4 Tools to Determine the Best Time to Post on Social Media for Your Business

by Fronetics | Feb 8, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media

Find out when your target audience is most active on different social media platforms by using these 4 online tools.

Social media has changed the landscape for doing business. With the click of a button, companies are able to instantly communicate with untapped markets and potential clients. The days of face-to-face interactions have been replaced with live streaming videos, tweets, chats, and likes.

But it’s not enough to curate content for your social media platforms. Today’s social media users expect fresh, innovative ideas around the clock. And when this content is being shared is just as valuable as what is being shared.

There is a lot of research out there that highlights the optimal time to post on various social media platforms. For example, marketing analytics software provider TrackMaven has published its Best Times to Post on Social Media Cheat Sheet, which breaks down posting by industry, brand, and product. It also offers general dates and times that can boost success.

But, the truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all social media posting solution.

You need to take it one step further. You need to know the best time for your business to post content. You want more than just a general idea of when to post. You want specific information about your target audience — when they’re actively scrolling, reading, watching and liking your content.

Determining the best time to post on social media

There are a broad range of tools available that will analyze the personal data of your social media followers and help you compute the best time to post on social media. Here are four that we think offer the most useful information and are easy to use.

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that can do everything from scheduling social media posts to measuring your social media ROI. The AutoSchedule feature lets Hootsuite determine the best time to publish a post or tweet based on when similar content performed well in the past. It also considers the platform and can publish the same message at different times based on audience engagement on each particular network.

2. Tweriod

Tweriod, a free Twitter tool that helps you know the best time to tweet, is changing the way companies approach their marketing tweets. It will evaluate up to 1,000 of your followers and their tweeting patterns, including schedule, interests, and retweets. You then receive an analysis of when your tweets will receive the most exposure.

3. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a robust analytical tool for determining how web users are interacting with your digital assets, including social media. Three custom reports (Best Days to Post on Social Media, Best Time to Post on Social Network by Hour, and the Social Media Traffic by Date and Hour) offer real-time, in-depth insight. Also, Google Analytics is free!

4. SproutSocial

SproutSocial offers a customized dashboard with a quick overview of how your social media channels are performing. You also can gain deeper insight into your customers — like gender and age demographics. And you can assess your customer reach and what will work in your favor.

Creating a strong social media presence is essential for any business. But having a presence is just a starting point in understanding how to fully optimize these ever-changing platforms to work for you. Using online tools to analyze when and where your content should be posted will enhance the value of your social media efforts. In short, you can generate customers and growth potential by pushing your content through the right avenues at the right time.

Related posts:

Are You Tweeting Enough?

by Fronetics | Jan 19, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Data/Analytics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy

The chances are that your company is not tweeting as often as it should.

Each second around 6,000 tweets are tweeted. Each minute over 350,000 tweets are tweeted. The median lifespan of each of these tweets is just 18 minutes. After 18 minutes of being live, the chance of someone seeing your tweet is very low. The chance of someone interacting with that tweet — even lower.

Given the large volume of tweets and the short lifespan of each tweet, how often should you tweet?

To get the most value out of each tweet, tweet around five times each day. To get the most value out of your company’s Twitter presence as a whole, tweet up to 30 times per day.

At Fronetics, we recommend focusing on getting the most value out of your company’s twitter presence as opposed to getting the most value out of each tweet.

When developing your Twitter strategy, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Timing is everything.

Identify the time of day most of your followers are active and what time of day your tweets receive the highest level of engagement. Followerwonk and Tweriod are two tools you can use to conduct this analysis. Rival IQ takes the analysis one step further and shows you when your competitors are tweeting and when they are realizing their highest level of engagement.

It is important to conduct this analysis on a regular basis and to adjust your strategy accordingly.

Be relevant. Be strategic.

Every single tweet you send should be relevant and should fit within your strategic goals and objectives.

Don’t be annoying.

Tweeting when your followers are active and when you have the highest levels of engagement is important, but don’t go overboard. For example, if you learn that 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. are the best times of day for your company to tweet, do not schedule all 30 of your tweets to go live at those times.

Be creative.

Don’t tweet the same tweet over and over and over again. It’s ok to share the same article a few times, but change up the image and/or the tweet to make it fresh.

Be visual.

Tweets with images get more engagement than tweets without images. Analysis by Buffer found that tweets with images receive:

150% more retweets
89% more favorites
18% more clicks

Be realistic.

Determine what you can realistically do on a consistent basis. If you can only commit to tweeting 5 times per day, stick with that. It is better to have strategy that you can execute than to have a strategy that cannot realistically be executed.

Finally, remember you don’t need to go it alone. Tools such as Buffer, HootSuite, Sprout Social, and HubSpot allow you to schedule tweets. Scheduling tweets makes it easier to tweet more often so that you can realize the value of a Twitter strategy.

Related posts:

Ready to get started?

Fronetics

Contact