What is the Best Time to Post on Facebook for Higher Reach?

If you are posting on Facebook, it is essential that you know the best times to post on Facebook. Today, if you want to ace your game in social media marketing, you need to increase the engagement levels on your social media profiles. That means you need to make sure that your content reaches the maximum number of people, and gets more likes, comments, and shares.

In the current scenario, even the people having thousands of followers on their FB page are getting only a handful of likes and comments. This is because the organic reach is at an all-time low as compared to the last 8 years. When you do not want to use paid ads, there is only one way left to reach people on Facebook – Knowing the best time to post on Facebook for likes.

If you are uploading your posts at the wrong time, then your obsession with checking the number of impressions, again and again, is going to prove fruitless. Put them on your Facebook page right now, which will take your obsession to new heights!

When you schedule Facebook posts with a social media scheduler at the best time, i.e., when people are the most active, the visibility of your content will boost, and it will stand out from the crowd. However, finding out the best time to post on Facebook is definitely a bit tricky. 

Before we look into the best times to post on Instagram, here is a shameless plug. RecurPost can help you not only find the best times, but we can share your posts automatically at those times.

Thus, in this article, we are going to show you some already tried and tested timings, and also some ways using which you can analyze and decide the best time to post on Facebook.

Your guide to the best times to post on Facebook

1. The lifespan of a Facebook update

2. Best time to post on Facebook for different industries

3. Best time to post on Facebook as per days

4. Using Facebook Audience Insights to find out the best time to post

5. Using social media scheduling tool to manage your FB account

6. Determine YOUR best time to post on Facebook

7. Why best time to post on Facebook matter?

8. How to find your best time to post on Facebook?

9. Key Considerations When looking for the Best Times to Post on Facebook

10. How to Find the Best Time to Post on Facebook Through Personal Experimentation?

The lifespan of a Facebook update

“Two hours.”

Yes, that is the average lifespan of a Facebook update. The research done by WiseMetrics shows the surprisingly fleeting life of a post on FB and reveals how short your window of time is for getting it done in the right way.

• When you post on Facebook, 75% of engagement is received in the first 5 hours.
• The maximum number of impressions on a post is received in the first 2 and a half hours.
• 75% of your audience comes across your message in the first 2 hours of posting.

Best time to post on Facebook for different industries

1. The best time to post on Facebook for Tech Industry

Best days: Wednesday and Thursday

Best time: 8 AM to 3 PM

Worst time to post on Facebook: Saturday and Sunday

Building a social presence is necessary for IT companies as 86% of consumers browse the Facebook pages to make informed decisions.

It doesn’t matter whether you are targeting B2B or B2C audiences, 9 AM to 2 PM on Wednesday seems the best time to make your post live on Facebook. Mornings are the most active and evenings witness the least engagement.

2. The best time to post on Facebook for consumer goods industry

Best days: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday

Best time: 9 AM to 5 PM

Worst time to post on Facebook: Sunday

Consumer goods are bound to receive the highest engagement rates consistently during weekdays. One of the most important success factors for retail and B2C companies is understanding what the consumers actually need. Use social listening to find out what they are interested in and present that during the best times. 

3. The best time to post on Facebook for Education sector

Best days: Monday to Friday

Best time: 8 AM to 5 PM

Worst time to post on Facebook: Saturday and Sunday

The best time to post on Facebook in this sector definitely matches its operating hours. Prospective students can be targeted by providing highlights of different courses and admission procedures. Upload tit-bits of campus life at your institution. These will provide valuable information and increase the engagement levels on your account.

4. The best time to post on Facebook for Healthcare industry

Best days: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday

Best time: 9 AM to 2 PM

Worst time to post on Facebook: Saturday and Sunday

In addition to posting promotional content, the healthcare sector can effectively use Facebook to highlight their local presence and connect with the patients. A great reputation can be built by gaining positive reviews from former patients. The typical business timings overall prove to be the best times to shoot out content on Facebook.

5. The best time to post on Facebook for media sector

Best days: Monday to Friday

Best time: 7 AM to 5 PM

Worst time to post on Facebook: Sunday

Media companies face no shortage of time to reach active users on Facebook. People are always interested in knowing what is happening around the world and rely on media pages to get the latest updates. Apart from weekends, a considerable amount of engagement is obtained on weekends too. Media companies probably receive the highest engagement on their posts as compared to other industries on Facebook.

6. The best time to post on Facebook for non-profit sector

Best days: Tuesday to Friday

Best time: 8 AM to 4 PM

Worst time to post on Facebook: Saturday and Sunday

Non-profit organizations can highlight their missions very well using Facebook’s platform. They can communicate and spark discussions with their community members, and get volunteers for their future missions. During the work week, the activity levels on Facebook are highest, with peak times on Wednesday and Friday mornings.

7. The best time to post on Facebook for finance sector

Best days: Monday to Friday

Best time: 6 AM to 3 PM

Worst time to post on Facebook: Sunday

From the start of the day until noon, financial companies experience strong interaction levels during the working days. The lowest engagement rates are observed after 6 PM, as the banks and other financial institutions close. Try to focus on building trust with your customers by providing informational content and continuous support. It can build a strong foundation and trust factor amongst your audience.

8. The best time to post on Facebook for creative/sports sector

Best days: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday

Best time: 9 AM to 3 PM

Worst time to post on Facebook: Sunday

When it comes to recreational services, the audience’s interests may differ depending upon region, gender, niche, and other aspects. Thus, there are scattered opportunities for engagement at multiple times throughout the entire week. There is no harm in experimenting with the posting times during the day.

Best time to post on Facebook as per days

Here is a breakdown of the best time to post on Facebook as per days so that you can know the best time to post on Facebook today:

• The best time to post on Facebook on Sunday is 9 am – 2 pm
• The best time to post on Facebook on Monday is 8 am – 5 pm
• The best time to post on Facebook on Tuesday is 10 am  – 1-2 Pm
• The best time to post on Facebook on Wednesday is 11 am
• The best time to post on Facebook on Thursday is 8 am – 3 pm
• The best time to post on Facebook on Friday is 11 am
• The best time to post on Facebook on Saturday is 10 am – 2 pm

Using Facebook Audience Insights to find out the best time to post

Using Facebook Audience Insights, you can see a bunch of information about people that interact with your profile on Facebook. Along with knowing their age, gender, interests, buyer persona, and location; you can use Facebook analytics to determine their active time periods on Facebook and figure out the best time to post accordingly. People typically use Audience Insights to run targeted Facebook ads, but it can also be used to know when to launch your content. 

Go to your Page Insight’s dashboard, and Facebook will present a wealth of analytics for you. 

1. Find when your fans are scrolling the feed

While on the dashboard, click on the ‘Posts’ option from the left-hand menu. You will be able to see a detailed breakdown of the days and time periods when your Facebook target audience is the most active.

The chart will show the average times of active hours across the entire week. You can hover over any day and compare its timings with the averages. 

Find out the days when people are using FB the most, and see the time that will be beneficial to you. 

2. Check the engagement that you have received previously

This analytics section keeps a record of reach and engagement that you receive on every post that you share on Facebook. You can find this data under the section “All posts published” below the graph showing when your Facebook target audience is online.

In the “Published” column, the date and time of each post published are shown. You can compare the publishing time of post with the reach and engagement received. This will let you know the best time to post according to your own experiences.

Filter this data and see the analytics only for Facebook organic reach posts because the paid ones will have higher engagements and will not help in deciding appropriate times to upload content.

3. Put the data to use

When you have determined the best time to post on Facebook, it’s time to put your data into action. The assumptions need to be tested in the real world. One great way to carry out this implementation is to schedule your posts using a social media scheduling tool that offers a Facebook post scheduler. It will help you in saving time and reduce the burden of manually posting content on Facebook.

Using social media scheduling tool to manage your FB account

RecurPost is a smart social media management tool that will help you in posting the right content at the right time. You can schedule your posts for the best time and it will automatically find the best time for the day when your post is scheduled for. RecurPost is also one of the leading free hootsuite alternatives in the market.
Here is how you can set RecurPost up.

• Create your account by signing up for free.
• Connect your Facebook account/page.
• Curate your content using content libraries.
• Schedule your posts by using the easy drag-and-drop editor.
• Add content to your queue.

You can upload loads of content in one go without having to add all the updates individually. RecurPost supports creating content in bulk directly within the interface and by uploading a CSV file. Once you schedule your posts, RecurPost will take care of the rest of the things. 

It allows you to schedule Facebook posts on your profiles, multiple groups, and pages. You can schedule Instagram posts with reels and stories to entertain your audience by sharing information with fun. 

You can also schedule LinkedIn posts on your personal and business pages to build your network of professionals related to your industry. RecurPost lets you schedule tweets and start a conversation with people who belong to your niche. 

Also suitable for visually inclined marketers, RecurPost is a perfect Pinterest scheduler. It is possible to schedule Google Business Profile posts with a call to action buttons to attract local buyers and grow business.

Besides post-scheduling, you can use it for a lot of other features. You can keep a constant check on the reports and analytics to see how your posts are performing. It offers white-label reports – which means you can download all the data with your company’s logo. Its advanced analytics will help you in keeping track of audience’s preferences and plan your social media marketing strategy.

When you post consistently on Facebook using this post scheduler, RecurPost studies your social engagements and recommends you the best time to post a piece of content for maximum visibility and potential leads. You can also curate content by subscribing to topics that you are interested in on Google Alerts and have it appear directly in your RecurPost feed, which you can then approve and move to your library for scheduling. 

To make things even easier, RecurPost offers an easy-to-use and user-friendly app to manage all your content on the go. making it one of the top Socialpilot alternatives. When it’s the time to post your scheduled content, you will get a push notification and can approve to upload in just a single click!

Determine YOUR best time to post on Facebook

You might have now understood that there is no universal best time to post content on Facebook. For every single person and account, this figure is going to differ. The optimal time depends on the audience you want to interact and engage with, your industry, and the kind of content you upload.

Use all the above data collectively.

The research that has been conducted industry-wise and the data that you obtain from your Facebook analytics can be used as a base to start posting. Experiment with different days and times and note all results in a spreadsheet. It will help you in understanding your audience’s behavior and how your content performs to decide future posting timings.

Timing is everything. Relevance is important too.

Some pieces of content only matter when posted at the right time. Announcements of new products, sales, discount coupons, or a milestone achieved – all need to be presented to the audience at the right time. Sports teams don’t wait to post box scores. News channels upload breaking news as fast as possible on all their social media channels. Don’t be afraid to put your content in front of people before your competitors.

Why best time to post on Facebook matter?

Facebook is a very vast platform where millions and millions of users share their opinions and content every single day. The content pool is so huge, that making your piece stand out from others becomes extremely difficult. That is why it is important to know when your audience is going to be the most active and when are they present on the platform. By knowing that, you can post at that time and increase the chances of your content getting noticed. Hence, the best hours to post on Facebook matters. It will give you higher engagement on your posts.

How to find your best time to post on Facebook?

If you have been wanting to find the perfect time to post on Facebook, the first place to start looking would be Facebook insights.

For getting to your page’s insights, click on Insights at the top of your page, which will take you to the Page insights dashboard. Here, you will come across a wealth of data. But to find out the best time to post on Facebook for maximum exposure we will focus only on certain aspects of that data.

• Find out when your users are online

From the dashboard, choose “Posts” from the left-hand side column menu. You will then come to a detailed breakdown of the days and times at which your users are most active on Facebook. The chart will show weekly data on user activity. You can hover over each individual day to see an overlay of how that day looks.

• Find out posting times of successful posts

The Facebook insights feature will record the reach and engagement of every post that you put out there. You will find this data right where you found the previous one. Go to your Page insights, click on Posts, and right below the graph that shows when your friends are online, you will find “All posts published”. In the “Published” column, you will see the date and time of each post. From here you can analyze the data trends.

Another way to know the best times for posting would be using a third-party tool like RecurPost. The smart AI-backed system of this tool will give you the best times to post and you can even auto-schedule your posts as per those times. 

Key Considerations When looking for the Best Times to Post on Facebook

When you are picking the best times to post on Facebook for maximum reach, you should take into account all the following factors:

• The goal for your social media posting – your goals for posting on social media can be getting maximum views, increasing awareness about your brand, gaining followers, or selling products. 

• Days of a week – what days of the week you choose is important because they form a part of audience behavior.  For B2B audiences, they are most active on workdays or work hours. For B2C users, weekends are a good time.
• Time zone– this is an important factor for targeting a global audience. Your posting schedule should match the target audience’s time zone.
• Posting frequency – You should not post too often because then the algorithm will declare you as a spammer. At the same time, you need to post just about enough to remain consistent. So, try to strike a balance.
• Industry – a lot of things like the audience base, frequency of posting, and the type of social media posts will depend on the industry that you operate in. So, if you are thinking of the best time to post video on Facebook, do think of what industry you are operating in.

How to Find the Best Time to Post on Facebook Through Personal Experimentation?

Finding the best time to post pictures or videos on Facebook is not a complex task and you can accomplish it by experimenting with a few things yourself. Here are the steps you can follow for finding the best time to post on Facebook:

Experiment with posting at different times

The very first thing you should do is try posting at different intervals on different days to see what works out the best for you. You can pick certain days for certain content and different times in the day and the night. Give it about 3 to 4 weeks and a pattern will surely emerge.

Analyze your existing posts

The next option for setting up the best posting times manually would be to analyze your existing posts. You will definitely have some pages that are working well for you for a while. Analyze the performance of those pages and find out when you had posted them.

For checking existing post-performance, you can also go to Facebook insights where you will get the graphs of performance analysis of your posts.

Keep a check on the time when your followers are online

If you use a Facebook post scheduler, you can check the performance analytics and find out the times when your audience is most active. This is a good way to know when to post because if you post when your audience is active, your chances of getting higher engagement will increase.

Conclusion

Knowing when to post on your Facebook profile can have a huge impact on your audience engagement. When people come across your post at the right time, they are most likely to like and share it. When they do so, it lets Facebook know that people are interested in your content and the ranking improves. 

The data collected from all the above tactics combined with your own research will paint a perfect picture of your audience, their preferences, and the best way to provide content to them at the correct timings. It will just be a matter of time when you will become a pro and will not have to look at analytics again to figure the best time to post on Facebook!

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