The best time to publish posts on Instagram, VK and other social networks. Research: optimal posting time on VKontakte
One could answer that the best time to post is when the people you want to show the content to are online.
This would be a simple answer, but not a useful one.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to give a definite answer. For different areas of business, this may be different days and times of day. It all depends on the platform you are using, how your target audience interacts with that platform, the region, the type of content (entertainment or serious), and your goals (clicks or shares).
Take this data into account and it will help you determine your ideal time to publish content.
Best time to post on Facebook
People access Facebook from both mobile devices and desktop computers, both at work and at home. How is social media used? the network is entirely dependent on the characteristics of the audience.
Facebook- it's 15.00 on Wednesday. Also, the optimal time includes 12.00-13.00 on Saturday and Sunday, and 13.00-16.00 on Thursday and Friday.
From 13:00 to 16:00 on weekdays the best click-through rate is observed, and towards the end of the week, on Thursdays and Fridays, the engagement rate is the highest.
On Fridays, Facebook traffic increases by 10%. Since people feel happier on Friday, experts advise posting upbeat, upbeat content to match the audience's mood.
The worst time to post on Facebook is on weekends before 8:00 am and after 8:00 pm.
Post frequency
It is recommended to post at least once a day. Although, again, this depends on the type of content and characteristics of the target audience. In addition, it is worth regularly monitoring the reaction of your audience and promptly responding to questions and comments posted on your page.
Best time to post on Twitter
Like Facebook, people access Twitter from both mobile devices and desktop computers, both at work and at home. And also its use depends entirely on the audience. However, people generally think of Twitter as an RSS feed, something they can read during breaks at work or on their way to work.
Best time to post onTwitter- these are weekdays from 12.00 to 15.00 and at 17.00.
For B2B companies, the most successful days for publications can be considered all weekdays, especially Wednesdays, when the CTR is the highest. For B2C organizations, in addition to Wednesdays, the best days are also weekends. According to research from marketing firm CoSchedule, B2B content performs 16% better during business hours, while B2C content performs 17% better on weekends.
It’s worth repeating that the best time to post varies depending on the area of your business. There are cases where content was successful when published at 2 am, 6 am and 10 pm. Experiment and find the perfect time for you!
Post frequency
The lifespan of a tweet on the visible part of the news feed is quite short, lasting approximately 8 hours. In this regard, in order to consolidate your presence on the feed, it is recommended to post at least 4 times a day. You can even retweet your previous posts if they are still relevant.
Best time to post on Instagram
From the very beginning, Instagram developers assumed that the application would be used on mobile devices. But despite the fact that today people use the Internet anytime and anywhere, they become truly engaged during non-work hours.
The best time to post onInstagramMonday and Thursday can be considered at any time except from 15.00 to 16.00.
As for video, according to research from the marketing company TrackMaven, it is most popular at night on any day of the week from 21.00 to 8.00. Some business areas successfully publish videos on Wednesdays at 19.00, as well as on any day at 2.00. It's worth experimenting with this time.
Post frequency
Analytics company Union Metrics recommends publishing posts as often as possible. According to her research, on average, companies post content on Instagram 1.5 times per day. But there are companies that post every hour throughout the day and are very popular with users.
Best time to post on VKontakte
Similar to Facebook and Twitter, people access VKontakte from both mobile devices and desktop computers, both at work and at home.
The largest number of VKontakte visitors is reached at 21.00. Therefore, the best time to post is from 17.30 to 22.00 every weekday. Also, the optimal time can be considered 13.00-15.00, this is the time of breaks at work, so quite a lot of people are online.
Post frequency
Experts recommend publishing posts at intervals of approximately 2-3 hours, depending on the time of day and the characteristics of your business. You should post more often in the evening than in the morning. But remember that quantity does not always mean quality. Victory will still go to rare, unique content with high-quality images.
Conclusion
However, different social networks may offer you maximum reach and effectiveness at different times. For example, on Facebook and Instagram it is better not to post at the same time. If you take into account multiple time zones, the task of choosing the ideal publishing time becomes even more difficult.
When planning your publication times, focus on where most of your readers and clients live.
When is the best time to post on Instagram?
The best time to post on Instagram is during lunch from 11:00 to 13:00 and after work from 19:00 to 21:00. Most users of this social network access the platform from smartphones, so they are rarely online during the working day.
When is the best time to post on Twitter?
The best time to post on Twitter is during lunch from 12:00 to 13:00. The hours before lunch are no less effective.
When is the best time to post on Pinterest?
The best time to post on Pinterest is from 20:00 to 23:00. This social network is used more often by mothers, which may be why they tend to post late at night.
- Saturday is the best day to post on Pinterest. Sunday is the worst.
- Office hours are not as popular among Pinterest users. Publications at this time attract less attention.
When is the best time to post videos on YouTube?
The best time to post videos on YouTube is from 12:00 to 16:00. Most viewers watch videos in the afternoon, so this is the best time to post content.
- Thursday and Friday are the best days to post on YouTube.
- Many users also watch videos on weekends; the best time to post on these days is from 9:00 to 11:00.
Best time to publish 2018
I think that you have seen many times beautiful infographics that talk about when the peak of activity on social networks occurs, which means that at this time it is better to buy advertising, for example, in communities. Most often there is one number, for example “Facebook - 19 o’clock” and that’s it. And what happens with activity all day - not a word. In addition, the calculation method is not described. It is for these reasons that I do not particularly trust such infographics, and I do not advise you to take everything on faith.
Therefore, I decided to conduct my own research for the social network VKontakte. The “Alert Box” plugin was installed in Firefox and configured to check the specified indicators every hour. This number of people online ^(https://vk.com/search?c=1&c=1&c=1&c=people) throughout VK, the number of online participants in World of Tanks groups ^( https://vk.com/official_world_of_tanks), Did you know? ^(https://vk.com/vk.fact) , +100500 ^( https://vk.com/maximplus100500) and of course MDK ^(https://vk.com/mudakoff) .
As already mentioned, the indicators were checked every hour. For convenience, Moscow time is indicated. All pictures are clickable.
As you can see, there is nothing unusual in the activity. At 7 am, most of the users are asleep; online only 1/6 of the maximum value, i.e. in the morning the audience is 1 million users. After 7 am, the audience begins to actively increase, approximately 1 million per hour, and this continues until 13-14 o'clock, when the daily peak of attendance occurs. As you can see in the graph, there are no serious failures, so I don’t see much difference in what time to publish advertising in public pages (unless it is intended for children under 18 years old, but more on that later), because from 13:00 in the afternoon until 12:00 at night the audience is on the social network.
Moreover, at 22-23 hours the peak of activity occurs. Apparently everyone goes to the site to see updates in public pages, watch a movie and chat with friends before going to bed. After 0:00, the audience begins to fall as rapidly as it rose in the morning - it falls by more than 1 million per hour, and at 5 am it reaches its minimum - a little more than 700 thousand users remain.
Online users in publics
I think among blog readers there are webmasters who buy advertising in public pages and ask the question “What is the best time to post?” The graph gives a clear answer to this question. Let's decipher it. Until 12 noon, the number of online users who have joined the 4 selected publics is only growing, which means it’s worth waiting a little to reach as large an audience as possible. It is also clear that everyone’s height is approximately the same; only the public “Did you know?” stands out. with a sharp jump between 9 and 11 o’clock, but then “MDK” catches up with him and in the future they walk “foot in foot”. Moreover, at the public “Did you know?” the total number of participants is 600 thousand more than that of “MDK”, but the audience is somehow not active (maybe bots?). This once again proves that bigger is not always better. I advise you to pay attention to this (the relative number of online users) when purchasing advertising in public pages - compare the activity of participants. A sharp jump is visible from 21:00 to 0:00, but we already discussed this in the previous chart.
If we do not take into account the dynamics of users (i.e. no one leaves and no one comes), then the average public audience coverage per hour will be 12%, and the maximum will be 18% at 15:00 and 23:00.
Age groups
It is generally accepted that the audience of VKontakte is schoolchildren, and only they sit there. I have to disappoint you - it turns out that this is not entirely true. As you can see, the most online users are in the group “From 18 to 23 years old”, and the group “under 18 years old”, on the contrary, showed interesting results - look at the jumps in this group. Apparently, the younger generation does not miss the opportunity to run outside with friends. Audiences of all ages reach their peak and decline at the same time. At 11 a.m. everyone is already online, and at 11 p.m. they start going to bed.
The main goal pursued by companies that own accounts on social networks is to attract the maximum number of users to their page. The successful timing of publication determines how many followers will see the information offered. Therefore, it is important to choose the best time to publish posts, when the majority of the audience is active, but at the same time the social network is not oversaturated with other publications.
The analytical agency Popsters conducted research on the dependence of the time of day and day of the week on user behavior on social networks. Based on the data from this study, we can draw conclusions about what time the effectiveness of publications will be highest. Research provides only average data: to determine the best time to post a specific page, it is necessary to conduct experiments with the period of news posting and monitor the activity of subscribers.
Lifehack: to automate the process of posting publications at the right time, use .
The Instagram social network reaches a predominantly female audience aged 25 to 45 years. The range of interests of this audience: beauty, fashion, cinema, celebrity life, active and healthy lifestyle. Most often, users access Instagram from their mobile devices.
The optimal time for posting largely depends on the target audience: young people and students visit Instagram throughout the day, working users most often go to view news during their lunch break or at the end of the working day. According to the schedule, the greatest activity occurs at 9 a.m., at lunchtime from 3 to 5 p.m., and in the evening from 7 to 9 p.m.. It is also worth noting that between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m., the activity of Instagram users drops slightly.
Latergramme experts say that it is best to post content between 17.00 and 21.00, when most people leave work and go home. The smartphone is always at hand, so you can read the latest news.
Experts point out that in the evening the number of publications is significantly reduced, which increases the chances of reaching a larger audience.
Analyzing the activity of followers by day of the week, we can draw the following conclusions:
- photos can be posted daily at 12, 15, 17-18 or 21 hours. If it is not possible to post every day, then choose Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
- video publish after 20.00 on any day or on weekends when subscribers have more free time;
- Live broadcasts are best done at the end of the week or in the evening. If this is not possible, it is necessary to warn users in advance about the broadcast time;
- If your page is popular all over the world, then when choosing a posting time, do not forget about time zones.
The active audience of users of the VKontakte social network are young people, schoolchildren, students and freelancers aged 13 to 34 years. VK users communicate, listen to music, post photos and read news in various communities.
Peak activity of VKontakte users occurs at lunchtime from 11 am to 1 pm and in the evening from 5 pm to 11 pm.
During the first time period, users are preparing for their lunch break. Having put aside work matters, they scroll through the news feed, waiting for the long-awaited rest. During lunch, most people continue to “sit” on social networks.
In the second period of time, users have already returned from work and continue to monitor VK news, often moving to the computer.
Analyzing audience activity by day of the week, we can conclude that the best days for posting are weekends.
Recommendations for posting content on the VKontakte social network:
- morning is the time for entertainment news, users wake up and start getting ready for work or school, they are not yet ready to perceive information;
- lunch is time for serious content that can contain numbers and analytics. People have already tuned in to the work rhythm and are ready for useful information. Until the evening, post as often as possible, alternate informative posts with entertaining ones;
- In the evening, it is recommended not to slow down the frequency of publications in order to reach the maximum audience. Leave the most interesting and important news for the evening. End the day with nice wishes for your followers.
To more accurately determine the best time to publish posts on VK, taking into account the specifics of the audience, you need to:
- Conduct an analysis: what groups are your users subscribed to, at what time are they most active (likes and comments);
- Determine the rest time for users; during this time you should post only short entertainment news and funny pictures.
- Publish posts at non-standard times: at 12.20, 13.45, etc. During peak activity hours, a large number of publications are posted, which increases the risk of your news getting lost.
Facebook users are predominantly entrepreneurs, top managers, public figures, programmers and people of creative professions aged 25 to 50 years. They are interested in business, political and cultural news. This social network concentrates most of the professional audience that establishes business contacts.
The best time to publish is from 14:00 to 15:00. Facebook is dominated by working users who, after their lunch break, want to read interesting news and comment on friends' updates. Posts published at 13-14 hours collect a large number of reposts; if you need clicks, post the news after 15.00.
User activity increases on Monday and Friday, because... on Monday, users are not yet ready for the work week and spend time on social networks, and on Friday they are already preparing for the weekend.
According to research from HubSpot and Microsoft, the optimal time to post is Thursday and Friday from 1 to 3 p.m.
- Pay attention to the specifics of your target audience (housewives can view the news at any time, and business people only during their free hours).
- Study the statistics of visits to competitors' pages depending on the time of day and day of the week.
- Publish news during periods of greatest user activity.
- Experiment with posting times to find the best option; try publishing information during periods of less active audience activity. Perhaps the amount of information is dwindling at this time, but your audience is still online.
- Post your news at the same time so that your subscribers get used to the regularity of your posts.
- Experiment with posting days if you post several times a week.
The target audience of the Odnoklassniki social network is similar to the VKontakte audience, but older. Odnoklassniki is visited mainly by women who communicate and look for something interesting. Users do not like to read long posts: they are more interested in entertaining and humorous content, as well as short videos.
The largest number of users log into the social network in the morning from 9 to 11, when they get to work or places of study, in the afternoon from 15 to 17, when students and schoolchildren return home, and in the evening from 19 to 20, when they come home working people. During periods of greatest audience activity, it is recommended to post at least twice a day.
Similar to the social network Vkontakte, most people are on Odnoklassniki on weekends.Recommendations for posting on Odnoklassniki are similar to those given for the VKontakte social network.
The majority of YouTube users are people aged 18 to 54 years, 10% of the audience are children and teenagers from 12 to 17 years old. Most often, video clips are viewed by men aged 18 to 24, who are interested in cars, electronics, sports and computer games. The most active users are considered to be young people from 25 to 34 years old.
According to data from the Frederator Networks site, the maximum number of users gathers on YouTube from 14 to 16 hours from Monday to Wednesday, from 12 to 15 hours from Thursday to Friday and from 9 to 11 on weekends. This is the best time to post videos on your channel. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are the days on which videos receive the most views and likes.
- determine the average age of your target audience. Schoolchildren are free in the afternoon, and working users watch videos most often in the evening;
- take into account the difference in time zones if you want to reach the maximum audience around the world;
- post videos regularly at the same time, so subscribers will know when to come to the channel for a new video clip;
- Monitor the video view statistics to adjust the time if necessary. Statistics can be viewed in the Creative Studio - YouTube analytics.
No matter how much the owners of public spaces on social networks would like it, there is no clear best time to publish posts. This depends on many factors, the most significant of which are: the type of social network, the audience of the group or public, the topic of the public, and much more.
The ideal publication time for one public page or social network as a whole may be completely inappropriate for another similar resource.
Optimal time to post on VKontakte
When posting on the VKontakte social network, you should take into account the following factors: the time when the social network’s traffic is maximum, the topic of the public in which the post will be posted, the characteristics of the public’s audience (age, interests) and other smaller features.
With the time of maximum traffic on VKontakte, everything is extremely simple, the largest online is from 19 to 21 hours Moscow time. For most publics, this time is ideal, but not for everyone. For example, in different public pages designed for teenage audiences, attendance times differ in general. In such public pages, it is best to post during the daytime, because that is when the largest number of teenagers are on VKontakte.
There are also public pages designed for an audience of a specific region or time zone. For example: public pages with local news or other similar groups. In this case, you should focus exclusively on local time.
Optimal time to post on Odnoklassniki
In general, all recommendations for publishing posts will be approximately the same as for the VKontakte social network. These resources have the same audience, so there will be virtually no differences in publication time.
The best time to post on Facebook
With the social network FaceBook, everything is somewhat more complicated, since Russian-speaking users make up only a small part of the entire audience of this resource. Therefore, when publishing your post, in addition to the previously listed things, it is worth considering many new factors that are absent in exclusively Russian-language social networks.
If you look at the audience in general, then the time of greatest attendance begins at 13:00 and ends at 15:00 Moscow time. It is better to post English-language posts at this time. Also, the period of greatest traffic on Facebook is perfect for publishing posts that do not contain text (various pictures, songs, music videos) on English-language public pages.
With Russian-language posts, you should follow the same tips as for Russian social networks (Vkontakte or Odnoklassniki). The overwhelming majority of the Russian-speaking Facebook audience visits the site at the same time as VKontakte with Odnoklassniki.
Optimal time to post on Twitter
Twitter is less demanding when it comes to posting times. In this social network, high traffic lasts much longer than in most other similar resources. But even taking this into account, you should not publish your posts at random.
You definitely shouldn’t post at night; at this time, traffic to the resource is almost minimal, which makes publishing a pointless exercise. There are no other specific guidelines for posting on Twitter. Many tips that apply to other social networks can also be applied to Twitter.
Optimal time to post on Instagram
First of all, the time of publication on Instagram depends on the number of your subscribers. If you have no subscribers other than your friends, you should publish at a time that is convenient for them. You don’t even have to try to publish posts during times of peak traffic on Instagram; site users only view posts by popular personalities, and they simply won’t visit your publications. At the same time, your friends may find it inconvenient to view such publications.
If you were able to gain an impressive number of subscribers (at least several hundred), you should start publishing posts during the time of the highest traffic to the site (approximately from 10 to 20 Moscow time). This will increase the number of views of your photos, which will have a positive impact on the development of your Instagram account.
General tips for posting.
- You can approximate the publication time by looking at popular public pages. You need to find a popular public page with a similar topic and select the same publication time for your public page.
- Don't be afraid to post at different times of the day. Through trial and error, you can achieve results that most of the most popular resources cannot achieve.