In fact, without continuously engaging your Facebook audience, you may lose credibility, authority and brand loyalty, on top of your reach. If the concept of maintaining a steady stream of content seems daunting, don’t worry—you have the ability to schedule Facebook posts in one of three different methods.

Automating your Facebook posts will create a streamlined process for you to focus on your overall Facebook marketing strategy. Your audience never sleeps and neither should your Facebook content.

Why you should schedule Facebook posts

Scheduling content ahead of time has a number of benefits. Discover more about why scheduling Facebook posts can be a smart productivity hack for your schedule.

Consistency

Consistency is key when it comes to social media algorithms. So ensuring your Facebook posts remain consistent is going to be an essential part of your strategy. And scheduling ensures that reliability. If your internet is down or you can’t get to your computer, a scheduled Facebook post will still publish at the right time.

Time management

Time batching is a common time management tactic that is possible when you start scheduling your social media content ahead of time. Set aside a block of time to research and plan your content ideas, a block of time to create your content and a block of time to schedule your content. You’ll find you’re much more productive than if you did each standalone post on its own.

Global reach

When you schedule content ahead of time, you can plan it for any time of the day or night, giving yourself the ability to properly reach people across a number of time zones. Instead of staying up late or setting a 3am alarm just to publish a Facebook post, reach audiences across the globe with a scheduled post.

Strategic planning

When you’re scheduling social media posts for a full month (or longer), you can make sure they support the narrative you want to convey. For example, if you’re running a limited-time offer, you could craft and schedule each Facebook post to build a sense of urgency throughout the month.

Improved content quality

If you publish as you go, there are likely to be certain times that you’re not feeling as creative as others, resulting in a poor content strategy. But if you’re time blocking and saving content creation for one of your more inspired moments, you can end up creating much more quality content—consistently.

Audience engagement

When you’re able to schedule content ahead of time and stick to a consistent plan, your audience engagement ends up increasing. Facebook’s algorithm will start to recognize that your page is a hub for regular, quality content, and put it in front of your audience, helping to boost overall engagement.

Boost productivity

Finally, scheduling content is the perfect social media tip for boosting productivity. Beyond time batching, it can free up your time so that you’re not always having to have your phone or computer ready to publish a new post. Instead of needing to make time each day to publish Facebook content, you can free up your schedule for other important social media management tasks.

Best practices for optimizing scheduled Facebook posts

There are ways to make sure your scheduled posts find the right audience and help improve your strategy. Keep these five tips in mind as you schedule your Facebook content.

Tips for choosing the right scheduling time

First things first, you need to make sure you’re scheduling your posts for the right time. Ensuring you get your content out when your audience is most active is key in reaching the most people.

Global data states that the best times to post on Facebook are:

• Mondays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

However, you should also pay attention to your specific audience. You can check out your Facebook analytics and see when your followers are most likely to be online and schedule your content around those time periods.

You can also take advantage of Sprout Social’s Optimal Send Times feature that analyzes your audience and selects the best times to schedule your content.

Maintaining brand consistency in scheduled posts

Next, it’s important to make sure you’re keeping up with your branding throughout all of your scheduled content. If you batch your content creation, this should be a simple enough process.

Maintaining brand consistency includes things like:

• Keeping a similar brand voice throughout all of your captions
• Using the same color scheme and font choices throughout all graphics
• Sticking with the same filters and effects for all videos
• Creating graphics using similar templates so everything looks cohesive

If you’re reaching a wider audience due to your scheduled content, you want to make sure that content is representative of your brand and assists with overall brand recognition.

Balancing scheduled and live content

Keep in mind that not everything needs to be scheduled ahead of time. Your company might decide to put on a last minute promotion that you want to share on social media, you might have a stroke of inspiration and want to publish something different from what you had scheduled, or you might need to share a last minute company update.

Whatever the case, understand that you don’t have to stick to one extreme or the other—all scheduled content or none of it. You can still make last minute changes, switch up your content and share live posts when they come to you.

If you do, just make sure you’re not publishing a live post around the same time as a scheduled post is going live. Be sure to readjust your schedule to make room for your new content.

Avoiding over-scheduling

Don’t go crazy scheduling content—there is such thing as too much of a good thing, and you don’t want to end up with 5+ posts each day. Though many brands do post 4-5 times per day on Facebook, you don’t need to over-schedule. This can dry up your well of content ideas more quickly and annoy your audience if they see too much content from your brand.

Instead, come up with a scheduling plan that makes sense for your business, your content creation load and your audience—and stick with it.

Track analytics and engagement

Finally, pay attention to your Facebook analytics and overall audience engagement. Although global data and your insights can give you a good idea as to when to start scheduling, keeping up with your analytics can show you which types of posts and which days/times garner you the most engagement.

Use this data to inform and adapt your Facebook strategy. This can improve your overall Facebook organic reach, engagement and other important metrics.

How to schedule Facebook posts

You can schedule posts for your Facebook page using either the Meta Business Suite (formerly known as Creator Studio) or a third-party scheduling platform (like Sprout Social).

Schedule posts with Meta Business Suite

Step 1: Start by logging into your Facebook account. Head to your Facebook Page, then switch profiles so you’re managing your Page. In the left hand sidebar, click on Meta Business Suite.

Step 2: Click on the Planner tab in the main dashboard to see your content calendar, then click Schedule post.

Step 3: Create your post and select which account (either your Facebook or Instagram account, if you have them connected—or both) you want it to publish to. Add your photo or video, input your caption, preview your post, then scroll down to select a date and time to publish your content.

That’s it! You now have a scheduled post. Repeat the steps above to schedule additional posts.

How to schedule Facebook posts with Sprout Social

Here’s how to create scheduled Facebook posts with Sprout:

1. Click the Compose icon to open the Compose window.
2. Click the Profile Picker to select the Facebook pages for your post.
3. Create your post.
4. Select Specific Days & Times from the When to post dropdown, then choose.
5. The date and times for your post.
6. Optionally add more scheduled times.
7. Click Schedule.

Schedule Facebook posts with the Sprout Queue

What do you do when you have meaningful Facebook content, but don’t need to publish at any specific date or time? Use the Sprout Queue.

You can build your Sprout Queue to fill engagement gaps throughout the day with content around product tips, links to thought leadership articles or industry news.

Choose the number of posts per day, your date and times and Sprout will do the rest. To set up your Sprout Queue setup, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Publishing tab.
2. Click Sprout Queue.
3. Click Compose and create your post.
4. Choose Auto-schedule with Sprout Queue from the When to post dropdown.
5. Select Queue Next at the first possible time slot or Queue Last to move the post to the end of the queue.
6. Click Queue or Submit for Approval to schedule your content.

Configure your queue timeline

Sprout’s suite of social media publishing tools places the content in the Queue Timeline for you to choose a specific time or date. There you can identify your publishing time gaps and plan your content.

You can configure this feature to run during specific times or dates. This makes it simple for social media managers to post during the best times to post on Facebook. Select various post times for each Facebook Page.

Sprout’s Queue even makes it simple to see your daily post times throughout all your different social media profiles.

Take advantage of ViralPost

ViralPost is Sprout’s tool for publishing at the most optimal times. Configure ViralPost in your Sprout Queue to publish your queued content at optimal times for audience engagement (only available in Standard Plans and above).

When you use ViralPost, it analyzes your audience’s usage and engagement patterns to determine the optimal times to publish content on your Facebook page.

To configure your ViralPost settings, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your Publishing settings.
2. Click Sprout Queue.
3. Click Edit for the profile you want to configure ViralPost for. The Configure Queue Settings popup opens.
4. Select ViralPost for the Scheduling Method.
5. Choose whether you want to set your schedule by Individual Day or Weekdays/Weekends.
6. Select the number of times you want to post for each day of the week.
7. Select the time range for your post.
8. Click Save.

Add Facebook content to the Sprout Queue

It’s always best practice to queue content when it’s top of mind. Draft a message directly from Compose, share content you found on the web with Sprout’s Chrome Extension or add content to the queue directly from the RSS Reader. Whichever type of content you wish to publish on your Facebook page, our tools will suit your needs.

Pro Tip: Add content anytime, from anywhere by queueing content from Sprout Social’s web, mobile or browser extension apps.

Share your calendar

Last but not least, once you have your content in order, easily view, share and collaborate on your content calendar. Sprout’s Publishing Calendar gives you insight into your publishing schedule and more.

Here’s how to view and share your calendar as a PDF:

1. Navigate to the Publishing tab.
2. Click Calendar.
3. Choose List, Week or Month.
4. Select your Date Range, Profiles and Content Types.
5. Click Share.
6. Click Download PDF.

Simplify your Facebook post scheduling

The post How to schedule Facebook posts: 3 strategies in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

However, there still needs to be a human element to your Instagram strategy. Instagram automation can alleviate some of the repetitive tasks while allowing your social mean more time to develop creative campaigns. To help you find the right balance, we’ve put together a guide discussing what Instagram automation is, what can be automated and several tools to help you get started.

Let’s dig in.

What is Instagram automation?

Instagram automation refers to the use of third-party software to manage your account, carry out tasks and/or interact with users without a human present.

Simply put, Instagram automation tools can be put into two buckets:

1. Services that effectively “take control” of your front-facing interactions with users such as likes and comments
2. Tools that automate Instagram behind the scenes, taking care of tasks such as publishing, reporting and analytics

But does Instagram automation make your business look lazy? We say no—but only if you do it right. As with any other tool or strategy, there are pros and cons to weigh in how your team will implement automation.

Here are some pros and cons to help you decide if you want to start automating certain tasks on Instagram.

Pros:

• Save time on smaller, tedious tasks. Growing an Instagram presence organically definitely requires a combination of time and strategizing. Instagram automation tools can pick up some of the slack trimming, down time spent on tedious tasks.
• Grow your follower count faster. Automation undoubtedly helps you boost your follower count. Simply spending time on the platform and interacting with accounts in any way, shape or form will set you up for more engagement by default.
• Uncover important insights about your audience. There’s no doubt that automation tools help you learn more about your target audience. From breaking down what hashtags people use to suggesting accounts to follow, bots encourage you to take a deeper dive into your audience’s preferences.

Cons:

• Instagram isn’t a fan of automation “hacks.” Instagram has a history of taking action against  tools that they consider spammy. The platform wants its users to engage authentically and organically, so Instagram put together limits and penalties for tactics they see as potentially gaming their algorithm. More on this in the next section.
• Poor automation looks spammy. People can spot a bot at a glance. Automating likes and comments is a recipe for a potential social media crisis. Brand accounts should emphasize human interactions and avoid anything that looks spammy.
• Potentially miss out on important customer interactions. The more you automate on Instagram, the fewer opportunities you have to interact with followers and customers. You can’t provide personalized service with purely automated interactions. Instead, only automate aspects of your Instagram account that encourage you to spend more time with your followers.

Is Instagram automation allowed?

As we’ve discussed, there are pros and cons, but those are subjective. Let’s talk about legalities—or at least, what abides by Instagram’s Community Guidelines—so your account doesn’t get penalized.

The short answer is yes, Instagram automation is allowed. The long answer is that certain types of automation cheapen the experience and make your business look bad online. And some types of automation can even get your account banned.

First, let’s talk about the good kinds of automation—the kinds of automation that can assist your social team and improve your strategy.

What can be automated on Instagram?

If you’re interested in using automation to your advantage, here are a few tasks on Instagram that you can get some robot help with.

• Likes: Set up a bot with a group of hashtags so the bot can like posts you say are relevant to your brand.
• Comments: Similarly, a bot can also leave social media comments—on your posts and others. Sprout Social’s Saved Replies and Asset Library are a perfect example of this.
• Follows and unfollows: Follow and unfollow relevant and irrelevant accounts, respectively. This can help you grow your own follower count.
• Direct messages: Send and respond to DMs with the help of a bot. You can even set bots up to send messages to people who comment on your posts with a trigger word.
• Scheduling and publishing: Scheduling Instagram posts is a form of automation—an essential form that every social media team needs.
• Reporting: Automation tools can also help you monitor your Instagram analytics with insights and reports showcasing your performance.

Things you need to be wary of are engaging too much too quickly—faster than a human typically could—or Instagram could put a limit on your account. Buying likes and followers is also frowned upon. And you’ll want to avoid working with bots and tools that don’t have access to Instagram’s API as they’re not considered legitimate Instagram partners.

9 Instagram automation tools to streamline your work

Want to get started with basic—and allowed—Instagram automation? These nine tools can help give you a head start.

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management tool that helps with a number of automation aspects and making Instagram management as seamless as possible for your team. Sprout can assist with a number of tasks, like publishing, response management, productivity tools and analytics. Through automation and other Sprout features, your team can effectively plan, post and manage your Instagram campaigns.

Instagram automations available:

• Scheduling and publishing
• Auto-responders and suggested replies in DMs
• Hashtag discovery
• Sourcing UGC

2. SocialPilot

SocialPilot is an Instagram automation and analytics tool that helps brands streamline their Instagram strategies. Access features that help you publish content, engage with your audience, view analytics and more. This software allows you to schedule up to 500 posts at once, whether on Instagram or another platform. And the option to save evergreen content and responses for frequent reuse helps social teams respond faster.

Instagram automations available:

• Scheduling and publishing
• AI caption generation
• Reporting
• Watermarking

3. Kicksta

Kicksta is an AI-based tool dedicated to helping Instagram users grow their followers. Its AI tool focuses on leaving authentic comments and engagement on other Instagram accounts in order to help you grow your following—without buying followers. You provide the guidelines for who to engage with based on a list of competitors, brands and influencers with similar audiences, then Kicksta does the hard work.

Instagram automations available:

• Comments
• Likes

4. Nitreo

Nitreo is another Instagram automation tool focused on helping brands get more followers on Instagram. Nitreo’s tool also engages with real accounts, helping you to keep up Instagram engagement and remain an authentic online presence without ending up with thousands of bot (or bought) followers.

Instagram automations available:

• Comments
• Likes
• Story views
• Profile visits

5. Tailwind

Tailwind is an Instagram automation tool that focuses more on scheduling and publishing—but takes a unique approach. This tool is only available for Instagram and Pinterest, ensuring its services are catered to specific needs in the market.

Instagram automations available:

• Post idea generation
• Copy generation
• Graphic and design generation
• Hashtag discovery
• Publishing and scheduling

6. NapoleonCat

NapoleonCat is a social media management tool focused on helping brands engage with and support their online customers. Get this tool’s help with moderating and responding to comments and messages, scheduling out your content in advance and generating useful analytics reports.

Instagram automations available:

• Scheduling and publishing
• Comment moderation
• Auto-responses for both comments and DMs
• Reporting

7. Inflact

Inflact provides an entire suite of tools that can be used for Instagram automation. From interacting with other accounts to publishing content, Inflact offers an intuitive dashboard for accessing all of its useful features.

Instagram automations available:

• Send bulk DMs
• Follow and unfollow
• Likes
• Hashtag discovery
• Scheduling and publishing

8. Iconosquare

Iconosquare is another option for social media managers looking for a range of features dedicated to Instagram automation. Use this tool for scheduling, monitoring analytics, social listening and more.

Instagram automations available:

• Scheduling and publishing
• Reporting
• Unread comment/mention discovery

9. OnlySocial

OnlySocial is another useful option for Instagram automation and management. One of its top features in regards to automations is the ability to create Instagram messenger chatbots so that followers can message you and easily get helped by a customer service or sales chatbot.

Instagram automations available:

• Scheduling and publishing
• RSS feed auto-publishing
• Instagram messaging chatbot
• Reporting

Are you using Instagram automation the right way?

There’s plenty to automate on Instagram, granted you let a human take the reins.

If you’re looking to speed up your Instagram growth via automation, your head is in the right place. After all, marketers should always look to add tools to their toolbox in order to engage with more customers.

To learn more about how Sprout Social can help with your Instagram automation journey, request a free demo.

The post Instagram automation: Strategy and tools to do it right appeared first on Sprout Social.

Learning how to schedule Instagram posts in advance helps free up your social media team to do other important tasks, like strategy building, content creation, community engagement and more.

Throughout this article, we’re going to talk about the different ways you can schedule your Instagram content, the benefits for doing so and a few great scheduling tools to keep in your arsenal.

Table of contents:

• How to schedule Instagram posts from the Instagram app
• How to schedule Instagram posts from Meta Business Suite
• How to schedule Instagram posts using Sprout Social
• Benefits of scheduling Instagram posts
• Tips for scheduling posts on Instagram
• Instagram scheduling tools to use

How to schedule Instagram posts from the Instagram app

After years of users asking for it, Instagram finally added in-app scheduling near the end of 2022. Users are able to schedule up to 25 posts per day and up to 75 days in advance. Keep in mind, only business profiles have access to this feature. Personal profiles are unable to schedule content.

Follow these steps to get started:

Step 1: Open your Instagram app and tap the + at the bottom of the screen or swipe the home feed to the right to create a new piece of content.

Step 2: Select Post or Reel, depending on the type of content you’re creating.

Step 3: Either take a photo or record a video using the in-app camera or upload one from your camera roll.

Step 4: Add any stickers, effects, etc., then add your caption.

Step 5: Tap Advanced Settings at the bottom of the screen.

Step 6: Toggle the Schedule this post option on, then select your preferred date and time from the menu that appears.

Step 7: Go back to the previous screen and tap Schedule.

How to schedule Instagram posts from Meta Business Suite

You can also use the Meta Business Suite to schedule your Instagram content. First, connect your Instagram Business Account to your Facebook Page so you can access both from the Meta Business Suite.

Then follow these steps:

Step 1: In Meta Business Suite, click Create post or Create reel.

Step 2: Specify which Instagram account you want to share your post or reel to. It may also include your Facebook Page—it’s up to you whether you also want it to post to your Facebook Page or only to Instagram.

• Step 3: Upload your media, then write out your caption. Be sure to include your mentions and hashtags (you can even save hashtags to reuse in your content). You can even geotag a location if you wish.
• Step 4: Toggle the Set date and time option on, then select your preferred date and time. Click Active times to access a popup showcasing some of the upcoming times that your audience is active.

Step 5: Once you’ve selected your time, click Save then click Schedule.

How to schedule Instagram posts using Sprout Social

Scheduling Instagram posts natively is straightforward, but how about when you have a larger social strategy across multiple platforms to plan and schedule?

With a dedicated social media publishing tool like Sprout, you can do so much more. Cross-posting. Team collaboration and permissions. In-depth analytics. The list goes on.

We make it so easy to upload to your feed, add a Carousel or Story imagery, finalize your content and schedule it whether you’re on desktop or mobile.

Below is a precise, step-by-step process of how to schedule Instagram posts on Sprout.

Step 1: Open your Sprout Social calendar

The first thing you need to do is open Sprout Social to the calendar menu. You can view this as a list, week or monthly calendar. Next, it’s time to choose the image(s) or video to post. If you’re not 100% sure what you should publish, check out our in-depth guide on Instagram post ideas.

Step 2: Compose your Instagram post

Click the pencil/paper icon in the top right corner of your screen. Choose your Instagram account to get started composing your new Instagram post.

Upload your photo or video, input your caption and hashtags, tag users and more.

Step 3: Select your preferred date and time

Scroll down in the Compose interface to the When to post section. Choose your preferred date and time—or select the Optimal Send Times option to see when Sprout Social says your audience is most likely to see your content.

Step 4: Stage your post for scheduling

After your content is edited and approved, you can click Schedule to add it to your calendar, or move the post to Draft, Queue or Submit for Approval. Let’s take a look at each option:

• Schedule: Use the schedule feature when you want to publish your Instagram posts at a specific time. This is great for when you’re launching an Instagram contest and want the post to go live right when it starts. It’s also helpful if you’re scheduling an Instagram post as a part of a larger campaign, and need content to go out at a specific time of the day. Plan finished content for the future and see your scheduled posts in Sprout’s Publishing Calendar.
• Draft: Not sure if your post is ready to go live quite yet? Want to create multiple “backup” Instagram posts for the future? Draft is a great spot to park your unfinished content or items that still need approval.
• Queue: The Sprout Queue is ideal for edited posts ready to go live—especially if you’re not sure when to post your content. When you queue your Instagram posts, Sprout picks the best time to publish within the window you specify.
• Submit for Approval: Choosing an approver ensures your content is properly edited, grammatically correct, timely and on-brand. Select specific approvers to review your content before it goes live.

Benefits of scheduling Instagram posts

Businesses have begged for scheduling features on Instagram for years. But why are so many marketers eager to queue up their content? Below are some of the biggest benefits of scheduled Instagram posts.

1. Develop a more comprehensive content strategy

Food for thought: Different types of content (think: carousels, images, Stories and Reels) all receive different rates of engagement. This means brands need to diversify their content strategies and not just post the same type of content over and over.

When you schedule posts on Instagram, you give yourself time to actually assess your content calendar.

And when you don’t have to rush to publish Instagram posts, you have time to gather the various assets you need to create fresh, compelling content.

Want to spend a few days workshopping a storytelling post or editing a video? No problem.

2. Free up your schedule to interact more with followers

If nothing else, scheduling Instagram posts can free up some serious time in your schedule. That means more opportunities to interact with followers and reply to comments.

Even the best Instagram scheduler can’t do the legwork of building relationships with customers. When you stick to a social media post scheduler consistently, you can dedicate more time to engagement.

3. Better time management means higher quality posts

Think about the effort that goes into any given post or campaign.

Writing captions. Tweaking images. Tagging. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface.

Writing Instagram posts last-minute is a recipe for burnout. By scheduling posts on Instagram, you can batch your time appropriately and craft more meaningful posts.

4. Create seamless marketing campaigns beyond Instagram

Your social media campaigns shouldn’t be siloed.

From organic and paid social to email and beyond, all of your channels should be on the same page in terms of creatives, landing pages and promotions. This creates a better customer experience.

Through social scheduling, you ensure that your posts fire off at the right time. If you’re using a social media management tool such as Sprout Social, you can actually sync all of your social channels (think: Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest) so you don’t have to publish manually or in real-time.

5. Encourage collaboration and brainstorming

Again, scheduling encourages brands to begin working on posts well in advance.

This means marketers and colleagues have time to hash out the best captions and creative assets.

Useful for both social teams and marketers looking for feedback from clients or influencers, collaboration and Instagram scheduling go hand in hand. Coupled with a social media approval process, it’s a cinch to get multiple sets of eyes on your content before it goes live.

Tips for scheduling posts on Instagram

We’ll say it again: You can’t just queue up your posts months or weeks in advance and expect your Instagram to grow on autopilot.

Below are some key considerations for brands looking to leverage Instagram scheduling for the first time.

1. Optimize your post timing to maximize engagement

A nice added bonus of scheduling is that your business isn’t beholden to “business hours.”

Based on our research on best times to post on Instagram, there’s a correlation between time of day and engagement:

Although these numbers aren’t the be-all, end-all of follower activity and vary based on your time zone, they’re eye-opening in terms of when the average Instagram user is active:

Marketers using Sprout social as their Instagram scheduler can increase engagement with our ViralPost algorithm that optimizes post timing. Rather than guess or decide when to post via trial and error, you’ll know exactly when to post, based on real follower engagement data.

2. Take extra care when crafting your captions

It’s no secret that Instagram captions represent valuable real estate when it comes to engagement.

They shouldn’t be treated as an afterthought. For each post, consider:

• Which hashtags are you using? How many? Are they in your first comment (see below)?
• Do you need to tag any accounts?
• Did you write an appropriate call-to-action?
• How does this caption compare to your most recent one(s)?

Much like your content strategy needs to be diverse, the same rings true for your Instagram captions.

When you schedule posts in advance, you have time to put your captions under the microscope and ensure there’s some variety. Likewise, you can confirm that you’re using the right hashtags and aren’t missing any key details before your post goes live.

3. Keep a close eye on your content calendar

Piggybacking on the point above, scheduling based on a defined content calendar encourages both variety and consistency in terms of your posts.

As you queue up your posts, ask yourself:

• Are we hitting the appropriate publishing frequency (think: daily, four times a week)?
• Is there enough variation in our content schedule (think: video versus carousel versus photo)?
• How are we promoting this content to encourage engagement (think: Stories, questions in CTA)?
• Are there opportunities to cross-post this content to other networks (like Facebook)?
• Have the appropriate stakeholders reviewed this post before it goes live?

The answers to all of the above ensure more thoughtful, goal-driven posts that are poised to perform well. Below is a quick snapshot of what a content calendar looks like in the Sprout app:

4. Block off time to engage with customers

Despite popular belief, scheduling Instagram posts doesn’t make your presence more “passive.”

Quite the opposite, honestly.

Yet again, scheduling frees up your schedule to interact with customers in real-time.

Mind your notifications and make sure your comment section never gathers cobwebs. Be proactive and make a point to respond to social customers ASAP for the sake of satisfaction and loyalty.

5. Know when to hit “pause” on your scheduling

Whether due to a brand emergency or a bigger crisis management effort, sometimes you need to put a stop to your scheduled content.

Failure to do so could come off as insensitive or result in otherwise poor engagement when your followers’ minds are elsewhere. For example, publishing promotional content during certain holidays, on somber occasions or in the wake of tragedies is not the best for your brand’s reputation.

This speaks to how Instagram scheduling is so much more than putting your brand on autopilot. As a side note, Sprout has built-in features to pause scheduled posts and resume them when the time is right.

Instagram scheduling tools to use

Third-party tools can make Instagram scheduling even easier than the in-app tool. Additional apps allow you to schedule content to multiple social media platforms at once, have additional features and can help with your overall social media management, from automation to analytics. Here are three tools you might consider.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social’s Instagram scheduling tool is a great option to consider when looking to schedule social media content ahead of time. Not only can you schedule content on a number of platforms—Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Pinterest, YouTube and more—but you can also get access to optimal scheduling times, create a collaborative process with your team and analyze your post performance.

Meet Edgar

Meet Edgar is an automated scheduling tool. The way this software works is you’ll upload your Instagram post creative and set a category, then the automation creates various content and schedules it for you. Essentially, Meet Edgar makes sure you never run out of content, even when you haven’t scheduled anything new.

SocialBee

SocialBee is another great scheduling tool, this time with an AI generation feature. With SocialBee, you can let AI generate your captions for you, making your strategy more efficient. Upload your visuals and let the AI take over from there, crafting your caption and scheduling your post.

Learn how to schedule posts on Instagram today

The post How to schedule Instagram posts: Your complete guide for 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

That’s where Twitter scheduling comes in.

Scheduling Twitter posts ensures that your content is published when your followers are more likely active and can significantly improve your Twitter engagement and reach. It also ensures you don’t have to be “on” at all times of the day to manually Tweet when your audience is most active.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the importance of scheduling Twitter posts and why it makes sense for your Twitter marketing strategy—plus a few key scheduling tips. And to help you get started, you’ll also learn how to schedule Tweets—with and without Sprout Social’s powerful scheduling tool.

Table of contents

• Benefits of scheduling Tweets
• How to schedule Tweets on Twitter
• How to schedule Tweets using Sprout Social
• How to schedule Tweets on mobile
• How to view scheduled Tweets
• How to schedule multiple Tweets
• Tips for scheduling Tweets

Benefits of scheduling Tweets

Why should you care about scheduling posts on Twitter, and why does it matter for your Twitter marketing? Let’s break down the reasons why scheduling Twitter posts makes sense for businesses.

1. Improves organization and productivity

Scheduling Twitter posts ahead of time allows you to organize your Twitter publishing efforts so you can remain productive during the day. For example, if you have to Tweet multiple times throughout the day, scheduling Tweets means you can continue your daily tasks without interruption.

With Twitter scheduling, you can dedicate a couple of hours each day or week to schedule your content in batches. This keeps you and your content organized well ahead of time and helps maintain productivity.

2. Helps maintain your posting schedule

Planning and scheduling your Tweets can be useful if you’re trying to establish or maintain a content calendar. By planning out Tweets for the week or month ahead, you have the opportunity to create a consistent posting schedule where there’s no risk of forgetting to send out a Tweet at a certain time.

So rest easy knowing you can publish your Tweets based on your pre-planned schedule, whether it’s around a specific campaign or seasonal content.

3. Ensures consistent cross-platform messaging

If your social media strategy involves sharing a similar message across all your social media accounts, Twitter scheduling simplifies the process, ensuring your cross-platform messaging is cohesive.

This also makes sense when you’re managing multiple Twitter accounts. By using a social media scheduler, you can schedule your posts to go out at the same time across all social media channels to maintain consistency.

4. Allows you to run tests on optimal send times

Schedule Tweets to go out at different times throughout the week to find out which timing works best for your audience. You might be surprised to discover when your audience is most active. Using Sprout’s research on the best time to post is a good starting point but can vary based on your industry or audience.

5. Helps you target different time zones

Scheduling Twitter posts also makes sense when you have to target audiences in specific locations. You can schedule your Tweets to go out at the optimal send times for different time zones.

This improves your chances of reaching the right target audience at the right time no matter where they live. This goes back to finding the best time to Tweet according to your audience, and testing on social media can help.

How to schedule Tweets on Twitter

Twitter has its own in-app scheduling tool—currently available only on desktop—that makes it easy to schedule one Tweet at a time.

Step 1: Select the Tweet Composer

Head to Twitter.com with your Tweet idea. Click inside the Tweet Composer to get ready to Tweet.

Step 2: Write out your Tweet

Compose your Tweet. You can add media (like an image, video or GIF), add a poll, add an emoji or tag your location.

Pro Tip: If you include an image or GIF in your Tweet, add a description to it for accessibility.

Step 3: Click schedule

Click the icon of a calendar with a click in the bottom right corner—this is the scheduling option.

Step 4: Select your schedule date

Input the date and time you want your Tweet to go live. With Twitter’s tool, you can schedule Tweets out as far in advance as 18 months. Once you’ve chosen the correct date and time, click Confirm in the top right corner.

Step 5: Click schedule

You’ll see a small snippet above the Tweet confirming the date and time it will go live. Click Schedule to finish scheduling and add it to your queue of Tweets.

How to schedule Tweets using Sprout Social

The native Twitter scheduler is a great tool for the platform, but if you have to manage brand accounts across various social media platforms, it’s nice to have something more comprehensive. Sprout is a robust social media publishing platform that you can use to schedule your posts for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok and more.

Using Sprout, you can schedule your social posts weeks and months ahead. And since you can visualize your posting calendar, it’s much easier to work on campaigns and promotions. The tool even lets you schedule recurring posts to simplify your planning and productivity.

Here’s how you can use Sprout to schedule Twitter posts.

Step 1: Click on the blue compose button

From the Publishing dashboard, click on the blue Compose button at the top right-hand corner of the screen. This will open up a New Post window, where you can write out your Tweet.

Step 2: Compose your Tweet

If you’ve connected multiple Twitter profiles to Sprout, choose the Twitter profile where you want to publish your Tweet from the Profile Picker drop-down menu at the top. Then compose your Tweet, including images and/or videos as well.

Step 3: Click the “When to post” option

Under your post in the Composition window, you’ll find a When to post option next to a drop-down menu. Click on the drop-down button and select a Specific date and time.

Step 4: Choose the date(s) you want to publish

Select the date(s) and time(s) when you want your Tweet to publish. If you’re not too sure about what time to schedule your posts, select Use Optimal Times, and Sprout will provide you with options for the best time to post based on your Tweet performance history. You can also select multiple dates and times for recurring Tweets.

Step 5: Click schedule

Once you’re done, simply click the Schedule button. And that’s it! You’ve scheduled your Tweet using Sprout.

How to schedule Tweets on mobile

It’s just as easy to schedule Tweets via the Sprout Social mobile app. Start by downloading the app from the App Store or Google Play Store and log into your Sprout Social account.

Then follow these steps.

Step 1: Tap “Compose”

Tap the Compose icon in the bottom right corner of your calendar.

Step 2: Type out your Tweet

Type out your Tweet and add any additional media.

Step 3: Tap “Schedule”

Tap Schedule from the top dropdown menu, select your preferred date and time, then tap Save.

How to view scheduled Tweets

Looking back at your currently scheduled Tweets can help you make sure that you haven’t left any out from your planned content calendar. You also may want to go back and edit or reschedule your scheduled Tweets if a new promotion suddenly comes up and you need to create new content.

How to view scheduled Tweets on Twitter

To view any Tweets you’ve scheduled through Twitter itself, click the schedule icon again. There’s a link at the bottom of the popup for Scheduled Tweets. Click this.

You’ll be taken to your Drafts section, which has two tabs: Unsent Tweets and Scheduled. You can view all of your scheduled Tweets and click on any you might need to edit, reschedule or delete.

How to view scheduled Tweets in Sprout Social

After scheduling your Tweets using Sprout, you can view them in the Publishing Calendar. There are a number of different ways you can view these Tweets, depending on what makes the most sense for your needs.

List view

Here, you can view your scheduled posts in list format in order of when they’ll go out.

Week view

Or you can use the week view to visualize the posts you’ve scheduled throughout that particular week. The weekly view also helps you visualize the post volume for the current and upcoming week, and what order posts will be published, in case you want to make some adjustments.

From here, you can easily switch things around by moving the cards. For instance, if you see that you have too many Tweets going out on Tuesday, you can drag one of the cards to schedule the post for another day of the week.

Month view

If you select the month view, you can visualize your publishing schedule for the entire month. You’ll be able to see how many posts you have scheduled on a certain day and on which platform. This is a great way to review your monthly publishing calendar and find out if there’s any need for adjustments, especially based around different marketing campaigns or holidays.

How to schedule multiple Tweets

If you have a lot of Tweets to schedule, the idea of sitting at your desk and scheduling one by one likely seems like a bit of a nightmare. Luckily, with Sprout’s bulk scheduling capabilities, you don’t have to worry about that.

When creating your content, do so in a spreadsheet. You can use either Excel or Google Sheets, but if you’re incorporating emoji into your Twitter content, you’ll want to opt for Google Sheets to avoid formatting issues.

You’ll need to format your spreadsheet with the following column headers:

• date: In dd/mm/yyyy or mm/dd/yyyy format, depending on your import preferences.
• time_24hr: Place in 24-hour format. Each of your Tweets must be scheduled at least 10 minutes apart from each other as well as at least 10 minutes after the time you’re uploading your spreadsheet to Sprout.
• message_text: Your Tweet content. Remember that it must be less than 280 characters—unless you’re subscribed to Twitter Blue where you get up to 4,000 characters. If you need to include a link, paste it into this column.
• public_image_url: If you’re adding an image to your Tweet, use this column to paste the link to your public image URL. Consider uploading it to your CMS and grabbing the link from there.

Once you’ve completed your spreadsheet, export it as a CSV. Then you’ll head to the Publishing dashboard in your Sprout Social account before clicking to the Calendar view. Then click the three dots to access Bulk Post Import.

Once you click that, you’ll be taken to the Import Posts dashboard so you can drag and drop your CSV to upload your Tweets. Select your Twitter account then make sure you have the correct date format based on how you formatted dates within your spreadsheet.

Then click Start Import to begin importing your newly scheduled Tweets.

If there are any issues with some of your Tweets, you can download a CSV of any that weren’t able to be imported so that you can fix the formatting errors and re-upload the remaining content.

This makes it incredibly easy to schedule an entire month’s worth of Twitter content at once, without having to spend your entire day scheduling Tweet after Tweet.

Tips for scheduling multiple Tweets

Ready to start scheduling your Tweets? It can be such a huge time-saver that we highly recommend it. But first, here are a few tips to help make scheduling as easy as possible.

Identify how often you should post

Before you start creating and scheduling your Twitter content, identify how often to post. While our overarching recommendation is 3-4 Tweets per day, you should also pay attention to your historical data to see how many Tweets get you the best reach and engagement.

You can then stick to this number of daily Tweets as you create and schedule your content. This ensures you’re sticking with the number that generates the best results.

Review your scheduled Tweets

After a day of scheduling—or even if you used the bulk scheduling option—always go back to review your scheduled Tweets. By reviewing your calendar, you can double check that you haven’t missed any content or double-posted any content, eliminating potential errors.

Check analytics regularly

While scheduling Tweets can be a huge time-saver, that doesn’t mean you get to neglect other parts of your Twitter strategy—including monitoring your analytics. Keeping an eye on your Twitter analytics can help you make sure your strategy is still working, that you’re posting the right frequency and amount of Tweets and that your engagement isn’t dropping.

The post How to schedule Tweets: Your brand’s complete guide in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

With so many brands competing for users’ attention, managing and growing a LinkedIn account takes enormous time, dedication, and effort. So, it’s no surprise that many marketers find building a LinkedIn presence overwhelming.

If your content marketing strategy includes posting on LinkedIn, you may be wondering how to handle this task effectively. That’s where social media scheduling tools come in, allowing you to deliver content that meets your brand’s needs, while being timely and relevant to customer interests.

In this guide, we’ve compiled some helpful tips and best practices for scheduling your posts on LinkedIn.

Table of contents

• Why should you schedule your posts on LinkedIn?
• How to schedule posts on LinkedIn
• How to schedule posts with LinkedIn Native Scheduler
• How to schedule posts on LinkedIn using Sprout Social
• 5 Tips for Scheduling Your LinkedIn Posts

Why should you schedule your posts on LinkedIn?

Scheduling your LinkedIn posts allows you to optimize the execution of your LinkedIn strategy, which provides an efficient means to distribute your content on the platform effortlessly.

1. Saves time and reduces unnecessary workload

Establishing a LinkedIn presence requires much time, effort, and dedication, which is time-consuming. By scheduling posts, you spend less time on manual publishing on LinkedIn, freeing you up to focus on higher-level tasks such as content creation, analysis, and engagement.

2. Helps you stay consistent

Scheduling your posts allows you to plan content in advance and set them to post at the right times. This way, you maintain a consistent LinkedIn presence without staying on the platform or worrying about posting daily.

3. Grow your profile engagement faster

Scheduling your LinkedIn posts will help you reach your audience at the best times when they’re most active on LinkedIn. When scheduling your post, you can choose the best time when your audience will be available and target your posts to show up at that time, thereby increasing engagement.

4. Keeps you organized

Keeping track of your LinkedIn account can be stressful, especially if you manage multiple accounts simultaneously. Scheduling your posts takes the burden off of that. All you need to do is create your posts and schedule a publishing time.

5. Helps you scale your LinkedIn efforts

Growing your audience on LinkedIn comes with much dedication and time. Scheduling makes it easier. When you schedule your posts, it gives you the advantage of posting consistently and growing your account.

How to schedule posts on LinkedIn

There are two ways to schedule posts on LinkedIn. First, you can schedule your posts with the LinkedIn Native scheduler, but that comes with some restrictions we’ll soon discuss. The second option is scheduling with a third-party platform like Sprout Social. Let’s discuss each one in detail.

How to schedule posts with LinkedIn Native Scheduler

1. Log in to your LinkedIn account and click the ‘Start a post’ box at the top of the homepage.

2. Enter the body text of your post and attach any images, videos, or documents. If you’re attaching an image, you can edit it, tag other users, and add alt text. If you’re posting a video instead, upload a customized thumbnail and an SRT file for subtitles.

3. Click the clock icon in the lower right corner to open the schedule dialog.
4. In the scheduling dialog, select a date and time from the dropdown to schedule your post. If your audience is in a different time zone, consider scheduling in their time zone.

5. Select ‘Next’ to save your schedule settings and return to your post preview.
6. When you’re all done, review your post for spelling errors, formatting issues, and ensure it matches your brand’s guidelines and tone. Also, review your image and hashtags to ensure they’re accurate for your post.

7. Click the schedule button, and you’re done.
8. If you wish to view scheduled posts on LinkedIn, click ‘View all scheduled posts’ on the schedule dialog to see all scheduled posts.

In the scheduled posts window, you can preview all scheduled posts and their publish dates. To delete a post, simply click on the delete icon, and if you want to reschedule, click on the clock icon to select a new date and time.

That’s it. You’ve scheduled your first post on LinkedIn.

Limitations with the native LinkedIn scheduler

While it seems straightforward to schedule content with LinkedIn’s native scheduler, there are several limitations that social media managers should be aware of. These limitations may hinder your ability to schedule posts effectively.

• Limited scheduling options: LinkedIn’s native scheduler provides fewer options for scheduling posts. For instance, it only allows scheduling for up to three months in advance. In addition, LinkedIn doesn’t allow bulk scheduling, which means that each post must be scheduled individually, which is time-consuming.
• Limited analytic features: LinkedIn’s analytics only provide a basic insight into your LinkedIn content performance and audience behavior. It doesn’t give you much freedom to track your audience demographic data or metrics like click-through rates, follower growth, or engagement rates.
• Inability to tag people and pages: Using LinkedIn’s native scheduler prevents you from tagging people or pages in your post. This could limit the reach and engagement of your post.
• No support for managing multiple LI accounts at once: With the native LinkedIn scheduler, you can only schedule posts for one account at a time. This is a drawback, especially for social media managers who manage multiple accounts.
• Limited posting options: You can’t schedule articles, newsletters, multiple image posts, events, or polls with the LinkedIn scheduler. This has to be done manually.
• Limitations on approval collaboration: The LinkedIn scheduler discourages the collaboration of teams in real-time. Posts can only be made and seen by one person, so every review, approval, or collaboration must be done outside the tool.
• Posts cannot be edited after uploading: Once a post has been scheduled for upload, it can’t be edited. In the event that any corrections need to be made, you would need to delete the entire post and repost it.

How to schedule posts on LinkedIn using Sprout Social

An alternative to scheduling posts with LinkedIn’s native scheduler is to use a social media scheduling tool like Sprout Social. Here’s how to do it:

Create your LinkedIn post

The first step is to create your post. Before writing, be clear on the goal of the post and how it will benefit your audience. A good LinkedIn post starts with an attention-grabbing hook, which could be a question, a story, a compelling statement, or statistics.

On the Sprout dashboard, click the Compose icon to open up a new post. Input your post in the text box provided and format it for a better reading experience. You can also add emojis or product links. Use relevant hashtags if possible.

On the right side, you can preview changes to your posts to see the outcome on LinkedIn in real-time.

Add media to your post

Upload approved media content to your post to make it stand out. This could be an image, video, or document to enhance your post and make it stand out. After uploading, you can edit your images on Sprout with the integrated image editor tool or resize them using our social media resizer.

Here, you can crop the image size and add filters, frames, new texts, overlays, or stickers. Once you’re done, export the image to save your changes.

You can also add descriptive text to your image to provide additional context, information, or details to the viewer. Include relevant keywords related to your image or post to improve the searchability of your post and increase its visibility to a broader audience.

Preview and optimize your post

After editing your post, click the profile picker to select the LinkedIn profile for your post. Sprout Social allows you to manage multiple LinkedIn accounts at once and lets you post on a company or personal page.

Set up approval permissions for collaboration and approval of each post. This is useful for social media teams and marketers who need their clients’ or managers’ feedback on posts before they go live.

Finalize your post

After your content is optimized, you can finalize it for publishing. This includes submitting content for approval, saving it as a draft, or publishing your post immediately. Contents needing approval can be saved as drafts until all reviews are complete.

On Sprout’s calendar, you can view, share, and collaborate on your monthly scheduled content in a calendar view. You can add notes to each comment from another team member. And if you’re bulk scheduling your posts in Sprout, you can view all your scheduled posts at once and correct them accordingly.

Schedule your post for publishing

Once you’re all set, select when you want the post to go out. You can publish your post immediately, auto-schedule with Sprout Queue, or schedule it for later.

Pick a specific date and time to schedule your posts. Better still, take advantage of Sprout’s tool, ViralPost, to pick optimal times when your audience is most active on LinkedIn.

You can also auto-schedule your posts with Sprout Queue to fill engagement gaps and publish posts automatically throughout the day. You don’t need to input a time or day when the post will go live; Sprout Queue takes care of that for you.

5 Tips for Scheduling Your LinkedIn Posts

Ready to start scheduling your LinkedIn posts? Consider these five tips to help you effectively schedule your LinkedIn posts.

1. Know your audience

Before posting on LinkedIn, define who your ideal audience is. You need to know: who are you talking to? What do they do? What do they like? A generic response like “CEOs” or “marketers” won’t do. You must dive deeper and answer specific questions like:

• Location: get clear on your audience’s location so you can customize posting times to when they’re most active.
• Professional details: Find out what they do and their position.
• Buying power: Find out their role in the buying process. For example, content heads often suggest project management software for their team.
• Industry: What industry are they currently in? Do they use familiar lingo?
• Content type: Study the content types they engage with. Pay attention to the content that gets the most shares, likes, comments, and reposts. This will give you an idea of what topics and content types resonate with them.
• Online behavior: Pay attention to the type of content they engage with. Find out what content gets the most shares, likes, comments, and reposts. This will give you an idea of what topics and content types resonate with them.

With the social listening tool on Sprout Social, you can collect in-depth data about your audience. Research your audience by location, seniority, and job function to know who you’re reaching.

2. Monitor and optimize your posting timing

The best time to post on LinkedIn is during optimal hours, when your audience is most active and likely to engage with your post. Our research at Sprout Social found that the best times to post on LinkedIn could vary depending on the industry and demographics.

However, on average, the best time we found to post on LinkedIn is 10 a.m. on Tuesday. But don’t let this restrict your posting schedule to this time. Keep a close eye on your LinkedIn analytics to determine which posts perform well and adjust your posting schedule accordingly.

3. Experiment with different content types

The best post types on LinkedIn can differ depending on your industry. We studied 3,000 LinkedIn posts and found that long-form “how-tos” perform 31.5% better than every other content type. This is unsurprising, as LinkedIn is a community of professionals who share ideas and learn from one another.

However, we also found that posts with a single image perform 2x better than text-based posts and have a 98% higher comment rate, whereas posts with videos get 5x more engagement on LinkedIn. This means uploading video content from webinars or tutorials would perform well on LinkedIn.

In the content benchmark for 2023, we also researched content types that perform well on social media, not just LinkedIn.

Experiment with different post formats to find your audience’s sweet spot for engagement. Depending on the vibe, you could choose to alternate content types for each posting day. For example, posting a meme gives off a relaxed feeling, which fits into a weekend mood. Meanwhile, text-based posts, videos, or slides would fit well for other days.

But if you’re still clueless about what to post on your company’s page, check out this post on LinkedIn’s best practices for marketing professionals.

4. Take time to engage with your audience

Scheduling a post is one part of a successful LinkedIn strategy; the other is engaging with your audience. Engaging with your audience humanizes your brand and fosters a positive customer relationship. This helps you gain credibility, build authority, and increase brand loyalty.

Also, engaging with your audience increases your account’s visibility on the channel. Think of it this way: the more you show up in the comment section, the more people engage with you, which gets more eyeballs on your profile.

You can engage with your audience by:

• Leaving meaningful comments on people’s posts
• Reposting content that is meaningful and true to your brand
• Replying to comments on your posts
• Responding to questions, comments, and messages

5. Optimize your LinkedIn marketing strategy with data

At intervals, study your LinkedIn analytics to measure what’s working and what’s not, so that you can adjust your content accordingly. Sprout Social provides in-depth social media analytics and reporting features to help you measure your content performance, track your brand mentions, and monitor your competition.

Don’t just create multiple posts in advance without looking at past results. Leverage data to:

• Analyze your best-performing posts and how you can re-create them for more success.
• Break down your least-performing posts and list possible mistakes.
• Optimize your LinkedIn strategy to suit the audience’s needs.

Optimize your LinkedIn Strategy with Scheduled Posts

Scheduling your LinkedIn posts enables you to plan your content in advance to ensure more consistent follower engagement. Without it, you’ll have to manually post your content on LinkedIn, which can be time-consuming and insufficient.

Regardless of how good you think your LinkedIn content strategy is, it’s always best to schedule posts in advance so you can implement a consistent and strategic content calendar.

Want to start scheduling your LinkedIn posts? Sprout Social’s LinkedIn scheduler makes it easy to schedule posts on LinkedIn. Sign up for a free 30-day trial today!

The post How to schedule LinkedIn posts in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

With more than 900 million members across 200 countries, businesses have a large audience and employee advocates to extend their reach. With the right LinkedIn marketing strategy, combined with these optimal posting times, you could see improved engagement.

Learn how to identify your best times to post globally on LinkedIn a free trial of Sprout Social and test our ViralPost® feature.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social include users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded globally, meaning you should be able to publish with the times provided in any timezone and see positive engagement results. Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times. We recommend testing with your own accounts to find the most optimal send times.

• What are the best times to post on LinkedIn?
• What are the best times to post on LinkedIn by industry?
  • Consumer Goods
  • Hospitals & Healthcare
  • Hospitality
  • Media
  • Nonprofit
  • Restaurants
  • Schools & Education
  • Travel & Tourism
• How to find your own best times to post on social media
• How Sprout gathered the data
• Find your best times to post with Sprout

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn

• Best times to post on LinkedIn Company Pages:
  • Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon
• Best days to post on LinkedIn Company Pages: Tuesdays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn Company Pages: Weekends

Unsurprising for this professional-focused social platform, LinkedIn engagement times are consistent with general business hours. High engagement hours are more concentrated midday and don’t extend too far out past the workday hours. You’re less likely to get eyes on your LinkedIn content on the weekend when engagement drops significantly.

Because LinkedIn content is centered around professional thought leadership and career growth, it makes sense that a majority of audiences engage with this content throughout their working day. By midday, there’s buzz on the platform, and the best times to post on LinkedIn are Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and noon.

Yes, LinkedIn is a business and employment-focused platform, but it’s more than a job board and networking platform. LinkedIn provides a platform for professional storytelling and advocacy, from both employees and employers alike. Contributors of all levels can share their subject-matter expertise, create conversations that challenge “business as usual,” and uplift professional voices around the world.

Businesses on LinkedIn are finding new ways to generate leads, find co-marketing partners, highlight company culture and attract talent. Because of these additional business opportunities LinkedIn provides, it makes sense that posting and engagement match with the business hours.

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn by Industry

There’s no definitive answer to what the best times to post on LinkedIn are, and we can only offer insight with the data we have. Industry is just one factor that plays into the success of your social posts. Consider as well as your target audience, business goals and the content itself.

Use this industry-level data to help inform your publishing calendar, and test your own optimal send times with social experiments.

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Consumer Goods

• Best times to post on LinkedIn for Consumer Goods:
  • Mondays at 11 a.m.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn for Consumer Goods: Mondays and Tuesdays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Consumer Goods: Saturdays and Sundays

The consumer goods industry covers a large portfolio of products, ranging from packaged food and beverages to clothing and accessories and everything in between. While the US was facing inflation at nearly 8.5%, US consumers spent 18% more in March 2022 than they did two years prior. After two years into the pandemic, consumers were ready to spend similar to their pre-pandemic habits and more in 2022.

For consumer goods businesses on LinkedIn, only very few days see any engagement. Based on our data, the best times to post on LinkedIn for consumer goods are Mondays at 11 a.m., and Mondays and Tuesdays as the best days to post. Be cautious if you’re a consumer goods business, but also be sure to test your own best times to post.

Consumer goods social media resources

• Solutions for Social Commerce
• How to master social media for retail and win more customers
• What is social commerce? Stats, examples & tips for your strategy
• Mobile commerce: what it is and why you should care

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Hospitals & Healthcare

• Best times to post on LinkedIn for Hospitals & Healthcare:
  • Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and at 6 p.m.
  • Wednesdays at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn for Hospitals & Healthcare: Tuesdays through Fridays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Hospitals & Healthcare: Sundays

Hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers have been put to work on social media the last few years, due to the pandemic. However, social media for healthcare is more than navigating healthcare crises. It’s about educating the public, helping patients feel more comfortable with healthcare visits and doctors’ appointments, promoting their programs for aspiring physicians and establishing themselves as pillars in the community.

Healthcare and hospitals on LinkedIn see consistent engagement nearly every single day starting at 7 a.m. seven days a week. However, the best times to post on LinkedIn for hospitals and healthcare are Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and at 6 p.m., as well as Wednesdays at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Consistent engagement can be seen Tuesdays through Fridays from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m.

Hospital and healthcare social media resources

• Social media and healthcare: how to keep patients engaged
• Why healthcare orgs should invest in social listening, stat
• Supporting HIPAA Compliance on social: a cheat sheet

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Hospitality

• Best times to post on LinkedIn for Hospitality:
  • Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon and at 1 p.m.
  • Fridays at 4 p.m.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn for Hospitality: Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Hospitality: Sundays

As consumers crave some semblance of pre-pandemic life, ‘ businesses can also sense it. Hospitality businesses see higher engagement consistently throughout the day and into early evening hours during weekdays on LinkedIn.

The best times to post on LinkedIn for the hospitality industry are Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. and Fridays at 4 p.m. However, businesses see consistent engagement throughout the day from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Hospitality social media resources

• Social media marketing tools for the travel industry
• How Loews Hotels & Co succeeds at scale with Sprout Social’s all-in-one platform
• When to create separate social media accounts for your multilocation business [Free Worksheet]

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Media

• Best times to post on LinkedIn for Media:
  • Wednesdays at 11 a.m.
  • Thursdays at 9 a.m.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn for Media: Weekdays, especially Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Media: Sundays

The media and entertainment industry sees consistent engagement on LinkedIn. Media businesses should expect engagement from early weekday mornings through the afternoons. Major global events, political upheavals and business news have a relevant impact on media impressions on all networks, including LinkedIn. As a business and employment-focused social media platform, it makes sense that professionals come to engage in emerging news.

News travels quickly, and the best times to post on LinkedIn for the media and entertainment industry are Wednesdays at 11 a.m. and Thursdays at 9 a.m. However, posting between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. sees just as high engagement. Avoid posting on LinkedIn over the weekends, since there is limited engagement in this industry.

Media social media resources

• How to supercharge your media relations strategy with social
• How RADIO.COM used social listening to crown the #ArtistOfTheSummer
• Social media and journalism: how to effectively reach the public

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Nonprofit

• Best times to post on LinkedIn for Nonprofit:
  • Wednesdays at noon
• Best days to post on LinkedIn for Nonprofit: Tuesdays and Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Nonprofit: Saturday and Sundays

Our data for the best times to post on LinkedIn for nonprofits shows consistent engagement throughout the week during general business hours. The best times to post on LinkedIn for nonprofit organizations are Wednesdays at noon, but between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Fridays showing promising engagement as well.

However, even with the consistent audience engagement seen in the heatmap above, it’s important for nonprofits (and all businesses) to test their own best times to post. Whether it’s through social testing or using Sprout’s Optimal Send Times feature, find what times work best for your organization on LinkedIn.

Nonprofit social media resources

• Turning moments into momentum: How nonprofits can leverage #GivingTuesday year-round
• How this nonprofit institute boosts messaging reach with Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social
• The ultimate social media for museums guide

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Restaurants

• Best times to post on LinkedIn for Restaurants:
  • Tuesdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn for Restaurants: Tuesdays through Fridays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Restaurants: Saturdays and Sundays

In 2022, everyone was ready to get back to their pre-pandemic routines, and restaurants were ready with open doors. While online orders and delivery services may have become new offerings for some restaurant and bar locations, the desire to draw patrons has not. Target audience and platform goals factor into ways businesses connect with their customers. Many restaurant businesses used LinkedIn to promote job fairs, individual employment positions, as well as news articles highlighting their accolades.

Restaurants and bars on LinkedIn see decent engagement midday during the week between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. However, the peak engagement and best times to post on LinkedIn for restaurants and bars are Tuesdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Restaurant social media resources

• The complete guide to social media for restaurants & bars
• 5 tips from the man behind #Sprinklegate
• Auntie Anne’s SMM Bari’s TikTok Bootcamp [Webinar]

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Schools & Education

• Best times to post on LinkedIn for Schools & Education:
  • Tuesdays at 10 a.m.
  • Fridays at 6 a.m.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn for Schools & Education: Tuesdays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Schools & Education: Saturday and Sundays

Universities, higher education institutions and schools didn’t see much engagement on LinkedIn compared to other social networks, despite there being 131,000 schools listed. Keep in mind that some schools manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet these needs and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time.

Opportunities for engagement are sporadic during weekdays, and virtually nonexistent over the weekends. The best times to post on LinkedIn for education and schools are Tuesdays at 10 a.m. and Fridays at 6 a.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays see more engagement throughout the days, whereas Mondays and Fridays are relatively light.

From highlighting student life to sharing school updates, a social media strategy for education needs to fulfill multiple functions. Are you looking to engage with students past, present and future? Are you looking to keep a pulse on sentiment and brand health?

Schools and education social media resources

• Choose wisely: Higher education marketers take on College Decision Day
• All aboard: How Purdue University increased their social media engagement by 24%
• University branding: How to build your school’s brand on social media
• Higher ed playbook: Using social to unite your university
• LinkedIn for colleges: Best practices for higher education

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Travel & Tourism

• Best times to post on LinkedIn for Travel & Tourism:
  • Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m.
  • Thursdays at 10 a.m.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn for Travel & Tourism: Tuesdays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Travel & Tourism: Weekends

Travel and tourism industries appear to have maximized their engagement on LinkedIn. As many travel restrictions continued to be lifted and the semblance of “normal” crept back into many peoples’ lives, travel and tourism businesses saw an opportunity to capitalize on the suppressed desires to travel.

The best times to post on LinkedIn for travel and tourism businesses are Tuesdays from 9 a.m. until noon then again at 1 p.m., as well as on Fridays at 10 a.m. However, these businesses see solid engagement almost every weekday from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Travel and tourism social media resources

• How to manage multiple social media accounts
• When to Create Separate Social Media Accounts for your Multilocation Business [Free Worksheet]

How to find your own best times to post on social media

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. And as platforms evolve, how brands and consumers use social will evolve with them, or vice versa. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways, or even find new segments and personas you weren’t focusing on before.

While you may be ready to jump in and post at these provided peak engagement times as part of your strategy, consider pairing this data with your own social media data analysis. You may discover that your specific target audience is active near the peak times we’ve outlined or hours earlier. If you use a LinkedIn analytics tool, it should contain a host of relevant data.

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your own analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different factors like post author or types of content, and drill down into how your posting time influenced your social success.

Sprout’s patented ViralPost® technology uses the same data we’ve used to look at all our customer accounts to determine the best time to post tailored for your individual account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in all plans. Our proprietary machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

With Optimal Send Times, the specific times offered are based on when your own audience engages the most using your publishing history. ViralPost® also continually updates and refines to save you time from doing the repeated analysis yourself and allowing you more time to craft great content.

Want to see it in action? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social or request a personalized demo and try it for yourself.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

• Best times to post on Social Media 2023
• Best times to post on Facebook 2023
• Best times to post on Instagram 2023
• Best times to post on TikTok 2023
• Best times to post on Twitter 2023

How Sprout gathered the data

We understand that these reports can raise questions about just where the data is coming from. That’s why we want to be clear about the data we pulled and how we got here.

Sprout Social’s Data Science team gathers this information by analyzing nearly 2 billion engagements across 400,000 social profiles across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

Find your best time to post with Sprout

Now’s the time to test your content calendar. Are you posting when your followers are most active? Start your free trial of Sprout Social and discover the best times to post on social media today.

The post Best times to post on LinkedIn in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

It’s important to understand how posting on TikTok at the right times can be a huge benefit to your TikTok marketing strategy. Users on average spend 23.5 hours per month on the platform, meaning there is an opportunity to engage with a consistent audience. Keep an eye out for emerging trends or subcultures on the platform and test your own content.

Learn how to identify your best times to post globally on TikTok with a free trial of Sprout Social and test our ViralPost® feature.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social include users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded globally, meaning you should be able to publish with the times provided in any timezone and see positive engagement results. Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times. We recommend testing with your own accounts to find the most optimal send times.

• What are the best times to post on TikTok?
• What are the best times to post on TikTok by industry?
  • Consumer Goods
  • Hospitality
  • Media
  • Nonprofit
  • Restaurants
  • Schools & Education
  • Travel & Tourism
• How to find your own best times to post on TikTok
• How Sprout gathered the data
• Find your best times to post with Sprout

Best Times to Post on TikTok

• Best times to post on TikTok:
  • Tuesdays from 2 to 6 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 2 to 5 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 3 to 5 p.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok: Tuesdays and Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on TikTok: Sundays

As the youngest digital platform on this list, TikTok has grown significantly and made waves in half as many years as the others on this list. With the app now amassing over 1 billion active global users who spend nearly 20 hours on the app every month, TikTok has competitive staying power.

The best times to post on TikTok are Tuesdays from 2 to 6 p.m., Wednesdays from 2 to 5 p.m. and Thursdays from 3 to 5 p.m. Afternoons are when the highest engagements are on the platform; users are looking to fill their afternoon entertainment boost. However, generally, mid-morning through the afternoon (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) on Tuesdays through Thursdays see higher engagement on the app.

With future market trends changing quickly, it’s important to understand how trends start, evolve and influence. Once you understand how these forces, moments or signals work, you can better create a TikTok trend strategy to implement rather than participating reactively.

Best Times to Post on TikTok by Industry

There’s no definitive answer to what the best times to post on TikTok are, and we can only offer insight with the data we have. Industry is just one factor that plays into the success of your social posts. Consider as well as your target audience, business goals and the content itself if you’re looking to get more views and engagement.

Use this industry level-data to help inform your publishing calendar, and test your own optimal send times with social experiments.

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Consumer Goods

• Best times to post on TikTok for Consumer Goods:
  • Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m.
  • Wednesdays at 3 p.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok for Consumer Goods: Tuesdays and Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on TikTok for Consumer Goods: Saturdays and Sundays

The consumer goods industry covers a large portfolio of products, ranging from packaged food and beverages to clothing and accessories and everything in between. While the US was facing inflation at nearly 8.5%, US consumers spent 18% more in March 2022 than they did two years prior. After two years into the pandemic, consumers were ready to spend similar to their pre-pandemic habits and more in 2022.

For consumer goods businesses on TikTok, only very few days see any engagement. Optimal engagement for consumer goods on TikTok is Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 3 p.m.

Very few hours throughout the days see any engagement either. Be cautious if you’re a consumer goods business, but also be sure to test your own best times to post.

Consumer goods social media resources

• Solutions for Social Commerce
• How to master social media for retail and win more customers
• What is social commerce? Stats, examples & tips for your strategy
• Mobile commerce: what it is and why you should care

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Hospitality

• Best times to post on TikTok for Hospitality:
  • Thursdays at 2 p.m.
  • Fridays at 9 a.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok for Hospitality: Thursdays and Fridays
• Worst days to post on TikTok for Hospitality: Wednesdays

As consumers crave some semblance of pre-pandemic life, businesses can also sense it. While hospitality businesses see higher engagement on other social platforms, there is limited concentrated engagement and optimal posting times on TikTok.

The best times to post on TikTok for the hospitality industry are Thursdays at 2 p.m. and Fridays at 9 a.m. There are moderately light engagements Thursdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., which would still be ideal times to post. Essentially late evening hours when people were looking to engage with hospitality brands.

Hospitality social media resources

• Social media marketing tools for the travel industry
• How Loews Hotels & Co succeeds at scale with Sprout Social’s all-in-one platform
• When to create separate social media accounts for your multilocation business [Free Worksheet]

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Media

• Best times to post on TikTok for Media:
  • Mondays at 8 a.m.
  • Tuesdays from 5 to 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 6 to 8 a.m.
  • Thursdays at 6 a.m. and from 8 to 11 a.m.
  • Fridays at 9 a.m.
  • Sundays from 6 to 8 a.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok for Media: Tuesdays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on TikTok for Media: Saturdays

Engagement in the media and entertainment industry peaks on TikTok. Media businesses can expect consistently high engagement nearly every day between 6 and 11 a.m. Major global events, political upheavals and business news have a relevant impact on media impressions on all platforms, including TikTok.

News travels quickly, and the best times to post on TikTok for the media and entertainment industry are Mondays at 8 a.m., Tuesdays from 5 to 9 a.m., Wednesdays from 6 to 8 a.m., Thursdays from 8 to 11 a.m., Fridays at 9 a.m., and Sundays from 6 to 8 a.m.

Media social media resources

• How to supercharge your media relations strategy with social
• How RADIO.COM used social listening to crown the #ArtistOfTheSummer
• Social media and journalism: how to effectively reach the public

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Nonprofit

• Best times to post on TikTok for Nonprofit:
  • Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok for Nonprofit: Tuesdays
• Worst days to post on TikTok for Nonprofit: Saturdays and Sundays

Our data for the best times to post on TikTok for nonprofits shows concentrated engagement in midweek afternoons that can extend into the early evening hours.

The best times to post on TikTok for nonprofit organizations are Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m., however, there’s almost as much engagement three hours prior and after. Wednesdays see some near-peak engagement between 1 and 6 p.m.

However, even with the audience engagement seen in the heatmap above, all businesses need to test their own best times to post. Whether it’s through social testing or using Sprout’s Optimal Send Times feature, find what times work best for your organization on TikTok.

Nonprofit social media resources

• Turning moments into momentum: How nonprofits can leverage #GivingTuesday year-round
• How this nonprofit institute boosts messaging reach with Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social
• The ultimate social media for museums guide
• How to make money on TikTok

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Restaurants

• Best times to post on TikTok for Restaurants:
  • Mondays at noon and 3 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m.
  • Thursdays at 4 p.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok for Restaurants: Mondays and Tuesdays
• Worst days to post on TikTok for Restaurants: Saturdays

In 2022, everyone was ready to get back to their pre-pandemic routines, and restaurants were ready with open doors. While online orders and delivery services may have become new offerings for some locations, the desire to draw patrons has not. Target audience and platform goals factor into ways businesses connect with their customers. Offering unique promotions or showcasing your menu in an attention-grabbing way on TikTok will keep your restaurant in mind for potential customers.

Restaurants and bars on LinkedIn see decent engagement at midday during the week. However, the peak engagement and best times to post on TikTok for restaurants and bars are Mondays at noon and 3 p.m., Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m. and Thursdays at 4 p.m.

Restaurant social media resources

• The complete guide to social media for restaurants & bars
• 5 tips from the man behind #Sprinklegate
• Auntie Anne’s SMM Bari’s TikTok Bootcamp [Webinar]

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Schools & Education

• Best times to post on TikTok for Schools & Education:
  • Wednesdays at 7 a.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok for Schools & Education: Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on TikTok for Schools & Education: Mondays and Sundays

Universities, higher education institutions and schools see some, but not much, engagement on TikTok according to our data. Keep in mind that some schools manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet these needs and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time.

Schools and education don’t see many concentrated opportunities on TikTok; however, this shouldn’t prevent them from using the entertainment platform, since there’s an opportunity to engage with the next wave of students: Gen Z. The best times to post on TikTok for education and schools are generally Wednesdays at 7 a.m.

From highlighting student life to sharing school updates, a social media strategy for education needs to fulfill multiple functions. Are you looking to engage with students past, present and future? Are you looking to keep a pulse on sentiment and brand health?

Schools and education social media resources

• Choose wisely: Higher education marketers take on College Decision Day
• All aboard: How Purdue University increased their social media engagement by 24%
• University branding: How to build your school’s brand on social media
• Higher ed playbook: Using social to unite your university

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Travel & Tourism

• Best times to post on TikTok for Travel & Tourism:
  • Wednesdays from 3 to 5 p.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok for Travel & Tourism: Wednesdays and Thursdays
• Worst days to post on TikTok for Travel & Tourism: Sundays

Travel and tourism industries see some decent engagement on TikTok. As many travel restrictions continued to be lifted and the semblance of “normal” crept back into many peoples’ lives, travel and tourism businesses see an opportunity to capitalize on the suppressed desires to travel.

The best times to post on TikTok for travel and tourism businesses are Wednesdays from 3 to 5 p.m. And these peak hours see moderate engagement in the hours before and after those optimal times.

Travel and tourism social media resources

• How to manage multiple social media accounts
• When to Create Separate Social Media Accounts for your Multilocation Business [Free Worksheet]

How to find your own best times to post on TikTok

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. And as platforms evolve, how brands and consumers use social will evolve with them, or vice versa. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways, or even find new segments and personas you weren’t focusing on before.

While you may be ready to jump in and post at these provided peak engagement times as part of your strategy, consider pairing this data with your own social media data analysis. You may discover that your specific target audience is active near the peak times we’ve outlined or hours earlier.

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different factors like post author or types of content, and drill down into how your posting time influenced your social success.

Sprout’s patented ViralPost® technology uses the same data we’ve used to look at all our customer accounts to determine the best time to post tailored for your account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in all plans. Our proprietary machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

With Optimal Send Times, the specific times offered are based on when your audience engages the most using your publishing history. ViralPost® also continually updates and refines to save you time from doing repeated the analysis, and allowing you more time to craft great content.

Want to see it in action? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social or request a personalized demo and try it for yourself.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

• Best times to post on Social Media
• Best times to post on Facebook
• Best times to post on Instagram
• Best times to post on LinkedIn
• Best times to post on Twitter

How Sprout gathered the data

We understand that these reports can raise questions about just where the data is coming from. That’s why we want to be clear about the data we pulled and how we got here.

Sprout Social’s Data Science team gathers this information by analyzing nearly 2 billion engagements across 400,000 social profiles across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

Find your best time to post with Sprout

Now’s the time to test your content calendar. Are you posting when your followers are most active? Start your free trial of Sprout Social and discover the best times to post on social media today.

The post Best times to post on TikTok in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Businesses see the value of Twitter in terms of staying close to emerging topics, trends and sentiments from global audiences. And now, more than ever, marketers understand the importance of staying close to the conversations and brand sentiment. And as a platform for conversations and customer care, it’s important to understand how to use Twitter for business in a meaningful way.

Learn how to identify your best times to post globally on Twitter a free trial of Sprout Social and test our ViralPost® feature with your profiles.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social include users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded globally, meaning you should be able to publish with the times provided in any timezone and see positive engagement results. Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times. We recommend testing with your own accounts to find the most optimal send times.

• What are the best times to post on Twitter?
• What are the best times to post on Twitter by industry?
  • Hospitals & Healthcare
  • Hospitality
  • Media
  • Nonprofit
  • Restaurants
  • Schools & Education
  • Travel & Tourism
• How to find your own best times to post on social media
• How Sprout gathered the data
• Find your best times to post with Sprout

Best Times to Post on Twitter

• Best times to post on Twitter:
  • Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Fridays 9 a.m. to noon
• Best days to post on Twitter: Tuesdays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Twitter: Sundays

Twitter has consistently been the platform for up-to-the-minute conversations and breaking news. And 2022 didn’t stop with breaking news and trends on or about Twitter. Brands looking to participate in trending topics need to be timely but conscious of their brand values in the process.

Twitter peak times for engagement grew significantly compared to last year, with hours consistently at late-morning to midday during weekdays. The best times to post on Twitter are Tuesdays through Fridays beginning at 9 a.m. and taper off around noon.

This could reflect an interest in developing news and updates as the day unfolds, as well as a desire for entertainment. Keep in mind many brands use Twitter as part of their customer service strategy, as an alternative to traditional customer support options. Brands should continue to build trust between their customers and proactively improve customer experience through social listening.

Best Times to Post on Twitter by Industry

There’s no definitive answer to what the best times to post on Twitter are, and we can only offer insight with the data we have. Industry is just one factor that plays into the success of your social posts. Consider as well as your target audience, business goals and the content itself.

Use this industry-level data to help inform your publishing calendar, and test your optimal send times with social experiments.

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Hospitals & Healthcare

• Best times to post on Twitter for Hospitals & Healthcare:
  • Mondays at 2 p.m.
  • Tuesdays at 8 a.m.
  • Thursdays from 8 to 11 a.m.
• Best days to post on Twitter for Hospitals & Healthcare: Tuesdays and Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Twitter for Hospitals & Healthcare: Weekends

Hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers have been put to work on social media the last few years, due to the pandemic. However, social media for healthcare is more than navigating healthcare crises. It’s about educating the public, helping patients feel more comfortable with healthcare visits and doctors’ appointments, promoting their programs for aspiring physicians and establishing themselves as pillars in the community.

The best times to post on Twitter for healthcare and hospitals stay consistent compared to last year. Nearly every single day sees moderate engagement starting at 7 a.m. seven days a week. However, the best times to post on Twitter for hospitals and healthcare are Mondays at 2 p.m., Tuesdays at 8 a.m., and Thursdays from 8 to 11 a.m. Higher than average posting times are Tuesday and Thursday midmornings into early afternoons.

Hospital and healthcare social media resources

• Social media and healthcare: how to keep patients engaged
• Why healthcare orgs should invest in social listening, stat
• Supporting HIPAA Compliance on social: a cheat sheet

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Hospitality

• Best times to post on Twitter for Hospitality:
  • Tuesdays at 10 p.m.
  • Wednesdays at 8 p.m.
  • Fridays at 8 p.m.
• Best days to post on Twitter for Hospitality: Fridays and Saturdays
• Worst days to post on Twitter for Hospitality: Sundays and Mondays

The hospitality industry has seen more engagement and posting days on Twitter. Consumers are craving some semblance of pre-pandemic life and businesses sense it. Hospitality businesses see higher engagement consistently in the evening hours, starting at 6 p.m. almost every day of the week, whereas last year, it was only for three days of the week.

The best times to post on Twitter for the hospitality industry are Tuesdays at 10 p.m., Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and Fridays at 8 p.m. Essentially late evening hours when people are looking to engage with hospitality brands. Moderate engagement last a few hours before or after those optimal posting times, and is relatively light during average business hours.

Hospitality social media resources

• Social media marketing tools for the travel industry
• How Loews Hotels & Co succeeds at scale with Sprout Social’s all-in-one platform
• When to create separate social media accounts for your multilocation business [Free Worksheet]

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Media

• Best times to post on Twitter for Media:
  • Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to midnight
• Best days to post on Twitter for Media: Tuesdays and Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Twitter for Media: Saturdays

The media and entertainment industry also sees consistent engagement on Twitter. Media businesses could expect engagement from early weekday mornings through the afternoons. Major global events, political upheavals and business news have had a relevant impact on media impressions on all networks, especially Twitter.

News travels quickly, and the best times to post on Twitter for the media and entertainment industry are Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to midnight.

Media social media resources

• How to supercharge your media relations strategy with social
• How RADIO.COM used social listening to crown the #ArtistOfTheSummer
• Social media and journalism: how to effectively reach the public

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Nonprofit

• Best times to post on Twitter for Nonprofit:
  • Mondays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and at 8 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon
• Best days to post on Twitter for Nonprofit: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Twitter for Nonprofit: Saturdays

Our data for the best times to post on Twitter for nonprofits shows consistent Twitter engagement throughout the week during general business hours and extending into the evening.

The best times to post on Twitter for nonprofit organizations are Mondays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 8 a.m., Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon.

However, even with the consistent audience engagement seen in the heatmap above, all businesses need to test their own best times to post. Whether it’s through social testing or using Sprout’s Optimal Send Times feature, find what times work best for your organization on Twitter.

Nonprofit social media resources

• Turning moments into momentum: How nonprofits can leverage #GivingTuesday year-round
• How this nonprofit institute boosts messaging reach with Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social
• The ultimate social media for museums guide

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Restaurants

• Best times to post on Twitter for Restaurants:
  • Thursdays at 11 p.m.
• Best days to post on Twitter for Restaurants: Tuesdays and Fridays
• Worst days to post on Twitter for Restaurants: Sundays

In 2022, everyone was ready to get back to their pre-pandemic routines, and restaurants were ready with open doors. While online orders and delivery services may have become new offerings for some locations, the desire to draw patrons has not. Target audience and platform goals factor into ways businesses connect with their customers. Offering unique promotions and updates on Twitter will keep your restaurant in mind for potential customers.

Twitter engagement for restaurants and bars shows decent engagement midday during the week between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., generally. However, the peak engagement and best time to post on Twitter for restaurants and bars is Thursdays at 11 p.m.

Restaurant social media resources

• The complete guide to social media for restaurants & bars
• 5 tips from the man behind #Sprinklegate
• Auntie Anne’s SMM Bari’s TikTok Bootcamp [Webinar]

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Schools & Education

• Best times to post on Twitter for Schools & Education:
  • Mondays at 10 a.m.
  • Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to noon
  • Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to noon
  • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon
• Best days to post on Twitter for Schools & Education: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Twitter for Schools & Education: Sundays

Universities, higher education institutions and schools see a significant increase in engagements on Twitter compared to last year. Keep in mind that some schools manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet these needs and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time.

High opportunities for engagement start midmorning and go through later evening hours. The best times to post on Twitter for education and schools are Mondays at 10 a.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to noon, and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon.

From highlighting student life to sharing school updates, a social media strategy for education needs to fulfill multiple functions. Are you looking to engage with students past, present and future? Are you looking to keep a pulse on sentiment and brand health?

Schools and education social media resources

• Choose wisely: Higher education marketers take on College Decision Day
• All aboard: How Purdue University increased their social media engagement by 24%
• University branding: How to build your school’s brand on social media
• Higher ed playbook: Using social to unite your university

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Travel & Tourism

• Best times to post on Twitter for Travel & Tourism:
  • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Thursdays at 10 a.m.
  • Sundays at noon
• Best days to post on Twitter for Travel & Tourism: Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays
• Worst days to post on Twitter for Travel & Tourism: Saturdays

Travel and tourism industries nearly tripled their engagement on Twitter compared to last year. As many travel restrictions continued to be lifted and the semblance of “normal” crept back into many peoples’ lives, travel and tourism businesses see an opportunity to capitalize on the suppressed desires to travel.

The best times to post on Twitter for travel and tourism businesses are Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursdays at 10 a.m., and Sundays at noon. And these peak hours see moderate engagement in the hours before and after those optimal times.

Travel and tourism social media resources

• How to manage multiple social media accounts
• When to Create Separate Social Media Accounts for your Multilocation Business [Free Worksheet]

How to find your own best times to post on social media

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. And as platforms evolve, how brands and consumers use social will evolve with them, or vice versa. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways, or even find new segments and personas you weren’t focusing on before.

While you may be ready to jump in and post at these provided peak engagement times as part of your strategy, consider pairing this data with your own social media data analysis. You may discover that your specific target audience is active near the peak times we’ve outlined or hours earlier.

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different factors like post author or types of content, and drill down into how your posting time influenced your social success.

Sprout’s patented ViralPost® technology uses the same data we’ve used to look at all our customer accounts to determine the best time to post tailored for your account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in all plans. Our proprietary machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

With Optimal Send Times, the specific times offered are based on when your audience engages the most using your publishing history. ViralPost® also continually updates and refines to save you time from doing the repeated analysis and allowing you more time to craft great content.

Want to see it in action? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social or request a personalized demo and try it for yourself.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

• Best times to post on Social Media 2023
• Best times to post on Facebook 2023
• Best times to post on Instagram 2023
• Best times to post on LinkedIn 2023
• Best times to post on TikTok 2023

How Sprout gathered the data

We understand that these reports can raise questions about just where the data is coming from. That’s why we want to be clear about the data we pulled and how we got here.

Sprout Social’s Data Science team gathers this information by analyzing nearly 2 billion engagements across 400,000 social profiles across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

Find your best time to post with Sprout

Now’s the time to test your content calendar. Are you posting when your followers are most active? Start your free trial of Sprout Social and discover the best times to post on social media today.

Use of Twitter nomenclature across Sprout refers to newly rebranded X platform and related terminology

The post Best times to post on Twitter in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

What types of content do users engage with and how often should you post on social media? While we can’t answer those questions in this article, we can answer when to post on social media. For frequency, read our guide on how often to post on social to uncover data to help guide your social strategies.

Remember: with Instagram as a discovery platform of trends, brands, products or services, it’s important to get high-quality photos and content in front of potential consumers’ eyes at the right time.

Learn how to identify your best times to post on Instagram with a free trial of Sprout Social and test our ViralPost® feature.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social include users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded globally, meaning you should be able to publish with the times provided in any timezone and see positive engagement results. Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times. We recommend testing with your own accounts to find the most optimal send times.

• What are the best times to post on Instagram?
• What are the best times to post on Instagram by industry?
  • Consumer Goods
  • Hospitals & Healthcare
  • Hospitality
  • Media
  • Nonprofit
  • Restaurants
  • Schools & Education
  • Travel & Tourism
• How to find your own best times to post on social media
• How Sprout gathered the data
• Find your best times to post with Sprout

Best Times to Post on Instagram

• Best times to post on Instagram:
  • Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon
  • Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Fridays from 9 to 11 a.m.
• Best days to post on Instagram: Tuesdays and Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram: Sundays

Where Facebook was the most-used platform by marketers worldwide, Instagram comes in second with 79%. Not surprisingly, Instagram is also the second most preferred platform for customer service after Facebook, for marketers and consumers. With the competition for short-form video between Instagram and TikTok still heating up, Reels account for 30% of time spent on the Meta-owned platform.

The best times to post on Instagram are Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., generally. Similar to Facebook, the “off” hours are the early morning hours every day of the week, from midnight until 4 a.m.

Instagram has grown a long way since its photo-only days. The app, which has nearly 2 billion monthly active users, is a platform to share images, videos, Reels, and live streams, just to name a few creative content types. It is also an avenue to collaborate and partner with other brands and provides a stream of revenue through its e-commerce capabilities. There are opportunities to get more followers on Instagram if you use use the platform to its full potential.

The Instagram algorithm is unpredictable. To be successful on the platform is a balance of consistently posting high-quality content that will engage and entertain your audiences. That’s a lot to ask for with each piece of content published. But using that as a guiding post can help with your Instagram marketing efforts.

Best Times to Post on Instagram by Industry

There’s no definitive answer to what the best times to post on Instagram are. We can only offer insight with the data we have. Industry is just one factor that plays into the success of your social posts. Consider as well as your target audience, business goals and the content itself.

Use this industry-level data to help inform your publishing calendar, and test your optimal send times with social experiments.

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Consumer Goods

• Best times to post on Instagram for Consumer Goods:
  • Thursdays at 2 p.m.
• Best days to post on Instagram for Consumer Goods: Tuesdays and Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram for Consumer Goods: Sundays

The consumer goods industry covers a large portfolio of products, ranging from packaged food and beverages to clothing and accessories and everything in between. While the US was facing inflation at nearly 8.5%, US consumers spent 18% more in March 2022 than they did two years prior. After two years into the pandemic, consumers were ready to spend similar to their pre-pandemic habits and more in 2022.

For consumer goods businesses on Instagram, every day has some engagement, but the peak engagement time is on Thursdays at 2 p.m. However, Tuesdays at 10 a.m. also see significant engagement, relative to the rest of the week.

Consumer goods social media resources

• Solutions for Social Commerce
• How to master social media for retail and win more customers
• What is social commerce? Stats, examples & tips for your strategy
• Mobile commerce: what it is and why you should care

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Hospitals & Healthcare

• Best times to post on Instagram for Hospitals & Healthcare:
  • Thursdays at 1 p.m.
• Best days to post on Instagram for Hospitals & Healthcare: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays
• Worst days to post on Instagram for Hospitals & Healthcare: Sundays

Hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers have been put to work on social media the last few years, due to the pandemic. However, social media for healthcare is more than navigating healthcare crises. It’s about educating the public, helping patients feel more comfortable with healthcare visits and doctors’ appointments, promoting their programs for aspiring physicians and establishing themselves as pillars in the community.

Best times to post on Instagram for healthcare and hospitals nearly doubles. Every single day sees moderate engagement starting at 7 a.m. seven days a week. However, the best times to post on Instagram for hospitals are Thursdays at 1 p.m. Higher than average posting times are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons starting at 1 p.m. until about 4 p.m.

Hospital and healthcare social media resources

• Social media and healthcare: how to keep patients engaged
• Why healthcare orgs should invest in social listening, stat
• Supporting HIPAA Compliance on social: a cheat sheet

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Hospitality

• Best times to post on Instagram for Hospitality:
  • Tuesdays at 10 a.m.
  • Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Thursdays at noon
  • Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon
• Best days to post on Instagram for Hospitality: Tuesdays and Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram for Hospitality: Sundays

The hospitality industry has seen a shift in higher posting and engagement days on Instagram. Consumers are craving some semblance of pre-pandemic life and businesses sense it. Hospitality businesses see higher engagement earlier in the week, compared to last year when their higher engagement was in the latter half. Thankfully businesses in the industry see a return on their efforts throughout most of the workday.

The best times to post on Instagram for the hospitality industry are Tuesdays at 10 a.m., Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Thursdays at noon, and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon. Essentially late mornings and into the lunch hours during the week, presumably as people are beginning to plan their weekends. Moderate engagement lasts a few hours until about 5 p.m. While weekends are relatively light in engagement for hospitality businesses, there’s still enough engagement on posts to continue posting then.

Hospitality social media resources

• Social media marketing tools for the travel industry
• How Loews Hotels & Co succeeds at scale with Sprout Social’s all-in-one platform
• When to create separate social media accounts for your multilocation business [Free Worksheet]

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Media

• Best times to post on Instagram for Media:
  • Mondays at 11 a.m.
  • Wednesdays at 11 a.m.
  • Thursdays at 10 a.m.
• Best days to post on Instagram for Media: Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram for Media: Saturdays and Sundays

Engagement in the media and entertainment industry also sees a resurgence on Instagram. Audiences could be checking into the app for longer sessions rather than quick visits throughout the day, or the algorithm and newsfeed refreshes are manipulating the higher engagements. Major global events, political upheavals and business news have a relevant impact on media impressions on all networks, including Instagram.

As it goes, news travels quickly, and the best times to post on Instagram for the media and entertainment industry are Mondays at 11 a.m., Wednesdays at 11 a.m., and Thursdays at 10 a.m. However, there is still considerable engagement from 5 a.m. through 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Media social media resources

• How to supercharge your media relations strategy with social
• How RADIO.COM used social listening to crown the #ArtistOfTheSummer
• Social media and journalism: how to effectively reach the public

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Nonprofit

• Best times to post on Instagram for Nonprofit:
  • Tuesdays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon
• Best days to post on Instagram for Nonprofit: Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram for Nonprofit: Saturdays and Sundays

Our data for the best times to post on Instagram for nonprofits shows consistent Instagram engagement throughout the week during general business hours. Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon are the best times to post on Instagram for nonprofits.

However, even with the consistent audience engagement seen in the heatmap above, all businesses need to test their own best times to post. Whether it’s through social testing or using Sprout’s Optimal Send Times feature, find what times work best for your organization on Instagram.

Nonprofit social media resources

• Turning moments into momentum: How nonprofits can leverage #GivingTuesday year-round
• How this nonprofit institute boosts messaging reach with Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social
• The ultimate social media for museums guide

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Restaurants

• Best times to post on Instagram for Restaurants:
  • Mondays at 2 p.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m.
• Best days to post on Instagram for Restaurants: Mondays
• Worst days to post on Instagram for Restaurants: Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays

In 2022, everyone was ready to get back to their pre-pandemic routines, and restaurants were ready with open doors. While online orders and delivery services may have become new offerings for some locations, the desire to draw patrons has not. Target audience and platform goals factor into ways businesses connect with their customers. Offering unique promotions and updates on Instagram will keep your restaurant in mind for potential customers.

Those in the bar and restaurant industry see most of their engagement in the early half of the week, Mondays through Wednesdays. The best times to post for restaurants on Instagram are Mondays at 2 p.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m. However, there are almost just as many engagements Mondays through Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Restaurant social media resources

• The complete guide to social media for restaurants & bars
• 5 tips from the man behind #Sprinklegate
• Auntie Anne’s SMM Bari’s TikTok Bootcamp [Webinar]

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Schools & Education

• Best times to post on Instagram for Schools & Education:
  • Tuesdays at 11 a.m. and from 1 to 4 p.m.
  • Wednesdays at noon and 3 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon
• Best days to post on Instagram for Schools & Education: Tuesdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram for Schools & Education: Sundays

Universities, higher education institutions and schools see a significant increase in engagements on Instagram compared to last year. Keep in mind that some schools manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet these needs and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time.

High opportunities for engagement start midmorning and go through early evening hours. The best times to post on Instagram for education are Tuesdays at 11 a.m. and from 1 to 4 p.m., Wednesdays at noon and 3 p.m., and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon.

From highlighting student life to sharing school updates, a social media strategy for education needs to fulfill multiple functions. Are you looking to engage with students past, present and future? Are you looking to keep a pulse on sentiment and brand health?

Schools and education social media resources

• Choose wisely: Higher education marketers take on College Decision Day
• All aboard: How Purdue University increased their social media engagement by 24%
• University branding: How to build your school’s brand on social media
• Higher ed playbook: Using social to unite your university

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Travel & Tourism

• Best times to post on Instagram for Travel & Tourism:
  • Tuesdays at 10 a.m.
• Best days to post on Instagram for Travel & Tourism: Tuesdays and Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram for Travel & Tourism: Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays

Travel and tourism industries nearly doubled their engagement on Instagram relative to last year. As many travel restrictions continued to be lifted and the semblance of “normal” crept back into many peoples’ lives, travel and tourism businesses see an opportunity to capitalize on the suppressed desires to travel.

The best times to post on Instagram for travel and tourism brands are earlier in the week: Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. saw consistent engagement, as well as Fridays between 7 a.m. and noon. But the peak time to post on Instagram is 10 a.m. on Tuesdays for travel and tourism businesses.

Travel and tourism social media resources

• How to manage multiple social media accounts
• When to Create Separate Social Media Accounts for your Multilocation Business [Free Worksheet]

How to find your own best times to post on social media

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. And as platforms evolve, how brands and consumers use social will evolve with them, or vice versa. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways, or even find new segments and personas you weren’t focusing on before.

While you may be ready to jump in and post at these provided peak engagement times as part of your strategy, consider pairing this data with your own social media data analysis. You may discover that your specific target audience is active near the peak times we’ve outlined or hours earlier.

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different factors like post author or types of content, and drill down into how your posting time influenced your social success.

Sprout’s patented ViralPost® technology uses the same data we’ve used to look at all our customer accounts to determine the best time to post tailored for your account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in all plans. Our proprietary machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

With Optimal Send Times, the specific times offered are based on when your audience engages the most using your publishing history. ViralPost® also continually updates and refines to save you time from doing the repeated analysis and allowing you more time to craft great content.

Want to see it in action? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social or request a personalized demo and try it for yourself.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

• Best times to post on Social Media 2023
• Best times to post on Facebook 2023
• Best times to post on LinkedIn 2023
• Best times to post on TikTok 2023
• Best times to post on Twitter 2023

How Sprout gathered the data

We understand that these reports can raise questions about just where the data is coming from. That’s why we want to be clear about the data we pulled and how we got here.

Sprout Social’s Data Science team gathers this information by analyzing nearly 2 billion engagements across 400,000 social profiles across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

Find your best time to post with Sprout

Now’s the time to test your content calendar. Are you posting when your followers are most active? Start your free trial of Sprout Social and discover the best times to post on social media today.

The post Best times to post on Instagram in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

With the help of our Data Science team, we’ve been able to analyze nearly 2 billion social media engagements across 400,000 social profiles across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok. And even more, we’re able to provide an analysis of the best times to post on Facebook.

As the most-used platform by marketers worldwide and boasting nearly 3 billion monthly active users, there’s no denying Facebook’s staying power. With a large opportunity for engagement, it’s important to understand how posting on Facebook at the right times will benefit your social media content strategy.

Learn how to identify your best times to post on Facebook with a free trial of Sprout Social and test our ViralPost® feature.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social include users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded globally, meaning you should be able to publish with the times provided in any timezone and see positive engagement results. Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times. We recommend testing with your own accounts to find the most optimal send times.

• What are the best times to post on Facebook?
• What are the best times to post on Facebook by industry?
  • Consumer Goods
  • Hospitals & Healthcare
  • Hospitality
  • Media
  • Nonprofit
  • Restaurants
  • Schools & Education
  • Travel & Tourism
• How to find your own best times to post on social media
• How Sprout gathered the data
• Find your best times to post with Sprout

Best Times to Post on Facebook

• Best times to post on Facebook:
  • Mondays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 8 a.m. to noon
• Best days to post on Facebook: Mondays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Facebook: Sundays

Don’t look alarmed. Facebook is still the most used platform by marketers worldwide at 90%, and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. We’ve seen an interesting shift in most engagement times matching general business hours versus very early morning hours in recent years. What does this mean for marketers?

Optimal send times for Facebook are Mondays through Thursdays starting at 8 a.m. until early afternoon, generally 1 p.m. The only “off” hours for posting on Facebook are very early hours on Fridays through Mondays, generally midnight until 4 a.m.

With a solid Facebook marketing strategy, businesses can target the right audiences at the right time with their content. Keep in mind, engagement also has to do with how often you post on social media and what you post. Not all social content translates well across every social media platform. Posting the right content on the right platform makes a difference.

Best Times to Post on Facebook by Industry

Remember, while we’d like to believe there’s a definitive answer to what the best times to post on Facebook are, we can only offer insight with the data we have. Industry is just one factor that plays into the success of your social posts.

Use this industry-level data to help inform your publishing calendar, and test your optimal send times with social experiments.

Best Times to Post on Facebook for Consumer Goods

• Best times to post on Facebook for Consumer Goods:
  • Mondays at 7 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 6 to 8 p.m.
  • Fridays from 6 to 8 p.m.
• Best days to post on Facebook for Consumer Goods: Mondays
• Worst days to post on Facebook for Consumer Goods: None, generally speaking

The consumer goods industry covers a large portfolio of products, ranging from packaged food and beverages to clothing and accessories and everything in between. While the US was facing inflation at nearly 8.5%, US consumers spent 18% more in March 2022 than they did two years prior. After two years into the pandemic, consumers were ready to spend similar to their pre-pandemic habits.

With the increase in spending habits, consumer goods’ social media engagements also grew. For consumer goods businesses on Facebook, every single day saw solid engagement after 7 a.m. That’s right: weekdays and weekends. For peak engagement, Mondays at 7 p.m. and Tuesdays and Fridays from 6 to 8 p.m. are optimal times for this industry.

Consumer goods social media resources

• Solutions for Social Commerce
• How to master social media for retail and win more customers
• What is social commerce? Stats, examples & tips for your strategy
• Mobile commerce: what it is and why you should care

Best Times to Post on Facebook for Hospitals & Healthcare

• Best times to post on Facebook for Hospitals & Healthcare:
  • Mondays from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 8 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 8 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon and 6 to 8 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon and 4 to 7 p.m.
  • Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.
• Best days to post on Facebook for Hospitals & Healthcare: Mondays and Tuesdays
• Worst days to post on Facebook for Hospitals & Healthcare: Weekends, relatively

Hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers have been put to work on social media the last few years, due to the pandemic. But, social media for healthcare is more than navigating healthcare crises. It’s about educating the public, helping patients feel more comfortable with healthcare visits and doctors’ appointments, promoting their programs for aspiring physicians and establishing themselves as pillars in the community.

Best times to post on Facebook for healthcare and hospitals expands compared to last year. Every single day sees solid engagement around 7 a.m., both weekdays and weekends. Yet, peak posting times on Facebook for hospitals are weekdays from 9 a.m. through noon (through 1 p.m. on Fridays only), and Monday and Tuesday afternoons from 1 to 8 p.m. Evening hours are equally engaging Wednesdays through Fridays.

Hospital and healthcare social media resources

• Social media and healthcare: how to keep patients engaged
• Why healthcare orgs should invest in social listening, stat
• Supporting HIPAA Compliance on social: a cheat sheet

Best Times to Post on Facebook for Hospitality

• Best times to post on Facebook for Hospitality:
  • Mondays from noon to 9 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Fridays at 3 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m.
• Best days to post on Facebook for Hospitality: Mondays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Facebook for Hospitality: Sundays, relatively

What an impressive jump in posting and engagement from the hospitality industry! Consumers see some semblance of pre-pandemic life and brands sense it. Compared to the year prior, the hospitality went full-force with posting on social media and they saw a return on their efforts throughout most of the day.

You can’t go wrong posting anytime after 10 a.m. on most weekdays and still find significant engagement. However, peak times last for several hours until about 8 or 9 p.m. While weekends are relatively light in engagement for hospitality businesses, there’s still moderate engagement where posts are still being noticed and interacted with.

Hospitality social media resources

• Social media marketing tools for the travel industry
• How Loews Hotels & Co succeeds at scale with Sprout Social’s all-in-one platform
• When to create separate social media accounts for your multilocation business [Free Worksheet]

Best Times to Post on Facebook for Media

• Best times to post on Facebook for Media:
  • Mondays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Thursdays at 11 a.m.
• Best days to post on Facebook for Media: Tuesdays and Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on Facebook for Media: Weekends, relatively

Engagement for the media and entertainment industry also see a resurgence on Facebook last year. Audiences could be checking into the app for longer sessions rather than quick visits throughout the day, or it could be multiple quick check-ins and algorithm newsfeed refreshes that are manipulating the higher engagements. Major global events, political upheavals and business news have had a relevant impact on media impressions on all networks.

As it goes, news travels quickly, and the best times to post on Facebook for the media and entertainment industry are Mondays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesdays from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Thursdays at 11 a.m. However, there is still solid engagement in the early evenings in the first half of the week.

Media social media resources

• How to supercharge your media relations strategy with social
• How RADIO.COM used social listening to crown the #ArtistOfTheSummer
• Social media and journalism: how to effectively reach the public

Best Times to Post on Facebook for Nonprofit

• Best times to post on Facebook for Nonprofit:
  • Mondays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Best days to post on Facebook for Nonprofit: Mondays through Wednesdays, but especially on Tuesdays
• Worst days to post on Facebook for Nonprofit: Sundays

Compared to last year’s data, there’s been a significant increase in Facebook activity for nonprofits. Our data for the best times to post on Facebook for nonprofits shows solid Facebook engagement throughout the week during general business hours as well as midday on weekends. Mondays and Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. are the best times to post on Facebook for nonprofits.

However, even with the consistent audience engagement seen in the heatmap above, all businesses need to test their own best times to post. Whether it’s through social testing or using Sprout’s Optimal Send Times feature, find what times work best for your organization on Facebook.

Nonprofit social media resources

• Turning moments into momentum: How nonprofits can leverage #GivingTuesday year-round
• How this nonprofit institute boosts messaging reach with Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social
• The ultimate social media for museums guide

Best Times to Post on Facebook for Restaurants

• Best times to post on Facebook for Restaurants:
  • Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon
  • Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 11 a.m.
• Best days to post on Facebook for Restaurants: Mondays and Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on Facebook for Restaurants: Weekends, relatively

In 2022, everyone was ready to get back to their pre-pandemic routines, and restaurants were ready with open doors. While online orders and delivery services may have become new offerings for some locations, the desire to draw patrons has not. And restaurants saw nearly 2x more engagements on Facebook than last year’s analysis.

Those in the bar and restaurant industry see consistent engagement between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. almost every single day. The best times to post for restaurants on Facebook though are just before or around lunchtime: Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon and Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 11 a.m.

Different platforms offer a unique way for businesses to connect with their customers. Target audience and their social media platform preferences also play a factor in this. Offering unique promotions and updates suited for each platform will keep your restaurant in mind for potential customers.

Restaurant social media resources

• The complete guide to social media for restaurants & bars
• 5 tips from the man behind #Sprinklegate
• Auntie Anne’s SMM Bari’s TikTok Bootcamp [Webinar]

Best Times to Post on Facebook for Schools & Education

• Best times to post on Facebook for Schools & Education:
  • Mondays from 9 a.m. to noon
  • Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon
  • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Fridays at 10 a.m.
• Best days to post on Facebook for Schools & Education: Mondays through Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on Facebook for Schools & Education: Weekends

There was no slowing down for universities, higher education institutions and schools on Facebook. Keep in mind that some schools manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet these needs and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time. Research by BestColleges reports that 60% of remote learners expect to enroll in online courses even after campuses return to normal and 90% of online program graduates would recommend online learning to others.

High opportunities for engagement start midmorning and go throughout the day, but the best times to post on Facebook for education are Mondays through Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and on Fridays at 10 a.m.

From highlighting student life to sharing school updates, a social media strategy for education needs to fulfill multiple functions. Are you looking to engage with students past, present and future? Are you looking to keep a pulse on sentiment and brand health?

Schools and education social media resources

• Choose wisely: Higher education marketers take on College Decision Day
• All aboard: How Purdue University increased their social media engagement by 24%
• University branding: How to build your school’s brand on social media
• Higher ed playbook: Using social to unite your university

Best Times to Post on Facebook for Travel & Tourism

• Best times to post on Facebook for Travel & Tourism:
  • Mondays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon
• Best days to post on Facebook for Travel & Tourism: Mondays and Tuesdays
• Worst days to post on Facebook for Travel & Tourism: Sundays

Travel and tourism industries nearly double their engagement on Facebook. As many travel restrictions continued to be lifted and the semblance of “normal” crept back into many peoples’ lives, travel and tourism businesses saw an opportunity to capitalize on the suppressed desires to travel.

The best times to post on Facebook for travel and tourism brands are earlier in the week: Mondays and Tuesdays from 9 a.m. until about 2 or 3 p.m., as well as on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon. In general, on Facebook, there is significant engagement midday and early in the week for travel and tourism, as people are preparing for their weekend destinations.

Travel and tourism social media resources

• How to manage multiple social media accounts
• When to Create Separate Social Media Accounts for your Multilocation Business [Free Worksheet]

How to find your own best times to post on social media

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. And as platforms evolve, how brands and consumers use social will evolve with them, or vice versa. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways, or even find new segments and personas you weren’t focusing on before.

While you may be ready to jump in and post at these provided peak engagement times as part of your strategy, consider pairing this data with your own social media data analysis. You may discover that your specific target audience is active near the peak times we’ve outlined or hours earlier.

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different factors like post author or types of content, and drill down into how your posting time influenced your social success.

Sprout’s patented ViralPost® technology uses the same data we’ve used to look at all our customer accounts to determine the best time to post tailored for your account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in all plans. Our proprietary machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

With Optimal Send Times, the specific times offered are based on when your audience engages the most using your publishing history. ViralPost® also continually updates and refines to save you time from doing the repeated analysis and allowing you more time to craft great content.

Want to see it in action? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social or request a personalized demo and try it for yourself.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

• Best times to post on Social Media 2023
• Best times to post on Instagram 2023
• Best times to post on LinkedIn 2023
• Best times to post on TikTok 2023
• Best times to post on Twitter 2023

How Sprout gathered the data

We understand that these reports can raise questions about just where the data is coming from. That’s why we want to be clear about the data we pulled and how we got here.

Sprout Social’s Data Science team gathers this information by analyzing nearly 2 billion engagements across 400,000 social profiles across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

Find your best time to post with Sprout

Now’s the time to test your content calendar. Are you posting when your followers are most active? Start your free trial of Sprout Social and discover the best times to post on social media today.

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