The Time to Get Social is Wednesday at 2:30 EST
What were you doing at 5 a.m. yesterday morning?
Hopefully you were either in bed, fast asleep, or at a really, really amazing party.
Hopefully you were not like me, and totally unable to sleep, hyped up on caffeine, surfing Instagram all night long. The worst.
And all because I decided to schedule a coffee date/meeting for after dinner. Caffeine after three is never good for me (although it apparently makes me a better poet!), and neither is neglecting timing when it comes to your social media content.
Scheduling is a key part of social strategy. Understanding what days of the week, what time/times of day, and how frequently to post content is fundamental to your success.
It’s also a rather simple formula to master. Which is very nice considering how tricky social media can be.
There are a million great articles floating around the internet to help you understand how to time your content.
But here are a few of the basics, just in case you don’t have time to read a million articles this morning.
Tweets have a very short “lifespan”, which refers to how long they remain visible to your followers. You should post hyper-current, trending content on Twitter, as that’s the type of content most likely to get you re-tweeted and followed.
Scheduling Stats:
Monday through Thursdays are usually best, although participating in #FollowFriday is never a bad idea.
Between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. is the usual recommended Tweet window.
You should generally aim to post content at least four times per day. Spread your posts out evenly so as not to “Tweet bomb” your followers. By my own logic, I really ought to Tweet more!
Facebook content, like Twitter, should be current. But they do not have to be quite as trendy as your Tweets. Your Facebook posts should be very specific to your industry and company brand, whereas with your Tweets, you have a bit more leeway when it comes to content.
Scheduling stats:
Wednesday wins best day to post, hands down!
Aim for between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Post content at least once a day. You can be a bit more active, but the beauty of Facebook is that content has a longer lifespan there, than it does on Twitter, so you can post less and focus more on making those posts count!
Google+:
Confession, I have been neglecting Google Plus lately, even though Google+ is great for social recruiting and employer branding. I’m going to remedy this as soon as I’m done writing this post, taking nap, then checking my Instagram.
Scheduling Stats:
Weekdays are best, especially for social recruiting and business.
The best time to post, give or take an hour, is around 10 a.m.
How often? Well, personally, I would recommend playing it by ear a little with G+. Post whenever you have a new blog post to share, job to list, or find an article that you think is super pertinent to your Google Plus community
LinkedIn:
Oh LinkedIn — so persnickety! Your content should be relevant, but does not necessarily need to be current. You can get away with posting older articles, so long as they are on point.
Scheduling Stats:
Tuesdays through Thursdays are best. Mondays and Fridays are not worth your time, according to most statistics. LinkedIn is just weird like that!
The best time to post is around 8 a.m. give or take an hour, and then again from 5 p.m. until 6 p.m. Don’t post after 6 p.m. though, unless you want your content to disappear into the deepest, darkest recesses of the inter-web — never to be seen again!
Depending on how important LinkedIn is to your strategy, you can post once a day or once a week. A happy medium is to post an article (brownie points if you wrote it yourself) once per week, and comment on other peoples’ posts once per day.
Your own personal blog:
Staying on trend will help your blog posts, as trending topics are more likely to be posted to Facebook and shared on Twitter. But, you need to also focus on writing what’s often referred to as “evergreen” content. This means content that will stay relevant for several years. This is because blog posts have the longest lifespan of any other social media content you produce — they are the social media version of a gift that just keeps giving!
Scheduling Stats:
Choose two weekdays that work well for you. Mondays and Wednesdays work well, as they are earlier in the week, giving you more days to share them through other social networks.
Posting in the morning will also mean that you’ll have more flexibility for sharing throughout the day.
As previously mentioned, two times per week is perfect for blogging. Any less and you’re simply not putting out enough content to stay relevant with your reader base. More than that is great, if you have some extra time or ideas kicking around, but two posts a week has the best return on investment.
Check bit.ly for more great stats on content timing
As with all things in life, your social schedule is unique to you. These suggestions are a general guideline.
Once you’ve been actively scheduling posts for a while, and built a bit of an audience, try using an app like followerwonk (for Twitter), to assess what times are most effective for you personally. You may be shocked to learn that posting content at three in the morning is actually the best possible time for your gluten-free taco truck business… Or that your Facebook Fans are very active on Sundays, and that’s a perfect day for you to post new jobs.
In order for your content and job posts engage and convert, make sure to use a scheduling tool like the one included with the Jobcast Premium Facebook recruiting app. That way you can make sure you’re posting at the best possible times to get your jobs seen.
