When writing content for social media, you want the most band for your buck. But when is the best time to do it? Consider the following scenario.
Imagine, if you will, having a long, hard week of work. That’s probably not that hard to imagine. In fact, that’s probably the last thing you want to think about, but for the sake of this scenario please bare with it. Most of us have a rather busy life that starts on Monday and ends on Friday. We get up early only to sit in traffic, come rain or shine. Work for hours and have lunch breaks that feel like they’re way too short. Take care of our families: spouses, children, and the family pet who sheds on our furniture. Frankly, we do it all, which is why we worship the weekend — hallelujah!
The weekend is the perfect time to kick your feet up and relax. This, of course, means that it’s the best time for writing content for social media, right? Believe it or not, when it comes to content marketing, you want to avoid the weekend and focus on writing content for social media during the week. This may feel like an odd choice since people have the most free time over the weekend. This is when people don’t have to get up early, don’t have to sit in traffic, and don’t have to spend eight hours out of their day working. Wouldn’t that be the best time to spread around any information you want to share? Surprisingly, the answer is no.
So When Should Posts Be Made?
In keeping with people’s normal daily schedules, you would think that the evening would be the ideal time for writing content for social media. By the time the sun sets people are at home, having dinner, and resting after a long day. However, you’d be wrong in this assumption. The general consensus for social media postings is that posting in the evening is not an ideal time.
Ironically, the best times to make posts is when people are going about their day. It’s not when they’re relaxing at home or when they’re off work, but when they’re actually busiest. The times range from about seven in the morning to about four in the afternoon, which is usually when people are out and about. Depending on what outlet you use, the best times for posting will vary. Facebook and Twitter seem to do best in the early afternoon, while LinkedIn and Google+ do well in the mornings.
Should My Posts Take Place During Someone’s Busy Day?
It sounds a bit odd, doesn’t it? But people seem to be most active on social media when they have the least amount of time in their day. Instead of spending the weekend scrolling through Facebook, playing another round of Candy Crush, or seeing what celebrity tweeted about something, these actions are reserved for the weekday. Social media serves as an escape, as a break in someone’s hectic daily schedule.
When we’re free over the weekend, we may check social media for a quick second, but then we’ll go about doing something away from it. This is because we finally have time for ourselves. The weekend is when we’ll go out at our leisure and take part in the world at our own pace. The weekday is when we have to go out there, whether we want to or not. Social media gives us a break, which is why the weekday is the perfect time for posting.
If you stop and think about it, you get the most emails during the week versus the weekend. You see the most amount of stories buzzing over the internet during the week versus the weekend. Even if there’s a large event over the weekend — an award show on a Sunday night — the most buzz you hear about it seems to happen the following Monday morning. Sure, we’ll be talking about it that night, but Monday is when the real gossip begins. This will not only include the people who saw the event on Sunday, but it’ll include the crowd who missed out and decided to look into what they missed on Monday.
A Weekday Afternoon Conclusion
While each social media tool has its own key times for writing content for social media, they all happen during the week, not the weekend. The general public may be more available over the weekend, but their dedication to social media is reserved for those long, working weeks. So save those thought provoking posts for a Monday afternoon, your audience will be ready and waiting for them. However, those fun cat pictures? Those are good any time of day.
David is the Founder and Director of article-writing.co, the fastest-growing content creation agency in North America. He has transformed companies by offering high-quality content that has impacted their SEO ranking, revitalized websites with engaging and industry-relevant blogs and website copy, and championed successful email campaign copy.
