The Best Time to Post on Instagram
The age-old question when it comes to your Instagram content…
“When is the best time to post on Instagram?!”
The truth is, everyone seems to what quite the opinion, and over the years, messaging about this topic has certainly varied, BUT I have a pretty hot take on finding the best time to post for your account.
There are many variables at play when you post anything, such as time you post, hashtags, various best practices that range from the design of the image or video all the way to how you write your captions, and some luck.
From all the variables, the exact time you post is NOT one of the bigger one. As long as you don’t post when your audience is close to going to bed for the next 8 hours, you should be okay if you have good content for your audience.
But I will dive way deeper than this, so keep reading on.
Before we go too deep, though, and you spend too much time worrying or testing the perfect time to post, if you’re looking to grow your sales (or start making sales) on Instagram, I highly recommend our 8-Day Instagram Campaign video + templates combo - it will have content that engages your audience more than the exact time you post + the work is basically done for you!
Okay, now here’s where things get interesting…
While most people may tell you to post when your audience peaks for the day, I beg to differ.
As you may know, most people you follow don’t see your posts right as you publish them to Instagram. No matter if they are a regular feed post, story, Reels or IGTV videos or lives.
That’s why I recommend you post when your audience peaks AND will remain active for many hours.
For example, your audience may peak at 8pm, but a couple of hours after that you will see a big decline because people will tune in to their latest binge on Netflix and go to bed. This means they will disconnect with platforms for about 8-10 hours until they hit that snooze button and open up Instagram again.
But if you posted at 9am instead, where you may not see a spike as big in your Insights, you would still have a whole day of engagement ahead.
So if people miss your post right as you posted it, you will still have a chance to catch them when they log in to Instagram again an hour later, or two or three… you get my point.
Here’s are the quick tips you need to know
1) Don’t spend too much time finding the perfect time to post
The perfect time to post do not exist. The difference in post performance when you post it at 8am or at 1am is so small, if you compare that with the difference between an okay and a great post in quality of content. So focus on the content instead.
2) Don’t spend a bunch of time engaging with people at the time you post
Many people tell you that the algorithm will help you if you engage a bunch at the same time you are posting. That’s not the algorithm, it’s human nature. If someone messages you or comments on your post, you may be curious and check their profiles and leave a like or a comment. That may give you an extra 5 likes and comments that will NOT change your business. And let’s be honest, in that hour you’re wasting doing this daily, you could be doing a lot of better things for your business, like growing your newsletter or checking back with your current clients and customers.
3) Don’t read too much into your tests
A lot of people do tests and jump to conclusions, but what they don’t realize is that there are too many variables to compare (the two posts being different for example) and it’s impossible to know exactly. Also, if a post ends up getting lower engagement than expected, don’t be discouraged. Just keep looking at your insights and improve content, instead of focussing on the perfect time.
Conclusion: what’s the best time to post on Instagram?
We recommend you pick a time in the earlier part of the day in your audience’s time zone, when they are awake and many many hours away from them going to bed. I always post between 8and 9am ET. Sometimes I post at a different time and either don’t see a difference, or see less engagement, which by experience shows me this strategy is working.
If your audience is all over, chose a time based on most of your audience.
Now you can put a check mark on picking the best time to post and put your efforts in variables that can make a bigger impact.
Manu Muraro is the founder of Your Social Team, an Instagram training membership and content shop to help social media managers and Instagram savvy women entrepreneurs to beat the algorithm and grow their organic engagement (yes, even in 2021). This year she also launched Your Template Club, a Canva Template subscription to provide social media managers and Instagram savvy business owners with content template designed for engagement in their inbox.
Born and raised in Brazil, Manu moved to the U.S. in 2000 right out of college to work for Cartoon Network, where she made an award winning career in creative and strategy. In 2017, Manu started Your Social Team with the mission of helping women entrepreneur and social media managers grow engagement and sales through Instagram without the overwhelm.