Worst Time to Post on Social Media in 2024: 5+ Platforms Analyzed
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You spend plenty of time investing in growing your followers through social media marketing. You also want to spend your time as wisely as possible. Posting at specific times and days can help you leverage an active audience’s attention. What is the worst time to post on social media to avoid losing your post in the ether?
Whether you are on Instagram or LinkedIn, there is a science to posting times. We dive deep into what you can expect to get the best results here.
Let’s get started!
Worst Time to Post on Social Media by Platform
Not every platform is created equal when it comes to the worst times for you to post. Some people may love getting insights in the early morning hours, while others are more likely to veg out at night. Here are the most common social media platforms and when you should avoid posting.
Instagram Posts
For most people, checking their Instagram account isn’t the first thing they do in the early morning. A post made too early in the morning (usually before 11 AM) will get lost in the shuffle by the time people sign on to the platform during their morning breaks.
In a similar vein, you don’t want to write up your Instagram posts too late. People might mindlessly scroll through social media as they get ready for bed. However, they aren’t in a position to take action and will likely forget whatever nugget of wisdom or nudge you gave them the night before. Any time after 9:00 PM is less likely to be successful.
Hands down, the worst day of the week to tap into your Instagram users is usually on Sundays. People are busy with family activities, church, and other obligations that take them away from their devices.
If you find that you need to post something on Sunday, evaluate if it could wait until an opportune window on Monday.
Weekends tend to drop off in activity for Instagram posts. However, the exception is Reels and Stories which can be consumed quickly while people are on the go.
Facebook and Instagram users have a lot in common. They tend to scroll through the mid-morning and early afternoon hours with less engagement during the afternoon rush. According to the data science team at Backlinko
, people spend an average of 30.9 minutes on Facebook each day.
Because the window is so narrow, you definitely want to tailor your posting schedule to get the maximum engagement.
The worst times to post on social media giant Facebook include Fridays through the weekend and early morning hours before 8:00 AM. Most engagement happens before 2:00 PM when kids are getting out of school, workers are commuting home, and dinner needs to be put on the stove.
X (Twitter)
Maybe you want to create a short and easy post for your audience, but what are the worst times to post on X (formerly Twitter)? Just because something is quick to read doesn’t mean that you can post it at any time of day. Your posting schedule should reflect an active audience’s behavior on the social media platform.
Most people are engaging with the social media giant through the afternoon slump, and their use of the platform drops off once bedtime rolls around.
The worst times to post on Twitter are usually after 8:00 PM until 9:00 AM the following morning.
TikTok
What can you do to get your TikTok video to hit viral status? Your posting times are the key to building a robust social media presence. While many people do scroll through TikTok at all hours of the day, the best times to post tend to be in the mid-afternoons Monday through Friday.
But what are the worst times to post on social media if your platform of choice is TikTok?
According to Buffer’s heat map, people tend to get the least engagement after about 8:00 PM on weeknights until 10:00 AM the next morning. While engagement notably drops off on the weekends, avoid posting on Sundays and Thursdays.
Worst days like these can set you up for failure as you launch a great video into the abyss. Be sure to see our guide to the best times to post on TikTok for maximum exposure.
A post on Instagram isn’t the only thing you need to think about when considering your social media posting times. Pinterest is just as much of a player in this sphere as Facebook and Twitter. You may even be surprised by the worst times to post on Pinterest: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
People tend to be much more active on this social media platform earlier in the week. This could be because they are mindlessly scrolling during the hours they should be working, a lingering habit from the weekend.
Like your Instagram photos, it also doesn’t make sense to post them too late at night or too early in the morning. From midnight to 6:00 AM, you won’t find many people pinning your creations. Stick to the best times to post: the early evening hours from 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
LinkedIn is a bit different than some of the other social media platforms. This specific audience is frequently engaged on the platform during work hours because they utilize it for networking and business growth. As a result, your optimal posting times are typically between business hours.
What does that mean for the worst times to post on social media?
If you’re targeting LinkedIn for your audience, you should avoid posting too late in the afternoon. After about 6:00 PM, most people take time away from their networking and business development. By the time they return the following morning, your post might be buried by others.
Even though many business people do get up early, mornings aren’t necessarily the best time to post either. Stick to the socially acceptable start of the work day and avoid posting before 7:00 AM.
How to Tell What Times to Post Based on Audience
While these are the worst times to post on social media in general, your personal experience with the best time to post might be a little different. Here are a few guidelines that can get you thinking about what and when your audience expects to hear from you.
Know Your Demographics and Target Audience
What should you know about your specific audience? Their demographics can clue you into the best times to post based on when they have downtime. For example, someone who targets college-aged students might not want to create early morning posts when young adults are usually sleeping in.
If you know your age range, employment status, and target audience well, then you can likely figure out when they are active on social media.
Dive deep into the analytics on the backend of any social platforms you want to target. Almost all of the major players allow you to see your audience’s demographics at a glance.
Check Top-Performing Posts & Note Their Time
Social media marketers who have been around for a while likely have a nice bank of posts. Take some time to scan through your top-performing posts and note what day (and time of day) those posts were made.
You may want to create a spreadsheet for yourself with statistics to analyze trends over time.
If you have consistent posts that do well on a specific day or time, it should clue you into the right times to post on Instagram, Facebook, or any other platform.
The opposite is also true. If you have a great post that fell flat with your audience, question whether it was posted at the wrong time. Maybe try to revitalize it and repost it at a more opportune time to give it a bit more life and see if it works out better.
Keep Time Zones You Serve in Mind
If you serve a global audience, you might want to vary the times when you post content. Even if your business operates solely in the United States, there is a three-hour time difference between the East and West Coasts. Keep in mind that some people will be seeing your publishing calendar three hours ahead of others.
Businesses that operate globally have an even more challenging time consistently posting at the best times for every member of their audience. When possible, do your best to vary your posting schedule to tailor it to your audience.
Analyze the Competition
Maybe you don’t have a long history to draw from on your Instagram Insights. The good news is that tons of people are likely already doing exactly what you want to be doing. All you need to do is tap into what your competitors are doing. Scroll through their social media to work backward for your own.
What times are they posting, and are they getting good engagement on those Instagram stories, X posts, or Pinterest pins?
Don’t reinvent the wheel when you want to analyze what works best for your audience. See where they already hang out and copy the strategy of brands that are further along than you are.
This is also a good time to get some ideas of what type of high-quality content you could put out at a peak time.
Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment
What is holding you back from getting higher engagement? For many people, it’s simply a mindset shift that they will need to make to experiment with what time to post. You never know what is going to truly resonate with your audience until you start putting it out there.
Maybe they engage best on their lunch breaks or prefer to hear from you in the evenings. When you’re just getting started, you can vary your posting schedule to find the right time to post on every platform.
You might be surprised by how the Instagram algorithm works in your favor to show your content to more people when you can score engagement at a key time. The same is true of all the other social media platforms as well. Vary your content and try new posting times to determine what works for your unique audience.
Final Thoughts: What is the Worst Time to Post on Social Media?
There are no one-size-fits-all answers for when you should avoid posting on social media. It depends on your audience, where they hang out, who they are, and what they are looking for from you. Consider some of these guidelines for the worst time to post on social media, but don’t get too mired in the weeds here.
You can have fun experimenting with the time of day you post and see what yields the best results for you and your brand!
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