Posting on Facebook and any other form of social media can be daunting for new users and boring or those in the know. The age old question is 'When is the best time to post on my facebook page to get the most interaction?' Hopefully I will be able to provide you with some answers before it all changes, like a google algorithm!

In my research I chose to stick with 3 reference websites, sproutsocial, falcon.io and oberlo and came up with completely different results.

Socialsprout broke down their 'best times' to relevant interaction.

Global Engagement - 

  • Wednesday at noon and 2 pm and Thursday at 1 and 2 pm
  • Thursday is the best day to post on Facebook in the week.
  • The weekends, evenings and early mornings had the least amount of engagement for Facebook in the week.

Nonprofits - 

  • Wednesday and Friday at 2 pm with other notably high engagement times include Monday at 9 am, Tuesday at 6 pm, Thursday at 10 am and noon and Friday at 9 and 11 am
  • Weekends & Mondays seeing less engagement in the week for nonprofits on Facebook.

Educational - 

  • Thursday at 2 and 3 pm
  • Fridays and weekends drive the least amount of engagement.
  • Engagement spikes later in the evening on weekends.

Healthcare - 

  • Friday at noon with Midday posting working best Sunday through Friday.
  • Other notable highly engaged times are Monday at 2 pm, Wednesday from noon to 1 pm, Thursday at 2 and 7 to 8 pm and Sunday at noon and 2 pm
  • Saturday has the least amount of engagement for healthcare brands.

Techs - 

  • Monday at 11 am and Tuesday from 10 am to noon.
  • The lowest amount of Facebook engagements are on Saturday with egagement droping off on early mornings and late nights every day.

Consumers - 

  • Thursday at 2 pm and Friday at 11 am with other notable high engagement times being Wednesday 11 am to 3 pm, Thursday at 4 pm and Friday from 10 am to 3 pm
  • Weekends have the lowest engagement rates for consumer goods brands.

 

Falcon.io found that Friday's have the happiest posts

Falcon.io's results come to the conclusion that the best time to post on Facebook is between noon to 4pm with the best days to post being Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.(2)

Not only do Fridays (Thrusday being a close 2nd) account for 17% of all Facebook comments and 16% of all likes and shares, they also have the highest happiness index of any day of the week at 10% (Falcon.io site these statistics were from research from TruConversion).

Oberlo came to the concusion that the peak time for workers was between 1pm and 4pm during work hours

Orberlo's results show that for maximum exposure to your following, the best time to post on Facebook during the week is between 1 pm and 4 pm during work hours. That’s likely because many Facebook users browse on their desktops and check it during downtime at work. Although the best time to post on Facebook on a Sunday is at 3 pm(3)

  • The best days to post on Facebook are Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
  • Tuesday is the worst day to post on Facebook.
  • Weekends get the highest level of engagement on Facebook.

Things to consider when posting to Facebook

Times and days to post

  • Think about your target market, who they are (females / males / corporate) and what they are (parents / students / gamers / small or large business etc...?)
  • When would be the best time to engage with them on social media? 

Target audience location

Whether you are creating a post or scheduling a post for facebook (or any other social media platforms) take into account the audience location. For example what is the time zone of your target market? Let's say an Australian tourism company is planning on posting a promotion to attract Americans to Australia the post will need to be scheduled for the American time zone. Posting to an Australian time zone will mean you are missing your target audience with losses to engagement, shares and likes. 

(1) Sproutsocial (2018) - Alex York, Best Times to Post on Social Media: 2018 Industry Research (13/03/2018) https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/ 

(2) Falcon.io (2018) - Nocole Mrtins Ferreira, The Best Time to Post on Social Media in 2018 (31/10/2018) https://au.oberlo.com/blog/best-time-post-social-media 

(3) Oberlo (2018) - Maxwell Gollin, What Are the Best Times to Post on Social Media in 2018? (18/09/2018)  https://www.falcon.io/insights-hub/topics/social-media-management/best-time-to-post-on-social-media-2018/