As any IG guru will tell you, it’s important to know the best and worst times to post on Instagram. The platform, especially with new algorithm changes, has very specific feed features. And the algorithm tailors each user’s feed, making it that much harder to get your posts onto your audience’s radar.
This makes it important to learn when people are most active on the platform. Posting during these times increases the likelihood that they’ll actually see and interact with your content.
So, to help you find out when you should post or schedule your content, we’ll share what we’ve found to be the best and worst time(s) to post on Instagram.
The Best & Worst Times To Post On Instagram
The Worst Time To Post On Instagram Is…
A quick disclaimer before we get into the worst times to post on Instagram: The truth about posting times is that there isn’t one best or worst time to post on Instagram. Post success really depends on different factors like your followers’ activity, geography, your active time, etc.
So, the times we are about to list are more like the general global worst times to post, based on our research and insights.
Based on Instagram post engagement rates, we see these as the worst time to post on Instagram:
- Monday to Thursday evenings after about 8 or 9 pm.
- Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons.
These are the times you’ll absolutely want to avoid sharing an IG post!
So When Should You Post?
On the other hand, the best time to post on Instagram is during the morning on any day of the week. 11:00 on weekdays can also be a good time to post.
Think about this in relation to people’s day-to-day schedules.
Most people may wake up and check their phones and their social media accounts in the morning to see what’s been trending while they’ve been away in dreamland.
Around 11:00 in the workday may be teatime or people may be headed to lunch. This is the perfect time for them to whip out their phone and see what’s been popping or take snaps of that day’s lunch.
Another time period to consider is in the late afternoon to evening, around 17:00-20:00. That’s when most people are doing their daily wind down and even those who don’t use their phones much in the day may have a social media check-in after their workday is finished.
What Can You Take Away From This?
What we can learn from the data above is that early morning is a fantastic time to post. But why?
Well, it doesn’t necessarily tell us that more people are active on the platform at this time. Although, this could make sense if people wake up and check their socials in the mornings.
Of course, posting when people are online is important but it’s not the only thing that matters. With the Instagram algorithm, we also know that posts don’t rank in someone’s feed in chronological order. If the post is relevant, it will show up when they log on.
However, this may change in 2022 as Instagram is working on a new and improved chronological feed option as many users prefer it.
But until that happens, posting earlier gives your post more living time. You get access to users as they log in for the first time in their day.
How To Find Your Best & Worst Time To Post On Instagram
To be honest, there’s no surefire way except to just play it by ear. You need to experiment with different times and posts and reflect on how they perform and the factors influencing the post.
Instagram Insights
Use Instagram Insights to gain insight into your follower behavior. You can learn your followers’ most active time to guide you on your posting time. You can also see the geographical concentration of your followers, which can guide you on the time zone(s) you should keep in mind.
Another way to use Instagram Insights is to see which posts have the most engagement or highest engagement rate. Check if there’s a trend between these posts’ success and when you post them.
Yet again, this will take experimentation! We suggest trying the best times above and seeing how those work out for you.
Schedule posts every single day for a week or two during the specific times you want to target. Keep track of the times you post them in a spreadsheet and when you’re done, you can go back and see which posts performed best in terms of impressions, reach, likes, and engagement.
This should help you identify which days or hours of the week are better for your brand.
Use Preppr
If experimenting and playing around sounds like a ton of work, our last suggestion may be perfect for you. At Preppr, we’ve built a feature into our platform that does all the work for you!
Our intuitive and intelligent algorithm has analyzed millions of posts to determine the perfect time frames for posting on Instagram. Together with this algorithm, our platform offers scheduled posting so it will automatically share posts for you based on the times it identifies.
When you upload a post, Preppr will suggest three optimal times to post that you can choose from. This way, you will always reach your target audience when they’re online and ready to engage!
Super cool, right? Test out our free trial today.
Get Scheduling!
Now that you know which times are the best and worst times to post on Instagram, you can capitalize on super active IG times.
Use our Prepper scheduling platform to plan and automate your posting times. That way, you never miss a good posting time and your best posts won’t ever go to waste.
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