When To Post On Social Media (And How Often)

If you’re running social media activity on a professional basis you need to be posting all the time. You also likely should be posting across multiple social networks. These two things combined can be exhausting, especially if you have other things to do too.

To make your life easier, you should use a scheduling tool to plan your social media posts. Planning posts ahead of time will save you the headaches associated with always being online to make your snappy remarks and share your all-important links.

Having a social media scheduler (such as Hootsuite, Buffer, or Statusbrew) makes the how of posting a lot of content easier. It doesn’t really help with the when though. When should you post on social media? How many times a day (or week) should you post? (If you want tips on what you should post, look here)

The actual answer is that the best times to post is different depending on where you are and what you are posting about. This isn’t actually a helpful answer though, so take a look at some general best-practise answers below to get started. You should mix these times with what your common sense tells you are the best times for you to get started.

After a while of posting (3-6 months), you’ll have enough stats to start optimising your schedule. You should cut out what doesn’t work, and test new times until you find your own best schedule. Until then, I hope the below helps…

The Best Overall Frequency and Times to Post on Each Social Network

Before we dig in, please note that you don’t have to be on every social network. You need to post on a schedule that works for you, both in terms of time management and in terms of what you actually get back from that social network. These are the top social networks at the moment (for context):

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Below is a list of general rules for posting on social media. They are not one-size-fits-all, but if you want a good idea of best practises for each social network, these are a good place to start.

Infographic

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Sources:

https://louisem.com/144557/often-post-social-media
https://www.socialreport.com/insights/article/115003574046-How-Often-Should-You-Post-On-Social-Media-
https://creativeresources.threadless.com/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/https://unionmetrics.tumblr.com/post/55614818502/whens-the-best-time-to-post-to-tumblr-weve
https://howtomusically.com/how-to-become-a-tiktok-star-dont-skip-tip-7/
http://www.randalolson.com/2015/01/11/a-data-driven-guide-to-creating-successful-reddit-posts-redux/
https://smartblogger.com/quora-traffic/
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