Hootsuite teamed up with data science agency Critical Truth to crunch the numbers—over a million social posts across different industries and platforms—just to figure out the best times to post for max engagement.
But here’s the thing: your audience isn’t just a bunch of data points. They’re real people with their own scrolling habits, and the key to catching their attention is knowing when they’re most likely to be online.
5:00 AM on Tuesdays.
3:00 PM to 9:00 PM on Mondays
5:00 AM to 8:00 AM and 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM on Tuesdays
5:00 PM on Wednesdays
4:00 PM to 5:00 PM on Thursdays
4:00 PM on Fridays; 11:00 AM and 5:00 PM on Saturdays
12:00 PM and 3:00 PM on Sundays.
Between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
10:00 AM to 1:00 PM on Mondays and Tuesdays.
3:00 PM on Thursdays.
8:00 AM PST on Tuesdays.
12:00 PM PST on Tuesdays and Fridays.
So, how do you figure out your personal golden hour for posting?
Start by looking at the basics—who’s actually following you?
Their age, location, and interests all play a role in when they’re active. A college student doomscrolling at midnight isn’t on the same schedule as a 9-to-5 professional checking their feed during a lunch break.
Also, different industries have different posting rhythms. A fashion brand hyping a new drop is on a totally different wave than a B2B tech startup pushing a product update.
Take a second to think about where your brand fits into that mix.
And yeah, keep an eye on your competitors. Not to copy their every move, but to get a feel for when your shared audience is online. If their posts are blowing up at a certain time, that’s a solid hint that yours might, too.
Time zones matter a lot, especially if your audience is global. If you’re in L.A. but your followers are spread across New York, London, and Tokyo, posting at 9 AM local time might be great for one group but totally miss the others. You gotta balance that.
Then there’s the algorithm game. Social platforms are always tweaking how they surface content, but one thing stays the same—engagement right after posting is key. The faster people interact with your content, the better shot it has at getting pushed to more feeds.
At the end of the day, there’s no universal “best time” to post. What works for one brand won’t necessarily work for another. That’s why testing is everything. Play around with different times, posting frequencies, and content types until you find what clicks with your audience. Stay flexible, experiment, and keep adjusting.
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