It was the Best of Times and the Worse of Times: When is the Best Time to Post on Facebook?

An educational infographic created by digital agency Linchpin presents when would be best time (as determined by the greatest amount of interaction, i.e. the number of ‘Likes,’ comments and shares obtained) to post on Facebook.  Segmented by fifteen industries, their data revealed that the best time for the majority of businesses is over the weekend—Saturday and Sunday.

Gaining a Competitive Edge on Facebook

The only notable exceptions were companies in Clothing and Fashion (Thursdays are better) and General Retail (with interaction spiking on Mondays).  Every other industry segment had engagement soar over the weekend.

This weekend prime time for Facebook posting has been relatively unexploited, only an average of 14% of businesses were publishing posts, so that utilizing the ‘best days’ should give your small business a solid competitive advantage.

One can theorize that people have been posting mainly during normal business hours, Monday through Friday, as that is the most convenient for them, and they are unaware of the engagement rates or, perhaps, how to schedule posts on Facebook.

Schedule More Engagement on Facebook

Since no one wishes to work on weekends to manage their Social Media campaigns, the solution is to consider scheduling posts to appear over the weekend.  While it is possible to schedule Facebook posts via several Social Media scheduling applications (such as HootSuite), be aware that Facebook places limitations upon the exposure for any posts that were not manually made using its own platform.

The good news is that Facebook allows scheduling using their proprietary scheduling mechanism, which is free and pretty straightforward to use (although slightly hidden from view).  It involves posting as normal and rather than hitting the blue ‘Post’ button on the bottom right, to click, instead, the tiny clock face which appears AFTER you upload your photo/video, photo album, or status update on the bottom left (you just select the year, month, day and time to post from the drop-down menus that will appear).

This simple technique will allow you to leave an estimated 85% of your competition behind, while your company’s Facebook account will be able to bask in increased engagement, new fans and sales leads!

See the full infographic below: