When it comes to developing an effective Instagram strategy, one that engages an audience and boosts brand awareness, there are a number of factors to consider. Many of these facets have to do with the nature of your content; for example, success on Instagram hinges on high-quality photos and videos, engaging captions, and relevant hashtags, among other things.
An issue that’s easier to overlook is timing. Simply put, certain hours of the day are more effective for posting Instagram content, more likely to garner the attention of your followers. So while it’s certainly important to think about what you’re posting, it’s just as important to think about when you’re posting it.
With all of that said, what’s the best time to post information to Instagram? The prime time for posting may vary a little from brand to brand, and you may need to work it out with a bit of trial and error. And yet, there’s also some robust data that indicates when the ideal posting times are for most businesses and brands.
When are Instagram Users Most Active?
The first thing to keep in mind is that the world is divided into distinct time zones. If you run a brick-and-mortar business, then you can simply default to the time zone in which your store is actually located; it’s a safe bet that most of your customers will be located in this time zone, too. If you cater to users from all around the country, you may need to dig into your customer data to see which time zone is most representative of your buyers.
Once you’ve made a determination about the time zone to focus on, the next step is to simply think logically about when most people tend to check into their social media feeds. For example, many of us like to spend a few minutes scrolling through our social media feeds before we get out of bed to start the day. So, posting content between 7:00 and 8:00 in the morning can be a good way to catch people’s full attention.
Similarly, many of us pause to check out social media feeds while on our lunch break. To catch lunchtime users, try posting content in the sweet spot between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM.
It may also be helpful to post content just a few minutes before the hour… for example, posting at 10:57 instead of at 11:00. This way, you can catch some of the folks who take a quick social media break before a meeting, or before a Zoom call, or before they start their next hour of productive work.
One more pointer: Weekends tend to operate with a different set of rules than weekdays. For example, posting between 6:00 and 8:00 in the evening is usually not a good strategy on Wednesdays or Thursdays, but statistically it’s the best time to post on Sundays, as many users will be winding down from their weekend activities and starting to shift their focus to the start of a new week.
The Worst Times to Post on Instagram
There are a number of ideal windows to share content to Instagram, but also a few “dead spots” that you’ll want to be cautious about. For example, Saturdays have historically been the days with the lowest social media engagement. That doesn’t mean you should ignore them altogether, but you should probably post on Saturdays sparingly unless you have hard data showing that your followers are active on the weekends.
Sundays also tend to be weaker days for social media interaction. Weekdays on the whole are better, for even here there is some distinction. For example, Monday is the worst weekday to post content to Instagram, simply because so many people are focused on their workweek routine and are thus a little less plugged into social media.
Caveats About Posting to Instagram
In this post, we’ve outlined some general phenomena about the best times to post on Instagram. While these recommendations are based on real data points, it’s important to note that these are generalizations. The ideal posting time can vary quite a bit depending on the demographics of your user base, especially age demographics.
As such, we don’t recommend simply posting at the same time every day or every week and trusting that it’s the optimal one. Instead, it can be valuable to experiment with a few different times, to keep track of your engagement numbers, and to base your posting decisions on specific information about your followers.
Remember that in the digital space things change fast, so always be trying new things and use data-driven analysis to ensure the best return on your marketing investment.
To chat further about any of this, connect with the enCOMPASS Agency team any time.
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