Social media is only effective if your posting times are aligned with your audience’s platform activity. (Have you heard the famous quote, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Apply this rationale to your social posts!) If no one is online to see your posts, do they have an impact? They might, but you’re certainly leaving a lot of engagement and interaction up for grabs.
It’s not enough to post when you remember to, or when you have a spare minute. A social calendar should be part of your marketing plan, as posting frequency is almost as important as quality. So, aim for posting several times a week, and think about varying what you post. Why not mix in retweets alongside news about your business and general chatter with your customers?
Use your platform-specific analytics and insight tools to monitor when your audience is most active and tailor your posting schedule to those times. If new content is published when your followers are on the platform, they’re more likely to engage, comment, like, or share than when they see it hours or days after its original publish date. Integrate these specific times into your social media editorial calendar and social media marketing tool to develop posting consistency.
Real-time updates are more exciting for followers, as they want to be the first ‘like’ or comment or be the first to share an update within their network. Timing is everything for social media and paying attention to activity times will enhance your customer engagement.