When you are executing a social media marketing strategy, there is a lot to think about. You might be concerned about:

The use of visuals
Your content strategy
Who will be executing the work
How will you measure your results
When the work will be done

There is such an overwhelming amount of planning that goes into executing a social media marketing strategy that it is inevitable that something will be left to the last minute. In my experience an extremely vital point that gets left out in the cold during the social media strategy planning stage is when is the best time to post content to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter?!

While this is a seemingly unimportant factor, I am here to tell you that it is absolutely vital to your social media strategy. Just think, for example, of an email marketing campaign that you have previously executed. If you have looked at the studies done on email marketing, I am sure that you found out that by altering the time and date of your blasts, you can increase effectiveness.

And I am here to tell you that this is definitely true. We have executed email marketing campaigns for our clients and when we discovered the optimum time and date for them to be sent, their success rate skyrocketed!

This holds true also when we find the optimum posting time for our clients on social media. Before, they had a well written post with wonderful content that was languishing at the bottom of the barrel. Once we found the optimal posting time and used it, we could take this same exact post and garner exponentially more engagement…with only changing the time and date it was shared!

Have you ever posted something to social media that you truly believed to be earth-shatteringly good and….crickets? This is a prime example of the importance of choosing the right time and date when posting your social media content. I know how much time it takes to formulate good, engaging content, and I for one want it to be successful every time I post it!

To help you along, here are some times that we have found to be helpful when posting content to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter respectively.

Facebook:

Best Time to Post: Daily, between 1-4pm
Peak Time to Post: Wednesdays at 3pm
Worst Time to Post: Saturday and Sunday before 8am and after 8pm

Twitter:

Best Time to Post: Monday through Thursday, 1-3pm
Peak Time to Post: Monday through Thursday, 9am-3pm
Worst Time to Post: Everyday after 8pm, Fridays after 3pm

LinkedIn:

Best Time to Post: Tuesday through Thursday
Peak Time to Post: Noon, 5-6pm, Tuesday through Thursday
Worst Time to Post: Monday through Friday, 10pm-6am

These are simply guidelines for you to use which will effectively bring you closer to finding the optimal time for you to post on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I know some industries that we work with where these hours don’t always hold up as the best.

The moral of the story is to try these out, and monitor your success. You will need to massage these times and dates to find out what works best for you. When it comes to your content, what should be the most important thing is that you plan to deliver it to the correct audience at the time when they are ready to receive it. This will create a social media home run not only for your content, but also your campaign!