Posting times do matter. In fact, posting times are crucial because it’s all about visibility. You want your target members to find you on Instagram when they are available. You want them to see your brand when they are actively checking out their Instagram updates.
When you know that you make more sales or be seen more within a specific time range, you can target all your posts within that time range.
Timeliness has always been an important factor in the Instagram algorithm, but ever since Instagram updated the algorithm in early 2018 when you post to Instagram is more important than ever!
The Instagram Algorithm Factors in Timeliness
Not only does the algorithm pay attention to how much engagement your Instagram post gets, but its also about how long ago the photo was posted.
Instagram’s algorithm is starting to care a lot more about when you posted, instead of just the content or engagement on the post, because it always wants to serve you the latest, most interesting posts. This was brought up around the holidays last year when a lot of people were still seeing Christmas posts even though it was past New Year’s.
Instagram Algorithm in 2019
As a result, if you want to beat the Instagram algorithm in 2019, you need to optimize your posting time for when the majority of your followers are online.
Think of it this way, Since Instagram is now prioritizing “new” content on people’s feeds, your best shot at getting your content in front of your followers is by posting when most of them are actively scrolling the app.
That’s why it’s so important to find your own personalized best time to post on Instagram: you can hack the algorithm to increase your reach and get more likes and followers.
If you post at a time when most of your followers are online, you give yourself a better chance of racking up those likes — quickly!
Use Instagram Insights
One way of determining posting times is by manually using your Instagram Insights from your business profile. Switch to an IG business profile to see these analytics. You can use the activity metrics to work out the times of the day when your audience is most active online.
- click on the three lines at the top of your account
- then click INSIGHTS
- then click AUDIENCE
- scroll to the bottom where you go arrow through every day of the week
- click on the bar graph to view the actual number of followers online at the times shown
You want to ….
- Find your top time zones and see when your followers are online
- Experiment with different posting times and measure your progress
When I look at my personal analytics for let’s say on Mondays I can see that my followers are online most at 9pm. Actually, 100 more people are online at 9pm than they are at 9am. So I would for sure want to limit posting in the mornings and instead run my posts later in the evening around 9pm.
Manual Tracking
I just started a google sheet to track the time and day I make my post and the likes, comments and engagement % I get – so I can pinpoint the exact times I should be posting!
So if you feel like your engagement has been slacking, be sure to pay attention to your post times. Adjust as needed for your specific audience!
If all else fails refer to this chart to start. To find the best time to post on Instagram to get the most engagement in 2019, Later analyzed 12 million Instagram posts, posted in multiple time zones around the world from accounts ranging from 100 to 1 million+ followers.
Here are the top 3 global best times to post on Instagram for each day of the week, represented in Eastern Standard Time:
So as you can see, if you want to use Instagram to build a lasting business there are specific basic strategies you MUST know and use! And that’s where I come in to help you build a personal brand on Instagram…
