When To Post on Social Media

As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to change the daily lives of Americans, we are all spending more time on social media.  That said, all previous recommendations of the best time to post on social media, are out the window.  As work-life and social-life now exist solely online, social media attention has shifted.

Based our social trends research below are the updated best times to post on social media in 2020:

Best Times to Post on Facebook

Facebook activity is consistently high on weekdays.  While activity previously peaked on Wednesdays from 11am-2pm, people are now on Facebook more consistently throughout the week.  Current research shows that the best times to post on Facebook are:

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between 10am-11am. 

Best Times to Post on Instagram

Activity on Instagram is now significantly more concentrated in the work day.  Wednesday and Friday at 11am were previously identified as the best time to post on Instagram, but that has changed due to the Coronavirus.  We’ve seen there’s less early morning activity, as well as a sharp decline in use after 6pm.  Mid-morning has been identified as the best time to post.  Specifically:

Monday, Tuesday, and Friday at 11am.  

Weekends, especially Sunday, were historically the worst time to post on Instagram. We’ve also seen a shift there with Instagram users being highly active on weekends between 9am and 5pm.

Best Times to Post on Twitter

Twitter patterns have remained consistent, likely due to the ongoing news updates.  

The best time to post is:

Friday between 7am-9am. 

Prior to the pandemic, the peak times to post were Wednesday and Friday at 9am.

Best Times to Post on Linkedin

Linkedin has had a much less dramatic shift in use and user activity has remained consistent.  This is likely due to Linkedin being a highly professional form of social media.  Currently, the best times to post are:

Wednesday at 3pm.
Thursday at 9am.
Friday at 11am.
 

In addition, the typical work day is starting and ending a little later each weekday.  

While we all know things are constantly changing in these unprecedented times, it’s important to keep up to date with changes in social media usage and patterns.