Facebook: best time and day to publish your posts

What are the best times and days to post on Facebook? Many marketers have asked themselves this question over the years, as finding the key moment can mean the difference between a post that goes completely unnoticed and one that ends up going viral.
Luckily, a lot of studies have been done on the subject, so we have more and more information to get it right. The answer is not a universal magic formula, but it does give us very interesting clues to maximize the performance of our content. So if you want to know what the best time and day is to post on Facebook and other super useful tricks to improve your engagement on this network, keep reading!
Facebook: the best day and time to post
The first thing to know about the best day and time to post on Facebook. Unfortunately, the algorithm is not on our side. Since users tend to subscribe to a large number of pages and groups over the years, the vast majority of posts never show up in the News Feed section, as they would otherwise be overwhelmed by the amount of content.
To try to overcome this obstacle, you have to focus on encouraging interaction with posts. The higher the number of comments and reactions, the higher the perceived interest in the post and the more likely it is to be shown to users.
Another resource that brands are forced to turn to is the promoted posts feature, which increases the reach of a publication in exchange for payment. Including them in your Facebook Strategy will allow you to increase reach and interactions. But even if you use this feature, it’s still interesting to publish your content at a time when more users can see it, so let’s see what the data says:
- Fridays are an optimal day to post, as they produce 17% of comments, 16% of likes and shares, and 25% of video views. In addition, they have the highest happiness index of the week.
- According to a study by BuddyMedia, 86% of content is published during the week, and interactions peak on Thursdays and Fridays.
- Another study by Unmetric reveals that the highest number of interactions per post (in the case of brands) occurs on Wednesdays. In addition, on this day, there are fewer brands that publish, so there is a greater chance that your content will stand out.
- As for the best time to post on Facebook, an analysis of 18 different studies by Falcon.io reveals that the highest success rate occurs between 12 noon and 4 pm. In second place would be 9 a.m. and 8 p.m.
While this data provides a very useful guide, don’t forget that the situation of each brand and each audience is unique. Do different tests and measure the results to see what works best for you.
What to do to improve your Facebook engagement rate
Getting the best day and time to post on Facebook is very important, but of course, it is not everything. Let’s see some of the data from “The 2019 Ultimate Guide to Facebook Engagement” by BuzzSumo, which helps us know how to multiply interactions with our publications. This study analyzed 777 million Facebook posts to find out which pages, brands, and videos generate the most engagement.
- If you want to improve your engagement rate on Facebook, go for videos. The data shows without a doubt that this format is king when it comes to engaging the audience. This makes sense when you consider that Facebook is trying to focus on generating “meaningful reactions” among users, and the videos force them to stop what they’re doing to watch. Video posts generate 59% more engagement than other types of content. In second place would be the publications with questions, and in third place, the photos.
- The length of the content is also a determining factor when it comes to generating interactions. In text posts, brevity is clearly what trumps: posts with less than 50 characters generated about 380 interactions on average, while this figure dropped to 270 for posts between 50 and 100 characters and continued to decline as the length of the post increased.
- As for videos, it seems that the best option is a middle ground: the videos that generated the most interactions were between 3 and 4 minutes long. Specifically, this type of video achieved 1500 interactions on average. However, if your video is going to be longer than 3 minutes, it is recommended that the brand identification and calls to action are placed before this point.
- In 2011, a study by The New York Times identified five main reasons why users share information online, which BuzzSumo experts still consider valid. They are: delighting other people with valuable and entertaining content, identifying ourselves and presenting ourselves to other people, nurturing our relationships, self-actualization, and spreading the word about issues, products, and brands.
- Finally, a six-step analysis method is recommended to maximize the reach of your content on Facebook: look for your most successful posts, ask yourself what they have in common, apply the lessons and evaluate the results, adjust your actions, analyze the engagement of competitors’ Facebook pages, and modify your own strategy on the network based on the conclusions.