With many pushed-for-time business owners, their social media posts appear simply when they happen to be on social media. Perhaps they have a five-minute quiet period in an otherwise busy day, so they have a quick look on Facebook and think they might as well bash a post out while they’re there, but is this making the most of social media marketing?
A smarter approach to timing your social media posts can bring great rewards, so here are some questions to ask yourself:
When are your followers most active?
If you find yourself regularly hammering out social media posts at 4:55pm just as you’re about to leave the office, consider what your own attention span is like at that time of day. Are you likely to stop and read a post? Probably not – you’re more likely to either be getting something boxed off for the day, or getting ready to log off and go home.
On Facebook, your Insights page can give you plenty of useful information on when your followers are online, while Tweriod offers a similar report on your Twitter profile. It’s for these reasons that we usually post our blogs around midday.
What’s the time zone?
It sounds obvious, but if you’re trying to appeal to someone outside of your own country, remember that they may not be on the same clock as you.
We do some social media aimed at North American users. In these cases, there would be little value in us posting and tweeting at our 9:00am, as it would be the small hours of the morning over there. Late afternoon and evening posts give us much more chance of reaching them at a sensible time on their shores.
What’s the platform?
Remember that your followers on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and other platforms may not be the same people, and even if they are, their behaviour from one platform to another is sure to be different.
LinkedIn, for example, is business focused, so it’s a good idea to post at the start of the working day. Not only will it be seen, but you’re more likely to get responses to it as the day goes on. A 3:00pm or 4:00pm post on LinkedIn only has an office-day life of an hour or two, and if anyone replies or asks a question about it, you might struggle to respond until the next day.
On the other hand, social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest are more geared around hobbies and leisure, so evening and weekend posts may go down much better on them.
Make use of scheduling
Of course, you don’t have to physically log on to social media at a certain time to post on there. It’s relatively easy to schedule posts on Facebook, and Twitter offers a free, easy-to-use tool in Tweetdeck. That means if you want to wish your followers a happy new year, for example, you don’t need to be logging into Facebook as Big Ben is chiming. Simply schedule it at a more convenient (and probably more sober!) time.
For advice on how to make the most of your web content and social media channels, we’re here to help at Engage Web.
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