What Are the Best Times to Post to Social Media? A Guide for Businesses

Are you putting a sincere effort into creating quality content for your social media channels? If so, you’ll probably want to show off your posts with timing that gets you more clicks, engagements, and visibility.

Find out the best days, times, and frequency to schedule social media content on the top 4 social platforms for business. You’ll also discover tips and tricks on how to make your content stand out from your competition.

The recommendations in this article were developed by comparing 2017 social media data and experiments by HubSpot, Simply Measured, Revive, and CoSchedule.

Pick a Time Zone

Pick a time zone before you schedule posts.

If you’re a local business, this is a no-brainer. Schedule in your own time zone.

If you’re marketing nationally, then it’s good to know that 80% of the U.S. population exists in the Central and Eastern time zones (50% on the east coast alone).

Are you still undecided about which time zone to cater to?

Take a look at your audience.

• Where is your business getting the best response?




• Where are your buyers most likely to be located?

Or, choose the central time zone, because it strikes a nice balance between the east and west coasts.

When to Schedule Facebook Posts

Here are generic recommendations, based on data, for when to schedule content on Facebook.

• Once a day: Post your content once a day and no more than 5 times a week




• Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are the best days to post




• 9 p.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. are the best times of day to post to Facebook

What’s best for your audience?

Take it a step further by studying your Facebook page insights.

• Click on “insights” at the top of your Facebook page




• Then click on “posts” in the left sidebar

The visuals show you when your audience is online.

In the example above, you can see that the audience is greatest at 5 p.m., and Sundays are the busiest day of the week. It also tells us that the numbers are close between 4 - 6 p.m. any day of the week.

Facebook Posting Tips

• Get more clicks by posting at 1 p.m. or get more shares by posting at 3 p.m.

• Post high-quality content.

Hoping to go viral? A September 2017 report by Hubspot Marketing says that when you do go viral on Facebook, you’ll have more success and higher numbers than on any other social channel. But they also claim…

“The number of median clicks for all accounts is actually 0 because only really good content on Facebook gets surfaced highly.” –How Frequently Should I Publish on Social Media, HubSpot

When to Schedule LinkedIn Posts

LinkedIn scheduling is different than the other social media networks since it’s primarily a B2B professional network.

Here are some general recommendations:

• At least once a month. Twice a week is ideal: Post no more than once per weekday. Skip the weekends.




• Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days to post.




• Between 7 - 8 am, at noon, or between 5 - 6 p.m. are the best times of day to post to LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Posting Tips

Avoid posting on LinkedIn from 5 to 6 p.m. Most data agree that the majority of people aren’t active on LinkedIn after the workday. A 5 p.m. posting is cutting it close to getting buried at the bottom of tomorrow’s feed.

Publish original content and promote it on your social media channels.

The majority of LinkedIn’s most successful authors published slightly over 800 words at least once a month.

According to LinkedIn, the top qualities of viral posts have just as much to do with what happens after an article has been posted as they do with the article itself.

“...Across the world, the same formula worked to develop an audience: consistency, depth, an authentic desire to create conversations (not just content).”

When to Schedule Twitter Posts

There are wildly different recommendations about the best posting frequency for Twitter.



Some say 14 times a day, while others suggest 3 - 5 tweets daily.

But, if you dig deeper, you’ll discover that many of the suggestions (even those with reports at the top of Google search results) are based on data compiled before 2015.

A bit of research and experimenting can go a long way here.

Check out your competitors and see what’s working for them.

Take a close look at your audience and their engagement patterns.

Or, go with HubSpot’s philosophy, which says “the more, the better.”

Twitter Posting Tips

• Wednesdays are the most popular day for posting




• Use Twitter Analytics or Twitter analytic tools to discover more about your audience, so you can tailor your posting schedule




• B2B companies, post during business hours




• B2C companies, post on weekends




• Noon, 3 p.m., and 5 - 6 p.m. are the best times of day to post to Twitter

When to Schedule Instagram Posts

Here are generic recommendations, based on data, for when to schedule Instagram posts.

• 1 - 2 times per day




• Mondays and Thursdays are the best days to post




• 8 to 9 a.m. and 2 a.m. are the best times of day to post to Instagram

Instagram Posting Tips

Take advantage of Instagram’s analytics and insights. They use the same platform as Facebook, so it’s easy to discover ways to tailor schedules to your audience.

Work your hashtags. Instagram tagging should be a top priority for your company. You can add up to 30 hashtags in the first comment box.



Still struggling with hashtag mastery? Udemy offers a free course on hashtags that will get you up to speed in an hour.

Post original content. Instagram posting policies are strict. If you’re going to curate, be sure to fully understand the platform's copyright policies first.

What’s the best way to decide when to post to social media?

Below is a brief summary of the best social media posting schedule for businesses.

The above recommendations are a great starting point, especially if you’re new to social media. But, they’re only the beginning. Every audience and industry is unique.

Use the generic recommendations to get started, but follow your insights and analytics closely. You’ll probably discover slight variations that can make a big difference in your success.

Interested in more tips for overcoming popular social media challenges? Read new data and case studies of what businesses find challenging about social media and how they tackle the hurdles.