The Art of Timing Social Media Posts

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Social media posts have a limited shelf life. With so much going on in different networks, poorly timed posts will get missed in the stream, even if they are profound or humorous. The tips below are intended to help you improve in terms of timing social media posts, which will increase the number of people who view them.

Posting At Peak Times

Different social media networks have different times when people use them most often. On Twitter, most of the United States posts and reads tweets between noon and 6:00 PM. Facebook, on the other hand, has the highest usage at noon or after 7:00 PM.

Timing social media posts around these peak times is one of the best ways to maximize the benefits of social media for business, since it means more eyes on your posts. If you use an automated system such as a WordPress blog’s publicize feature, you may be able to delay the posting of updates until these peak times.

Know Where Your Customers Live

48% of the population of the United States is on the eastern coast, so most time listings use Eastern Standard Time (EST) as the standard. However, if you operate in another area of the country and have mostly local clientele, you should adjust your plans for timing social media posts to fit your area.

Similarly, if you seek to expand to another area of the country, take into account the time difference between when you’re posting and when your target audience is reading. Always try to time your posts around your customers’ schedules, not yours.

Keep An Eye On World Events

When a major product release or news story breaks, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media networks go into overdrive. For example, during the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, Twitter saw 7 million tweets per hour.

During this time, any posts about a new e-commerce solutions business would have been swept away and almost completely unnoticed. In general, avoid posting when major news makes the information stream flow faster than normal unless your product or service specifically ties into the news at hand.

Consider Shelf Life

One of the biggest aspects to keep in mind with timing social media posts is how long your post is likely to remain visible. A Twitter post will last on the typical user’s feed for 2.8 hours, with Facebook having slightly more staying power at 3.2 hours. If you use video content, YouTube has the longest-lasting content at 7.4 hours of average viewing time.

Your social media marketing plan should use these times to your advantage. If you have a major event coming up, for example, you will want to mention something about it fairly often on Twitter and Facebook, while a promotional video on YouTube can be left without an update for a little longer.

Timing social media posts can be difficult, but as long as you know your target demographics and are aware of the viewing window for your posts, you can reap the benefits very well. This will allow your business to use social media to its fullest.

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