Best Time To Post On Instagram
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be a megastar with millions of followers to acquire a decent amount of likes on social media. Sometimes, it can be as simple as just choosing the best time to post on Instagram. It has been proven that some days and time slots seem to attract a lot more engagement than other times and I’m going to tell you exactly when these times are. How do you cut through the noise and make your picture stand out? Do certain accounts require different upload times? You don’t want that selfie that you spent hours choosing to go down the drain now do you!
Best Time To Post On Instagram
To maximise engagement on your Instagram posts, you need to share content at the times your audience is most likely to see it. Fortunately, when it comes to Instagram, users have very similar habits.
The following data is from a social media platform called Later that recently analysed 12 million Instagram posts in multiple time zones from accounts ranging from 100 to 1 million+ followers. They found that the best time to post on Instagram was Wednesday between 9 am and 11 am EST.
The top three best times for each day are as followed:
Monday: 6 am, 10 am, and 10 pm EST
Tuesday: 2 am, 4 am, and 9 am EST
Wednesday: 7 am, 8 am and 11 pm EST
Thursday: 9 am, 12 pm, and 7 pm EST
Friday: 5 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm EST
Saturday: 11 am, 7 pm, and 8 pm EST
Sunday: 7 am, 8 am, and 4 pm EST
Note: EST (Eastern Standard Time) is the time zone used on the east coast of North America, as well as some of Central America and the Caribbean. It’s five hours behind UK time (GMT). You don’t need to add those five hours on though, simply swap EST for GMT. For example, when Later says 5 am Friday EST, switch to 5 am Friday GMT.
If this is all too confusing, simply look at the following points:
Most consistent engagement: Tuesday through Friday, 10 am–3 pm
Worst day: Sunday receives the least amount of engagement on Instagram
Lowest engagement: Occurs during late night and early morning from 11 pm – 3 am
Taking a look at your own Instagram habits are a great way of making sense of the above times. It makes complete sense that Sunday is the worst day as this is the day people are most likely to be preoccupied with other activities such as spending time with family or shopping.
As you can see, the lowest engagement starts to occur at 11 pm which if you think about it, is when most of us go to bed. On Tuesday through to Friday 10 am - 3 pm, a lot of us are having our mid-morning work breaks, lunch, or a mid-afternoon procrastination scroll. Make sure to bear this in mind when you choose to upload your next post!
Best Time To Post On Instagram: For Specific Industries
Choosing to post a selfie on your main account and posting a picture on your work account can require two different times if you wish to reach maximum engagement. In a study of its own, Hootsuite looked at the best times to post for specific industries:
Travel and Tourism: Friday between 9 am and 1 pm
Media and Entertainment: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12 pm to 3 pm
Food and Beverage: Fridays at 12 pm
Retail: Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 12 pm
Professional Services: Friday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 9 am. or 10 am
Non-Profit: Tuesday at 4 pm or 10 am
Non-Retail E-commerce: Thursday at 9 pm or 4 pm
Pharma and Healthcare: Wednesday and Sunday at 9 am
Personal Care: Friday and Thursday at 1 pm, 2 pm or 3 pm
Technology: Monday and Tuesday at 2 pm
Education: Thursday at 4 pm or 5 pm
Best Time To Post On Instagram: Tools and Features
Living in such a modern, social media savvy world means there are loads of tools and features you can use to decode the best time to post on Instagram. Most popular accounts you see on Instagram will use the following applications so if you really want a boost in engagement, they might be the way to go!
Here are a few tools and features that can help you nail down your personal best time to post on Instagram:
Later’s Best Time to Post feature automatically calculates your top 7 posting times on Instagram so you can schedule in batches and publish without a hitch
Instagram Insights can be used to find your top time zones and see when the majority of your followers are online
Spreadsheets can help you keep track of your posting experiments and measure your progress
Best Time To Post On Instagram: For You
If you would rather monitor your Instagram following more organically, then there are other ways to calculate your engagement. Everyone’s account is different and as a result, will attract different followers. An important aspect to consider when choosing the best time to post on Instagram is the new Instagram algorithm which prioritises new content on people’s feeds, meaning if your post has been up for a few hours, fewer and fewer people are likely to see it. Your best shot at hacking this algorithm is to find what times work best for you depending on your followers. You can do this in the following ways:
#1. Find Your Top Time Zones And See When Your Followers Are Online
Not every one of your followers is going to be in the same time zone as you. If most of your followers are from California for example, then it may make sense to upload at Pacific Standard Time (PST). You can do this research yourself or use Instagram Insights.
See when most of your followers are uploading content to their stories or account and take note of these times. Chances are if they are uploading a story, then they are going to have a quick scroll through Instagram themselves!
#2. Experiment With Posting Times And Measure Your Progress
If you’re sceptical of the aforementioned upload times or are simply unsure of what times best suit your account, then maybe just upload at random times and take note of what days and times seem to be working best for you.
#3. Engage With Similar Accounts That Have A Good Following
If one of your mates seems to be doing particularly well on Instagram, maybe ask them what times they’re uploading and what content they are uploading at specific times. Alternatively, reach out to other accounts that are akin to yours and see what times they are uploading.
As with all social media channels, it’s not a one-size-fits-all situation but the following may give you a rough idea of what the best time to post on Instagram is for you! Now, take that sunset picture and get to work!
