Best time to post on Facebook for business
The way you manage your personal Facebook account differs greatly from how you manage your corporate account. For starters, you (often) don’t post several pictures of your toddler or newborn doing adorable things. You publish content that you think your followers will find interesting on a Facebook business page (and maybe a group) that you have created specifically for that purpose. Some of your posts—but hopefully not all of them—might serve to advertise your company and its goods.
However, it might be difficult to maintain your brand’s visibility on Facebook if you aren’t paying for Facebook advertising. Due to the current algorithm, which favors posts from friends and family, Facebook business posts have a poor organic reach. Last year, as of examination, 43 million Facebook posts were from the top 20,000 brands, and found that in just 18 months, Facebook’s organic engagement had decreased by more than 50%.
As a result, you must take all the necessary steps to promote your company on Facebook. Posting on Facebook at the ideal times is one of the best tactics. When few of your potential customers are using Facebook, posting is of little use because, by the time they do, your post will already be out of date.
Why does timely posting matter on Facebook for business?
To improve the likelihood that your content will be read and shared by your target audience, you must reach them when they are on Facebook. In addition to developing relationships, trust, and an audience, you need that interaction because it’s the best method to catch Facebook algorithm’s eye.
The said algorithm is a secret formula that rates each post to determine who will see it. In order to keep users on the site for longer, the score is based on what Facebook believes to be each user’s most relevant content. The formula’s exact components are closely guarded secrets, but we do know that it consists of three parts:
Who posts it: Your friends’ postings will always appear before those from non-friends that the algorithm thinks you might find interesting.
User-preferred content: Based on past activities, Facebook is aware of the different types of content (pictures, videos, lives, text, etc.) that users are more likely to interact with. Each user’s favorite content type will be given priority in their feed.
After the engagement: The number of interactions (likes, comments, saves, and shares) a post has already gotten is referred to as engagement.
There isn’t much you can do about the person who posted it besides friending a lot of potential clients, which you shouldn’t do. By doing some study on your audience’s social media behavior, you *might* be able to determine what material they enjoy. However, engagement is the aspect of the algorithm that you have the most power over.
Posting times are useful in this situation. More opportunities for engagement when you post when your audience is online. Increased engagement increases your visibility through the algorithm and in the feeds of your followers.
How to find the best time to post?
Here are a few things you should undertake to determine your own ideal Facebook posting times:
- Determine the peak internet activity times for your audience.
Facebook gives recent posts priority. Why? People are more interested in new stuff rather than in outdated ones.
When your followers are most engaged online, post material to improve the likelihood that it will be seen by them. Additionally, Facebook will push your content to those who don’t follow you (yet!) when its algorithms notice that you are posting while your admirers are perusing their news feeds.
You only need to glance at your stats on Facebook to find out when your fans are online. You’ll be aware of the precise posting time.
- Examine your top-performing content.
Studying the earlier posts, you’ve made should be your next move after determining when your audience is online. To see the most popular posts for each indicator you monitor, check your social media analytics reports and tools. For instance, look for articles that did well for:
- Posts with plenty of views or impressions raise awareness.
- Engagement: Posts with astoundingly high levels of shares, comments, and likes.
- Sales/traffic: articles with lots of clicks
Examine the trends that emerge after looking at the time and day of the week that you posted this article.
- Test and adjust the times you post.
You’re prepared to click “Publish” on those brand-new posts you wrote after conducting your study. But what if your outcomes aren’t as favorable as you’d hoped?
Run A/B tests, is the quick response.
When running A/B testing, you upload the same content at various times to discover which one performs best. You can step things up by altering the post’s graphics (if any), post copy, or both to determine which version performs better.
The global ultimate times for Facebook posting
According to Hootsuite’s data, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm are the ideal times to post on Facebook.
But then again, these times are not fixed. Depending on your follower behavior and historical results, they may change.
Hootsuite’s study of its own Facebook data serves as a fantastic illustration of this.
The majority of Hootsuite’s Facebook fans typically log in around 7 am PST on weekdays, according to this heatmap from Hootsuite Analytics. So, it makes reasonable that the Hootsuite social media team would update the company’s Facebook page by then, right?
No, actually.
The optimal times to publish on Hootsuite’s Facebook page are 6:15 am and 12:15 pm PST on weekdays, according to the team’s analysis of prior post performance and follower engagement.
Determining when to publish on Facebook is more complicated than simply determining when your audience is online.
Here are some important Facebook statistics to remember while posting:
- 74% of people users check Facebook at least once every day, while 51% check it multiple times daily.
- On average, users spend 34 minutes every day on Facebook.
- 80% of individuals access Facebook on mobile devices, while 19% do so via desktop.
Industry-wise timeline for Facebook posting
Their Facebook posting hours have been broken down by industry in several research. They have found that the best hours depend on the sector in which your company works. Various sorts of businesses experience different social peak hours, according to reports that have been published.
In this research, the times of the day are generally given more attention than the days of the week.
B2B Brands
Data showed that B2B companies weren’t all that different from their consumer-facing counterparts. The best times for these businesses to post are between 9 and 11 am and 3 to 4 pm.
Technology
Research discovered that these firms published their most popular Facebook posts at nine, three, or five o’clock.
The optimum time for tech firms, according to Sprout Social, is on Wednesday at 10 am; in fact, any time on Wednesday between 9 am and noon should result in high interaction.
Perhaps surprisingly, given the reputation of techies, blogging in the evening and at night is not advised.
B2C brands
According to B2C Brands, posting on Facebook should be done between 9 and 10 am, 11 am and 12 noon, and 4 to 5 pm. Typically, these times fall during workers’ breaks (or nearing the end of their workday).
It was also discovered that Wednesday at 1 PM and Friday at 11 AM were the best times for B2C businesses to post on Facebook. Other times with high engagement included Thursday at 5 p.m., Friday from 10 to 11 a.m., and Wednesday from 1 to 3 p.m. Businesses that sell to consumers have discovered that weekdays from 10 am to 5 pm are when they consistently receive the most engagement.
Medical Brands
Healthcare brand devotees must be early risers. They consumed the majority of their postings in the morning. You should perform particularly well if you post about healthcare during 6-7 am, 9 am, or 11 am–12 am.
Morning posting is encouraged to be done on Wednesday between 9 and 10 am being the optimum time.
Charitable
According to Sprout Social, non-profits should interact with their followers on Facebook on Wednesday between 8 and 9 am. In fact, non-profits are likely to have constant interaction from 8 am to 5 pm on weekdays. However, weekends and nights are rather quiet, so it would probably be better to avoid those times.
Media Companies
Study revealed several subtle differences between media brands and the rest of the field. In fact, the times of their most popular Facebook posts—7 am, 11 am, and 6 pm—tended to match up with television newscasts.
Other research data really differ much for media companies. They discover that Tuesday at 5 p.m. and Friday between 8 and 9 a.m. are the optimum times for media firms to post on Facebook. Thursday at 5 p.m. and Wednesday between 8 and 9 a.m. are other acceptable times.
Education
Even though students are known for staying up late, it doesn’t seem like they use Facebook during that time. In fact, it appears that higher education companies have the greatest reach before classes or during the gaps between lectures. Higher education is busiest between 8 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m.
Considering education as a whole, it is discovered that Wednesday at 9 a.m. and Saturday at 5 p.m. were the top periods for Facebook posting. The hours between 9 am and 3 pm on weekdays are the most reliable for interaction (when people are at school). But Saturdays between noon and nine o’clock also produce acceptable outcomes.
To conclude
The Focus should shift to your experimenting now that the myth of the optimal time to share something on Facebook has been debunked. To identify the open slots, conduct a thorough analysis of the individual behaviors of your audience.
Because nothing is more reliable than examining your own data, use the tool and the other tactics mentioned above to decide on a more effective publishing plan. This will depict the actual situation while providing real-time audience information for improved planning.
