- The Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2021, According to 12 Million Posts
- Why These Are the Most Effective Times to Post
- How to Find Your Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2021:
- Understand How Instagram’s Algorithm Impacts Your Views
- Option #1: Find Your Top Time Zones & See When Your Followers Are Online
- Option #2: Experiment with Posting Times and Measure Your Progress
- Do Time Zones Matter?
- Best times to post on Instagram for B2C companies
- Best times to post on Instagram for media companies
- Best times for the education sector to post on Instagram
- Monday to Friday
- Saturday & Sunday
- Which time zone to use?
- The Best Day to Post on Instagram For Likes
- The Best Day to Post on Instagram For Comments
- Best Times to Post on Instagram for Non-Profit Organizations
The Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2021, According to 12 Million Posts
When is the best time to post on Instagram?
The short answer: it depends on where your followers are located!
Later recently analyzed 12 million Instagram posts and found that the best overall time to post on Instagram is between 9am and 11am EST But that may not be the best time to post for your business.
Every Instagram account has a unique audience with followers located across different cities, countries, and time zones so it’s important to find your personalized best time to post on Instagram Below, we explain how to find your best time to post on Instagram, plus we break down the best times for each day of the week. Here’s a breakdown of our findings for quick reference:
- Monday: 6am, 10am, and 10pm EST
- Tuesday: 2am, 4am, and 9am EST
- Wednesday: 7am, 8am, and 11pm EST
- Thursday: 9am, 12pm, and 7pm EST
- Friday: 5am, 1pm, and 3pm EST
- Saturday: 11am, 7pm, and 8pm EST
- Sunday: 7am, 8am, and 4pm EST
Source: later.com
Why These Are the Most Effective Times to Post
If you consider your own work week, you’ll know that your routine and daily mood may shift from day to day. These subtle changes can affect when and how you engage on social media platforms Many active social media users check their phones first thing when they wake up during the work week. Monday morning is often a bit too hectic; that’s why an early morning posting time Tuesday to Friday tends to generate higher engagement.
During mid-day lunch hour, people are also apt to check in on media platforms. And late afternoon is another peak time, since people’s mental energy starts to fade, and social networking can provide a welcome respite.
Saturday morning is another prime time with lots of traffic on Instagram. Many people are relaxed, or they may be out enjoying time with friends and family. This makes some people want to connect through social media and can make them more likely to view your content.
Source: expertvoice.com
How to Find Your Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2021:
Here are a few tools and features that can help you nail down your personal best times to post on Instagram:
Later’s Best Time to Post feature automatically calculates your top 7 posting times on Instagram so you can schedule in batches and publish without a hitch
Instagram Insights can be used to find your top time zones and see when the majority of your followers are online
Spreadsheets can help you keep track of your posting experiments and measure your progress
If you want to skip the experiments and get right to the good data, an Instagram marketing platform like Later can do the work for you!
Like we just mentioned, Later’s Best Time to Post feature automatically calculates your 7 top posting times based on your best-performing posts from the recent month:
If you’re on one of Later’s business plans , your best times to post will be automatically highlighted in your weekly content calendar, making it super easy to schedule your Instagram posts when your audience is most active.
Source: later.com
Understand How Instagram’s Algorithm Impacts Your Views
When considering the best time to post to Instagram, you should understand how Instagram’s algorithm affects what people see. Instagram’s algorithm focuses on “recency,” so new posts are most likely to appear in users’ feeds. This means your goal should be to ensure your posts are “recent” when your target users are most likely to be visiting Instagram.
Instagram’s algorithm also evaluates the engagement of each post when determining whether to present it to your audiences. If you know the best time to post on Instagram, you can help foster engagement and help each Instagram post reach all your audience segments.
Source: expertvoice.com
Option #1: Find Your Top Time Zones & See When Your Followers Are Online
When it comes to the best time to post on Instagram, it’s essential to think about the time zones of your Instagram followers.
The best thing you can do to find your optimal posting time for Instagram is to research your audience using Instagram’s native analytics tool , Instagram Insights.
Instagram Insights gives you everything you could ask for: you can see where your followers are located, their gender, their age, and, most importantly, when they’re most active on Instagram.
Just keep in mind that in order to access Insights, you’ll need to set up an Instagram business profile or an Instagram creator profile One of the added benefits of switching to a creator profile is that you also get access to the Instagram Creator Studio dashboard, which is packed with valuable audience insights, including advanced data for when your followers are online.
Creator profiles also get access to growth insights and discovery data:
If you’re on one of Later’s paid plans , you can also track key insights about your followers directly in your Later dashboard with Later’s Instagram Analytics With Later’s Instagram analytics, you can track key insights about your followers, including their age, gender, location, languages, and more These kinds of metrics are perfect for fine-tuning your content strategy!
For example, you can use your audience data to pinpoint your top time zones and find out when your followers are most active on Instagram right from your desktop.
You can also use Later’s Instagram audience analytics to track when your audience is most active on Instagram and then use that data to optimize your posting times.
Once you have a clear understanding of your best times and days to post on Instagram, you can easily schedule your posts at those times
Source: later.com
Option #2: Experiment with Posting Times and Measure Your Progress
If you’d rather crunch the numbers yourself, you can create a spreadsheet to track how much engagement you receive when you post at different times on different days.
Start by picking five different times throughout the week.
For example, if you notice that your followers are most active between 5pm and 9pm EST, schedule your posts to appear at 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9pm.
In your spreadsheet, track how many likes and comments each post receives, along with the date and time that you posted them.
The following week, switch the timing of your posts for each day. For example, if you posted at 5pm on Monday in week 1, post at 6pm during week 2.
It might take a few weeks, but you can use this information to help you choose the best days to share to specific networks based on your own audience, along with the times that work best for getting traffic on those specific days.
Source: later.com
Do Time Zones Matter?
In short, yes. If your primary audience lives in a specific region, such as the East Coast, be sure to use the suggested times of their local time zone.
Likewise, if you know you are catering to a non-U.S. audience, you should take their time zones into account. Even if your audience is widespread across multiple time zones, you can still follow the same essential guide to decide when to post on Instagram and build strong connections with all your followers.
For example, you may want to post to Instagram at the common wake-up time, schedule another post during mid-day, and schedule one or more in the late afternoon in your target time zone. If you’re audience spans multiple time zones, you may be able to have some social media posts do “double duty.” This means they can work as a wake-up post in one time zone and a mid-afternoon post in another.
If this sounds complicated, you should know that there are tools that can help determine the best time to post on Instagram. There are built-in Instagram tools you can use and other third-party tools are available, too. With some research, you can determine the right tool, or mix of tools to understand the best time to post on Instagram, while measuring and managing your Instagram outreach efforts.
Source: expertvoice.com
Best times to post on Instagram for B2C companies
Wednesday at 3pm is the best time for B2C companies to get engagement on Instagram and Wednesday is the best day for getting engagement overall. Sundays are to be avoided.
So when should you be planning your best posts using your social media scheduling tools Queue them up for any time from Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 3pm, because you’ll see the biggest flow of traffic then.
Why do these times work best?
Lunchtime is always a good time for engagement, then from 1pm to 3pm most of us experience a ‘sugar slump’ where we’re easily distracted from whatever it is we should be doing.
At these times Instagram has never been so tempting.
The times B2C brands don’t get any worthwhile engagement is before 5am and after 9pm on weekdays.
Source: contentcal.io
Best times to post on Instagram for media companies
Unique in their output, media companies differ to other sectors when it comes to finding the best time to post on Instagram.
The peak time for engagement is Friday at 9 am (Friday is the best weekday overall).
The worst days for media companies to post is at the weekend.
Other high-engagement times are Monday to Friday from 8am to 10am, or from 2pm to 4pm. Or in other words, not during lunch.
Keep this in mind when creating your social media plan
Source: contentcal.io
Best times for the education sector to post on Instagram
Instagram is great for alerting students to upcoming events, engaging with past alumni, and marketing their offerings. Plus users of Instagram Live where they can stream video in real-time.
But educational institutions should also run on a different timetable when it comes to posting to Instagram.
Friday at 10am is the peak time for schools, colleges and other educational institutions to reach an engaged audience.
Friday in general is the best day to get engagement, and Sunday is the worst day overall.
But you can’t just wait for Friday to post. Save your best material for then, and be sure to post in the afternoons and evenings through from Tuesday to Saturday.
Be sure to avoid posting before and 8am and after 11pm, because you’ll get limited engagement.
Source: contentcal.io
Monday to Friday
7am – 9am (morning commute)
12pm – 2pm (lunch hours)
5pm – 6pm (end of work day)
9pm – 11pm (bed time scrolling)
Source: hopperhq.com
Saturday & Sunday
9am – 11am
2pm – 5pm
Source: hopperhq.com
Which time zone to use?
If you already have followers:
Use the time zone that most of your followers are in for most of your posts.
Why? The more engagement your content gets shortly after posting, the more people Instagram will show it to. See the section below for all the details on Instagram’s algorithm.
How:
1. Make sure you have an Instagram business account 2. Open the Instagram app menu 3. Go to “Insights” 4. Go to the “Audience” tab and see what your top audience locations are If you have a brand new account:
Use the time zone that most of your target audience is in! If you’re targeting the entire world, use EST as it’s a good balance between the US (which has the largest number of users) and Europe.
Source: hopperhq.com
The Best Day to Post on Instagram For Likes
Take note, weekend warriors.
Posts on Saturday rake in the most likes, with as a close second.
So when’s the best time to post on Instagram for likes?
According to our research, the best time of day to post on Instagram for likes is also on Saturday at 5:00 p.m (UTC) 🌙 Here are the next best average slots:
Tuesday at 8:00 p.m UTC 🌙
Friday at 3:00 p.m UTC ☀️
Friday at 8:00 p.m UTC 🌙
Source: tailwindapp.com
The Best Day to Post on Instagram For Comments
Maybe comments are more your speed.
We don’t blame you – with Instagram hiding likes , other metrics of engagement are taking a front-row focus.
If you want more comments on your Instagram posts, try posting on This day doesn’t lead by much, so you should also target in your posting schedule!
Source: tailwindapp.com
Best Times to Post on Instagram for Non-Profit Organizations
Best Times : Tuesday at 3:00 PM & 9:00 PM, Wednesday at 3:00 PM & 4:00 PM, Thursday at 2:00 PM & 3:00 PM, and Friday at 10:00 AM & 2:00 PM, Most Consistent Engagement : Weekdays from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM Best Day : Tuesday Worst Day : Saturday Every brand’s audience is different. To build a sizable, engaged Instagram audience, you need to know who your followers are. And one of the best ways to get to know your audience and capture their attention is by knowing exactly when they like to surf the app.
Source: blog.hubspot.com
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