We all use social media for communicating with each other, however we also use social media to post pictures, videos, share already existing posts and so on to gather engagement. Chatting with your friends is not the only source that shows you are active on social media. Many of us are concerned with setting up who we are in the virtual world. And so we use social media to depict whether we are influential, funny, silly, intellectual, philosophical, trendy, up to date, artistic, whether we have sharp photography skills and so on. Our posts on social media reflect our talents even when we are not aware of them. But what if our talents are not getting recognized by others and you are simply failing regarding gaining a good amount of engagement by the public? Well, if you are an Instagram user you are in luck. Because here in this article we will be discussing the best time to post on Instagram and see if that can help you become Instagram famous soon!
Instagram is an application that was launched back in 2010. In only eight years, Instagram has able to reach out to millions and millions of users from around the world. Instagram was once run by only a small number of twelve employees who were responsible for managing accounts from all over the world. However, in 2012 Facebook Inc., purchased Instagram as an application and since then the success of Instagram has been guarenteed. Along with that, Instagram has now been able to expand its employee counts and offices too. This is why Instagram has been able to gain its success without failing when compared with many other applications that were launched during its time period. Now the reason why Instagram, an application that is readily available on desktop through its website and on mobile devices through its application that is supported by Android, iOS, Windows and so on, is so popular is because it is different than what you usually get. On usual social media accounts, you have to type your messages and use words and sentences to express yourself. However, that is not how things run on Instagram. Instead, on Instagram you use pictures and videos to express yourself; who you are, who you want to be, what do you like, what are your skills, what type of account do you have and so on. With that, Instagram includes followers and followings instead of friends. Instagram now also allows users to connect with each other through instant messaging! If you have noticed, Isntagram now includes stories which only last for a time frame of twenty-four hours. After that these stories, which enable engagement, are deleted!
Now in the month of March back in 2016, Instagram conducted their classic chronological feed and then they replaced an already existing algorithm with an algorithm that allows Instagram team to find out the ranks of posts based on the amount of engagement they receive by other Instagram users. Now if you visit your Instagram feed where you can usually find posts from your friends and family, all the people you are following and so on, you will notice that at the top of your Instagram feed, you have images that seem to be more interesting and creative than the others. That is because these posts have received more engagement on Instagram and so they rank first according to the new algorithm. But the problem with this algorithm is that many posts easily get buried under the famous and influential ones if they are unable to inspire and gain enough engagement right after the first second of their post. And then, no matter how creative and refined these posts are, they will not gain any engagement by the Instagram community because everyone is posting at the same time and your posts will get lost without being noticed. This is what comes with a million and more Instagram users who are active at the same time. The idea is that you are probably posting at the wrong time if you are unable to reach a good amount of likes and comments on Instagram even after working on the quality of your posts. Which is why you need to know the best time to post on Instagram.
So, when is the best time to post on Instagram? This question is not just coming from you for the first time. In fact, many people from the Instagram community who have been repeatedly failing have been asking the same question as you. For example, consider that you are a freelancer who takes part in marketing products and social media campaigns for various countries on Instagram. You begin sharing posts about these products but you hardly ever get people who ask you for details let alone like the post that you have shared. This way you might just lose your part time job and a good recommendation as well. Which is why you should discover the best time to post on Instagram. Now various studies that have been conducted over the years are trying to establish the best and ideal days and time periods of each day for Instagram users so they can post while receiving the best engagement. Later is one such contender who has conducted fairly recent studies because Later itself has an Instagram account for establishing their Instagram marketing platform. Along with Later, we have studies conducted by Hubspot which is a marketing firm. These studies, when the results were combined together, found out some very interesting and helpful tips and tricks that you as an Instagram user can catch on to and practice religiously. These tips and tricks will help you receive the most engagement on Instagram whether you conduct some of them or all of them together. The following is a list of things you can practice in order to know the best time to post on Instagram:
- If you want the best engagement, you should consider the off works hours to post on Instagram before they are typically the better hours when compared with work hours.
- Believe it or not, one of the best time to post on Instagram includes weekdays instead of weekends to get the best amount of likes and comments on your posts!
- Out of the weekdays, you can post on Instagram on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday according to the combined statistics.
- The best time to post on Instagram has been revealed. This time is a period between seven p.m. and nine p.m. of the evening of the above mentioned days.
- With that, a not so best time to post on Instagram is between the afternoon hours of three p.m. and four p.m.
- Out of the whole week, another not so best time to post on Instagram is the day of Sunday! Shocking, is it not? According to Hubspot and Later, this time period has gotten Instagram the least amount of engagements.
It is however, important to note down that both these firms were not in agreement when it came to establishing the true best time to post on Instagram. While Later suggests that Wednesday and Thursday are your golden ticket, Hubspot suggests that Monday and Thursday are best ones instead. Still, the above mentioned list is the conclusion that we found out from all this disagreement.
Now we can go on and on about the best time to post on Instagram. But, in order to guarantee yourself a lot of success on Instagram, this is one of the many factors you should be considering. There have been a lot of research that looks at a wide range of Instagram posts. But in order to be more refined, you need to consider the audience you have attracted or wish to attract on Instagram. Think of what they would like to browse and view on Instagram and when would they most likely be active on Instagram. Are they active in the mornings more or on the weekends? There is a certain power that comes with personal research because it helps you understand your own pattern and what works best for you instead of a more generalized approach. Now when you are setting your target audience and you wish to gain engagement on Instagram, you should ask yourself the following questions and only then you will be able to come up with the best time to post on Instagram for yourself:
- Are the members in your audience working people? If they are working and they are career oriented, when are they most likely to work? It could be morning shifts, evening shifts, night shifts, work from home and so on.
- The second question that you should ask is whether your audience members have any free time? If you have a lot of followers who are running their own companies or they have tough and technical jobs, they are less likely to have free time during the working hours of their day.
- Then you need to consider which method they use to access Instagram. Are they using their mobile phones to be active on Instagram or their desktop?
- Lastly, you need to think about the time zones of your followers. If they belong to a zone where its 6 a.m. right now, they are probably not going to engage in Instagram and list your posts right away.
Consider these guidelines and get the best out of Instagram!
Zoey