When’s the best time to post to social media platforms to ensure your content is most seen? URL shortening service Bitly has crunched some new numbers. Success on Twitter and Facebook means posting in the early afternoons, while Tumblr likes the night life.
Bitly looked at the amount of clicks that links posted through its service generated on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr (sorry, Google+, you got left out). It also looked at when these sites seemed to have the most activity overall.
Bitly even generated fancy looking plots of clicks and activity, like this:
I found it easier, however, to skip the charts and read the findings. Below, my summary of the best times.
Note that all times are in Eastern Time, which makes sense in terms of activity. From 1pm-3pm ET, for example, corresponds to 10am-Noon Pacific Time. During those hours, most of the entire United States is awake.
For those dealing with non-US audiences, I suspect adjusting these peak times to your own local “waking hours” might prove effective.
Post 9am-3pm ET, Monday through Thursday
Especially post 1-3pm ET, Monday through Thursday
Avoid posting after 8pm ET during the weekends
Avoid posting after 3pm ET on Friday and at all on weekends
Post 1-4pm ET during the week
Especially post midweek 1-3pm ET
The very best time is Wednesday at 3pm ET
Avoid posting between 8pm ET and 8am ET during the week
Avoid posting on weekends
Tumblr
Post from 4pm ET onward
Especially post from 7pm-10pm ET onward, with Monday and Tuesdays being good
Post on Friday evenings
Remember, ultimately it will be up to your own individual findings to know the optimal time to post content. For some, posting during the weekend might not drive a ton of initial clicks but could pick up some additional traffic, or “second chance” activity, as I’ve called it.
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