Social Media Marketing is an important marketing channel for most businesses especially with the onset of COVID-19 lock downs. But what are the best times to publish social media updates about your services, products, industry news, your wins, or other data related findings?
Our friends at Sprout Social assert that knowing the best times to post on each of your social platforms is one critical method to stay a step ahead and “make sense of the content overload that seems to be occurring on many channels.”
Sprout Social’s case study The best times to post on social media in 2020 provides important intelligence that will guide you to plan your social media publishing for the best results for your social media marketing activities.
What Did They Measure?
Sprout Social analyzed their own customer base of 20,000 users to understand:
- When content was most and least frequently engaged with
- Analyzed Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn
- Analyzed industries including
- Global Engagement
- Consumer Goods Engagement
- Media Engagement
- Education Engagement
- Non-Profit Engagement
- Tech Engagement
- Healthcare Engagement
- Finance Engagement
- Recreational Engagement
- Sprout integrates with multiple social media platform APIs allowing Sprout to gather data about consumer behavior on each platform
Sprout’s customer data was compiled by their data team in order to provide the following listings of the best times to publish social media updates.
Best Times to Publish Social Media Updates
Global Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Wednesday 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Consumer Goods Engagement
- Best Days: Wednesday and Friday
- Best Times: Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. and Friday at 11:00 a.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Media Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 5:00 p.m. Friday from 8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Education Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. and Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Non-Profit Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Wednesday and Friday 8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.
- Worst Days: Saturday and Sunday
Tech Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Wednesday from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. noon
- Worst Day: Sunday
Healthcare Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Wednesday from 10:00 a.m-12:00 p.m. noon
- Worst Days: Saturday and Sunday
Finance Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Wednesday at 12:00 p.m. noon
- Worst Days: Saturday and Sunday
Recreational Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Tuesday at 2:00 p.m., Wednesday at 1:00 p.m., and Friday at 11:00 a.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Global Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. and Friday from 10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Consumer Goods Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Wednesday at 3:00 p.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Media Engagement
- Best Day: Friday
- Best Times: Friday at 9:00 a.m.
- Worst Day: Saturday and Sunday
Education Engagement
- Best Day: Friday
- Best Times: Friday at 10:00 a.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Non-Profit Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Tuesday from 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. and Wednesday at 2:00 p.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Tech Engagement
Best Day: Wednesday
Best Times: Wednesday at 6:00 a.m. and 9:00–10:00 a.m., and Friday from 7:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Worst Day: Sunday
Healthcare Engagement
- Best Day: Tuesday
- Best Times: Tuesday at 8:00 a.m.
- Worst Days: Saturday and Sunday
Finance Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Friday at 11 a.m.
- Worst Day: Thursday
Recreational Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Wednesday and Thursday at 1 p.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Global Engagement
- Best Days: Wednesday and Friday
- Best Times: Wednesday and Friday at 9:00 a.m.
- Worst Day: Saturday
Consumer Goods Engagement
- Best Day: Sunday
- Best Times: Sunday at 11 a.m.
- Worst Day: Monday
Media Engagement
- Best Days: Thursday and Friday
- Best Times: Wednesday at 9 a.m. and Thursday at 9 a.m. and 8 p.m.
- Worst Day: Saturday
Education Engagement
- Best Day: Saturday
- Best Times: Saturday 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Non-Profit Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Wednesday at 7:00 a.m.
- Worst Day: Saturday
Tech Engagement
- Best Days: Tuesday and Wednesday
- Best Times: Tuesday at 9:00 a.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Healthcare Engagement
- Best Day: Wednesday
- Best Times: Wednesday from 8:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Finance Engagement
- Best Day: Tuesday
- Best Times: Tuesday from 1:00 a.m.-5:00 a.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
- Worst Day: Saturday
Recreational Engagement
- Best Day: Friday
- Best Times: Friday at 9:00 a.m.
- Worst Days: Saturday and Sunday
Global Engagement
- Best Days: Wednesday and Thursday
- Best Times: Wednesday from 8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. noon, Thursday at 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. and Friday at 9:00 a.m.
- Worst Day: Sunday
Why no other industry data for LinkedIn?
According to Sprout “we didn’t break down this data into individual industries in order to maintain greater accuracy and a clearer picture of how the network is being used today.”
LinkedIn remains a solid opportunity for your business to network, sell, and gain brand awareness.
Heat maps which show the level of engagement for each day can be found within the Sprout Social report.
