Best Time to Post on Facebook

Best Time to Post on Facebook

The best time to post on Facebook may not be when you think it is.  While most businesses may operate Monday thru Friday from 9am – 5pm, Facebook is open 24 hours a day.  Therefore, if you simply post on Facebook during business hours on business days, you may be missing some peak opportunities in which to market to your target audience.

Buddymedia.com published a report recently detailing the best time to post on Facebook.

We analyzed all Facebook Wall posts from the Buddy Media Platform by a sample size of more than 200 clients over a two week period: January 30, 2011 – February 12, 2011. “Likes” and comments made to these posts were also analyzed.  This sample size represents the world’s largest brands in the entertainment, media, retail, automotive, business and finance, fashion, food and beverage, healthcare and beauty and travel and hospitality industries.  We looked at three primary success metrics in relation to Wall Posts:

  • Comment Rate: number of comments as a percentage of fan base
  • ‘Like’ Rate: number of ‘likes’ as a percentage of fan base
  • Engagement Rate: a combination of the above factoring in fan base size

Best Time to Post on Facebook

The study found that the best time to post on Facebook has three peak times: early morning (7 a.m. EST), after work (5 p.m. EST) and late at night (11 p.m. EST). As such, you can see that posting all of your updates during the workday means you’re missing key opportunities to engage fans at non-work hours.

The days of the week are important as well.  With e-mail blasts, you generally want to avoid sending e-mails on Fridays, however, is Friday the best time to post on Facebook?  Surprisingly, yes.   Mashable.com states that Thursday and Friday have 18% more engagement than other days of the week, suggesting that Facebook is a procrastination tool when people are itching to get out of the office. But don’t start stacking all of your Facebook updates on Thursday and Friday — the study found interesting user patterns and engagement trends throughout the week that are unique to particular industries.

In conclusion, there is a difference between social media marketing and other types of marketing.  While traditional marketing has us focusing on business hours and the beginning of the week, studies are showing that the best time to post on Facebook is outside of business hours during the end of the week.

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