Knowing when is the best time to post on Instagram and other social media platforms, in general, can have a significant impact on your engagement rates.
You can have better communication with your followers if you know when is the best time to post on Instagram.
Posting at the right time intervals on Instagram helps you increase your followers, engagement, and views. Each business's ideal sharing times may differ. However, Instagram users, in general, use the app heavily during certain times of the day.
It would be beneficial to check general posting hours in order to properly schedule your Instagram posts ahead. Don't forget how crucial it is to understand and practice the optimum times to post on Instagram.
Instagram posts can be scheduled with Circleboom Publish's Instagram post scheduler. Hence, you can schedule Instagram posts to reach your followers at the precise time you needed!
Why is it important to post at the right time on Instagram?
Posting at the appropriate moments increases the number of people who see your posts and maximizes the interactions. Otherwise, whole social management tactics can be a waste of time and effort.
Furthermore, Instagram's algorithm shows posts that have high engagement on users' timelines. As a result of your posts' low engagement rates, they will not appear at the top of the timelines. When you post during peak hours, your engagement and access rates will increase, helping you capture more traffic on your Instagram account.
Isik Onal
After analyzing millions of Instagram posts, Sprout Social has revealed that the best time to post on Instagram is from 9 am to 11 am EST for businesses.
People look at their phones immediately in the mornings, so sharing posts in the morning, Wednesday to Friday, creates high engagement.
- On the weekdays, sharing from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm also creates a lot of interest. People often check their phones throughout lunch or when their attention span begins to wane toward the end of the shift.
- If you want to post on weekends, do so about 10:00 am on Saturdays when people are eating brunch or hanging out with their families and friends.
However, this may not apply to you in reality.
Every Instagram account has a unique audience of people from different cities, countries, and time zones, so it is critical to figure out what is the best time is to post on Instagram for you.
According to Social Sprout's research, the best time to post on Instagram based on days is stated.
Actually, the best time to post on Instagram on Wednesday is 11 am and while the best time to post on Instagram on Friday, it is from 10 am –11 am, and they are generally the most favorable times.
Concerning the best-performing day to post on Instagram, Wednesday and the worst day are Sunday.
Instagram engagement declines before 6 am and after 9 pm typically, but relative to other social platforms, Instagram has dispersed engagement levels on different days.
To sum up,
- Even though Sunday is not a perfect day, the best time to post on Instagram on Sunday is between 8 am and 2 pm.
- For Mondays, it is between 11 am and 2 pm, and for Tuesdays, it is from 10 am to 2 pm.
- For Wednesdays, the engagement rate peaks generally from 11 am to 2 pm.
- Best time to post on Instagram on Thursdays is from 10 am to 2 pm.
- Best time to post on Instagram on Fridays is between 9 am to 2 pm.
- Lastly, best time to post on Instagram on Saturdays is between 9 am and 11 am.
Zeynep Morelli
How should we find out what is the best time to post on Instagram?
Instagram Insights provides you with everything you need to know about your followers, including their location, gender, age, and, most importantly, where they are more active on Instagram.
Using Instagram Statistics
Bear in mind that you will need to create an Instagram business profile or an Instagram creator profile to access Insights.
Having switched to a creator profile also gives you access to the Instagram Creator Studio page, which is packed with useful audience data, including information on when your followers are online.
Also, you can use external User Analytics to understand the audience in-depth. Apart from Instagram, user analytics matter for every social platform. For instance, Circleboom provides Twitter Insights and User Analytics and enables you to learn about your follower insights, including the gender of Twitter followers, fake accounts, and many more.
Understand Your Demographics
This type of data is ideal for fine-tuning the content strategy.
You can use your audience data to determine your best-performing time zones and learn when your Instagram followers are most active.
If your primary audience is located in a specific area, such as California, you can post using the Pacific Standard Time (PST). If your audience mostly resides in New York City, you can post in Eastern Standard Time (EST).
We should not deny that having data on the best times to post across social networks and sectors helps social marketing ensure a better understanding of consumer behavior and strategizing more effectively yet, as social media expands, anything from new social media features to entirely new channels drive creativity and creates new ways to generate different content and appeal to new audiences.
But what if your followers are dispersed across the world?
If your audience is in Europe, you can find that posting at "odd" times in your time zone (like midnight PST) means using the UTC zone works well for you. The only way to find out these valuable insights you should look at your Instagram Insights and analytics and take action accordingly.
Whether you'd like to use this data to determine peak periods for your promotions to get more engagement, or you want to focus on quieter hours on social networking sites, you can match these findings with your own social media posting schedule and begin preparing your posts with a greater aim.
Zeynep Morelli
Utilizing A/B Tests
It would be helpful to monitor general posting times to schedule your Instagram posts appropriately. Do not overlook that it is quite important to understand and practice the best times to post on Instagram. You may perform a range of studies and A/B tests to decide your ideal time.
Create Instagram posting times for particular periods.
Then, identify particular sharing times in 1-week or 2-week cycles. Review the engagement rates and conversions achieved during the first cycle.
After that, you may think of choosing a different posting time in another time frame.
You can then evaluate your posts' outcomes over time and figure out when the best times are to share them.
Weekdays are best for important posts
Although the disparities are slight, typical Instagram engagement varies each day.
B2B firms, for instance, may see higher engagement during the week when their customers are at work, while bloggers and influencers may see higher engagement on holidays when their customers are more likely to view their content.
Considering Instagram's algorithm
The Instagram algorithm is affected by various factors, such as how much engagement a post receives and how long people spend viewing it.
Instagram's latest update has effectively changed the importance of the variables such that the time that people post has a greater impact over what shows in your feed.
Do not get sidetracked between shares
If you do not want your posts to be overlooked among the heavy posts made by big companies on weekdays, and your target audience isn't primarily B2B, posting on the weekend could be a good idea. Bear in mind that major brands bombard their posts every weekday generally.
On the other hand, Monday, Thursday, and Friday are the busiest days, while Sunday has the least activity. It would be best if you chose which days are best for you based on your target audience.
Isik Onal
COVID-19 Social Media Effects
The response to COVID-19 has reshaped actions in all facets of life, including how people use social media and also best time post on Instagram.
According to the Sprout Social study, engagement on weekends and weekdays after 5 pm decreased, as remote employees managing several house chores and spending family time, in many instances, creating even more strains on their time after the regular workday ends. According to their results, posting at 11 am every day had a slight advantage over the rest of the day.
Weekends, on the other hand, are now extremely busy from around 9 to 5. While living in a much more mobile-centric setting, Instagram takes a greater share of time as a source of entertainment and diversion.
Concluding Thoughts
If you post regularly, always be careful not to do it repeatedly. Measuring which day and at what time, taking note of how much interaction the posts received will show you the most accurate picture of how your audience reacts. Review the statistics provided by business profiles and creator accounts and determine your strategy.
At the same time, you can achieve the best result by trying the find out when is the best time to post on Instagram suggestions mentioned in this article on your account and even applying your own A / B tests with these posting schedule suggestions.
Yes, it requires effort. However, it is not feasible to ignore the human behaviors that change with each new day, the social media dynamics evolving through time, and hope for the same performance and generally better from social media. So better you start working on your timing right now.
Onur Ciddi
