You already know that what you post has a direct effect on how much you engage your audience on your chosen social media platform. But have you ever thought about when to post to get the most possible engagement and interaction on your content? There really is a best time to post on Instagram.
Believe it or not, there is a sweet spot for the best time of day to post on Instagram, and it isn’t a closely-guarded secret. There are two different strategies to determine the best time, with very little trial and error. There are also some easy supporting behaviors that you can do every time you post to ensure that your work gets seen by the most potential clients possible. Best Time to Post on Instagram
InstaStrategy
The first strategy to find the best time to post on Instagram is astoundingly easy. The app actually tells you, right inside of Insights. Don’t have Insights? It is a perk of a business or creator profile, so Step 1 is changing over to one of those. (Don’t worry, it’s free.) Just click on Insights > Audience, and scroll down. The app tells you the top days of the week and times of day when your following is active on the app. Should make sense that you want to put your amazing curated content out into the world at the time when most of your audience is in their seats, yes?
The second strategy for the best times to post on Instagram for maximum engagement requires just a bit of thought. Think about when your ideal client is most likely to be scrolling through the app. Think about when you are usually opening Instagram, and you’ll see that those times often intersect. Best Time to Post on Instagram
I find that most people with a Monday-Friday 9-5 job will look in the morning, just after their alarms go off, or during their morning commute. Some will have a scroll during lunch break, and others around 3:00pm when they’re a bit bored of work and waiting out the last two hours, or in line at school pick up and enjoying their last few moments of “freedom” from little eyes. Others will visit their Instagram feeds once the kids go to bed, so after 9:00pm or around 11:00pm when everyone is doing their best not to drop their phones on their faces while laying in bed.
My audience is made up of mostly beauty professionals, so I tend to post on Sundays and Mondays when everyone has days off or an office day on their calendar. It just depends on who your audience is and what kind of schedule they tend to keep.
Don’t Post and Run
We know that the algorithm rewards those whose posts get a lot of engagement within the first hour of posting, so it’s important to hit the ground running, using one of these above best times to post on Instagram. Once you post, don’t just brush your hands off and close the app – on the contrary, it’s important to support the post by responding to every comment, and engaging with your audience to drive traffic to your profile for the first ten minutes or so. You spent a lot of time planning and executing the service in the photo, and the photo itself, so make sure you give it a gentle nudge before moving on to the next item on your to do list. Best Time to Post on Instagram
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