Social Media Tips: Best Times and Days to Reach Your Market
Social media is a powerful way to amplify your brand and engage your target audience. To be effective you need to know which social platforms to focus on and which days and times are best to reach your market. The results of recent studies below will help you manage and plan your social media marketing:
The most popular networks in 2018 for Americans are YouTube and Facebook.
Not surprisingly, social media use skews toward the young. Here are the percentages of people in different age groups that report using at least one social media platform.
In addition to YouTube, young adults aged 18 to 24 use Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter more than by any other age group. Facebook users stand out for consistency of use across age groups. Approximately 80% of adults from 18 to 49 use Facebook. 55% of people 50 and older use Facebook, about the same percentage of this age group that uses YouTube. Snapchat was the least used by older adults with only 7% of people aged 50 or older reporting they use the platform.
However, when people were asked how often they visited a social media platform Facebook dominated with 71% checking it daily, and 51% hopping on multiple times a day. Snapchat followed with 63% checking on a daily schedule while YouTube plummeted to last place with just 45% of users checking it daily.
There are big differences between the popular social networks used in B2B and B2C marketing. As there is no perfect answer or social media mix for businesses, it’s best to focus on adding the platforms you are missing and eliminating those that aren’t working.
What are the best hours to post on each social media channel? People browse each social network differently, and businesses may find different days and times work best for them. For example, while Twitter sees tweets perform well at hours like 3 p.m., Instagram sees certain posts perform well as late at 2 a.m.
These aren’t your only (or best) times, though. Good post timing depends on the platform you’re using, as well as on how your target audience interacts with that platform, the regions and corresponding time zones you’re targeting, and your marketing goals. In theory, since 80% of the U.S. population is in the Central and Eastern time zones, it is the best to post during those times for a U.S. audience.
Use this information as a guideline and refer to it the next time you need optimal networks, days and times to post for your business. Test different approaches to find out what works best for you.
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