have changed in 2018 to become more user focused. This means that instead of seeing countless posts from business pages that they follow, consumers will instead see more posts from friends and family. And as part of this update, the chronological nature of the “timeline” feature was altered. Instead of now seeing recent posts, users will instead be shown results that are most “relevant” to them. Depending on a range of factors that Facebook have chosen. Such as post engagement, and interaction. As a result, the time you post will not necessarily have any effect at all.
LinkedIn uses a complex algorithm that takes into account multiple factors. These include the quality of the content and the relevance to the users most recent interactions. Which means that again, regardless of when you post, your post may be viewed by all of your followers. Or by none. Time is no longer a relevant factor.

Engagement factors

Instead of focusing on scheduling a timetable for releasing your content, you should instead think about how to make your content more engaging. While more controversial topics and businesses that set out to be controversial will always have an advantage, every local business can create social media content that encourages some engagement. You should consider: