You could craft the perfect Instagram post, write the best caption, and do everything right, but if you fail to post at the right time, it could all go down the drain quickly. Cracking the time code can bring big rewards for those posting on Instagram, a fact that the Harvard Business Review’s research backs up: brands posting on social media can enhance their payoffs by at least 8% by targeting content to when the audience is most naturally receptive to it.
Sounds fairly straightforward, right? But when it comes to Instagram, the world’s 4th most-used social network, posting schedules can get super tricky because there’s so much to consider: the algorithm, types of posts, time zones, and user traffic. That’s why we’ve done the legwork to simplify the science, and created this super useful guide on the best times to post on Instagram consisting of insights from several great sources: Instagram, social experiments, industry experts, and our own research. Finally, we’ve also added in a number of tips to capitalize on Instagram’s best times to post, using which you can confidently start tapping into Instagram’s peak hours.
But you should know that while it is super important, posting at the right time isn’t the only thing that makes your account grow. If you want to accelerate your growth, also focus on having a solid strategy, posting consistently, and posting more videos since the Instagram algorithm is now favoring those over static images. And you can take the help of a tool like InVideo to create stunning Instagram videos within minutes, even if you’ve never edited a video before.
Head over to the InVideo Instagram channel for some cool tips & tricks that will further help make video creation easier for you.
Now, let’s take you straight to the posting schedules. Here’s what we’ll explore in this blog:
1. Is there a best time to post on Instagram?
2. The best time to post on Instagram according to Instagram
3. The best time to post on Instagram according to industry experts
4. The best time to post on Instagram according to our own research
5. How to determine your best time to post on Instagram
6. How to capitalize on the best time to post on Instagram
1. Is there a best time to post on Instagram?
Despite a number of marketing geniuses weighing in on this question: when is Instagram, the most active, no one has truly been able to agree on a single standard time to post on Instagram specifically and on social media in general. But there are some widely-accepted facts about post timings based on what most Instagram users have in common, and they provide a good benchmark for what’s the best time to post on Instagram.
Now from that graphic, you can tell that the best time to post on Instagram is very subjective, i.e. it is different for each account! So then what’s the point of this article. The point is that even though time itself is subjective, it is dependent on a variety of factors that are universal. Let’s take a look at these
Factors that determine your best time to post on Instagram
1. Timeliness
Timeliness refers to when most of your followers are online or when most of your intended audience is online. You ideally want to post just before the peak time of activity for your followers to get maximum traction on your post. Instagram’s built-in Insights can help you determine when the majority of your audience is most active. For most of your posts, you want to start by utilizing that information. For instance, here in the screenshot below, you can see that the audience is most active around 12 PM and so that is the time you want to utilize most frequently.
2. Relevance of your posts
The second factor is the relevance of your posts. Now, this doesn’t just mean whether the content you’re posting is relevant to your audience or not. It refers to whether the type of content you’re posting is relevant for your audience at the time of day that you’re posting it at? For instance, if you’re a lifestyle creator and you want to talk about a healthy breakfast recipe. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense to post that at night, right? You want to post it right in the morning so it is actually relevant for your followers.
3. Your followers’ age group and lifestyle
Now the Instagram Insights tell you the general age group within which your followers fall but the data is not super specific and you have no information about their lifestyle choices. Why these factors are important is because both of them determine people’s social media behavior.
For instance, a 30-something mom will use Instagram very differently from an 18-year-old college student. So if most of your audience falls in the 25-35 category, you will need to make a few predictions about their behavior and test out your posting time accordingly. For instance, in this age group, you can assume that most people are office-goers. This means that they are likely to check Instagram in the morning or evenings more during their commute to and from the office. You can then test out the hypothesis by posting around those times and checking engagement.
4. Days of the week
Again, if you check your insights, you will see that Instagram also provides a graph for your followers’ activity during different days of the week.
There are days when more of your audience is online and active and then there are days when they aren’t. Now this in correlation with the type of content you’re posting will help determine the best time to post on Instagram. For instance, if you have a motivational quote you want to post, what happens if you push it out on a Sunday, when most of your audience is relaxing, spending time with the family? It doesn’t really resonate with them, right! So instead you want to create such a post for Monday and that too in the morning, so that people can read it and get motivated right before work.
5. The goal of your post
Are you posting to engage with your current audience or are you posting to reach a wider audience and get more followers? The goal will determine the best time to post on Instagram. For instance, if you’re posting to reach newer people, you want to post at times that either your target audience is most active at or when generally Instagram users are most active. On the other hand, posting for your existing audience will mean posting around times when they’re most active.
Going through all of these factors shows you that the best time to post on Instagram changes not only for every account but also for every post depending on its relevance, your followers’ behavior, and the goal of the post. That is why to arrive at a general consensus of what’s the best time for you, you want to pick a time and experiment posting at it for an extended period, say 30-45 days, and then come back to your insights to check your engagement and growth. Positive growth indicates that your chosen time works. But also note that as your audience grows, your best time to post on Instagram is also bound to change. So as a part of your posting strategy, make it a habit to review your insights every 2-3 weeks and tweak your timing according to your growth.
Video posts on Instagram receive 2x more engagement as compared to other types of posts. Creating engaging Instagram reels and feed videos therefore can help you massively improve engagement.
Now, let’s take a look at what the experts have to say and how these factors come together in determining your best time to post on Instagram.
2. The best time to post on Instagram according to Instagram
When talking about how the Instagram algorithm is related to Instagram peak hours, here’s what Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said during a weekly Q&A on his Stories:
In an explainer video from June 2021, Mosseri further broke down the connection between posting times and ranking, emphasizing that Instagram is designed to sequence posts based on how users use the Feed, Stories, Explore, and Reels on the app. Based on his explanations, here’s what should know about Instagram’s algorithm and the best time to post on Instagram:
- On Feed and Stories, the algorithm analyzes “signals”, or information about the post
- ‘Time of posting’ is one of the most important signals the algorithm considers when ranking posts on a user’s Feed
- On Explore, the algorithm picks up on signals like how many and how quickly people are liking, commenting, sharing, and saving a post
- On Reels, the algorithm gives importance to user likes, comments, and interests
For a deeper dive into the topic, hear it straight from the horse’s mouth below:
Key Takeaways from Instagram to tackle the Instagram Algorithm:
1 - Post before Peak Time
If you’re using Instagram Analytics as your guide, look out for when engagement peaks. Ideally, you want to post just before that happens.
Source: Iconosquare
2 - Know where your target audience is located
Simply put, if you are located in San Francisco, but most of your audience is located in New York, your strategy needs to adjust for the time difference and ensure you pop up on your audience’s feed first thing in the morning. If you post during the early AM on the West Coast, your audience in New York will probably see it during their PM. So, 6 AM West Coast time would be the best time to post on Instagram.
Source: Falcon
3 - There is no Perfect Time to Post on Instagram!
If you put your blinders on and focus solely on cracking the perfect time, thereby not really posting often or delaying posting, you are doing yourself and your business a huge disservice. The only way you’ll learn from insights is if you keep posting.
3. The best time to post on Instagram according to the Experts
In the world of social media timing, scheduling platforms like Later and Hootsuite are equivalent to industry experts, as they are constantly churning out insights and conclusions based on thousands of posts made on Instagram. In this section, we’ll unpack what they have to say about the best time to post on Instagram.
1 - Later
Leading Instagram marketing platform, Later, started studying the best time to post on Instagram in 2018. They went through 35 million Instagram posts (excluding Reels and IGTV) to answer the question, ‘when is the best time to post on Instagram?’ and released their findings in August 2021. According to their analysis, the following are the best times to post on Instagram:
1. The best time to post on Instagram: 6 AM
Source: Later
2. The best days to post on Instagram: Saturday & Sunday
3. The best day and time to post on Instagram: 6 AM on Sunday
4. The worst day and time to post on Instagram: Wednesday between 10 AM – 4 PM and Thursday 9 PM – 11 PM
Source: Later
The logic behind this data is actually quite simple: by posting earlier in the day, accounts benefit from less competition (globally, most posts are shared between 9 AM-1 PM each day), while also tapping into traffic from users during their first scroll of the day — even if that’s a few hours after the post was shared.
What is the worst time to post on Instagram? Daily Breakdown according to Later
1. The worst time to post on Instagram on Monday: 2 PM
2. The worst time to post on Instagram on Tuesday: 1 PM
3. The worst time to post on Instagram on Wednesday: 10 AM
4. The worst time to post on Instagram on Thursday: 11 PM
5. The worst time to post on Instagram on Friday: 9 AM
6. The worst time to post on Instagram on Saturday: 8 PM
7. The worst time to post on Instagram on Sunday: 4 PM
Best time to post on Instagram: By location and time zones according to Later
Instagram peak hours differ based on time zones, and if you have followers split across different countries, this can make a difference to your engagement rates. To determine your best time to post on Instagram, you need to factor in where your target audience is located. Different regions have different audience behaviors, so tapping into high engagement times can get quite confusing. The simplest way of tackling this is to use Instagram’s insights tool, and work out what time zones the majority of your users are in, then plan your posts around that with the top engagement times for those zones.
To shed some light on the best times to post on Instagram keeping this in mind, we’ve put together the following guide to post in local times across different time zones:
1. US and Canada (Western): 12 AM to 6 AM
2. US and Canada (Central): 6 AM to 8 AM
3. US and Canada (Eastern): 4 AM to 9 AM
4. South America: 4 AM
5. UK: 4 AM to 6 AM
6. Europe (Western): 6 PM to 8 PM
7. Europe (Eastern): 5 AM to 7 AM
8. Africa: 6 AM
9. South Asia and Middle East: 3 AM
10. East Asia and Southeast Asia: 11 PM to 4 AM
11. Australia-Asia: 11 PM to 2 AM
12. India (IST): 7:30 AM to 10:30 PM
Source: Later
2 - Sprout Social
The social media management platform, Sprout Social, studied over 20,000 user accounts, and contrary to Later, found that instead of posting just before peak times, posting during peak times is a much better idea.
Source: Sprout Social
Here’s how they break it down:
1. The best time to post on Instagram: 11 AM to 2 PM
2. The best days to post on Instagram: Tuesday
3. The best day and time to post on Instagram: Tuesday between 11 AM & 2 PM
4. The worst day and time to post on Instagram: Sunday
According to Sprout Social, 2020 onwards, the top times to post on Instagram began to expand compared to previous years, given that many people were spending their days differently while being isolated. For its analyses, Sprout Social recorded all time frames in Central Time Zone (CT), and a number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame.
3 - Expert Voice
Advocacy platform for digital marketing and brand experts, Expert Voice, also came up with the most optimum posting schedule for Instagram. Here’s the best time to post on Instagram according to them:
1. The best time to post on Instagram: 9 AM to 5 PM
2. The best days to post on Instagram: Wednesday
3. The best day and time to post on Instagram: Wednesday 5 AM, 11 AM and 3 PM
4. The worst day and time to post on Instagram: Monday
In general, according to Expert Voice, posting during the hours between 9 AM to 6 PM during weekdays can result in solid engagement among your users. Their rationale for why Monday isn’t the best day to post Instagram is that Monday mornings for most of the working population can be quite hectic, and therefore, early morning posting time Tuesday to Friday tends to generate higher engagement.
4 - Hootsuite
Social media marketing and management platform Hootsuite takes a similar approach to Sprout Social, i.e. posting when engagement is at its peak. Here’s how they break it down:
1. The best time to post on Instagram: 11 AM
2. The best days to post on Instagram: Wednesday
3. The best day and time to post on Instagram that works for Hootsuite: 8 AM to 12 PM and 4 PM to 5 PM
Social media strategist Brayden Cohen says that, “With Instagram, I use past performance as my guiding star, and then I review when my audience is online as a second opinion. From there, if my content isn’t performing well, I’ll test different times to post to see if that changes reach and engagement.”
In short, this means that most of Hootsuite’s posting times line up to early morning or lunchtime in PST and mid-morning or evening in EST.
5 - Planoly
Visual planning and social media scheduling tool Planoly has a feature that can help users schedule posts based on the answer, and its creators recently shared their trade secrets on their blog too. Here’s what they say: the best time and day to post on Instagram greatly differs by day of the week. Check out their infographic below:
Source: Planoly
4. The best time to post on Instagram according to our own research
As per what we have observed through creating content on the InVideo Instagram account, in this section we’ll break down the best times to post on Instagram as per our own research.
Note: These best times to post on Instagram follow the Pacific Standard Time (PST) zone. This is true for the data that is visible on Instagram Insights as well. So, depending on where in the world you live, you will have to factor in the time difference to figure out the accurate peak hours for your own account.
When is the best time to post on Instagram daily?
1. The best time to post on Instagram on Monday: between 9 AM and 8 PM. The peak time is 11 AM to 3 PM
2. The best time to post on Instagram on Tuesday: between 8 AM to 9 PM. Peak time is 10 AM to 4 PM. Engagement is at its highest at 7 PM. This seems to be the only day during the week when engagement reaches the summit later in the evening
3. The best time to post on Instagram on Wednesday: 7 AM to 8 PM is the best time to post on Wednesday. It peaks between 9 AM to 6 PM, with engagement being at its highest at 11 AM
4. The best time to post on Instagram on Thursday: 8 AM to 9 PM is the best time to post on Thursday. Engagement is at its highest between 10 AM to 5 PM and 6 PM to 9 PM
5. The best time to post on Instagram on Friday: Friday is the 2nd best day of the week to post. 7 AM to 5 PM is the best time to post on Instagram, with the peak being between 9 AM and 3 PM. For the highest engagement, post between 10 AM to 12 PM
6. The best time to post on Instagram on Saturday: Although engagement is lowest during the weekend, on Saturday it is at its highest between 8 AM to 2 PM on Saturdays. 9 AM to 12 PM is the peak
7. The best time to post on Instagram on Sunday: Compared to the other days of the week engagement is very low on Sundays. But if you post between 8 AM to 3 PM you will generate some engagement
Best time to post on Instagram: By Industry
#1 According to Sprout Social
Best times to post on Instagram for Healthcare
- Best times: Sunday 8 AM to 9 AM., Tuesday 8 AM to noon and 5 PM to 8 PM
- Best days: Monday, Tuesday
- Worst day: Saturday
Best times to post on Instagram for Media
- Best times: Tuesday 1 PM to 5 PM, Wednesday 11 AM, Thursday 8 AM to 9 AM
- Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
- Worst day: Sunday
Best times to post on Instagram for Education
- Best times: Friday 4 AM to 5 PM, Thursday 2 PM
- Best day: Friday
- Worst day: Sunday
Best times to post on Instagram for Nonprofit
- Best times: Wednesday 10 AM to 6 PM
- Best day: Wednesday
- Worst day: Sunday
Best times to post on Instagram for Restaurants
- Best times: Monday 9 AM to 1 PM
- Best day: Monday
- Worst day: Saturday
Pro tip: If you’re looking for inspiration to create thumb-stopping Instagram posts for your restaurant or food business, check out these completely customizable video templates to get started.
Best times to post on Instagram for Tech
- Best times: Monday 10 AM to 11 AM, 2 PM to 5 PM, 8 PM, Tuesday 10 AM to 1 PM, Thursday at noon, Friday at 11 AM
- Best day: Monday
- Worst day: Sunday
Best times to post on Instagram for Travel & Tourism
- Best times: Thursday 7 AM, Monday 11 AM to 3 PM
- Best day: Thursday
- Worst days: Saturday, Sunday
If you’re short of time and want to create stunning, engaging videos using templates, check out these cool templates; all you’ll have to do is add in your own logo and media, and you have a scroll-stopping post ready in minutes.
Best times to post on Instagram for Hospitality
- Best times: Wednesday at noon, Thursday 3 PM to 4 PM, Friday 8 AM noon
- Best day: Friday
- Worst day: Sunday
Best Times to Post on Instagram for Consumer Goods Companies
- Best day and time: Wednesday at 3 PM
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Try InVideo today#2 According to HubSpot:
- Best times to post on Instagram for Technology Companies: Wednesday at 10 AM
- Best times to post on Instagram for B2C Companies: Saturday at 11 AM and 1 PM
- Best times to post on Instagram for Educational Organizations: Monday at 8 PM
- Best times to post on Instagram for Healthcare Companies: Tuesday at 1 PM
- Best times to post on Instagram for Nonprofit Organizations: Tuesday at 3 PM and 9 PM, Wednesday at 3 PM and 4 PM, Thursday at 2 PM & 3 PM, and Friday at 10 AM & 2 PM
#3 According to Tailwind:
- Best time to post on Instagram for Bloggers: Thursday and Friday at 12 AM EST for more comments, and 8 PM EST on Sunday for likes
- Best time to post on Instagram for Creative Services: Tuesday at 12 AM EST for comments, while 11 AM and 12 PM EST on Saturday and Sunday for likes
- Best time to post on Instagram for Clothing and Apparel: 3 PM EST on Tuesday and Sunday for most engagement
- Best time to post on Instagram for Media: 8 PM on Tuesday for comments, 8 PM EST on Saturday and Sunday for likes
- Best time to post on Instagram for Nonprofits: 12 AM EST on Sunday for comments and likes and 3 AM EST on Sunday for an organic boost
- Best time to post on Instagram for Personal brands: 11 PM EST on Monday and 5 AM EST on Thursday and Sunday
- Best time to post on Instagram for Photographers: 5 AM EST on Monday and Sunday
- Best time to post on Instagram for Professional Services: 3 AM EST on Monday for comments and 3 AM and 4 AM EST on Saturday and Sunday for likes
- Best time to post on Instagram for Recreation: 11 PM EST on Sunday for comments and 12 AM EST on Tuesday for likes
- Best time to post on Instagram for Tech: 8 AM EST on Monday and Friday for comments, and 12 AM EST for likes
- Best time to post on Instagram for Marketing: 4 PM EST on Wednesday for comments and 3 PM and 6 PM EST on Wednesday and Saturday for likes
Check out this blog if you want to explore marketing further for your business.
- Best time to post on Instagram for Health and Beauty: 1 AM EST on Monday and 4 PM EST on Wednesday and Sunday for likes
We’ve got some excellent video templates spanning different industries, specially curated for various use cases on Instagram. You can use these along with InVideo’s super intuitive Instagram video editor to create your Instagram video posts, Reels or stories.
- Best time to post on Instagram for Food and Beverage: 8 AM and 8 PM EST on Wednesday for comments, and Sunday 8 AM EST for likes
- Best time to post on Instagram for Entertainment: 4 PM EST on Thursday for comments and 11 PM EST on Saturday and Sunday for likes
- Best time to post on Instagram for Education: 7 PM EST on Saturday and Sunday
- Best time to post on Instagram for Children’s Resources: 9 PM EST on Monday and Wednesday for comments and 9 PM EST on Tuesday for likes
- Best time to post on Instagram for Brick and Mortar Stores: 4 PM EST on Friday for comments and Sunday 1 AM EST for likes
- Best time to post on Instagram for Travel: 7 AM EST on Saturday for comments and 6 AM EST on Sunday for likes
Best time to post Instagram: By Types of Posts
Best time to post Reels on Instagram
Reels are fun and you can create some stunning content using them. But like for regular posts on Instagram, getting the time right for Reels can be quite tricky, but here's what studies have found after analyzing more than 100,000 reels on Instagram to find the best engagement rates.
Source: Status Brew
According to the social media management tool Status Brew, the following are the best times to post Reels on Instagram:
- Best time to post Reels on Instagram on Monday: 5 AM, 9 AM and 9 PM
- Best time to post Reels on Instagram on Tuesday: 1 AM, 3 AM, 8 AM
- Best time to post Reels on Instagram on Wednesday: 6 AM, 7 AM, 10 PM
- Best time to post Reels on Instagram on Thursday: 8 AM, 11 AM, 6 PM
- Best time to post Reels on Instagram on Friday: 4 AM, 12 PM, 2 PM
- Best time to post Reels on Instagram on Saturday: 10 AM, 6 PM, 7 PM
- Best time to post Reels on Instagram on Sunday: 6 AM, 7 AM, 3 PM
Best time to post Videos to Instagram
Although static posts tend to do well during the day, video posts seem to perform best at night. One reason for this may be that people find it more time consuming to watch longer videos, and tend to save them later in the day when they don’t have work or other commitments.
The best time to post video posts on Instagram is between 9 PM and 8 AM, 11 AM and 1 PM (during which time people are typically on a lunch break), and 7 PM to 9 PM (just after people have left from work).
Best time to post Instagram Stories
For Instagram Stories, the hours before work, lunch breaks and late afternoons bring you the most views. Because people post a lot of Stories on weekends, your Story is less likely to stand out and get viewership. Therefore, the best time to post Stories on Instagram is during weekdays, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.
Best time to go Live on Instagram
Going Live on Instagram can really help you build a strong relationship with your followers, but timing is crucial here. Imagine your followers are in office and school when you go Live; even if they want to, they wouldn’t be able to join in.
The best time to go Live on Instagram, all things considered, is at 12 PM or between 7 PM and 9 PM from Monday to Friday. For a deeper dive into going Live on IG, check out this helpful expert blog.
5. How to determine your best time to post on Instagram
Now that you have all the industry standards and expert advice on the best and worst times to post on Instagram, let’s get down to how you can create an effective posting schedule for Instagram, based on your own work, audiences, and time zones. Let’s go over the two ways you can determine your best time to post on Instagram in detail:
#1 Understand your insights
Your profile insights will provide access to analytics on impressions, reach, website clicks, profile views, engagement on Stories, Posts and Reels. Using this data, you will get valuable hints and information about optimal times to post on Instagram for your audience. So to understand what is the best time for you to post on Instagram you’ll need to extract your audience insights from your IG account. Here’s how you can do that:
Step 1: From your IG business account, go to Insights by tapping the three bars on the top-right-hand corner and click Insights which will be fourth down the list
Step 2: Tap Audience and scroll to the bottom of the page to reach the “Followers” section. Here, you will see a chart that shows the hours and days of the week.
Step 3: Tap on any one of the hour bars, and a figure will appear revealing how many of your followers were online at that time.
Step 4: Tap Days, which will show you the data for what days your audience is online.
Pro-tip: Looking at your top-performing posts from the past will give you a lot of organic insight on what you did right, measured based on Awareness (high impressions), Engagement (likes, comments, saves), and Sales/Traffic (posts which attracted a lot of clicks). Take a look at what time of day or week you posted successful content, and see what kind of patterns form.
#2 Use scheduling tools to tap into your Instagram Peak Hours
Digital marketing is tough, and even with so much information out there, it can be difficult to keep track of so many, ever-changing parameters. Your best bet to get Instagram scheduling right is the not so humble scheduling tool. A good scheduling tool will let you set posting times in advance for every single day and post. Using a scheduling tool will help you especially stay on top of the various time zones and peak hours. Here are a few great Instagram you should check out:
1) Iconosquare
Source: Iconosquare
Built to cater to visual content, this scheduling tool is optimized for Instagram and lets you schedule regular Instagram posts alongside carousels and stories and lets you view your upcoming schedule in an image-based visual calendar.
Pros: It suggests hashtags, has a caption library, and space to upload images in bulk to upload later. It also has a layout for the Instagram grid which lets you visualize and plan out grids in advance. It also includes a bio link tool, a random comment picker to help you run Instagram contests, a free audit of your Instagram account and Twinsta, a nifty tool that generates Instagram posts using tweets you’ve posted.
Cons: It’s a bit expensive, with plans starting at $59/month or $588/year
2) Pallyy
Source: Pallyy
Replete with a social media calendar and Canva integration to design stunning posts, Pally also doubles up as a messaging tool for your IG DMs — which is great for sales queries and engagement.
Pros: It is an affordable tool which also comes with a free plan, and supports Twitter, Facebook and Google My Business. You need only pay for the number of social profiles you need, making it a great option for small blogging teams.
Cons: In their free plan, features are limited compared to tools like Iconosquare.
3) Sprout Social
Source: Sprout Social
This one’s a robust social media management tool, letting you monitor mentions of your brand, respond to comments and direct messages, and keep an eye on your performance.
Pros: It has a number of collaborative features
Cons: It’s very expensive, with plans starting at start at $99/month per user or $1,068/year per user
4) Tailwind
The Tailwind Instagram Scheduler auto posts to Instagram as per the schedule set by you, schedules Stories and Carousels, and schedules your hashtags to the first comment, letting your caption look clean. It also comes with an intuitive hashtag finder, and font formatting, user tagging, and location tagging in the scheduler itself.
Pros: Its “smart schedule” feature automatically schedules Instagram posts at the times when your audience is most likely to engage with them.
Cons: It is relatively expensive, billed at $479.88 annually.
5) Postgrain
Source: Postgrain
With high profile clients like Adobe, Nat Geo, Warner Brothers, and Sony Pictures, Postgrain is an Instagram scheduler that lets you schedule posts, Stories, DMs, and work collaboratively in a team with access to the accounts of your choice.
Pros: They offer specialized support for your questions, and are storage friendly, offering seamless access wherever you are, without making you download anything.
Cons: High cost
If you are wondering ‘can you post on Instagram using a computer with any of these tools?’ The answer is yes. You can create your content on your laptop, upload it to the scheduling software, copy and paste the hashtags and schedule it.
#3 Create Buyer Personas and use them to determine your best time to post on Instagram
This approach is created keeping in mind the factors that determine the best time to post on Instagram (that we discussed in the first section of this blog). Ultimately, your audience is the end point for whatever you post and keeping their behavior, needs and wants in mind when you post will help you determine the best time to post much more easily.
A buyer persona is a fictional character which represents your audience as a person with all this baggage — think about their unique and varying lifestyles, occupations, hobbies, families, communities, education, and so on. How does this connect with the best time to post on Instagram? Very simple — does your audience include parents who are busy trying to keep up with their kids’ schedules, with little time left to engage with your posts. How do you still reach out to them? By posting at a time they are likely to look at their phone.
#4 Use biology to gain an advantage
According to the Harvard Business Review, successful posts on social media tend to follow certain rules of biology and capitalize on what is called working memory. The biology behind this is straightforward: human working memory is the highest when we wake up in the morning, lowest in mid afternoon, and moderate in the evening. A higher working memory helps increase a consumer’s desire to engage with content and seek information. When working memory is low, the brain prioritizes preferential information to stay efficient — think posts which aren’t information heavy, easy to go through and short.
Moral of the story: don’t blindly schedule content for peak hours, be mindful of the type of posts you’re scheduling during morning, afternoon, and evening hours respectively.
#5 Understand your audience’s lifestyle
If your target audience works in a 9 to 5 job, they will have certain times in the day that they will use Instagram: like when they’re getting to work, during lunch break, and on their commute back home. So identifying your target audience should be the first step toward figuring out what time of day they are the most active on Instagram.
On the other hand if your target audience are college kids, they are more likely to pull all-nighters and be more active on Instagram throughout the day.
#6 Try a new strategy for at least a month before you write it off
Just posting once or twice on a particular time will not necessarily help you determine the best time to post for your account. You therefore want to experiment and try out posting times at least for 30-45 days to really understand if a time works or not.
6. Post content that is highly engaging
If your content is not engaging in and of itself, the timing of your post is not going to salvage it and that can thwart all your attempts to discover the best time to post. Therefore to really figure this out, you want to also focus on creating highly engaging posts. As a general rule, videos are more engaging than static posts. So start by posting more videos at peak times to determine if that is really the best time to post for you. If your aim is to generate the maximum possible engagement for your IG posts, you should absolutely focus on creating and sharing more video posts.
Wrapping Up
So, now you’ve taken a deep dive into the world of post timings for Instagram, ranging from best to worst times, time zones, types of posts, audience personas and some useful ways to leverage IG peak hours. Your most important takeaway from this blog should be this: even though Instagram keeps changing its ways and algorithms, studying your Insights will always help you stay ahead of the curve and continue to determine the best time to post for your account.
Finally, all things considered, remember that no magical hour will sustainably increase your engagement rates or bring in overnight conversions if you don’t have content that is attractive, useful, informative, emotionally engaging which aligns with your target audience’s ethos. Which is why we urge you to check out this blog for getting engaging ideas for your Instagram.
And if you prefer learning via videos, you should definitely check out our YouTube channel, where we share daily video creation tips and tricks, the latest video trends and ideas, and help you make more money as a video creator.
