The Best Times to Post on Twitter
It’s safe to say that there have been many times where I’ve Googled the best times to post on Twitter. And there’s a good chance you’ve been in this exact same place before as well. I mean, we all want to make sure our content is being seen by our audience! Otherwise, what’s the point? We’ll miss out on engagement and conversions, making us feel like we’re wasting time on social media.
But if you think back to the time you made that Google search, you were probably overwhelmed with the amount of results that came back. There are so many sources across the web claiming to share the best times to post on Twitter and other platforms. And it’s up to you to use that information and create a posting schedule that’s all your own. In this post, I want to share with you exactly how to do that.
Why Your Posting Time Matters
If you’re just posting whenever you want without any kind of strategy behind it, you could be missing out on a lot of exposure. Here’s the thing… According to the stats shared by Oberlo, Twitter has 330 million monthly active users and 145 million daily users. And 500 million tweets are sent each day, meaning that’s about 5,787 tweets per second.
There’s a lot happening on Twitter each and every day. Honestly, it’s easy to get buried in the noise of the platform. That’s why you want to be smart about when you’re posting so you stand a better chance at being seen. Because if your content isn’t getting seen by the right people, you aren’t going to get the engagement you desire.
The Best Times to Post on Twitter
To increase your odds of getting noticed on Twitter, I’ve rounded up some of the best posting times from a few of my favorite resources across the web. Take a look at their research and implement their best times to post on Twitter to see if they work for you.
Ideal Posting Times According to Sprout Social
Sprout Social took things to the next level when researching the best times to post on Twitter. They have broken it down based on global engagement, but they also analyzed data for specific fields. Those fields include consumer goods, media, education, nonprofit, tech, healthcare, finance, and recreation.
For the sake of this post, we’ll be focusing on overall global engagement on Twitter. You can see the results of their data in the graph shared above. What they found is that, across all industries, people tend to check Twitter in the morning to catch up on news and updates they may have missed overnight. This even rings true for weekends! They’ve also found that engagement seems to drop off later in the day, with the lowest periods happening before 4 a.m. and after 10 p.m.
Based on Sprout Social’s data, the best times to post on Twitter are Wednesday and Friday at 9 a.m. So, get those important posts out first thing in the morning if you want them to stand a chance at gaining the most traction. Wednesday and Friday are, overall, the best days for engagement, while Saturday has shown to be the worst.
For more data, check out their insights here.
Ideal Posting Times According to Hootsuite
My friends at Hootsuite decided to look at the best times to post on Twitter for both B2B and B2C brands. Depending on whether you’re targeting other businesses or consumers with your content, you’ll want to review their data accordingly.
Their research was based on data that was gathered over the course of 2018 and 2019, however it’s still valuable information today. Based on the graph above, you can see that the best time to post for B2B brands was deemed to be between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Eastern on Monday or Thursday. More data they shared backed up Sprout Social’s findings that Saturday was the worst day to post.
However, if your brand is B2C, Hootsuite’s data suggests posting at 12 p.m. or 1 p.m. Eastern from Monday to Wednesday for the best results. Their data for B2C didn’t seem to indicate one day was worse than another in terms of engagement though.
For more of Hootsuite’s insights, give their post a read here.
Make Sure You Figure Out What Works for You
Your audience is different from that of everyone else. That means when one brand’s audience is online and active on the platform, it doesn’t mean yours is active then as well. You need to figure out when your unique audience is online in order to find your best times to post on Twitter. Then, you can cater your posting schedule to them. After all, they’re the ones who matter the most!
Now, that doesn’t mean to disregard all of the advice shared in this post. It just means this is an opportunity for you to experiment and see what works best. Incorporate some of these times into your posting schedule, but also use a tool or two to find out when your audience is online. There are a few options to help you do this.
Third-party tool, Tweriod (shown above), will analyze your account and show ideal posting times for Sunday, Monday, weekdays, and weekends. You’ll also see a graph that depicts when most of your followers are online as well. Followerwonk can provide your best posting times, as well as many other useful statistics (especially if you upgrade to a pro account).
But wait! Twitter has a tool that can help you as well.
If you have access to Twitter’s Media Studio, there are some helpful analytics you can make use of there. Simply go to the dropdown menu with Media Studio and select the “Insights” option from the navigation bar and then “Audience.” From there, you’ll see a graph that shows when users are online and engaging with content. You can use this information to create your custom posting schedule based on when your audience is most active.
And Lastly, Tweak Your Schedule as Needed
Your best posting times won’t stay the same year after year. It’s worthwhile to check in and see how your tweets are performing. If engagement seems to be low, change up your schedule by sharing content at different times to see if that helps. In fact, I would recommend reviewing your posting times on a monthly basis just to ensure that you’re seeing the best results possible.