A great question and all the more important if you happen to be posting for a brand account. Let’s face it, your Friends on your personal Facebook page or Followers on your personal Twitter page probably do not care what time you post your new favorite video, update your Status or provide a link to your latest blog post. Your Followers and Friends will visit your page when they see your update on their Wall. However, there is a higher degree of sensitivity in regards to a Facebook or Twitter Brand page. Your Fans and Followers will be more likely to read your updates at certain times throughout the day. Therefore, it is vital in order to maximize your exposure that you post at specific times on specific social mediums.
Yes, there are studies that show different social networks deliver different prime exposure times. Bitly is a website that helps a user organize and share links in an effective manner. The company recently published a blog post Tuesday, May 8 comparing peak share times on various social mediums. The results are very interesting and could influence how you post on different social brands and when to post. Let us focus on Facebook and Twitter.
Surprisingly, even though Facebook and Twitter are social mediums that people use on a 24/7 basis, the weekend is not the most opportune time to post on the two social networks. Tweeting after 3:00pm on a Friday may not work well if you are trying to reach a wide audience and continues throughout the weekend. Facebook is similar with weekend posts drawing less attention than a post that was created in the middle of the week. This type of data leads one to believe that more attention is paid to social media during working hours of the day than when people are enjoying social time.
When should you be using these two social mediums to reach the largest number of people? When posting to Facebook try to post between 1:00-4:00pm with the absolute peak time being at 3:00pm on a Wednesday. Twitter? Focus on Tweeting between 9:00am-3:00pm Monday-Thursday with the last two hours of that window being an outstanding time to Tweet.
Make sure to read the Time is on Your Side post from Bitly to gain even more insight about peak Facebook and Twitter times, as well as information about using Tumblr.
