Why do you need to know when is the best time to post on instagram?
Most social media platforms work based on algorithms, that means the more engagement you post gets the more visible it will be to the rest of your audience.
On average only 1-10% of your audience will see your posts, that means the rest of your audience won’t. What determines how visible your post is is the amount of engagement you get on your post within the first few hours of you sharing your content.
That is why it is important to know the best time to post on Instagram so you can serve your content when your audience is online and engaging.
That is why we always recommend showing up online consistently, because once you have developed the trust and on-going relation with your audience, your followers are more likely to engage with your content, no matter what time you post. This was certainly true when we started with our @WomeninBusinessClub Instagram account and within the first year reached 100k followers.
So, how do you determine the best time to post on Instagram?
1. Identify when your audience is online
One of the best ways to figure out when is the best time to post on your social media account is to look into your account statistics (business and creator accounts only) to see where your audience are from and when they are most active online. This will give you a good indication of when to share your content to get in front of your audience.
When a post gets a lot of likes, comments, and saves, that engagement will translate into Instagram bumping your post higher up on users’ feeds and potentially getting a spot on the Instagram Explore page, which, in turn, could result in even more engagement on your post.
It’s a cyclical process: higher engagement leads to more visibility, which leads to higher engagement, which leads to more visibility. But it all starts with when you post on Instagram.
2. Think how your audience uses Instagram
Remember to also think about how people use Instagram and who your audience is, vs the type of content you share. Say you are a motivational trainer, and you tend to share inspiring posts to get people pumped for the day, sharing such content would probably do best, when people wake up and wonder if they should work out today.
Or you are a procrastination coach, and you know your audience get sluggish around mid afternoon – this is when you want them to see your 10 steps to beat procrastination video.
Your posts are relative not only to algorithms but also the type of content you share, so always keep your audience at the forefront of your mind when determining the best time to post on Instagram.
Learn how to ‘Get More Followers Online in 5 Easy Steps‘.
3. Experiment with the best time to post on Instagram
I have tried many different times to post on instagram and by far the best performing time for us has been morning between 6.45 and 7.30am UK time. Although, our app shows that this is the least active time for our audience on Instagram. This data is based on over 50% of our audience in the USA time zone.
This means of course, our USA audience are sleeping. But, as we are based in London, a lot of our most engaged audience are in the UK and most commonly people open their IG apps in the morning, that means the engagement is relatively high in the morning.
By the time the USA wakes up, our posts would have already generated a significant engagement, therefore IG shows posts to more people who may just be waking up.
The key is to experiment and use your own judgement of you knowing your audience best.
Some suggested posting times for different time zones:
UK: 6.30-7AM & 6-7PM, LA 7-8AM & 4PM, NYC 11AM & 4PM , SYDNEY 8AM & 9PM.
*Please note that these times may vary depending on your audience, content and other factors.
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4. Experiment with the best time to post on the weekends
If you post on the weekends you may see a slightly different pattern on engagement on your social media profiles. This means your engagement may be high or lower than usual. So experiment slightly different times on the weekends and see what works for you. For our account, stories seem to nearly triple on the weekends and sometimes post engagement drops. That means people prefer watching stories and catching up with the things they missed.
5. Finding the best time to post on Instagram Stories
Stories are completely different to the regular IG posts, mainly because they are not ruled by the same algorithm, instead, your stories show up right at the top and in incremental order of who shared the latest. You will also see more of the accounts you have previously engaged with and same goes for your audience.
So that means sharing all your stories all at once may not be the best strategy. With stories you want to stay at the top or the front of the que for your audience. So you may want to share something in the morning and then post something to stories every few hours throughout the day, so new audiences get to see your stories at the top of their feed whenever they check their app throughout the day.
Wondering what to post on social media? Check out our ‘10 Ideas for Quick and Easy Content Creation‘ blog post.
Raimonda Jankunaite
Serial Entrepreneur, Mentor, Business Coach, and International Speaker. Raimonda is the founder of the Women In Business Club, international community and events to help women become visible go-to experts.
Raimonda helps female entrepreneurs and business owners get established, get noticed and visible online – so they can build a successful business online and become the go-to authority in their field – generating more leads and creating more income whilst making an impact.
