How do you know the best time to post?
You want to get the most engagement on your posts, so you want to find the best time to post. If you Google around, you’re likely to get a ton of different answers and zero clarity than when you started down this rabbit trail.
Now, you can always go to your Instagram Insights page, look at your audience tab and see what days of the week and what times of day they’re most active on the app. Up until now, this is the measure I’ve been using. Jump into the pool when it’s the most crowded and hope that you get seen by everyone there!
So not 3am…
Then, I go back and look at my most engaging posts and pull out the common denominators: was it a Saturday post? A late-night post? An early-morning post?
But after thinking about this, seeing no common denominator, and working on some changes over the past few months, I have a new theory:
It doesn’t matter what time you post.
Here’s the thing:
Instagram has said that they won’t be returning to the chronological news feed. They, like Google and Facebook, prioritize engaging content. Therefore: if you post something and lots of people, like, comment, share, save and click your profile — you’re going to get lots of engagement brownie points and make it to a lot of newsfeeds no matter what time the post went out!
But how do you create engaging content?
I don’t have a magic bullet answer for this one. It depends so much on the brand and the audience they’re talking to. But in any industry, I’ve found that the more personality you can give a brand, the better. You can still have a formal, put-together brand without being stuffy. You can have a deeply serious non-profit without being depressing.
Write like a human and connect with your audience. Give them stories to identify with. Writing for a candle company? Make light (hah) of all the times we might need a candle. Writing for an other-side-of-the-world-non-profit? Put your audience in their shoes so we know why we should care and how we can help.
And if you’re trying to promote your own business: do the same.
Give us a reason to care and trust you. Show us who you are and what you’re about — and just as importantly — help us know how you can help.
TL;DR: Save your energy for creating good content, not trying to find what day / time of day is better to post.