Confession time.
Simply earlier than sitting down to put in writing this text, I used to be engaged on a social calendar mission for a brand new shopper. I turned to Google and requested: “What’s the best frequency to put up on LinkedIn?”
As I typed, the search engine’s auto-populated choices completed the phrase with choices together with:
YouTube and YouTube Shorts
TikTok
Most social media platforms
Posting content material in a Fb consciousness marketing campaign
Like most entrepreneurs, I had hoped for a one-size-fits-all reply despite the fact that I knew that was foolish. Persons are not homogenous. They don’t all eat social media, newsletters, podcasts, movies, and so on., on the similar time. And their consumption habits varies relying on how the subject suits with their private {and professional} pursuits.
Nonetheless, that doesn’t imply you simply guess. To assist make educated decisions and develop a go-to publishing frequency technique, learn the way your friends do it and glean related ideas from their recommendation.
Begin frequency selections with others’ analysis
OK, sure, this advice appears what you’ll discover Googling a query about scheduling and frequency. However, so long as you don’t deal with it as the primary and solely cease in your quest, it’s really useful.
HubSpot used survey knowledge to compile the very best instances to put up and frequency of posting on social media in its 2024 State of Social Media Report (free, registration required).
Widespread social posting frequencies for B2B and B2C manufacturers based mostly on the platform embody:
Fb: A number of instances a day (B2B and B2C)
XEx: A number of instances a day (B2B and B2C) and a number of instances per week (B2B)
TikTok: A number of instances a day (B2B), as soon as a day (B2C)
Instagram: A number of instances a day (B2B), a number of instances per week (B2C)
LinkedIn: A number of instances per week (B2B), weekly, or a number of instances per thirty days (B2C)
Pinterest: A number of instances a day (B2B), a number of instances per thirty days (B2C)
Sprout Social analyzed practically 2 billion engagements throughout 400,000 social profiles together with, X, Fb, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok, to find out the very best instances to put up on social media:
Mondays: 11 a.m. to midday
Tuesdays: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and three to 4 p.m.
Wednesdays: 9 a.m. to three p.m.
Thursdays: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Fridays: 10 to 11 a.m.
Although it doesn’t establish the very best publishing instances for Saturday and Sunday, it says Sundays are the worst-performing days. One of the best days are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
Picture supply
Mailchimp produces one thing related for advertising e mail distribution instances.
CJ Digital, a hospitality advertising company, depends first on suggestions from professional websites as a result of they’re based mostly on high quality analysis, says CEO Joshua Wooden.
Then, the company does A/B cut up testing on every platform to see what works within the hospitality {industry}. What works on one platform could not work on one other. “We alter it up very often,” he says.
TIP: Don’t neglect to make use of the suggestions offered in your content material distribution instruments, reminiscent of your e-newsletter platform, as they base these options on the information your viewers is offering.
Sally Howard, founder and advertising strategist at 49 North Digital, has some normal preferences for publishing instances based mostly on the distribution autos:
LinkedIn: 7 a.m. — the early morning works greatest to succeed in commuters and decision-makers heading to the workplace.
Instagram: Although the platform now delivers content material based mostly on pursuits, the morning is an efficient time to seize folks’s consideration as a result of they scroll whereas having espresso. Loyal followers who see it very first thing within the day can work together with it, doubtlessly pushing it out to extra folks.
Blogs: Publication time doesn’t actually matter. Individuals Google issues always of the day, so timing doesn’t matter if website positioning is the purpose.
Emails: When you goal company audiences, don’t publish on Mondays and Fridays. When you’re a small enterprise retailer, put up at 6 p.m. on Friday when your viewers is seeking to deal with themselves after making it by means of the week.
Nonetheless, Sally cautions that you could’t choose a publishing time and neglect it. She factors to an company shopper within the teaching {industry} who skilled shifts in e mail open charges all year long. The company performed with distribution instances and located a candy spot — shifting from a night e mail to a morning one prompted open charges to go from round 36% to over 50%.
Sally says entrepreneurs ought to evaluation their ship instances quarterly round seasonal modifications. “For instance, in case you usually ship emails at 6 p.m. and also you’ve observed in the summertime these e mail open charges have dropped as a result of people who find themselves your goal market aren’t choosing up their telephones as a lot on summer season evenings, it’s possible you’ll need to think about concentrating on them throughout their morning commute,” she explains.
You additionally ought to check ship instances in case you discover a pointy decline in your open charges and haven’t made drastic modifications to your topic traces or skilled vital {industry} updates just like the current area verification by Google.
Analysis your viewers qualitatively and quantitatively
Recognizing your viewers’s preferences is a should. Connie Sensible, a author and content material creator for the Metropolis of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, prefers the direct method to assessing what channels the viewers prefers, how usually they need to obtain the content material, and what time they’re most accessible to eat and interact with it.
To get the solutions, ask your viewers. “Surveys, on-line polls, focus teams, and even casual chats will help you glean some nice nuggets,” she says.
Then, mix that qualitative suggestions together with your quantitative analytics to raised perceive your viewers’s content material consumption habits.
Construct a technique based mostly in your main social platforms
Mariela Azcuy, vice chairman of B2B technique and government communications at Carve Communications, recommends you give attention to just a few anchor channels after which:
Decide a frequency based mostly on the channel: Submit extra usually on social media to appease algorithms and reinforce messages. Submit weblog articles much less usually to emphasise high quality, although the precise quantity will rely upon the accessible sources and website positioning’s significance in your advertising technique.
Consider the trouble vs. payoff: Assess your sources, together with AI and exterior contributor help, to establish a schedule and frequency that may have the largest payoffs.
Assume seasonally: Publishing schedules shouldn’t essentially be the identical each month of the yr. What are the large moments in your {industry} and within the viewers’s world? How ought to your schedule deal with them?
Construct on what works: Launch one thing small, and if it really works, develop from there. For instance, Carve Communications began a behind-the-scenes video collection on LinkedIn. It obtained nice viewership, so Carve created a separate LinkedIn multimedia e-newsletter devoted to its behind-the-scenes work.
Take a look at, then analyze
William Reinhart, founder and president of Signature W Studio, says a publishing schedule and plan are vital to scaling your efforts.
When his company works with corporations to succeed in a brand new viewers, it goes by means of 4 phases — experimenting, analyzing, iterating, and analyzing once more. “We are going to stagger the time of day, fluctuate the variety of instances posted per week, and alternate the content material sorts,” William explains.
The experiment part runs 60 to 90 days, which is often sufficient time to develop a pattern dimension that gives ample metrics for an evaluation.
The evaluation lets them know which put up sorts and instances get essentially the most engagement and drive audiences to the model’s desired outcomes. Then, the method strikes to the iteration stage. “Alternate profitable put up sorts with well-liked instances of day,” William says. “It will show you how to construct the absolute best posting schedule based mostly on the kind of content material.”
When the iteration stage achieves a ample pattern dimension, return to the analytics. Examine the metrics from the iteration part to the preliminary interval to make knowledgeable selections on your publishing plan.
Skilled marketer Liz Kolb, is the co-founder and CEO at Axion Now, an organization specializing within the collectible card recreation Magic the Gathering.
When Axion Now sends e mail advertising campaigns to advertise an occasion, it makes use of its database with years of knowledge to ship when open and sign-up charges are more likely to be the best.
“We by no means ship out emails on a Monday or Friday. It appears our clients are busier on nowadays, and the typical open price is round 40% decrease,” she explains.
Regardless of the frequency, present up constantly
Don’t get so targeted on the optimum publishing time that you simply ignore the roles that publishing frequency and consistency play.
Adam Nathan, CEO of Blaze.AI, explains, “The extra you put up, the extra you create a repeatable sample together with your viewers that the (social media platform’s) algorithm can acknowledge, resulting in compounding engagement and account progress.”
Michelle Garrett, founding father of Garrett Public Relations, sees worth in consistency for newsletters, too. She religiously sends hers on the second Tuesday morning of the month.
As a e-newsletter client, she additionally appreciates consistency.
“I bear in mind one e-newsletter I at all times obtained on Friday mornings. I at all times learn it when it arrived. Then it began displaying up randomly, and I ended studying it as usually,” she says.
Acknowledge when to regulate the plan
Holly Gaffney, advertising model and content material supervisor at Calla Footwear, grew its Instagram account from 14,000 to 174,000 followers in 2024. Her greatest recommendation? If an Instagram Reel goes viral, improve the frequency of your Instagram posts to “journey the wave.”
She explains, “We had just a few viral reels, and the movies that adopted additionally at all times had a fantastic uplift. It’s additionally a fantastic likelihood to put up content material that’s significantly informative or partaking to people who find themselves new to your account.”
I might suppose the identical technique would work effectively for any social media platform.
Chris Inman, president of I.D.E.A. Cleveland, adjusted his podcast frequency from 30-minute episodes in the future per week to 3 10-minute episodes three days per week. “I’ve observed that the variety of listeners doesn’t change, however the completion and retention numbers go up,” he says, noting the elevated frequency additionally offers him an opportunity to share the decision to motion extra usually.
Anticipate to make industry-related changes, too.
Author Connie Sensible explains, “Turn into conscious of how your viewers’s content material wants may fluctuate all year long. In case your viewers is small enterprise house owners, you may think about pulling again on frequency throughout heavy gross sales durations like the vacation season. In case your viewers is monetary providers, possibly you ramp up your frequency round tax time or financial savings contribution deadlines.”
Belinda Conde, head of promoting at Datos, a Semrush firm, says you additionally ought to think about timing within the context of your {industry}, not simply your viewers’s habits.
“Whereas timing is necessary, what issues much more is aligning our content material with well timed {industry} tendencies,” she says. “We take a look at what’s taking place available in the market or what our clients are at present involved about and ensure we’re publishing insights or knowledge that deal with these wants when it’s most related.”
For instance, Datos printed a white paper, Retail AI: 4 Person Habits Traits to Know, when many journalists had been writing about how they used AI for his or her vacation buying. “By publishing throughout this dialog, we offered analysis that was each well timed and priceless for our viewers and the {industry} at giant,” Belinda says.
A single reply doesn’t exist
In fact, not everybody agrees or priorities on when to publish. Lindsay Younger, proprietor and president of three Aspens Media, advocates for publishing content material in your web site when it’s prepared. “There’s zero cause to attend if it holds true worth to your prospects or clients,” she says.
Dane Frederiksen, founder and chief visible storyteller of Digital Confederate, favors the publish-more technique. “Video daily. The algorithm loves frequency; feed the beast,” he says.
5 steps to the very best publishing frequency selections
Once you’re able to optimize your content material calendar, from social media posts and podcast episodes to blogs, newsletters, and movies, observe this curated recommendation:
Examine your viewers quantitatively and qualitatively to grasp their consumption habits with content material codecs, subjects, and distribution channels.
Use the customized advice instruments out of your related software program suppliers.
Develop a scheduling technique that constantly delivers at a frequency that works on your viewers and your sources.
Be versatile sufficient to capitalize on tendencies associated to your {industry} and the large success your content material could discover.
Analyze the habits metrics after two to 3 months, and revise the technique based mostly on what you’ve discovered.
By implementing this considerate course of, you’ll by no means have to Google “What’s the very best time to publish …” once more.
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Cowl picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content material Advertising and marketing Institute