SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SMALL BUSINESS

You already know that social media posts have a fleeting lifespan (Get More From Your Content: 21 Life-Lengthening Tips), so it is important to not only post frequently, but to target your posts to the time of day your followers and target market is most likely to be using social media.

If your social media accounts are well-established, the best strategy to follow is to use the insights available through both Facebook and Instagram to see when your specific accounts get the most traffic and when your followers are most active, both by days of the weeks and by time of day. Schedule your posts to hit just when the most followers are active to maximize readership.

(Dig further into the data with the instructions here: What Your Small Business Can Learn From Facebook Insights.)

So what should you do if you are just getting your social media pages up and running?

Sprout Social offers these insights:

Overall, the best times to post to Facebook are at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Wednesdays; weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. offer a safe range. The lowest engagement is on Sunday, early morning or evenings.

While there is some variance depending on the type of business posting, consumer goods and retail, which would include the spa industry, largely reflect the same high traffic times as above, with other high engagement opportunities on Wednesdays from 1 to 3 p.m., Fridays 10-11 a.m., and Thursday at 5 p.m.

Instagram’s engagement heat map looks much the same for overall and for consumer goods.

So, while it is still a good idea to post something even on those lower engagement days (lower doesn’t mean none), focus your social media post scheduling on the times you are most likely to reach your target audience.