Let’s Find Your Best Time to Post on Instagram

The way to succeed on IG is to publish content at the right time.

It's sad, but many users neglect this simple truth and share content whenever it’s convenient. But their target audience (TA) simply won't notice their posts if the wrong timing has been chosen.

There is a stumbling block here: you need to consider many aspects while choosing the best time to post.

Geographically, your audience is scattered across several time zones. For different types of activities, there are different hours of maximum attention of Instagrammers. Success is also dependent on the day.

In brief:
Proper posting time = greater post reach.

This article will explain the most critical subtleties of finding the best time to publish on IG.But before you proceed to the post itself, make sure you have acknowledged all the peculiarities of Instagram content and design [Full Guide].

What do you consider when choosing your best time to post on Instagram?

We have gathered seven basic aspects you need to take into consideration. Remember that by spending some time on meaningful research, you take a huge step towards good performance and quick promotion.

For every TA, area and business segment, you have its best times to post on Instagram.

Weekdays

By examining engagement (ER) throughout the week, you will notice how the audience's activity differs from day to day. Wednesday and Friday are the days of the most involvement, which, on the contrary, cannot be said about Saturday and Sunday.

On Mondays, we usually have extra workload (work issues have accumulated over the weekend) and there is not much time left for scrolling the IG feed. But with each following working day, we spend more and more time online.

We do not recommend posting on weekends as people’s attention and activities are directed to the offline world — that is not Instagram best time to post.

Set priorities and carefully plan the publication of posts. Thus, the best content should be posted on the days of the users' highest engagement. Of course, this does not mean that no one will see your posts on other days, but first-class content deserves the maximum attention of the TA. Agreed?

In general, the time of the greatest post reach on each day of the week remains constant.

Monday — 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. – 10 a.m.

Monday morning is often a time of chaos and most of us are not up to IG. But you can sometimes catch them at this time. 

Tuesday — 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.

On Tuesday, unlike Monday, the appropriate time period for posting is already wider. Statistics also show that special bursts of activity occur at lunchtime and the time when people return from work.

Wednesday — 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. (11 a.m. is a peak) and 5 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Wednesday is one of the best days for interacting with IGers because both ER and user flow are consistently the highest.

Thursday — 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

On Thursdays, ER statistics are also high. During this time, you can expect a higher response and reaction from people.

Friday — 10pm – 11pm and 8am – 4pm

Friday is another day with great audience attention and probably the most suitable day for large and meaningful announcements.

Saturday — 9 a.m. – 11 a.m.

8 a.m. to 12–1 p.m. is also a time of activity, but the rest of the day there is a low user attention level.

Sunday — 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.

There is no best time to post on Instagram on Sunday actually. It is the quietest day on IG. People rest and relax and spend time offline, so you should not count on users’ attention at this time.

A Bonus Tip for You

You can use Profile Analyzer to get detailed information on post ER by weekdays. Just enter the username and click Analyze.

This analysis will show you:

• The periodicity of your posting and the posts with the highest engagement — by weekdays and even hours.

Your most popular time for posting.

Thus, you can analyze not only your profile but profiles of your competitors and niche leaders as well and see what time they choose and what the most effective time is.

Now, let’s continue with other aspects of building the right posting schedule.

Times of “procrastination”

According to statistics, many users log into IG during their breaks, especially at lunch. While not everyone can allow themselves a break during working hours to check social networks, this can easily be done during the lunch break. Therefore, if you publish at lunchtime, the coverage will be higher.

Users go to IG after 1 p.m. more often. Perhaps this is since more free time appears as all urgent tasks have already been completed. If you understand what time your TA will be on a break, use the info.

Vacation and holidays

Weekends and holidays significantly affect user ER. Always consider the calendar date.

For example, during big holidays and long days off, people are less active on social networks — they spend time with their closest ones, and chill at home. On such days, scrolling through IG will not be a priority.

People are tremendously busy on the eve of the holidays. If you have a great Thanksgiving post, let it come out in the morning, not in the evening, when users are busy preparing and celebrating..

Time zone (TZ)

To discover the most suitable time for posting, you need to know what TZ your most active fellows are located in.

Your promo campaigns will succeed if you interact with your TA at certain times (in the morning before work or evening). Having figured out your users' geography, you will be able to adjust to the necessary schedule.

For instance, if you have a large audience in Eastern Europe, but share content according to London time, you lose a huge part of your potential impressions.

If you are oriented on an international audience, we advise you to publish several times a day to reach all of them, taking into account the time of the main TZs.

Stats

If you are not sure about the geography of your supporters, use the stats on IG. Just click Insights in the menu and then click Audience to get the information.

Your audience characteristic

If you want to maximize the effect from posts, you should be flexible. It is possible that standard posting time is not suitable for your case.

The statistics on IG makes it possible to analyze your TA. The more information you collect about it and the periods of its greatest activity, the more correctly you will build a schedule for posting.

But you should always take into consideration your niche — every business line has its own optimal time for posting. The average timing for different spheres is as follows:

The tech sphere — 11 a.m.- 6 p.m. from Wednesday to Friday. The B2C segment — every day at 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Educational companies — Monday – Friday from 12 a.m. – 5 p.m. Healthcare companies — Tuesday – Friday from 10 a.m. – 5 a.m. Nonprofits — Monday – Friday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Artists, musicians and photographers — 10–11 a.m. on Friday.

Post regularity

The choice of day and time for a post on IG also depends on how many posts you plan to publish for a day and a week. As mentioned earlier, you can make several posts for different segments of your TA.

On the other hand, if you are not just hunting quantity, but the quality of the content as well, think carefully about the publication time.

How to plan posts with an Instagram Scheduler?

You need to release posts regularly. It is one of the most important strategic steps on your development path.

You can use automated posting tools that will not interrupt other everyday tasks. Such tools have a full-fledged web interface for publishing content, which allows you to optimize the time costs and conveniently plan your business.

The IG planner is one of the tools of Inflact, a well-known IG growth service. It allows to schedule and automatically publish all types of posts and Stories.

For this service, you need to create an account and buy a subscription to the Posting module.

As soon as you finish, go to your Dashboard and then to the Posting section. You will see your feed.

Click Add Content and choose between Post or Stories.

Then upload your picture or video, or carousel, add caption and hashtags, and set the posting time.

You can use the Autoupdate Caption function to increase the post reach. The service will edit the caption with a certain set of hashtags in 10 minutes and 4 hours after the initial publication.

The relevant hashtags will be added automatically by clicking the Hashtags button, including additional captions of Autoupdate function:

With this tool, you will simplify the posting for yourself: you can create a schedule for the week ahead and won't be distracted by the necessity to post at a certain time anymore, and you won't get confused.

We hope the article answered your question, “when is the best time to post on Instagram?”! If you have any questions, ask them via support@bigbangram.com or Live Chat.

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Bigbangram