Is your Facebook page’s engagement dwindling? Do you want to learn what is the best time to post on Facebook for maximum exposure?
The average reach on Facebook is 2%. This means that if you have 1000 fans/followers, only about 20 people will see your updates. On top of that, you are competing with 317,000 status updates that are published every 60 seconds by other users and businesses.
This is why if you want to generate good levels of reach from your organic posts you need to be very meticulous about your posting strategy and do your best to stand out.
Creating more video content is a guaranteed way to shoot up your engagement rate. With an online video editor like InVideo, you can create videos in less than 5 minutes even if you have no prior experience. Along with posting more video content, make sure to create good quality graphics, write better descriptions and of course, post at the best time to improve your reach organically.
Why is it Important to Time your Facebook Posts?
Facebook’s algorithm is also known as edge rank. It takes the amount of engagement your posts get while ranking them.
If your posts get more likes, Facebook will show it to more people as the ‘likes’ indicate that this is a good piece of content, so, more people will like it too.
More likes from a person will also increase the likelihood of the person seeing it again. As it shows Facebook that they liked your content in the past, so they might like it again.
Another factor that Facebook takes into consideration is time. If your content is newer, Facebook will show it to more people. As there is a time decay factor. The older your post gets the lower it moves in the feed.
This why the time you post on can have a direct effect on the reach and engagement you generate. If you post at a time when more people are online and are ready to interact with your content, you will get more likes immediately and move up the feed ranking.
It also has an indirect effect because if you get more likes, Facebook will show it to more people immediately and in the future.
This is why it is important for you to figure out the best time to post on Facebook.
Best Time to Post on Weekdays
The best days and times to post on Facebook come during the weekday as shown by this graph.
More people are online during the week and are looking for a break from their busy days. So, if you post the right content, you should be able to generate more engagement.
Also, the conversion rate on websites is usually higher on weekdays. If your aim is to drive more sales or leads, you should definitely take advantage of the weekdays.
But then again, not all weekdays are equal. As you can see in the earlier graph, engagement varies every single day. So, below I have listed the best times to post for each individual day.
Best time to post on Facebook on Monday
The best time to post on Facebook on Monday is between 8 AM to 11 AM and 1 PM to 2 PM. Monday seems to be the weekday with the lowest engagement level. But engagement is significantly higher on this day than on the weekend. Engagement is probably lower because people are in a hurry to catch up on work after the weekend break.
Best time to post on Facebook on Tuesday
9 AM to 11 AM and 1 PM to 4 PM are the best times to post on Tuesday. The peak is from 10 AM to 11 AM and 1 PM to 3 PM.
Best time to post on Facebook on Wednesday
Wednesday is the best day to post on Facebook. 7 AM to 6 PM is the best time to post. That’s a really long window. The peak times are 9 AM to 10 AM, 11 AM to 12 PM, and 1 AM to 3 PM. To get the most out of all these peak times, you should publish posts several times. You could also do a live video during one of the peak times as they generate more views.
Best time to post on Facebook on Thursday
8 AM to 6 PM is the best time to post on Facebook on Thursday. The window is quite long, but the engagement levels aren’t as high as on Wednesday. Still, it is a good day to post a few updates. Make sure you schedule one or two updates between 10 AM and 3 PM as this is the peak time.
Best time to post on Facebook on Friday
7 AM to 3 PM is the best time to post on Facebook on Friday. The peak is between 9 AM to 12 PM. If you don’t plan to post anything on the weekends make sure you post a few updates on Friday. At least one of them should be posted during peak time. This will help you maintain a good edge rank when the week returns.
Best time to post on Weekends
Both Saturday and Sunday are the worst days to post on Facebook. You get the least amount of engagement on these days. People are usually taking a break and are doing something fun in real life. So, they spend less time online.
But if you have a page with very few fans or a page that doesn’t drive much engagement, it might be better for you to post on the weekend. As fewer people are posting on the weekend your posts will stand out better and you will drive more engagement.
Once your engagement levels shoot up and you have a better edge rank, you can switch to posting more on the weekdays or posting on the weekdays only.
Best time to post on Facebook on Saturday
Engagement is very low on Saturday, but it is slightly better than on Sunday. The best time to post is between 8 AM to 6 PM. The peak is between 9 AM to 11 AM.
Best time to post on Facebook on Sunday
9 AM to 3 PM is the best time to post on Facebook on Sunday. There is no real peak on this day. Posting at any time between the suggested times should do.
How to find your Unique best time to post?
Studies like the above can provide a good starting point. But that’s all they are good for. When you are launching a new account or haven’t posted in a while, it can be hard to accurately predict when your fans are online or when they like to interact with your content.
This is when studies like the above will come in handy. But after you drive some engagement and grow your fan base/following, you should analyze your account to see what is the best time to post.
There are two ways to go about this. One is to use Facebook’s built-in analytics. While the other is to use a third-party analytics tool.
If you go into your Facebook page’s Insights section you will find that Facebook shows you the times and days at which most of your fans are online.
If you want to increase reach you can post at these times.
But if you prefer to post at your most engaging times you can use an analytics tool like Agorapulse. This will show you when your posts get the most engagement.
It’s also a scheduling tool. So, you can add these times to the posting schedule and make sure your posts go out at the best times for driving maximum engagement.
I prefer to look at engagement when choosing the best time to post. This is because it doesn’t matter how many people see your post. What matters is how many people interact with your posts and then visit your website and convert to leads and sales.
Bonus: 4 Tips to increase Facebook Engagement
Timing your posts will help you get it in front of more people, but if your posts aren’t up to the mark, your engagement will still suffer. This is why it is important to make some extra effort to create posts that stand out. Here’s how you can do that…
Tip #1 - Post More Videos
For a long while images drove more engagement than other types of content. But nowadays videos dominate the Facebook feed. Studies like this one show that videos drive more engagement than other types of posts.
It makes sense that videos would do better. As something moving in the feed will attract more attention than something that’s still.
So, create more video content. It will take you more time to create videos than images, but the boost in engagement will increase your edge rank and help you generate more impressions, leads, and sales in the long run.
You can use a video maker such as InVideo to help you with this.
They have several templates that can help you quickly set up highly engaging videos.
Tip #2 - Boost best performing posts
It’s a matter of numbers when it comes to marketing on Facebook. Studying your audience and your Facebook analytics will help you figure out what type of content will work. But you won’t always get it right.
You will fail sometimes. But when you get it right and drive plenty of engagement, you should take advantage of it and boost up the content with ads. This will help you get many more people to view your post and engage with it.
If you follow my above tip and create more video posts. Your organic videos will generate more views. You can then create conversion-focused Facebook video ads and retarget people who watched your videos. This will help you see a quick ROI for the investment you put into your organic videos.
You can use InVideo for this again, as it doubles as a Facebook video ad maker.
They actually have several Facebook ad templates like this one…
…and this one.
They make it very easy to create Facebook video ads in minutes.
Tip #3 - Use 1 Hashtag Per Post
There’s a lot of debate on whether you should use hashtags on Facebook. One study found that when you use only one hashtag on Facebook you will generate the highest engagement.
So, use hashtags, but limit them to one per post. And do a lot of research to find the most relevant hashtag. As you are only using one, you need to pick the perfect one.
Tip #4 - Write descriptions
Descriptions should be an important part of your Facebook posts, but you don’t need to write extremely long ones. Posts that are short, witty, and easy to read will work best for boosting engagement. As I mentioned earlier hundreds of thousands of posts are published every second. Facebook is full of distractions. If you want more people to watch your videos, read your descriptions, and take action, you should be writing better descriptions.
Short posts can also generate a lot of curiosity as readers will find very little information. People will need to visit your website to learn more. This can increase traffic.
Conclusion
Researching the best time to post on Facebook can seem like a trivial step. But as you can see the competition on Facebook is immense and the reach is extremely low. The only way you can beat it is if you are very meticulous with your posting strategy. So, pay special attention to the time that you post at.
You can get started by posting at the best times suggested by studies like the above. After you publish over a hundred posts, you can analyze the data to find your very own unique time to post. This will help you drive maximum engagement from your post.
But this alone won’t be sufficient. Along with posting at the best times, you should also take other steps to construct the perfect post every single time.
If you want to know the best time to post on Instagram, check out this blog. And if you want to know when to post on YouTube, read this blog.
And if you want to create thumb stopping videos for your social media, sign up for InVideo today!
