Why There’s No Perfect Time to Post on Facebook

There probably isn’t a single best time to share to social media.

There’s a long tradition of studies that have attempted to uncover a ‘best time’ to post to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and almost every other social media marketing channel, with each study finding a wide range of results (we’ve even created our own studies here at Buffer).

Here are just some recommendations on the best time to post to Facebook to get you started:

• Thursdays and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. [Hubspot]
• Thursday at 8 p.m.  [TrackMaven]
• 1–4 p.m. late into the week and on weekends [CoSchedule]
• Early afternoon during the week and Saturdays [Buffer]
• Off-peak times are best [Buzzsum0]

All of these studies are based on sound logic and can potentially be helpful to point marketers in the right direction. But almost every study reveals a different ‘best time to post’ and I believe there’s no perfect time to post to Facebook (or any social channel for that matter). 

The best time to post depends on a number of factors that are specific to every business: What’s your industry? What location is audience based? When are they online? Are you sponsoring your post?

I’d love to flip the conversation and say that instead of looking for a universal ‘best time to post’, maybe we should be focusing specifically on when is the best time for your brand to post.

Why there’s no universal best time to post on Facebook

The content crush is truly upon us. There’s more content shared to Facebook than any of us could ever consume, and as such, Facebook’s News Feed algorithm helps to determine what is shown to us every time we open up Facebook.

On their Business blog, Facebook’s VP of Advertising Technology, Brian Boland explains:

On average, there are 1,500 stories that could appear in a person’s News Feed each time they log onto Facebook. For people with lots of friends and Page likes, as many as 15,000 potential stories could appear any time they log on.

As a result, competition in News Feed — the place on Facebook where people view content from their family and friends, as well as businesses — is increasing, and it’s becoming harder for any story to gain exposure in News Feed.

Whenever you post to Facebook, you’re essentially competing against at least 1,500 others post for a place in the News Feed and timing is only one of a number of factors that determines which content appears.

With this in mind, it’s also possible that the best time to post could also be the worst time. Let’s say a study found the best time to publish is 6pm on a Friday, and every brand was to try and push content to their audience at that time, it’s likely that very few of those posts would be seen due to such high competition. The same is true for saying off-peak times are best to publish – if all brands post off-peak then there will be more competition, and so they should go back to posting at peak time.

It’s all very muddled and there’s no clear answer. As such, I’d argue that there’s no specific time that’s best to post to Facebook.

So, when should you post to Facebook? A couple of strategies you can try

If there’s no ‘best’ time to post, how do you decide when to share your content to Facebook?

To answer this question, I feel like there are two approaches we could use:

1. When your data tells you
2. When it’s relevant

1. When your data tells you

When it comes to marketing and digital strategy, the best data is always your own. And, thankfully, Facebook has a ton of data available for all page owners and admins. A comprehensive understanding of your own audience on Facebook and how your content is performing will bring more success, than generic insights drawn from studies on a wide variety of Pages from a range of industries and brands.

2. When it’s relevant

This one is a little less scientific. But some content will work best in-the-moment or at a time when it’s most relevant. A great example of this is the content many sports teams share to Facebook to update fans on the scores or breaking news.

For your business, the same can also be true. Some pieces of content will perform best when they’re relevant. For example, the best time to share content related to the launch of your new product tends to be directly following the announcement. Or if you had an advert on a local TV station, it’s best to create and share social content around the same time that it’s broadcast.

How to use Facebook Insights to find your best time to post

If you’re looking to find the best time to post on Facebook, the first best place to start is Facebook Insights.

To see your Page Insights, click Insights at the top of your Page:

Once you’re in the Page Insights dashboard, there’s a wealth of data available to you. For this post, though, we’re going to dive into a couple of specific areas to help you discover when to post your content.

How to find out when your fans are online

From the Insights dashboard, select Posts in the left-hand column menu. This will take you to a detailed breakdown of the days and time your fans are most active on Facebook: 

This chart shows the average times across the week. You can hover over each individual day to see an overlay of how that day looks vs the averages. Here’s an example of how Sunday’s tend to look for our Page (the dark blue line is data for Sunday):

What does this data tell us?

Here at Buffer, we can see our audience is online 7 days per week and that there’s no specific day where we see a spike. We can also see that from around 9 am in the morning the number of people online is gradually increasing up until around 4 pm where the number begins to decline slightly.

There are plenty of ways to interpret this data. But, to me, this would suggest our best times to post are during the work day between the hours of 9 am – 5 pm when our audience are most active on Facebook. I’d recommend testing a variation of times between those hours to see what works and if there’s a best time at all.

Another experiment we’ve been trying off the back of this data is posting at off-peak times. Brian, our social media manager, has recently been posting when less of our audience is online and we’ve been seeing some success between 3 am – 5 am.

How to find posting times of successful posts

Facebook Insights records reach and engagement figures for every post you share to your Facebook Page. This data can be found in the same place as the data for when your fans are online. Head to your Page Insights, click Posts and below the graph showing times your fans are online, you’ll see ‘All Posts Published’.

Here, in the ‘Published’ column, you can see the date and time when each post was published to your Facebook Page. With this data you’re looking out for any trends regarding the times. For example, do posts published around a specific time tend to receive more reach or engagement.

Note: If your posts are Sponsored or Boosted (like many of ours in the above screenshot), this could also skew your data a little as these posts are likely to gain significantly more reach than organic posts regardless or the time they’re published.

What does this data tell us?

Personally, I think our data on the Buffer Facebook Page is pretty inconclusive at the moment. It’s clear that posts published between around 10 am – 12 pm seem to do well, as do posts at around 5 pm. But I’d love to test a bunch more variables before making any clear conclusions.

Using Buffer’s Optimal Scheduling tool

Another way to find some potentially great times to post to your Facebook Page is with our Optimal Scheduling tool.

When you optimize your schedule, we look at the past 5,000 interactions (e.g. likes, favorites, clicks, etc.) you’ve had on the Page you’re optimizing as well as similar profiles in the same timezone. We then plot these according to your timezone in a 24 hour period, to see when most interactions have happened.

We also include an ‘experimental’ element, that picks some timeslots outside your top engaged times to find unexplored, new optimal timing areas for you to post.

How to use the Optimal Scheduling tool

Step 1: Connect your Facebook Page to Buffer

To use our Optimal Scheduling tool, you’ll first need to connect a Facebook Page to Buffer. To do this, login to your Buffer and then click on the + icon next to Accounts in the top left of the dashboard. Then, select Facebook Page:

Step 2: Head over to your Schedule tab

From your Buffer dashboard, select your Facebook Page in the left-hand column and then click on the ‘Schedule’ tab:

Now, click on the ‘Try our Optimal Timing Tool’ link underneath your schedule. Alternatively, you can also follow this link: https://buffer.com/optimal-scheduling/calculate

Step 3: Select your Page

Next, simply the select the Page you’d like the tool to identify posting times for, how many times you’d like to post each day and click ‘Calculate Times’:

Step 3: Check your suggested times

The Optimal Scheduling tool will now display some times for your to post based on recent engagement for your Page and other similar Pages in your timezone. If you wish, you can also replace your current Buffer schedule with these times in one click:

Note: As this tool takes data from your Page and similar profiles in the same timezone, I tend to use the recommended times as a test to see how content performs at each time, rather than a set of ‘best times to post’.

Businesses will win because of the content, not the timing

When one of your Facebook friends gets married, the chances are you’ll see their wedding photos stuck to the top of your News Feed all day, regardless of the time they’re posted. This happens because wedding photos, whether you like them or not, are great content and as soon as they’re posted, a bunch of people rush to like, share and comment on them.

If you want to succeed on Facebook, your content will be the most important factor. Not the time it’s posted. Of course, timing can have an effect on performance if the post is timely or more relevant at set time – such as content aimed at reaching sports fans at the time when games are happening. But largely, your social media success relies on the strength of your content.

Over to you

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic: Do you think there’s a best time to post to Facebook? How do you decide when to publish your posts? Let me know in the comments, I’m excited to join the conversation.

Thank Why There’s No Perfect Time to Post on Facebook for first publishing this post.

Snapchat Marketing Strategy 101: Getting Started, Building a Community, and Generating ROI – Carlos Gil [SSM027]

What started as a simple app to send disappearing videos to friends, Snapchat now attracts some of the biggest brands and influencers in the world.

More than 300 million people use the app every month – generating an astounding 10 billion videos views per day!

Which is why Snapchat presents a huge opportunity for businesses and brands to get in on a platform that is growing exponentially by the day.

But how?

Carlos Gil has been helping brands and businesses successfully develop and implement their Snapchat marketing strategy for years. And he’s really, really good at it, too. In 2016, Carlos was listed as one of the world’s top Snapchat marketing influencers by Inc. and a host of other publications.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Carlos all about how marketers can get started with Snapchat and how they can tie their Snapchat marketing efforts into overall business ROI. A huge thank you to Carlos for jam-packing this episode with actionable wisdom and takeaways for social media managers and marketers alike looking to create winning habits and goals that will take their skills to the next level.

How to listen: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud | Stitcher | RSS

This episode is available on:

• iTunes
• Google Play
• Stitcher
• Sound Cloud

In this episode, here’s what you’ll learn:

Carlos Gil shares his expert insights on what it takes to get started on Snapchat and how marketers can use this platform to build a engaged community as well as drive real ROI for their business.

• Carlos’ story of becoming a Snapchat influencer
• Answering the question: Is it too late to join Snapchat for brands?
• How to get started on Snapchat and provide value to your audience
• Tying Snapchat marketing efforts to business ROI
• How to run an influencer marketing campaign on Snapchat

3 Key Takeaways for Marketers Looking to Expand and Go All-In on Snapchat in 2017

In Carlos’ words…

1. Be real

I often look to DJ Khaled for inspiration (keys to success) – he’s one of the most watched people online today. They key to DJ Khaled’s success has been just being real and he’s set the model of consistency for every brand marketer should aspire to be. What people really want is to be entertained, engaged, and inspired. Think of Snapchat as product storytelling.

2. Take risks

Snapchat is not Facebook, it’s not LinkedIn, and it’s not YouTube – it’s Snapchat. Take risks and tell short, engaging stories on the platform.

3. Develop a long-term strategy

You’re not going to get on Snapchat and see success overnight. There’s no such thing as overnight on social media, but especially on Snapchat. Really start building your strategy over the next 12-18  months. How are you going to first grow your audience? How are you going to keep them engaged long-term? And then, most importantly, how are you going to take that growth and engagement and convert that into sales?

Mentionable Quotes and Shareable Snippets

“If you do anything at all on Snapchat different from your other social media channels, make the focus around storytelling. And if you want to take it one step further, allow others to tell that story for you.”

– Carlos Gil

Show Notes and Other Memorable Moments

Thanks a million for checking out this episode! Below are the websites and other tidbits that were mentioned in today’s podcast about creating incredible Facebook communities using groups. If you have any questions for us, feel free to drop us a line in the comments and we’ll respond right away!

Awesome People, Things, & Articles Mentioned in the Show

• Buffer on Snapchat
• Social Media Masterminds Group – Facebook
• 5 Top Snapchat Tips for Marketers – The Buffer Blog
• Getting to Know the Ghost: A Complete Guide to Snapchat – The Buffer Blog
• 24 Hours with Snapchat Spectacles and My Excitement has Disappeared – Carlos Gil
• A Video Marketing Guide on Creating Content for Snapchat – The Buffer Blog
• The Easy Way to Create a Snapchat Geofilter – The Buffer Blog
• DJ Khaled on Snapchat
• Carlos Gil on Snapchat
• Snapchat Spectacles: Our Full Review and 5 Tips to Create Better Snaps – The Buffer Blog

Great Quotes

• “My perspective of social media is completely different than your textbook version of how these channels work. For me, this was a lifeline for me to grow a business and feed my family.”
• “It’s definitely not too late to join Snapchat. Even though the train has already left the station, there’s still time for brands and businesses to get on board.”
• “We see a lot of ‘rinse and repeat’ across social media channels. You have to ask yourself: How is my content going to be different on Snapchat than my other social media channels?”
• “Reach out to influencers directly if they align with your brand and if everything checks out, run a campaign with them on Snapchat.”

How to Say Hello to Carlos (and us)

Carlos Gil is a fantastic person to follow across social media for daily marketing tips, tricks, and motivation. You can find Carlos on Snapchat here, Twitter here, Facebook here, and read more about Carlos’ journey at carlosgil.biz.

Thanks for listening! We’d love to connect with you at @buffer on Twitter or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.

Enjoy the show? It’d mean the world to us if you’d be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!

—

About the Show

The Science of Social Media is a podcast for marketers and social media managers looking for inspiration, ideas, and results for their social media strategies. Each week, we interview one of the very best in social media marketing from brands in every industry. You will learn the latest tactics on social media, the best tools to use, the smartest workflows, and the best goal-setting advice. It is our hope that each episode you’ll find one or two gems to use with your social media marketing!

The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.

Thank Snapchat Marketing Strategy 101: Getting Started, Building a Community, and Generating ROI – Carlos Gil [SSM027] for first publishing this post.

WordPress Management: Do it Alone or Hire a Pro

Today WordPress powers a huge percentage of the websites on the web. It allows anyone to create a website with every “feature” that they could need.

Those features come with a cost though.

Every plugin that you add to your website to make it do this cool thing or that one, adds additional load on your website. It makes the site heavier for those loading, especially important on mobile devices.

Beyond that, all of those plugins get updated by their developers, sometimes for sake of security. As a website owner, it is your responsibility to make sure your site is updated and safe for your users, all while making sure nothing breaks.

Below are some of the things you should consider when deciding if you want to manage your own website, or sleep well at night knowing you have a pro on your side.

WordPress Management is a Commitment

One thing in the world of WP is certain, the system isn’t designed to be a “set it and forget it” website. It is a constantly evolving script the builds your web pages on the fly.

All of the options and customizations you make are essentially building templates. These templates are then pulled together when someone requests your web page.

Sometimes, changes to the script can mean minor changes to the theme you run or plugin(s) you have installed.

Frequency of Theme, Plugin, and Core Updates

The WordPress core gets updated frequently. Patches are sometimes weekly.

Generally, themes will get updated at most monthly. Plugins also get updated once per month at most.

This isn’t the issue. In order to update these plugins, you have two options. Either test the updates in a staging environment, or take a leap of faith and hit update all.

Anyone that has a WordPress website can tell how the frustration of hitting update to find that your website no longer works.

White Screen of Death

Many times what happens when a website “crashes” is the white screen of death. It is named this because attempting to view the website or the admin dashboard results in a white screen.

Fortunately, in this instance I faked what you would actually see instead of actually suffering it.

This can result in lost revenue on a sales site or potential business on a lead generation website. The cause is usually one culprit.

Plugin Conflict

This is know a “plugin conflict”. The WordPress repository has thousands of plugins. Also, outside vendors sell plugins. This results in over a hundred thousand listings in the support forums.

This makes it impossible for every vendor to test their plugin with every other. It just isn’t practical.

A plugin conflict resulting in the white screen of death is basically an impossible fix for someone without server knowledge.

Not a big deal for a seasoned website admin, but a real kick in the shorts for your average business owner though.

Now it’s time to pay for a developer to fix it in real time. Doesn’t sound cheap does it?

Plugin Abandonment­

The average business owner doesn’t know the WordPress landscape.

Plugin abandonment is when a developer just quits actively maintaining a plugin. This is troubling because it could open up a future security leak.

A normal business owner would have no way of knowing that this has happened to a plugin on their website. They don’t know the people or companies with a track record of keeping products up to date. They generally only go by the number of users. This can be a costly mistake.

An active WordPress user (Manager) however, would have this info and find a replacement for the dead plugin.

Theme Updates

Other times updates can have less noticeable, yet significant changes to your website. This is especially true if you have many customizations on your website.

Sometimes the changes can be as simple as the theme updating how it does things and you simple re-check some options.

Other times, it can be css changes, which would require coding knowledge to fix the layout.

Site Backups

Keeping you website backed up is important. Both the database and the WordPress files.

While a plugin can be set to automatically back up your website and erase the oldest copy, this can be troublesome.

Imagine your site is hacked and they were clever enough to not let you notice (likely). Now they can do what they want with your website, including sending users to other malicious websites.

Your site backup schedule carries about it’s business and makes copies of the now infected website. Think that backup is any good now?

While this can happen to anyone, even a managed website provider, it is less likely. This scenario happens way to often to business owners that aren’t even aware until they get threatened by their hosting provider.

It also brings up my next point.

Website Security

The security of your website shouldn’t be taken lightly. As mentioned, WordPress is used by millions. Thus, it is the target of attack.

Using a security plugin is a must. And they aren’t set up the way you want them “out of the box”. They can and should be configured to increase the security of your website.

Wordfence is an incredibly popular option and the choice that I use almost exclusively. With over 1 million users and 4.8 star rating you can’t go wrong.

Without security, hackers can literally test your login page all day, every day.

This will piss off your web host and make your website slow down to a crawl. That is if a potential customer can reach it at all.

If you run your own site, you are going to have to pay for a hack cleanup. With a managed provider though, in the unlikely event this happened, you would pay nothing.

A Couple More Reasons to Choose a Managed WordPress Website

One of the biggest things that is tough for someone is the actual server itself. Getting WordPress installed and adding files to the server. Setting up and maintaining email through an unfamiliar platform. Redirecting web pages to new versions. The list can get big in a hurry.

I know that you can use the one click script to install WordPress, but with a professional setup that wouldn’t be the case. It would be a clean install with no unnecessary software running to make it happen.

In fact sometimes you don’t have anything more than your WordPress install to worry about.

Managed WordPress Hosting

Managed hosting is when you pay for someone to manage your hosting environment. You actually manage your WordPress website though, complete with the ability to break a beautiful layout.

If that happens, they will restore it for you of course, but it will likely be queued up and you wait in line. It is nice however, that you don’t have to follow a tutorial or call a developer to hit up your server and fix up the site.

Fully Managed Plan

This is our plan to completely take website management out of your hands.

• Hosting is provided so you know you get a great choice
• Server management is completely handled for you, everything
• Email that is dependable and simple (Google Apps)
• WordPress is completely managed for you…updates, backups, security
• Deeply discounted website build pricing
• Minor changes to website content ~ not to exceed 1 hour per month. Client must provide assets (images, proofread .txt files for written content, change instructions)
• 99.9% uptime for your website
• Access to premium tools
• Beyond that, as a client you can get discounted pricing on additional services to grow your business. You have a digital expert to discuss needs with and someone that you can trust to be straight with you.

Managing a WordPress website isn’t the most difficult thing in the world. Their will be bumps in the road though, if you choose to go it alone.

The question is simple.

Does it make sense for you to try to be a website admin and run a business?

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