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Introduction
Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms, but it can be tricky to figure out when to post. There are many factors that affect the best time to post on Instagram like where you live, how many followers you have and what type of content you publish. To help answer this question, we analyzed over 1 billion Instagram posts from over 5 million businesses and found some interesting trends about when users engage with content most often.
The best time to post on Instagram is 11 am-1 pm.
So, when is the best time to post on Instagram?
According to an analysis by Buzzsumo, the best time for engagement is between 11am and 1pm. If you want your content to get more likes and comments, use this time for posts with a call to action (like “share” or “comment below”). You can also use this window for links in your bio or links in your post copy. And if you have video content that includes people talking about something interesting, consider posting now as well—the amount of talk around videos tends to peak during these hours too!
According to Sprout Social, engagement is highest on Monday and Thursday
When analyzing the average engagement of Instagram posts from January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019 and data from previous years, we found that Mondays and Thursdays are the best days of the week to post. This makes sense, as more people are using social media on weekends than during weekdays.
To show you how this data stacked up against other time periods in Sprout Social’s database (which includes millions of posts), we’ve included a bar chart that displays engagement rate across each day of the week. You can see that Mondays have consistently been one of the top three highest performing days for posting on Instagram over all time periods analyzed—and it’s usually at or near the top!
The worst time to post on Instagram is Saturday.
If you’re looking for a time that’s best for posting your photos on Instagram, consider the day of the week. We looked at our data from this year and found that Saturdays are the worst day to post.
Saturday is a popular day for brands and businesses to post on Instagram.* The reason? On Fridays, people are typically rushing out early or staying late at work. And by Saturday, they’ve had some time off and may want to catch up on their weekend activities—or they may want to play catch up with work again (as long as they aren’t working through Sunday).
Saturday is also when many people spend time with family and friends.* So if you’re planning an event or trying to get in front of those users who might not always have access during the week (or don’t follow brands), this could be a good option for you!
The best day to post on Instagram is Sunday.
Sunday is the best day to post on Instagram if you’re trying to reach a mass audience.
Why? Because it’s the most popular day for posting on Instagram, with almost half of all users in North America and Europe posting between 10:00am-4:00pm. Additionally, people are more likely to engage with your content since they may have more time on Sundays than during the week due to work commitments or school activities.
Posting on Instagram 2-3 times a day works best for most businesses and brands.
As you might have guessed, posting once a day isn’t enough for most businesses and brands.
A post three times a day is also too much for most people to keep up with. If you’re trying to post more than that, it will annoy your followers and they’ll start unfollowing you.
So what’s the sweet spot? 2-3 posts per day seems to work well for many businesses and brands!
Best Time to Post on Instagram By Time Zone
Best Time to Post on Instagram By Time Zone
There’s no exact science for figuring out the best time to post on Instagram, but if you want some guidelines that we’ve found work well, check out our general guide to the best times in each time zone below:
Eastern Standard Time: 10am – 4pm (8am – 12pm Pacific)
Central Standard Time: 3pm – 10pm (1pm – 7pm Pacific)
Mountain Standard Time: 4:30pm – 11:30pm (2:30 pm – 8:30 pm Pacific)
Best Time to Post on Instagram Each Day
The best times to post on Instagram are:
- Monday: 9am and 3pm EST
- Tuesday: 1pm EST
- Wednesday: 7am, 12pm and 5pm EST
- Thursday: 12am and 6pm EST
- Friday: 2am, 9am, 1pm and 4pm EST
- Saturday: 7am, 11am and 3pm EST
- Sunday: 8am and 2 pm EST
Best Times to Post Reels on Instagram
When it comes to reels, the best time of day to post is between 9 AM and 6 PM. The reason is that most people are awake during these hours and looking at their phones. When you’re posting a video or photo on Instagram in 2022, you want to maximize your engagement with the largest audience possible. This time frame will ensure that your content gets seen by more people than any other part of the day.
If you’re looking for an even greater chance of success when posting videos or photos on Instagram in 2022, consider posting them on Sundays instead of Mondays through Thursdays (it’s also calmer than Fridays). And if there’s one rule we always recommend following when making social media posts: keep it short! Your reels should be no longer than three minutes long for optimal results with this platform
What Time Are Instagram Users Most Active?
Instagram users are the most active between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM.
Users are least active on Saturday and Sunday, but we can see that they’re most active on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
The best time to post is from 12:00–1:00 PM PST (Pacific Standard Time). This is also true for India, which has a similar audience as the US.
Instagram users in Canada and Australia follow a similar pattern with their activity times; however, since there are fewer hours of daylight during this time period than there would be during the winter months in the US or Australia, it makes sense that their peaks would end earlier than those countries.
How To Find The Best Times To Post on Instagram?
If you’re an Instagram user, then you likely have accounts in your feed that are posting at the times when you tend to be most active. If that’s the case, then it’s safe to assume that those accounts have seen success by posting during these times.
Keep an eye on your own analytics and engagement metrics over time. If you notice a pattern where people tend to engage more with your posts during certain hours of the day or night, then try adding more of those types of posts into your schedule.
Key Considerations When looking for the Best Times to Post on Instagram
With a little bit of research, you can find the best time to publish on Instagram based on your audience and goals. Here are some tips:
Think about your audience. What do they like? What kind of content do they share? If you’re trying to sell something, what types of posts are likely to get more engagement from potential customers? Be sure to keep these questions in mind when deciding when to post.
Decide what success means for your account. Do you want more followers? More engagement with each post (likes, comments)? Do you want people to visit your website or store after seeing an article posted on Instagram? Set clear goals and track them over time so that you can see how posting at different times affects the results that matter most for your business.
Why it’s important to find the best times to post on Instagram
The best time to post on Instagram depends on your audience, content, goals, and competition.
Your audience: Are they using Instagram in the morning or at night? Do they like to engage with posts during their lunch break or right before bed? Is there a day of the week when they’re more active than others? The answers to these questions can help determine when you should post.
Your content: What kind of content do you have on your feed photos, videos, or both? Different types of posts will perform better at different times based on the audience’s preferences and habits. For example, if most people are engaging with videos during peak hours (7 p.m.-11 p.m.), it might be wise to post one each day rather than several videos per month or week (as long as they’re high quality). Another example would be if most people are sharing photos in the afternoon (1 p.m.-4 p.m.), then maybe it makes sense for you to hold off posting until later in the evening after work hours so that more people are seeing them first thing in the morning when they wake up from sleeping all night long!
Your goals: Maybe you want engagement from users who follow your page but don’t always comment because maybe those users don’t feel comfortable leaving comments publicly on other people’s walls unless given permission first which makes sense but takes longer time so instead give them permission by sending direct messages instead then just keep doing this over again until no new ones appear anymore after three months worth of work which could mean everything has been done successfully then stop doing this job altogether because it’s not necessary anymore now that everything else has been accomplished successfully before too soon; however there may also be some exceptions where another approach might be necessary such as if there were some type messages sent back directly afterward saying things like “I’m sorry but I couldn’t see any way into our conversation beyond this point without making sure we had mutual
Conclusion
All in all, we hope that this article has helped you to better understand the best times to post on Instagram. There are so many factors at play here, but if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to improve your results then simply following these guidelines should help:
