Ah, the
busy life of the business professional – good for you if you’ve implemented a
social media campaign strategy into your hectic schedule. But, did you know that there are certain
times of the day and specific days of the week that the content you post is
more likely to go viral? According to
data put forth on Bitly.com, it’s
true!
The data indicate, for example, that
on Twitter, “…posting
in the afternoon earlier in the week is your best chance at achieving a high
click count (1-3pm Monday through Thursday). Posting after 8pm should be
avoided. Specifically, don’t bother posting after 3pm on a Friday since, as far
as being a gateway to drive traffic to your content, it appears that Twitter
doesn’t work on weekends.”
This does make a lot of sense if you
think about it – how productive, after all, do you think most people are after
3:00 on Friday? The research furthermore
maintains that the peak of Twitter activity occurs prior to the optimal time to
post. Twitter’s busiest time tends to be
between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm, Monday through Thursday. Should you post on Twitter during its peak
hours, while there are more people clicking, it might raise the average number
of clicks, however, your posts may not be receiving all the attention they
deserve due to the fact that there will obviously be more competition for this attention.
For Facebook, the data states that, “Links posted from 1pm to
4pm result in the highest average click throughs. The peak time of the week was
on Wednesday at 3pm. Links posted after 8pm and before 8am will have more
difficulty achieving high amounts of attention. As with Twitter, avoid posting
on the weekends.” It appears that Facebook traffic tends to peak
around the middle of the week, from the hours of 1:00 pm until 3:00 pm and
begins to fade more after 4:00 pm. Moreover,
the research contends that although traffic counts are comparable at 7:00 pm
and 8:00 pm, if you post at 7:00 pm, you will garner more clicks than you would
posting at 8:00 pm.
With respect to Tumblr, one of our favorite
blogging sites, there’s currently a vast difference from Twitter and Facebook. The data from Bitly show that posting on
Tumblr after 4:00 pm stands to garner optimal results, and that, “…postings after 7pm on average receive more
clicks over 24 hours than content posted mid-day during the week. Friday
evening, a no-man’s land on other platforms, is an optimal time to post on
Tumblr. Bitly traffic from Tumblr peaks between 7pm and 10pm on Monday and
Tuesday, with similar traffic on Sunday. ”
So, there you have it – valuable
information on optimal times to post on three of the most prevalent social
media sites out there. As you’re
undoubtedly pressed for time on most days of your life, knowing what times it’s
most worth posting will help with your strategy!
