My Study: When is the best time to post on Facebook?

If you have a Facebook business page, you’ve probably wondered: “What’s the best time to post on Facebook?” This is the post that is probably not going to answer that question for you. But first, let me share the results of my study.

Beginning in January, and ending in April, I kept track of every status update’s impressions on The Marketing Spot Facebook page. You can find impressions of your page’s status updates after about 24 hours, here’s an example.

What are Facebook impressions: It’s the number of times your status update has been exposed in your fans news feeds, visits to your page, and third party tools like Hootsuite. These are important numbers, because the more impressions you have, the more people are likely to see your status update.

So, I kept track of all my impressions from January through April, and recorded them by hour. I tracked every hour from 6 am to midnight, Monday – Sunday. Some of my Facebook fans may have been wondering, “What the heck is he doing posting something this time of night.” Now you know, and here’s what I found:

The Best and Worst Times to Post on Facebook

Best Individual Hour to Post
11 AM on Saturdays – I received the highest impressions posting at this time

Worst Individual Hour to Post
3 PM on Fridays – This is when I received the fewest impressions

Best Day to Post
Sundays – Yep, I received the highest average daily impressions posting on Sundays.

Worst Day to Post
Thursdays – Don’t ask me why, I have no answer.

Best Hour to Post throughout the Week
The 8 PM hour performed best throughout the week.

Worst Hour to Post throughout the Week
The 6 AM hour performed worst throughout the week.

Some Cautionary Advice

First: With a just a few exceptions, the variance was not that big. For example, the variance from Thursday (worst) to Sunday (best) is 17%. You should be posting status updates every day.

Second: More important than the time you post is the content you post. The more likes and comments you get on a status update, the more impressions that status update will have.

Finally: These are the best times and days to post for me. My Facebook page fans are small business owners and marketers, and located all across the globe. Your times may be different because your audience is different. The best thing for you to do is to keep track yourself.

To help you keep track, I’ve created an Excel spreadsheet. All you have to do is fill in the numbers. All the formulas have been included, when you have completely filled out the spreadsheet, you will have an accurate picture of the best time to post.
Download the spreadsheet here: Facebook Tracking Spreadsheet

What’s the best time for you to post on Facebook?

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