From social media strategists to teenage girls to influencers and Instagram support apps, everyone has at one stage tried to find and determine the perfect time to post to get maximum exposure and engagement every single time.
Perhaps, when the feeds were chronological and the social media times were simpler, there was a golden universal moment to post on Instagram and Facebook.
Ah, chronological feeds. How we miss you and the simple engagement formulas that we had in place.
Posting on social media can feel like a bit like a gamble.
Neither Facebook or Instagram use a chronological newsfeed anymore. Each new post is ranked against a number of elements, including timeliness that determines where it appears on the feed.
Say you were to stick to a generic optimal posting time which was determined by how many other people were posting at this same time.
While yes, lots of new posts would indicate that there is a high volume of users on the given social media platform at that time, it also means that your post will have to compete with all of the other new posts to be seen.
But that doesn’t mean you should hide in the dark corners of nervous, misguided posting habits while you sit and hope to be seen.
What you want to do instead is get to know your audience, their behaviour and then determine when you believe your post will be most relevant to them.
Both Facebook and Instagram have inbuilt tools that can help you analyse your personal data which will, in turn, help you determine when your unique perfect posting prime time is.
Did you know that every time you log onto Facebook you could be subject to seeing 1,500 brand new posts?
If you’ve noticed how that has never happened to you (and thank god for not being overloaded with information) then that means you have seen first hand how Facebook only shows you what it believes you want and should see.
While we love this filtering system for keeping our headaches at bay, it also means that as social media marketing agencies and user we need to get clever about when and what we are posting.
Once you’re on your business page, click the insight tab and get exploring. The most useful section of insights to determine audience behaviour and reach is ‘posts’.
‘When Your Fans Are Online’ provides insight on when and how many of your page followers are online. ‘Post Types’ shows you what type of posts your audience engages with most.
You can also view all of your posts in a list format which details the success of each post in an easy to compare style.
Just like its parent site, all of your handy Instagram data can be found on the app in the ‘insight’ section.
The data is collected under three subsections; activity, content and audience. While activity details post frequency and follower counts, “audience” gives a breakdown of gender and location while providing a 7-day view of when your followers are active on the app by the hour or day.
“Content” allows you to filter all of the posts you have made since you turned on Instagram Business by engagement, type, and behaviours. Just as you would on Facebook, use this tool to determine what your followers connect with most
Facebook and Instagram both provide detailed and straightforward graphs and data that allow you to understand your audience’s behaviours.
These tools can help you determine when your audience will be most active and what they are most likely to connect with. When used correctly this data will allow you to take on both Facebook and Instagram’s algorithm like a pro.
Or better yet, why not hire a pro to do it for you? A social media agency can help your brand flourish across all relevant social media platforms while growing your audience base and successfully connecting with those who follow you.
If you’re ready to take your social media marketing to the next level contact Red Herring Digital today.