That might be one of the questions I get asked the most as I speak to people trying to optimize their social media experience. They want to know when they’ll get the most “bang for their buck” with their post. If they’re going to take the time and effort to write on their blog, Facebook or Twitter they want to know when their post will receive the most clicks.
Now bit.ly, the link shortening service, has made it even more clear. They’ve issued a new report that spells how what times of day posts get the most click throughs. And it turns out a college professor of mine way back in the 1980′s was right. More on that in a minute, but first….the results of that study.
Drum roll please….
It turns out according to the bit.ly report, your tweet is most likely to get clicked between the hours of 12:00pm and 2:00pm (Central Time), Monday through Thursday. You should avoid at all costs, Tweeting a link after 8:00pm any night, or after 3:00pm on Fridays. (While Happy Hour doesn’t officially begin until 5:00pm, not surprisingly Joe and Jane Worker are already mentally eating those bar nuts a couple of hours earlier).
The story is similar on Facebook, where the most successful posts hit between 12:00pm and 3pm. So you do have an hour more grace period with Facebook.
Now where does that professor of mine come in?
Let me explain. He used to tell us he would only hold tests between Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning. He claimed we college students weren’t out of our drunken stupor from the weekend until Tuesday morning and we were gearing up for the upcoming one by Thursday afternoon. He was a jaded and cynical man. I’m not saying he wasn’t right. But still jaded and cynical.
Okay, so what about Areavoices blogs? Our research backs up what common sense would tell you. Think about how you use the internet. When do you go to news websites? We get our highest traffic on weekdays, right after 8:00am (as people are logging on their computers for the workday), between 11:00am and 1:00pm (logging in and out for their lunch hour) and right before 5:00pm (as you can’t stand to work anymore, you take one more look at the news before the trip home.)
So if you’re concerned about maximum traffic, strive for these times. But if traffic is not an issue, post away day and night to your hearts content. Now I must submit this blog post right now, as it is 2:30pm on Friday afternoon and I’m a half-hour away from those mental beer nuts.
