Social media, in recent years, has established a prominent place in this world. For individuals, social media has become the primary source for entertainment, news, infotainment, sports, and even education. Everyone is constantly interacting on social media one way or the other.
For a brand, optimizing and marketing on social media platforms like Instagram should be the new approach. You can still be an early bird when it comes to Instagram marketing. You’ll even have an advantage since many brands are still prioritizing Facebook and haven’t incorporated Instagram yet!
Instagram is gradually becoming the go-to social media platform for small businesses and start-ups. Features like reels let you display products and services in a fun and entertaining manner, something that other platforms don’t offer to businesses.
Best time to post: myth or reality?
The “myth” that there is a particular “best time” to post on Instagram is real.
You’ll need to know the best time for posting for one particular goal: to drive traffic to your page.
But it isn’t as simple as it may seem. There isn’t a particular time of posting which is suitable for everyone. But don’t worry, there are a few times that are considered excellent to drive traffic to your page, if not the best.
Best time to post: universal
It has been widely observed that Instagram witnesses the most traffic mid-day and mid-week. That makes sense — this is the usual time that people take breaks from work or school.
Through experimentation and observations, we’ve concluded that the best time to post on Instagram without in-depth knowledge of your audience is around 11 AM on Wednesdays.
Tip: Always remember not to post at times that touch the hour mark (xx:00). Most brands and individuals schedule/post at the hour mark, so to separate yourself from the crowd, make sure you post at times like 10:57 A.M or 11:03 A.M. That way, you won’t experience cutthroat competition when you post.
On Instagram, every second matters.
Here are the best times to post in local times across different time zones:
- US and Canada (Western): 12 AM-6 AM
- US and Canada (Central): 6AM-8AM
- US and Canada (Eastern): 4 AM-9 AM
- South America: 4 AM
- UK: 4 AM-6 AM
- Europe (Western): 6 PM -8 PM
- Europe (Eastern): 5 AM-7 AM
- Africa: 6 AM
- South Asia and the Middle East: 3 AM
- East Asia and Southeast Asia: 11 PM-4 AM
- Australasia: 11PM – 2AM
Check your competitors
Most of your existing competitors most likely experimented a lot, which is one of the ways to learn what your audience responds the best to.
A good competitor analysis will tell you what to do and what not to do.
Consider keeping a close watch on your competitors, that way you’ll be up to date on the latest trends and draw inspiration for your own content.
Time zones are crucial
This is where it gets tricky. For pages with a global audience, this is a major hurdle.
Suppose you’re living in Chicago, but your latest post is directed to your audience in China. Another post is meant for the Swiss and you have another one planned for your extremely active audience in Australia. What does one do?
Waking up according to different time zones and setting multiple alarms doesn’t sound very exciting,
This is where social media management tools come in handy. Tools like page managers are ideal for Facebook whereas Practina is highly recommended for Instagram — the system does everything by itself, really!
Experiments and analytics
Analytics tell you how well your posts are performing. When you experiment with a post, the analytics tell you whether the experiment was successful or not.
Experiments and analytics are interdependent, experiments don’t make sense if you don’t have numbers to study them. Likewise, numbers won’t say much if you don’t experiment.
Experiments and analytics can be a bit arduous for some, we suggest using social media marketing tools if Instagram isn’t your key focus area.
The game of numbers
Do you ever wonder how many posts a business uploads on average to Instagram? Or what the average engagement rate for a business is? Or how long an average user spends on Instagram daily?
Of course, you don’t!
But we do. Here are some key Instagram statistics to consider when crafting your posting strategy.
- On average, a business posts once a day.
- The engagement rate of posts for a business account is roughly 1%.
- 30 minutes is the average time spent by a user on Instagram.
- Users on each visit last about 6 minutes.
- 63% of Americans check Instagram at least once a day, whereas 42% of Americans check Instagram multiple times every day.
Consistency
By consistency, we don’t mean to post constantly. What we mean is to be consistent with experiments and analytics.
But that doesn’t mean you should start posting irregularly. You should be consistent with it. Irregular posting drives the algorithm away from your favor since the algorithm likes it when you post regularly. The more you experiment and post, the more the algorithm will favor your posts.
Maintaining consistency with postings as well as experiments can be extremely taxing, which is why we recommend utilizing social media marketing tools.
AI Social media management tools
AI Social media marketing tools are economical, effective, and most importantly, they are dependable.
People familiar with Facebook know how incredible Pages Manager is. As amazing as Pages Manager is for Facebook, Practina is a game-changer for Instagram. If the article above was difficult to understand or if it scared you, Practina can be the solution to all of your Instagram marketing needs.
Social media marketing tools not only schedule your posts, but they also design, create, monitor, and do almost every key activity there is on Instagram.
With the help of social media marketing tools, you can sit back and focus on the primary focus of your business.
Conclusion
All in all, yes; there is an ideal time to post on Instagram, but it’s different for everyone and the ideal time also changes following the dynamics of the world. You need to be on your toes to live in the competition.
You can surely find the ideal time to post for your brand with proper dedication, time investment, and the will to work hard.
If you don’t have the time to go through all this, Practina is recommended as it can help automate your social media marketing.
Experimentation, observation, analysis, and optimism are the key elements for a successful Instagram Business account. Good luck!
