The 4 Reasons To Optimize Timing Of Social Media

Leo Widrich -

Getting the timing of your posts on Facebook, Twitter and your blog right, isn’t always easy I found. Fortunately, Dan Zarrella, Social Media Scientist has now done a great comparison of the four key things to get right in Social Media:

When should you post to Twitter, Facebook, on your blog and send emails?

He dug deep into the numbers to find out, when it is most favorable to post on each of them. Whilst we recently wrote about a great way to find your best times to Tweet, Dan also looks at other services, where timing is important.

So without further ado, here are 4 different types of optimal Social Media Timing you should pay attention to:

1.) Get More Facebook Likes

The first point Dan looked at was the number of Facebook Likes per article. His advice is to try posting on a Saturday, as this is when most likes are happening.

Specifically for Fan Pages, Jeff Widman, another Facebook expert gave this as an answer to optimal timing for likes:

“Post whenever the most recent status update for your page stops showing up in your fans’ News Feeds.”

Of course timing isn’t everything. Your content needs to rock too. Mari Smith, one of my favorite Facebook pundits wrote about this recently. Here are Mari’s top tips for you:

  • Use an eye-catching image: Your photo should make people laugh, cry, or go “awww!”
  • Keep the narrative short: A study by Buddy Media showed that posts 80 characters or less in length receive 27% higher engagement rates.
  • Include a call to action: Simple calls to action such as “Click like if you agree” often work well, so long as the preceding statement/question is relevant

You can read more of Mari’s Facebook tips.

2.) Get More Twitter Retweets

Secondly, Dan focused on when most retweets on Twitter are happening. His advice is to post on Friday afternoon, as this is when most people are in the mood for retweeting.

Here at Buffer, we also analysed a million Tweets to find out, when most clicks and retweets are happening. We found that between 8am and 8pm, a daily set of well spaced out Tweets can give you up to 200% more clicks on Tweets.

So, next to being smart with timing, three key things triggered more retweets for our users:

  • A higher frequency of Tweets: Posting 5-10/ day will gradually drive more retweets for your account.
  • A higher consistency of Tweets: If you can get into a routine of posting great content Tweets every day, retweet rate also shot up.
  • A great variety of destinations: Try to post to different sources and not just your own blog, to see better results.

Here are more tips for getting more retweets. Find Dan’s graph for getting more retweets below:

3.) Get A Higher Email Click Through rate

Here is an interesting one for you. Dan also looked at when emails are getting opened most frequently. And there is a whole industry built on when email marketing is most efficient.

His results are actually very counter-intuitive. Most clicks to open emails are actually happening on Saturday and Sunday. Why? The reasoning he comes up with is very simple:

“When your messages have less clutter to compete with, they’re heard more easily.”

4.) Get More Blogposts comments

As the last bit, Dan looked at when most blogpost comments are happening. And yet again, I found the results to be quite the opposite of what I thought. Most comments are happening every Saturday of the week.

Other interesting insights Dan has researched about blogposts, is that most of them are read early in the morning. And they are read the least late at night. So publishing new posts is best done as early as possible, in order to catch most readers.

Is Social timing gaining importance?

What I found interesting to observe over the past few months is that the topic of timing your Social Media actions is gaining traction.

It is no surprise, that at over 250 million Tweets over 5 billion items shared on Facebook every day, we are trying to find ways to make our own postings stand out.

That’s mainly also the reason we have built Buffer, it is your posts that are seen and clicked on.

Over to you now. Do you think optimal timing of your various Social Media updates will become more and more important?

Source: Dan Zarrella