There are multiple opinions about the iconic social media giant – Facebook. While some say that the two billion plus active user base means major potential for organic engagement on the platform, if you kept the current Facebook algorithm in mind.
However, there is a completely different view that says that marketing on the platform has become a lot tougher in the recent times and that the organic reach has been taking a tumble for a long time now. There is a popular opinion that claims that Facebook is gradually turning into a pay-to-play platform.
No matter which side of the spectrum you fall on, your organic efforts still play a big role in the way your brand fares on Facebook.
In the recent years Facebook’s algorithm has started focusing on friends, family and meaningful connections. This means that the content you put up on Facebook must be developed and then optimized to drive genuine engagement.
In addition to the type of content, the timing of posting this content is quite important, just like for Instagram (discussed earlier).
Let’s take a look at the best times to post on Facebook.
1. The best times to post on Facebook – Wednesday at 11 am and 1 pm 2. Overall best day to post on Facebook – Wednesday 3. The safest times to post on Facebook – Weekdays 9 am–3 pm 4. The least engaging day on Facebook – Sunday 5. The least amount of engagement – early mornings and evenings before 7 am and after 5 pm
What it really means?
It doesn’t really come as a surprise that the engagement on Facebook, like other social media is at its peak in the mid-week. The safest times to post are on every day of the week from the morning to mid-afternoon. When I say safe, I mean that in these time slots the engagement is more or less consistent.
In general, the stats show that people tend to check Facebook intermittently all through the middle of the day, but the engagement reaches its peak around lunch time when people have more time to scroll through the feeds and engage with posts that they really like.
Late nights, early mornings and the weekend experience relatively low engagement levels. Though there is little bit of a spike on Saturday midday, but it doesn’t really seem like it is a great idea.
Breaking it further down
Facebook may have gone a little fickle and tougher to crack, but it shouldn’t stop you from going the good old organic route. As a part of a holistic organic strategy optimizing the time slots for posting is important if you want to get better exposure on Facebook.
Following is a breakdown of the best times to post on Facebook according to the nature of the business.
B2C Businesses
For consumer product businesses, like Instagram, Facebook too gets engagement intermittently during the weekdays around the break times, it may be the lunch hours or the afternoon break. So, the time slots that work best for B2C businesses are 9 am to 10 am then between 12 noon and 1 pm and then from 4 pm to 5 pm.
B2B Businesses
For this category, the best times to get engagement for your posts on Facebook would be when the brain just needs a break from it all. So, here the perfect time is at 9 am and then between 3 pm to 4 pm.
Tech Businesses
For the technology niche the best suited times are before work, after work, the mid-afternoon. The noon time however is the most effective. The time slots you should post on Facebook if you are from the tech industry are – 9 am, then at 3 pm and finally at 5 pm.
Healthcare Companies
For the healthcare companies, mornings are the best times on Facebook. This is pretty logical actually, because the best time to catch people would be just as they are waking up. Later in the day, people are more inclined to go looking for entertainment as compared to think about their health. The time slots that would work the best would be 6 am to 7 am, then at 9 am and then between 11 am and 12 noon.
Media Companies
According to the research, people tend to catch up on news and other events right when they are waking up, going to lunch, or just after they reach home. This is the best time to catch them for your posts on Facebook if you are a media company. The time slots that work best for a media company on Facebook are at 7 am, then at 11 am and finally at 6 pm.
Higher Education
On Facebook, the target audience for higher education engages the most right at the start of their workday, at the lunch time, and finally during the afternoon break time. I see a pattern emerge, do you? however, here it would be a good idea to create some content, even in the times of less activity. The time slots that work best on Facebook for companies related to higher education are 8 am, 12 noon, and 3 pm.