Social Media Marketing Tip: Best Times To Post On Facebook

Even as new social media channels make the news and take over the attention spans of younger generations, Facebook remains the most-used channel, with 2.45 billion active monthly users. And it is one of the few channels—along with YouTube—that consistently delivers followers for nearly all types of business, both B2C and B2B. 

If you aren’t already using Facebook in some way, it really is time. (Get the basics on setting up a Facebook page here.)

The challenge, when nearly every business, organization and individual is using Facebook is to optimize your organic content to cut through the clutter. That means not only creating and sharing the right kinds of content, but also timing your posts to improve the likelihood that they will arrive in your followers’ newsfeeds at the time they are scrolling and receptive.

The best times to get exposure on Facebook tend to be at 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 9 a.m., Wednesdays through Sundays. But, since specific traffic can vary based on your audience, you need to track your traffic and adjust according to your specific industry and brand followers. (This post explains more about analyzing your Facebook Insights.)

Think also about your target market and the times when they are most likely to be checking in on social media. 

Many people do a quick scan when they first wake up, or over a lunch break. Others may wind down in the evening. Some studies show that media companies do best with early morning or evening posts, while B2B businesses see the most traffic around 9 a.m. and between 3 and 4 p.m. (perhaps when business buyers are taking a coffee break away from emails and spreadsheets). 

Some recommend saving your best content for later in the week, rather than posting it on Mondays and Tuesday that tend to have lower engagement rates.

Timing is just one aspect of successfully using organic content to drive social media engagement. You also need to carefully plan what you will post and how often to each of the social media channels you choose to use. Find tips for what, when and how often to post to five of the top social media platforms in our Complete Guide To Social Media blog post. 

You can also see results in action by downloading a success story from one of our clients: Serenity Medial Spa & Organic Facebook Content. Read about how they used organic content to increase their total Facebook impressions 10-times in a single month, tripling their Facebook post engagement.