Introduction
Throughout 2020 and 2021, social media became more important than ever as a way for people to maintain instantaneous connections, discover new trends and hobbies, and stay current on current events.
To thrive in an unexpectedly rapid digital transformation, brands had to pivot, and social marketers had to fight burnout as the volume of social interactions and messaging demands increased. See our COVID-19 learnings and resources review for more information on the strategies brands used to respond to these changes.
With this in mind, it’s no surprise that our review of the best times to post on social media for 2021 revealed many significant changes in the data, with increased and varying engagement across platforms and industries. Both brands and their customers were constantly adapting their online operations, resulting in new patterns of interaction and engagement on social media. As many of us continue to refine and reimagine strategy for 2021, this data can assist marketers in understanding the current social landscape.
We collaborated closely with our data science team to review findings and trends in social media usage from Sprout Social’s 20,000+ customers over the past year and understand when their content was most and least frequently engaged with, broken down by platform and industry.
We’ve highlighted the best and worst times to post on each social platform, as well as the best and worst days to post overall. Use this data to help inform your publishing calendar’s scheduling, or continue reading for ideas on how to incorporate these findings into your analysis of your specific account’s peak engagement times.
Finally, if you want a quick reference of the best times to post globally across each network, download your copy by clicking the button below. In addition, the best times to post on social media in GMT are included in this quick reference guide.
Disclaimer: Sprout Social data includes users from a variety of plan types, industries, and locations. All time frames are captured in the Central Time Zone (CST). The number of engagements represents the total number of engagements received by a brand on a specific channel during that hour’s time frame. Mid- to high-level engagement times are included in industry-specific data.
When is it best to post on LinkedIn?
- 9 a.m.–noon on Mondays and Tuesdays, and 9 a.m.–2 p.m. on Wednesdays, are the best time.
- Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days.
- Sunday is the worst day.
Unsurprisingly for a professional-focused social platform, LinkedIn engagement has become extremely consistent throughout the US work week. You’re less likely to get people to look at your LinkedIn content on the weekend, when engagement drops significantly more than on other social networks we looked at.
Given how much LinkedIn content is focused on professional thought leadership and career development, it stands to reason that the majority of audiences are getting the most out of it during their working day.
While LinkedIn remains more specialized in its focus than other social platforms, it is also broadening the types of audiences it attracts. LinkedIn is becoming an important target for a wide range of content creation, in addition to being an important target for employee advocacy campaigns and recruiting.
While the platform is a natural fit for B2B strategy, any brand can use LinkedIn marketing best practices to highlight company and culture wins. It’s an excellent choice for employee advocacy and empowering employees to advance their personal brand or professional development by publishing content to their own profiles.
