I just shared this link in Your Marketing Lounge to some research by Quick Sprout on the best times to post on Facebook, as there are a few night owls in there who will appreciate this (myself included!)
But it’s also an important topic to discuss because the conclusions of this research study may surprise you…The best time to post isn’t the time when the most people are online and posting. Sounds counterintuitive right? Well the research shows that when you post at the same time as everyone else you are up against a lot of competition in the news feed. And Facebook can only show so many posts – so if you’ve ever wondered why you don’t see a post when your friend does it could be because a lot of the people and pages you are following are posting at the same time as each other, and Facebook has to choose which posts you get to see in your news feed.
And the way to get Facebook to show your posts is to have high engagement (likes, click, shares, comments) and posting at busy times can lower your engagement so then there is even less chance of your post showing up.
*sigh*
But it’s not all bad news as the research shows that when you post at quieter times there is more chance for your post to show up in the news feed as there is less competition and more people are likely to interact with you because there is less content vying for their attention. And this will boost your engagement and increase the likelihood of your posts being seen at other times too!
So I expect to see you all posting between 9pm and 11pm tonight! Although since its Friday perhaps you have something better to do than hang out of Facebook? I know I do!
And actually when it comes to marketing it’s more important to go with what works best for your audience. Whilst it’s great that these stats and research projects exist the recommendation may not work for all businesses. If you are promoting 6am beach bootcamp then your ideal client might not be awake at 11pm to see your post! It’s no good getting your posts seen just because no one else is posting, you have to factor in when your audience will be online to see it.
I’ve found that a lot of mums are offline during the school run, and might not be back on until the bed and bath routine is finished after 7pm. But 9-5 workers tend to be online during their lunch break and between 5-6pm as they finish work and check up on the goings on of the day. This of course is just the trend I see from my friends on Facebook. So pay attention, where is your sweet spot where your audience is active on Facebook but there isn’t a huge amount of posts being published?!?
My tip is to test it, post at different times of the day and use your page insights to monitor how many people see your posts and work out the percentage of views/interactions to find your engagement sweet spot. Now post at that time every day for a week and see if your reach and engagement have increased since last week.
Marketing is personal, so when is the best time for your business to post on Facebook?
Let us know what works for you in the comments, or just tell us what exciting Friday night plans you’ve got?
Your Marketing Lounge
Want to discuss this further with other business owners who face the same struggles with finding the best times to post of Facebook? Looking to get more engagement on your Facebook pages and groups? Then request access to my free private Facebook group and join the conversation in Your Marketing Lounge.
