Best Times to Post on Instagram: Maximize Your Social Impact

Are you wondering about the best times to post on Instagram? To get the biggest attention to each post, figuring out the best times to post your content is important. You can do this through a combination of strategies, and we’ll share what they are in this article.

By improving your posting times, you can get more followers, likes, and referral traffic to your website. Therefore, taking the time to determine the best times to post is worthwhile and will improve the quality of your Instagram account.

Advantages of Knowing When To Post on Instagram

Let’s start by examining the benefits of learning the best times to post on Instagram. These advantages have big financial implications and will help take your account to the next level. Therefore, you can justify spending more time figuring out how to set up your content calendar.

Get More Followers

After learning the best times to post on Instagram, you’ll receive more exposure to your posts, thus increasing the follower count. Once you have a loyal following on Instagram, you can rely on a steady traffic stream. Visitors will continue to consume your content and share it with their social circles.

Also, generating followers naturally through posting content is much better than paying for them. You’ll save money and avoid fake followers that don’t contribute to your account. You have multiple content forms to choose from on Instagram, so pick the method that matches your strengths.

Increase Referral Traffic

You can increase referral traffic by learning the best times to post on Instagram. You’ll need to focus on the right target audience that finds your website interesting. It also ensures that the conversion rate on your website increases. This might result in more sales and newsletter subscriptions.

There are many ways you can monetize referral traffic, so the effort put into increasing your Instagram post count is worthwhile. Make sure to increase the conversion rate of your IG content so that users click the referral link. You can draw audiences towards these links by mentioning them in your content.  

Get The Most Out Of Your Content

It can take a lot of hard work to create content, and that’s especially true when you have exhausted most of your ideas. Therefore, after creating content, you must get the most out of it by posting it at the right time. It means you have a higher chance of getting more viewers and increasing the impact of the content.

This is especially important for new Instagram accounts that are growing. Each new post can generate a lot of interest and followers, so posting at the ideal time is essential.

When Is The Best Time To Post On Instagram?

In this section, we’ll cover the best strategies to help you get the right answer to “when should I post on Instagram?” Your content will have the biggest impact on every new piece of content you release.

Use Instagram Insights

Use your Instagram Insights dashboard to determine the best times to post on Instagram. Instagram Insights is an analytics dashboard you can access with an Instagram business profile.

You can keep track of the times of the day and week you post content. Post content at different times and compare the traffic results. With enough data, you may begin to figure out the best times of the week when users expect to see your content.

Best Day And Times To Post On Instagram Shortcuts

Do you want a shortcut for the best day and times to post on Instagram? Then you can look at your competitor’s posting times. The top competitors may have researched the best times to post content, and you can take advantage of their success.

However, only take note of competitors with the same target audience. This ensures you get the best suggestions for when to post content without going down the wrong path.

Consider Off-Work Hours

It’s important to consider the times of the day when the target audience is not working. This means you may want to try posting content after 5 pm on weekdays and all day on weekends. That’s because people may not have the time to look at their social media profiles during work hours.

Also, you can try posting content during the lunch break hour. This ensures you target people who want to consume content during their lunch break. It depends on the type of content you’re posting, so experiment with various formats.

Optimal Posting Times Vary For Content Types

Now let’s look at the ideal posting times for different content types. Instagram users like to consume different types of content at various times of the day. Hence, to optimize your strategy, you’ll need to differentiate between content types to get the most bang for your buck. 

Best Times To Post On Instagram Reels

Do you want to know the best times to post on Instagram reels? Instagram Reels is a content form where you can create videos of up to 15 seconds. Therefore, every second counts when crafting the most effective Instagram Reels.

Overall, Instagram Reels is a popular content format so that you will receive plenty of viewers at any time of the day. However, inspecting your Instagram Insights dashboard lets you discover the best times to post content.

Best Times To Post On Instagram Stories

The best time to post on Instagram stories is at any time of the day. That’s because stories go live for up to 24 hours and are automatically deleted afterward. This means users can log in to view the post at any time of the day.

You need to use the Instagram Stories feature on the highest-traffic day of the week. That’s because the stories tool doesn’t keep the content for more than a day. However, you can pin a single IG story to your account page. 

Best Times to Post On Instagram Live

Instagram Live allows you to create a live stream so that you can interact directly with your audience. They can leave comments that you can read and give replies to on the spot. The best times to post on Instagram Live will be when your audience has time to view long-form content. That’s because your live video stream may last upwards of one hour.

You can also post the live stream after it’s finished. However, it’s no longer an interactive media form since users cannot interact with you. You can set up a poll and ask your audience what time of the day and week they want to consume your Instagram Live.

Top Practices To Stay on Track With Publishing

Now let’s turn our attention to the top practices for the best times to post on Instagram. This ensures you create the right habit to increase your odds of getting the most out of every user.

This section is a great starting point for beginners, but it’s important to create a workflow matching your strengths. Marketing and success on Instagram is a long-term game, so create strategies that promote growth in the future.

Use A Content Calendar

Use a content calendar to ensure you post every piece of content at the optimal time. Without a calendar, you may end up posting at different times due to a lack of organization. However, with the proper planning, you’ll use the best times to post on Instagram.

However, the content calendar doesn’t need to be set in stone. You can make modifications if you improve your knowledge of the optimal posting times. It’s important to constantly improve your methods to make the most of every piece of content.

Partner With A Social Media Agency

Don’t want to figure out the best times to post on Instagram? Then you can hire the services of a social media agency to post content on your behalf. They have the expertise and experience to understand the optimal posting times to generate the most traffic. Therefore, you can increase traffic to your post and potentially generate more sales.

However, do background research on the social media agency to discover if you can trust them with your account. For example, you can check out TrustPilot to read the experiences of other customers.

The Best Times To Post On Instagram Comes From Data

The more data you consume about your audience preferences, the more information you’ll have about the best times to post on Instagram. Start by diving into the data at Instagram Insights to get a basic overview of the account.

Also, you can add more analytics solutions to your IG account. These may provide different data further to explore your content success at different posting times. Getting granular with the data may unlock new insights you may have never encountered by sticking at the macro level.

Use Scheduling Features

You can use scheduling features for the best times to post on Instagram. Therefore, you can bring your content posting calendar to life. Here are some of the top reasons why you should use the scheduling feature:

• Automation: Taking advantage of automation allows you to work on other tasks. Therefore, you can set up a posting schedule and avoid frequently returning to post more. 
• Months in advance: Having the freedom to line up content months in advance is great if you’re going to be busy with other projects. Therefore, you can take a vacation without worrying that there will be a pause in the content. 
• Planning: Using the scheduling feature allows you to plan out content. You may want to provide a mix of topics and alternate between informative, educational, and entertaining content types. 
• No added fee: There’s no extra cost to using the Instagram scheduling feature for posting content. Hence, you can give it a try to see if you like what’s on offer. 

Top Things To Avoid When Picking The Best Time to Post

It’s important to avoid the worst time to post on Instagram so that you don’t let your hard work go to waste. In this section, we’ll share the common mistakes people make when setting up a content calendar. 

Avoid Fake Traffic

Don’t create an Instagram traffic strategy that relies on fake traffic. That’s you can discover the best times to spot on Instagram, but with fake traffic, you won’t get any results. Fake engagement, such as likes and followers, leads to no real results when looking at other metrics. For example, you may not receive extra sales from your product pages.

Also, if you’re trying to get referral traffic that interacts with your website, then fake traffic won’t have a positive effect. Instead of wasting your funds on fake traffic, consider improving the quality of your content.

Avoid Random Posting Times

You can train your audience when to expect content by posting at the same time. However, if you post content at random times of the day or week, your audience cannot set the right expectations. The best times to post on Instagram is when most of your audience is ready to consume the content. However, this figure drops if you have an unpredictable posting time. 

Furthermore, you can inform your audience about your content posting times and when you make changes to the format. Your audience will appreciate communication and know when to look out for your content.

Avoid Frequent Posting Times

Frequently posting may overwhelm your audience. In fact, you may receive the same number of new followers, like, and comment on half of your content.  That’s because no matter the time of day you spot and the types of content, audiences have limited time. Hence, the best times to post on Instagram include setting the right intervals.

Now sure about the best posting frequency? Here is a list of strategies to determine how often you can post for the best results:

• Instagram Insights: Look at your Instagram Insights data to compare different posting frequencies. For example, one month, you can post content twice per day, and the next month you can post only once. Compare the data to see if there is a noteworthy jump that justifies doubling the content output. 
• Competitors posting frequency: Look at how often your competitors post content. You may find that there’s a standard most content creators stick to, and that’s worth knowing. 
• Ask your audience: You can create a poll that asks your audience for the amount of content they want to receive daily or weekly. Therefore, you can ask your audience for insight into their preferences.

The Best Times To Post On Instagram: What Is The Right Amount?

The best times to post on Instagram vary depending on your audience, niche, content types, and more. Therefore, you need to figure out the right posting times for your account using data. Hence, Instagram Insights is the best tool for the job to help you identify the ideal posting strategy.

Also, setting up tests and experiments to compare different posting times will help you improve your overall strategy. To continue posting at optimal times, you must pay attention to the changing online landscape.

Are you looking for other ways to grow your Instagram account? Then take advantage of the excellent service we provide here at Plixi. You can enjoy the combination of our Influencer network and in-house algorithm to target the right IG users to grow your account. So what are you waiting for? Start growing and gaining Instagram followers today.