Is there a best time to post on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, & other social media platforms?

Even though social media apps like Instagram and Facebook are relatively new in the grand scale of things, just about everyone with access to the internet has an account on these platforms.

While every social media platform tries to differentiate itself from the competition, the one thing all these platforms have in common is a dedicated algorithm that determines what users see and what they don’t.

Now, there are plenty of blog posts and YouTube videos claiming to give you all the information you need to “hack the algorithm” and boost your engagement. But is this even possible? Well, maybe. Let us explain.

The first thing to understand here is that not all social media apps are created equally. Instagram serves a different purpose, Facebook serves a different purpose, and so do LinkedIn and the others.

Thus, you can’t go in expecting an engagement boosting tip for Instagram to work for LinkedIn or vice versa. However, many influencers swear by one social media hack and that is to post content at specific times.

This might seem pretty straightforward, right? Turns out, figuring out the right time to post on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms is a lot harder than it might appear.

To be clear from the get-go, there’s no single “best time” to post on any social media platform. So don’t expect to post content on all platforms at a specific time and boost your engagement instantly.

That said, here’s some information that you might be able to use to your advantage whether you’re a social media influencer, someone who’s looking to boost brand engagement or even a marketing agent for a company on LinkedIn.

Note: All times mentioned hereon are in EST.

Instagram reportedly crossed one billion users last year and is one of the most sort-after social media apps to gain exposure and boost one’s online presence.

Earlier this year, Later claimed to have analyzed around 12 million Instagram posts and came to the conclusion that the best overall time to post on the platform is between 9 am and 11 am.

Similarly, Sprout Social conducted research on the best time to post on Instagram and other platforms and concluded that the best time to post on Instagram is at 11 am on Wednesday and between 10 am – 11 am on Friday.

However, the research also indicated that these timings fluctuated depending on the type of content being published and the target audience.

Facebook is by far the biggest social media platform with a user base of over 2.2 billion monthly active users that dwarfs that of Instagram and makes LinkedIn seem like a startup.

As pointed out by HootSuite in a recent blog post, the algorithm on Instagram and Facebook puts a lot of weight on the “recency” of a post.

What this means is that sharing or posting content on these platforms at times when most of your followers are active will considerably boost the chances of your post coming across more eyeballs than if you post at a time when only a handful or none of your followers are actively using the app.

Now, coming back to the research from Sprout Social, the best time to post on Facebook is also on Wednesday at 11 am, and between 1 pm – 2 pm. This, however, is the big picture only, and the best time to post depends on your target audience and industry.

While LinkedIn does not have a big user base to boast about, it still is one of the best platforms for professionals to engage and interact with each other.

Moreover, posting at the right time on LinkedIn can be a lot more rewarding than on any other platform considering that CEOs and managers of high-value companies are often looking to connect with the right people.

And yet again, research from Oberlo shows that the best time to post on LinkedIn during the Coronavirus pandemic is on Wednesday at 3 pm.

Apart from that, posting on Thursdays between 9 am and 10 am and on Fridays between 11 am and 12 pm can be more rewarding than posting at random hours during the rest of the week.

Pre-Covid, Sprout Social’s research indicated that the best time to post on LinkedIn was on Wednesday between 8 am and 10 am and at noon. On Thursday, the best time to post was at 9 am and between 1 pm to 2 pm.

Given the extensive research done by various social media marketing teams, it’s clear that posting content at certain times does indeed boost user engagement.

However, these studies also highlight the fact that there’s a lot more you would have to do yourself to figure out the best time to post on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other social media platform for that matter.

So there’s no magic hack to boost engagement on your social media profile overnight. Remember, slow and steady wins the race. So take your time to understand how your followers interact with your account.

Then, create high-quality content that encourages users to interact with your posts since that’s another sure way to get the “algorithm” to favor your content over the rest.

That said, don’t only rely on posting at the right time since companies are often changing how their algorithm works. This means you’d have to continue monitoring for changes and switch things up as and when you feel the need to do so.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.