Knowing when to post is as important as knowing what to post, whether trying to grow a brand or trying to increase engagement on Instagram. On one of the most dynamic online platforms where millions of posts go live every day, the timing will be quite critical in ensuring content isn’t buried. Knowing the best and worst times to post to Instagram makes the difference between being read by thousands and simply being lost in the noise.
Here’s how to know when to post for maximum engagement, and when to avoid hitting that publish button.
Best Times to Post on Instagram
Weekdays: Early Mornings and Evenings
Research has shown that one’s followers are on Instagram either when they have breaks at work or at the end of a working day. That means one should post within these crucial windows to be certain the content will be viewed. Generally, the best times when one should post something on Instagram are between 6 A.M. to 9 A.M., and 5 P.M. to 8 P.M. Early morning posting captures those on the feed right then, either commuting or getting ready for work, while evening posting captures those people who just get home from work or school and are getting relaxed—getting into engaging content.
Wednesday: The Peak Engagement Day
Most studies seem to agree that Wednesday might be the best day overall to post on Instagram. Indeed, during the middle of the morning through to the early afternoon—from about 11 am to 2 pm—engagement peaks. In many cases, this has been understood to be because users need to take breaks from work for at least just a little bit.
Weekends: Mornings
While it seems to be the perfect time for posting, it isn’t, since it totally depends upon your audience. For most users, Saturday and Sunday morning from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. is ideal since it may be taken as a time for casually browsing in order to enjoy their laid-back morning. Later, the users are pretty inactive.
Global Audience Considerations
If your audience is global, you will have to consider time zones. In fact, tools like Instagram Insights will even show you when your distinct audience is most active to help you target those peak times across the globe. A time zone-sensitive strategy may include staggering your posting schedule to fit wherever a majority of your segments reside.
Worst Times to Post on Instagram
Late Nights and Early Morning: 10 p.m.-4 a.m.
While it can be super tempting to post anytime, really, when inspiration strikes, late-night hours are really the worst time for most audiences to post. In this period, most users log off, sleep, or generally go slow toward the end of the day. The rate of engagement decreases massively, translating into many fewer likes, comments, and shares of your post.
Mid-afternoon: 1 pm-4 pm
This is often a dead zone, as most users will be either at work or in school. However, that may be different for specific industries, such as targeting students or creatives who, at one moment or another, can work. As a general rule, it is not the best time of day to post.
Monday Morning
Generally, Mondays are slow into the morning—pretty much. People are focused on starting their week and checking on Instagram really goes down the list. If you think of making a big announcement or publishing something important, it will be wiser to save it for later in the day, or any other day of the week.
Making the Perfect Posting Time Easy
While general guidelines are a good starting point, your audience may not actually follow that pattern. Here’s how to find your best posting times:
- Use Instagram Insights: Using the built-in analytics tool of Instagram will let you see when your followers are most active. You can track day-to-day and hour-to-hour activity trends using the “Audience” section in Instagram Insights.
- Experiment with Different Times: That means one should also try publishing at different hours of the day for some couple of weeks to notice what gives the best engagement. Let the engagement metrics speak for themselves.
- Consider Using Scheduling Tools: Buffer, Later, and Hootsuite are some of the tools that will help in planning and scheduling posts for optimum times, with better honing of strategy. Most of such tools are analytics-backed.
Timing on Instagram is everything, but generally, it’s felt that morning and evening weekdays are the best times to post. That can be considered subjective, since time and audiences differ in behavior. Unless your audience defies the trend, try to avoid posting in late nights or mid-afternoon when conventionally, activities tend to be slow. If you need help with Instagram content creation service, you may let us know. Keep tabs using Instagram Insights on when your audience is on the app, then start making tweaks to find those golden posting times to reach and engage your audience.
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