Used to post at 2pm on Tuesdays like clockwork... now I just throw stuff up whenever and somehow do better

For like two years I followed all the 'best time to post' guides. Tuesday 2pm, Thursday 11am, all that. Had a whole spreadsheet. Then last month I was helping my sister move into her new place near Austin and I just posted a random video of her cat sitting in a box at like 9pm on a Saturday. It got more engagement in 4 hours than my Tuesday posts did all week. So I stopped scheduling entirely. Now I just post when I have something, no pattern. My engagement is actually up about 30% according to the insights. Anyone else break the 'rules' and see better numbers?

3 comments

3 Comments

river95225d ago

yeah the whole 'best time to post' thing is mostly BS honestly. I had the same thing happen, I was sticking to the 2pm-4pm window like crazy and getting nothing. Then I posted a dumb meme at like 1am on a Wednesday just out of boredom and it blew up. Now I just post whenever I actually have something worth posting, usually late at night or early morning when I'm actually awake and thinking. The algorithm doesn't care about a schedule, it cares about if people actually stop and look at your stuff. Just post when you have something good, don't overthink the clock.

anna49125d ago

See I gotta push back on that a little @river952. Timing matters more than people want to admit, it's just not the same for everyone. I used to think it was all random too, but then I actually looked at my analytics and saw my followers are mostly night owls on the west coast. So my 9pm posts hit them at 6pm when they're actually scrolling. If your audience is in a different time zone or works weird hours, that 2pm rule obviously won't work for you. It's not about the clock being wrong, it's about knowing who's on the other end of that clock. Find your actual peak window and stick to it, that's what worked for me.

jadej5022d ago

That whole 'blowing up at 1am' thing happened to me with a picture of a half-eaten sandwich.