Best time to post on instagram

All it takes is a simple “Best time to post on Instagram” search on Google or Pinterest for you to find article after article claiming they know exactly when you need to post. But that’s just not the case.

Best time to post on Instagram

Is there a best time to post on Instagram?

There is in fact a best time to post, but it is different for everyone, for every account. Every account has their own followers with their own habits. It is up to you to find out exactly when your followers are online.

Don’t listen to the articles claiming that “1pm on Thursday” is the best time. It may be for them, but it is not necessarily your best time.

Thankfully your best posting time is a pretty easy thing to figure out.

How to Find Your Best Time to Post on Social Media

Once a business or creator Instagram account has 100 followers, you will have access to your “Professional Dashboard” on your profile.

  1. Click on your Professional Dashboard. You’ll find all sorts of information on your account here.

  2. At the top right, click on “See all.” This takes you your Insights Overview. It automatically shows you your stats for the last 30 days, but you can change it to the last 7 or 14 days, previous month, or last 90 days. The last 30 days is a good place to start for posting times.
    The Overview shows you your Accounts Reached, Accounts Engaged, and Total Followers changes. You can also see details about the content you’ve shared and the individual stats of each post. This is a great place to dig in to see what sorts of content works best on your account. Knowing what sorts of content to create will help your account grow better than before. Add this with best posting times, and you’ve got a great formula for growth.

  3. Click on “Total Followers.” This page shows you the details of followers growth and loss, as well as where your followers are located. You’ll also find the age ranges and gender information of your followers. But the bottom of the page is what you really want to see here.

  4. “Most Active Times” shows what days and times your followers are on Instagram. Tap on “Days” and the graph will change. Tap on any of the blue columns to see the exact numbers of active followers for each day.
    Tap on “Hours” to see the most active hours for each day. The arrows will allow you toggle from day to day. Tap on the blue columns and you’ll see the exact number of active followers in each three hour block.

Now that you know when your followers are online, you can post accordingly. There are those who will tell you to post 10 minutes before your highest active time. You can certainly do that, but considering it is showing you a three hour block of time, I don’t believe you need to stress over the exact minute you post. I do suggest posting around the beginning of the most active time.

For example, currently my most active time on Fridays is 9am to 11:59am, but Noon to 2:39pm is close behind. For this, I chose to post between 8:30am and 9:30am. This will give me the best chance for the post to be seen by the most followers.

Another example: Currently on Wednesdays, my most followers are online in the Noon block, but the 9am block is only less by 20. I will still post around 9am to be seen by more.


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So when should you post?

Ultimately it is up to you to do just a bit of research to discover what will be best for you. I make it a habit to recheck my stats at least once a month to make sure I am taking advantage of this. I do this when I am putting together my content calendar for the following month.

Facebook does not show posts in a chronological order, so it is not as big a deal to post at certain times there.

Now go check your Insights and get to posting!

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