Sharing a great piece of content isn’t enough to make it big on social media. You’ll also need to time it so people naturally stumble upon your post. When you discover the best days to post on Instagram, your account’s engagement will skyrocket. Read this guide by the snsflow.com experts and learn how important posting times are to social media success.
The Best Days To Post on Instagram: A Simple Guide
It’s difficult to nail down a specific day that suits every creator and audience. Every study seems to have a different answer. However, it appears that Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the most common results. For example, Metricool states Monday and Thursday would offer the best engagement.
Weekends are another good option. Most of your audience (across any age range) will be away from work or school. As a result, they might be scrolling Instagram more on these days. Though many believe Sundays are the worst for your content calendar. However, this isn’t for certain.
Plenty of factors will affect which days work better for you. The only way to find out is sometimes to experiment on your own. The time you post actually seems more important than the day. This also varies tremendously, though more people are online in the evenings.
Beyond this, you may see a bump in engagement before 9 a.m. Many people are similarly active around midday for their lunch break. You’ll need to find the time that works best for you and your audience. Otherwise, your posts won’t get the attention they deserve — even from devoted followers.
How Your Posting Time Affects Instagram Engagement
Your content will only get likes and comments if people see these posts, to begin with. If you can get high engagement rates, Instagram will even promote your profile to more users. This mainly depends on the initial burst of likes you get after posting. Timing your posts will help you ride the waves of engagement with ease.
If you share a photo when your followers are asleep, they’ll likely miss it the next morning. Their feed will always prioritize newer posts. In addition, many of them may not check their Instagram until later in the day. All the effort you put in might be for nothing if you share your content at the wrong time.
You should only post when your target audience is online. This could take some time to work out if your account is for a broad range of demographics. Choosing the time to post sets your profile up for success with every photo or video. Otherwise, even your most loyal Instagram fans could miss your account’s latest updates.
The Best and Worst Times for Posting on Instagram
Though the specifics vary, you shouldn’t post too late at night. Even if your followers are awake, you might not have time to reply to their comments until the next morning. Try to post when you can keep an eye on your comments for an hour or two. This lets you start discussions with your community that carry your content further through Instagram’s algorithm.
You’ll generally get the best results by posting in the evening. The Metricool report above shows a spike that starts at around 5 p.m. and begins falling at about 8 p.m. However, even your midnight posts will likely have more luck (and more likes!) than your mid-morning ones. The specific peak time for your account is hard to predict — but you can always help your chances.
The Instagram algorithm is constantly changing. On top of this, people’s habits are already very different compared to a few years ago. The rise of remote working, for example, makes it easier for people to check their phones throughout the day. The best days and times to post on Instagram ultimately depend on your followers. For some, even Tuesday mornings offer the most likes.
How Your Audience Makes a Difference
As is usually the case with Instagram, your audience will have a big impact on your social media strategy. In this instance, the times they’re most active determine when you should share your content. Aim for when most of the world is online if you want an international Instagram audience. As engagement generally goes up from midday onwards, the evening might still be your best bet.
However, if you’re hoping to reach people from a specific country, it helps to base everything on their time zone. Your followers will likely be busy with their jobs throughout the day if they’re mainly working-age. You can still catch them on their lunch hour — but your timing has to be precise. In addition, older people might have less time to scroll once they’re home from work.
Younger age groups are similarly on their devices more often. This broadens your options when figuring out the best day to post on Instagram. However, young adults are often more likely to be partying on Friday nights. Every account should keep its audience in mind. A company that sells homeware may be able to reach stay-at-home parents more easily during the day, for example.
Finding Your Best Days and Times To Post on Instagram
Every account has its own personal best and worst time for posting. This means you’ll need to figure these out for yourself. Once you do this, you can build a regular (and successful) content schedule. Here’s how to find the time that works for you.
1. View Your Engagement Metrics
If you have a business or creator account, your Insights page shows when your posts get more likes. This highlights the sweet spot of engagement you should target in the future. If your posts are slow to get likes for the first few hours, share them later.
2. Check Your Audience Demographics
Your Insights will also show who makes up your current audience. This helps you fine-tune your posting schedules to target every segment. For example, you can capitalize on a major boost in international viewers. These stats even identify the different age ranges that like your content.
3. Use Third-Party Tools
A social media management tool can check your account’s data to instantly find the right day or time for you. Depending on the service, this might even take your competitors into account. Your account can then turn its own data into actionable insights that pay off long-term.
4. Experiment
Even with a clear strategy, numbers aren’t everything on Instagram. Sometimes, figuring out the best day of the week to post on Instagram means testing several options for yourself. Make sure your next posts go out at different times on different days and compare the like counts of each.
What Is the Best Day To Post on Instagram Over the Weekend?
It’s hard to predict how active your audience will be on the weekend. On one hand, they may be on social media platforms even more if they’re not busy at work. Alternatively, this may be when they go out with friends or do other leisure activities.
However, studies seem to agree that Sunday is less fruitful than Saturday for engagement. This might be because users are busy preparing for work on Monday. Scrolling through social media posts is sometimes stressful — users might want other ways to relax on their rest day.
If people have a busy Saturday, they might be too tired to use Instagram the next day. You’ll see little difference between the days if your audience is full of proud homebodies. Saturday evening might still be best, however, as your engagement will continue on Sunday morning.
When looking for good days to post on Instagram, people often forget about the weekend. Even the experts rarely recommend it for your posting calendar. However, there’s still no hard rule for either day. It’s always worth trying in case it works out for your profile.
The Best Posting Times for Different IG Formats
Instagram has possibly billions of monthly users, all of whom use the app in different ways. This includes people who prefer reels and stories over feed posts. But what are the best days to post on Instagram in these formats? And which times will give you the most attention? Here’s a quick rundown.
1. Photo Posts
Regular photo feed posts do well at any time that people are scrolling. They take nearly no time or effort to view. This means your network can easily engage with them wherever they are. As a result, they’ll do better on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday when people are most active. For even higher engagement, consider making a carousel with multiple photos.
2. Reels
With videos of any kind, people are less likely to watch them with their sound off. This means it’s likely they’ll get little traction during commutes or lunchtimes. Instagram Reels might fare better on weekends when people are more likely to be home. If you do share them on a weekday, aim for the evenings and include captions to cover all bases.
3. Stories
Users may decide to check their friends’ stories whenever they’re on the app. As stories can be in photo or video form, people may again wait until they have privacy to view them. These posts are only up for 24 hours — meaning many people in your network will inevitably miss them. You might benefit from posting varied stories across the whole week, regardless.
When To Go Live on Instagram
Working out the optimal time for an IG livestream is quite tricky. You can’t rely on people viewing it hours later; the stream might be over by then. No matter the day, only go live in the evening, or you’ll likely have a small audience.
Even if your followers have a break during their day, they likely can’t join the full livestream. This is something they’ll need to set time aside for. There’s arguably some leeway for this during the weekends, such as on Saturdays just before or after lunch.
But what is the best day to post on Instagram Live? Wednesday might offer a relaxing midweek break for your network. Alternatively, large accounts could transform Friday night streams into a community event. If you want to do weekly livestreams, keep them at consistent times.
Whenever you go live, save a replay and make it available for your followers. There’s no reason why they should have to miss out unless the exclusivity is the point. However, it’s also important to remember that your followers will have their own busy schedules.
Figuring out the best days to post on Instagram means making sure you’re getting the right level of engagement. At snsflow.com, we can connect you with real followers who pay attention to each and every post.
With our premium service, you can boost your metrics at any time of day. This is great for users struggling to match their current audience’s timetable. Try snsflow.com today and see success no matter when you post.
