Now that you’ve optimized your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook pages, it’s time to look at how we can get the most “bang” for our social buck by identifying the best times to post and engage online. While experimenting with your posting times can’t hurt, it is always good to have some basic knowledge to start with. For example, Facebook posts generally have 18% higher engagement rates on Thursdays and Fridays, so that is probably a time when you should make sure to have a presence! Keep in mind that this is a general guide: a starting place. First we will go over suggested best times to post within the industry, and then we will dive deeper into how you can really hone in on what’s working best for your audience by reading the analytics from these platforms.

Best Times to Post

Facebook Generally speaking the best days to post on Facebook are on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – with a spike in engagement on Thursdays specifically. And, links sent between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. tend to get the most traction. There have been some new findings showing that weekends are gaining momentum and B2C companies are showing a 32% increase in engagement on weekends, so the end of the week is definitely a time to start experimenting with.

LinkedIn If LinkedIn is your primary network, you’ll want to post midweek from Tuesday to Thursday. LinkedIn is most often used right before the work day starts or shortly after it ends, so try posting early morning or evening. On Mondays, most professionals are getting into the workweek and less likely to see your posts. Fridays will also get you less traction as many professionals are wrapping up the week and leaving early for the weekend. Interestingly, however, Saturday and Sundays on LinkedIn also have a spike in engagement as folks use this time to catch up on their social networking sites. Twitter Most Twitter users are mobile and tend to engage with Twitter throughout the day, every day – yet a recent study shows that Twitter engagement is higher during commuting times, and on the weekends. It is recommended to forget about posting on Fridays after 3:00 pm.

 

image source: danzarrella.com

Adjust Posting Times for YOUR Audience

Since we’ve covered general guidelines on the best time to post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, let’s move into how you can figure out the best time to post for your specific audience by reading the analytics. There are a couple of ways to do this.

1. Using Google Analytics

Google Analytics is constantly improving. We love this relatively new feature of being able to determine acquisition by channel type. If you are logged in and familiar with Google Analytics, navigate to Acquisition > Social > Overview to see which channels are netting you the most traffic. From there you can click a network to view which URL’s were visited and which days had the most traffic.

2. Using Native Analytics

Facebook: You can access Facebook Analytics by visiting your Fan Page, and clicking on See Insights. From there you can view Page Likes, Post Reach and Engagement. The Posts tab will show you which day of the week your fans are online.

LinkedIn: Access LinkedIn Company Page Analytics by going to your Company Page, then clicking on the Analytics tab. You can view Audience, Impressions, Clicks, Interactions or more.

Twitter: Twitter does not currently offer an in-house analytics tool, but if you choose to use paid advertising on Twitter, you can measure that. An okay work-around for this is looking at the Google Analytics traffic from Twitter to your website (as mentioned above), because then you can see which Tweets with links to your website were clicked the most and base future posts off that timing. Also, simply paying attention to when people ReTweet or ‘favorite’ your Tweets the most can help you get a general idea.

Posting and engagement for your individual firm may vary from the general public. We recommend that financial advisors test out different times, days of the week and types of posts to see what your audience seems to engage with. But, most of all… have fun with it and don’t be afraid to experiment! !