The Best Time to Post on Social Media in 2022

Article by Nicole Martins Ferreira4 Jan, 2023

Knowing what to post on social media is just half the battle. When is the perfect time to share your content? The best times to post on social media are when your customers and followers are online.

Of course, there are actual times that work best for each platform, and we’ll dive into that in this article. You'll also learn how to factor in the time zones of your audience when deciding when to hit that Post button.

Create a posting schedule based on different time zones

The more popular your brand, the more time zones you’ll likely need to take into account. Some influencers and brands send out the same message at different times to hit all time zones. Ideally, you want to reach the majority of time zones without overdoing it. Aim to send no more than four of the same message in a single day, and schedule the posts for different times to reach as many countries as possible.

Where are your customers located? If you’re targeting the United States and Canada, you want to hit the Eastern (ET) time zone, as it’s the zone with the highest number of people, thanks to cities like New York and Toronto. However, if your target audience is in London, you want to post within the GMT zone.

You can use social media analytics tools to find data about where your customers are located. Using this data, you can better plan which times work best for your audience based on their location.

Best time to post on Instagram

If you’re marketing or selling on Instagram, the best time to post is weekday mornings. Schedule your post for 11 a.m. on a Monday, while 10 a.m. should be your posting time from Tuesday to Friday. But it’s OK if you post a little later these four days.

Overall, the best times post on Instagram are given below:

When to post on Instagram?

11 a.m. on Mondays
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays

Best days to post on Instagram:

Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Instagram’s best posting times are linked to follower engagement being highest at midday during the weekdays. Top times range between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., while weekends and evenings also show improved opportunities for engagement.

Posting before midday gives you a better chance of popping up on people’s Instagram feeds when they first open the app. However, make sure to analyze your customer profile before you schedule posts to go out early.

If your target audience consists of B2B executives or brands, you might get better results posting at lunchtime or during office hours while they’re exploring different solutions.

Best time to post on Facebook

Facebook users are always scrolling their feeds, but weekday early mornings and mid-mornings show the most consistent engagement. Limit posting on Saturdays, as you won’t get much engagement on this day of the week.

When to post on Facebook?

3 a.m. on Mondays through Fridays
10 a.m. and noon on Tuesdays

Best days to post on Facebook:

Tuesdays through Fridays

HubSpot’s research found that food, beverage, and agriculture brands have more success posting early morning. In addition, travel and hospitality brands also chose to post in the early hours of the day. Note that the top times listed are recorded in US Central time, so the high early morning engagement also reflects the pattern of Facebook’s global audience.

Best time to post on LinkedIn

Unlike Instagram and Facebook, LinkedIn is a professional social network used by recruiters, salespeople, and business people, which they use for work.

LinkedIn posts get the highest engagement midday, and it doesn’t extend too far out past the US office hours, like in the previous years. The weekend is the worst time to post content on LinkedIn, as engagement declines significantly.

When to post on LinkedIn?

10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays

Best days to post on LinkedIn

Wednesdays and Thursdays

Best time to post on Twitter

Twitter users tend to catch up on the latest news and tweets in the early morning. This is why the best times to post on Twitter for your business are Mondays through Saturdays at 9 a.m.

Usage patterns have changed significantly compared to last year. Now, Twitter users are more engaged during mid mornings and middays. Brands looking to gain traction need to be timely but conscious of the platform’s nature in the process.

When to post on Twitter?

9 a.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays
9 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays

Best days to post on Twitter:

Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Best time to post on TikTok

According to the TikTok marketing statistics, 90% of users access the app on a daily basis. This means you can post at any time throughout the week to get your message in front of people. In general, though, it’s best to post on TikTok in the morning and noon.

When to post on TikTok?

6 a.m./10 a.m./10 p.m. on Mondays
2 a.m./4 a.m./9 a.m. on Tuesdays
7 a.m./8 a.m./11 a.m. on Wednesdays
9 a.m./12 p.m./7 p.m. on Thursdays
5 a.m./1 p.m./3 p.m. on Fridays
11 a.m./7 p.m./8 p.m. on Saturdays
7 a.m./8 a.m./4 p.m. on Sundays

Best days to post on TikTok:

Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays

Best time to post on Pinterest

The best times to post on Pinterest tend to be in the middle of the week and in the evenings.

When to post on Pinterest?

12 p.m. on Tuesdays through Fridays
6 p.m. on Tuesdays through Fridays
8 p.m. on Tuesdays through Fridays

Best days to post on Pinterest:

Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays

Best time to post on Snapchat

Snapchat is considered to be a nocturnal app—most people use it during the night. So keep this in mind when posting snaps about your product or service.

When to post on Snapchat?

10 p.m to 1 a.m. on Mondays through Sundays

Best days to post on Snapchat:

All days of the week

Best time to post on YouTube

YouTube has the highest usage among video marketers, more than Instagram and TikTok. It’s also the platform that will attract the most marketing investment this year. The best times to post on YouTube are afternoons and evenings.

When to post on YouTube?

6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursdays through Sundays
3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursdays through Sundays
12 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursdays through Sundays

Best days to post on YouTube:

Saturdays, Fridays, and Sundays

When is the best time to post on social media?

While the times listed above are averages, you might find your own audience engages more at different times. The best way to determine the best time to post on social media for your brand is to experiment.

You can use social media management tools to schedule posts at various times over several weeks to determine which times tend to work best with your audience.

Don’t forget about your competitors. Track their progress and notice when they get high engagement on their posts. The chances are that these times could work for you too. Test them out or try posting when they’re normally quiet, but remember that each platform is different, so track each one separately to get the best results.

How to use Google Analytics for social media reporting

Once you’ve built an audience and posted a few updates, you want to track your social media efforts. Google Analytics has all the data you need to decide the right times to post on social media. All you need to do is set up Custom Reports for each platform and start analyzing information.

Let’s walk through this process together.

Click on Custom Reports in the left-hand side toolbar on Google Analytics.
Select New Custom Report to start creating your report.
Choose the information you want to see in your report. Below is a basic report for Facebook to show you how to fill in the appropriate fields, but you can add up to 10.
Save the report and view your results. To view the hours of the day, simply choose Hour as your secondary dimension.
Repeat for all important social media traffic providers.
Start crafting your social media schedule around your best times to post.
Use custom reports to track progress and success.

Social media management tools

After creating your social media schedule, you can use social media marketing automation and management tools like Buffer, Later, and Hootsuite, or choose from this list of Instagram tools to schedule posts at a future time.

These tools can help you stay consistent when posting on social media, helping you reach followers even while you’re sleeping. Also, you can use them for testing different times to determine which times generate the most engagement. Plus, you can leverage these tools to schedule the same post several times to reach every time zone or drive traffic back to your website.

Summary of the best time to post on social media in 2022

Regularly monitoring your social media engagement and analyzing your social data can help you find the best times to post on your brand’s Instagram, Facebook, and other social networks. When starting out, you can use our recommendations as guidelines, but remember that every brand is different, and even benchmarks can vary depending on the social media platform and industry.

As your follower count grows, you might notice that your audience engages with you at different times. Each social media platform also changes its algorithms, so you need to stay on top of these changes.

The moral of the story: Never stop testing or experimenting. Don’t be afraid to post on social media on less popular days. While you might not reach your highest percentage of followers, you might be able to reach people you would have missed otherwise.

Want to Learn More?

Do you find a specific time works best for posting on Instagram and other social networks? Let us know in the comments!