When is the Best Time to Post on Facebook? Here's How to Find Out!

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It's one of social media's oldest questions, and one that many a marketer has struggled to answer - when is the best time to post on my company's Facebook Page? The answer used to be a little difficult to decipher, but the recent overhaul of Facebook Insights now gives everyone a much clearer idea. 

Whoa! Watch out for time zones

Here's a screen grab from my own Facebook Page's Insights. And the first thing to note is that the data shown is from your own computer's local time zone.  This means that if, for example, you are advising a client in a faraway country on the best time to post on their Page by looking at their Insights, what you see as the best time won't  be the best time for them if they're several hours ahead or behind you. Be sure to do the maths and adjust the timing accordingly!

What days are your fans on Facebook? 

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The next section takes your fans and tells you how many of them are on Facebook at any  time on any  day during the past week. In my example, Facebook tells me that 1.3 thousand of my fans (my current 'like' total is around 1.4 thousand) are online each day... not sure what happened to Tuesday!

What time of day do most of your fans see your Facebook posts? 

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The last section of the page shows you the average number of your fans who saw any posts on Facebook in an hour - I'm assuming this is over the seven days shown above. Hover your mouse over the graph and you'll get figures the the one above, which shows me that the time that the most of my fans saw a post from me in the past week was 636 people at 3pm, on average.

Conclusion

Of course, taking just one week's figures and using them as a basis for all of my posting on Facebook would be unwise. However, by checking Insights regularly, I can begin to get a more detailed idea about when my fans are online, and optimise my posting strategy to catch as many eyes as possible. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Andrew Macarthy is the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips, available for Kindle and in paperback.

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