Best Time to Post on Social Media: Instagram / TikTok / Facebook / X for Businesses

Annoyingly, there’s no golden time or day of the week to post on social media that’ll guarantee results. The best times are those when your followers are most active and engaged on the platform of choice, which is something you can learn through your analytics over time.

That said, there are studies that indicate patterns in user engagement online. These can be a great starting point if you’re lacking followers and data, or looking to start a regular posting pattern with scheduled posts.

For a more accurate view, it’s best to take a case-by-case approach of each platform. Below, I’ll overview the best times to post on each platform.

Posting on Instagram is a great way to build up your brand image and community. 61% of its users hunt for new products on it, and thanks to features such as shopping tags, subscription content, and its ever popular brand partnerships, there’s a lot of scope for businesses to make money directly from their Instagram posts.

Instagram’s algorithm boosts content with high engagement. By posting at the times when your audience is active, you’ll give your posts a head start, increasing their reach from the get go.

Research findings vary dramatically across each source, but the most widely agreed best times to post on Instagram are early morning, mid afternoon, and early evening across the week. The most highly engaged audiences were active:

• Monday: 7am, 11am to 12am
• Tuesday: 7am to 10am
• Thursday: 7am, 11am to 12am, 2pm

❌When to avoid posting: Instagram has a considerably lower engagement rate on weekends, especially on Saturdays.

TikTok may seem like an endless stream of trends and dances, but there’s a method to its madness. The app’s advanced algorithm curates a unique For You Page (FYP) for each user that keeps its users highly engaged and open to discovering new brands and products. In fact, 54% of users interact with brands at least once every day.

There doesn’t seem to be a huge pattern with usage, which could be down to the young age demographic, who are less likely to have solid working routines and patterns. That said, multiple studies found that Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays had the highest activity levels. The most notable success was on:

• Tuesday: 2pm to 5pm
• Thursday: 3pm to 5pm

❌When to avoid posting: Early mornings and evenings past 6pm have the lowest engagement rates during the working week, and weekends are consistently low throughout.

With over three billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most popular social media. And because of its reputation, searching a company’s Facebook business profile is often the first port of call for users researching a business.

Most businesses these days have a Facebook business profile but, due to Facebook’s huge user base and varied user demographics, it’s hard to find a solid consensus among studies. However, there were patterns that indicated the reach of posts to be much higher during weekday mornings.

Studies show the best times to post on Facebook are:

• Monday: 9am to 12pm
• Tuesday: 9am to 12pm
• Wednesday: 8am to 11am and 3pm to 5pm
• Thursday: 8am to 10am
• Friday: 9am to 10am

❌When to avoid posting: Across the board, studies show Sunday to be the least effective time to post on Facebook.

LinkedIn is a social platform designed for the professional landscape. Whether you’re using it to target professionals and build your network (B2C) or to find new businesses to work with (B2B), your best chance to reach these people is on weekdays during company hours.

Studies show that LinkedIn users are most active on:

• Tuesdays: 9am to 12pm
• Wednesday: 9am to 12pm
• Thursday: 8am to 1pm
• Friday: 10am to 12pm

That said, engagement is strong throughout the entire working week, so don’t confine your posts to these windows. Monday through to Friday from 9am onwards should garner a positive reaction.

❌When to avoid posting: the worst day to post on LinkedIn is Sunday. In fact, Saturday is only marginally better, so it’s best to focus your posts Monday through to Friday. If you want to post outside of these hours, I’d recommend midday on Saturday and Sunday.

X is popular among businesses and their customers as a form of fast and direct communication. However, its fast pace and off-the-cuff style means that the times you post won’t always need to be a huge consideration. For instance, if you’re providing customer service on the platform, you should post your responses as soon as you’re contacted.

However, if you’re using your posts to sell on X, you’ll need to post during peak hours for maximum visibility and engagement – especially since your posts can quickly get buried on your followers’ newsfeed.

Research suggests that the best times to post on X are on weekdays, during the early mornings through to the afternoons.

Particularly opulent posting times are:

• Tuesday: 8am to 2pm
• Wednesday: 8am to 2pm
• Thursday: 8am to 2pm

❌When to avoid posting: Weekends, very early mornings, and after 5pm are the least effective times to post on X.

Until recently, YouTube has been an overlooked social media platform for businesses. But the second most popular social media platform, with 2.5 billion monthly active users, offers brands the opportunity to connect with their audiences on a deeper level, through long-form, high-quality content.

Since YouTube’s algorithm aims to present viewers with the videos they’re interested in as quickly as possible, it’s important to strike while the iron’s hot – or the audience is active.

There’s a strong pattern when it comes to YouTube posting times:  afternoons are best. The most successful posting times are:

• Monday:1pm
• Tuesday: 1pm
• Wednesday: 10am and 1pm
• Thursday: 1pm

❌When to avoid posting: Unlike the other platforms on this list, YouTube has a good level of engagement throughout the entire week. However, weekends, specifically Saturdays, see a slight drop in users.

There’s a reason why Reddit is one of the most trusted recommendation platforms. The community forum offers a space for honest and relevant advice, which is rare and valuable these days.

Reddit for Business has provided more space for brands to make use of these opportunities through advertising, which encourages the creation of organic user-generated content.

Unlike the other social media platforms on this list, there aren’t any solid studies on the best time to post on Reddit. However, according to Reddit users, early mornings and late evenings are more successful. 

• Wednesday: 7am to 10am and 5pm to 8pm
• Thursday: 6am to 9am and 6pm to 9pm

❌When to avoid posting: Reddit users note that the quietest times on the app are during working hours on weekdays, between 10am to 5pm.

The amount you post on social media differs between platforms, due to their unique algorithms. These frequencies are a good rule of thumb:

The more you post, the higher your chances of being found by new on discovery pages, as well as staying in the minds of your existing followers by popping up on their news feeds.

The pace of the platform is an important factor to determine your post frequency. On LinkedIn, it’s not uncommon to find posts from four weeks prior, meaning you’ll stay in the minds of your audience for a long time. On the other hand, X (formerly known as Twitter) and Reddit have a much faster metabolism, and you’ll need to post multiple times per day to stay relevant. The advantage of these platforms is the posting style is the least time consuming, so it won’t be too difficult to achieve.

There is one important thing to keep in mind: while you won’t get penalised for regular posting, the quality of your posts is the most important factor for all algorithms – and your brand image. Posting for the sake of posting, and without carefully considering your brand voice and audience needs, won’t earn you any points.

Even with the most high-quality, helpful post under your belt, publishing it at the wrong time can hinder its reach and performance. While we’ve discussed the unique times for each platform, research shows that, across the board, Tuesdays through to Thursdays are often the best days to post on social media.

Remember that the most accurate posting times are when your unique audience is active. Over time, you’ll build data on this in your platform analytics, but the guidelines provided in this article are a great starting point!