The Best Time To Post On Twitter: A Data-Driven Answer

Do you want to know the best time to post on Twitter?

A lot of marketers rely on Twitter to promote their business. But Twitter can be a challenging platform to work with because it’s all about timing. If you post content during the wrong hours, most of your followers will miss your updates.

Knowing the best times to post on your Twitter feed is the key to getting consistent engagement.

But even marketing experts are divided on the best times to post on Twitter. And because of that, many are struggling to develop a solid Twitter strategy.

In this post, we’ve dug through all of the data to give you the best general times to post on Twitter. You can use this information to make sure you publish tweets that get the highest engagement possible.

Let’s get started:

Why is timing important?

There are two ways that Twitter can display tweets on a feed. The first option is Top Tweets which prioritizes accounts that users care about the most based on how frequently they interact with them. If your followers frequently engage your content, this shouldn’t be a concern.

Then there’s the second option, Latest Tweets. Here, posts are shown chronologically from most recent to oldest. If your followers enable this by default, you could be in for a rough time.

If you post during times of low engagement, your post will be buried under other tweets that come in.

That’s why you want to post content when users are already on Twitter. This guarantees that they’ll see your tweet just as you post it.

The best time to post on Twitter

Here’s what reliable sources have to say about posting on Twitter.

Sprout Social

According to Sprout Social, the best time and day to post on Twitter is Wednesday between 9 AM and 3 PM. Posting on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9 AM and 11 AM is also a good idea.

Twitter is a platform that’s focused on news and trending topics. That’s likely the reason why user engagement on the platform tends to peak on weekdays.

What you don’t want to do is to post content on weekends when engagement isn’t as great.

Sprout Social best time to post on Twitter

Hootsuite

Hootsuite has a different take though. According to its analysis, the best time to post on Twitter is 8 AM on Mondays and Thursdays.

However, when the team looked into its data further, it saw broader results which put the ideal posting times at 6 AM to 9 AM during weekdays.

The folks over at Hootsuite think that Twitter gets more engagement during mornings because users tend to scroll through Twitter as they prepare for the day. That’s why it recommends that even if you’re planning to post on Saturdays and Sundays, that you still do so earlier in the day.

HubSpot

HubSpot also believes that the best time to post on Twitter is mornings. More specifically, it says that marketers should post between 8 AM and 10 AM on weekdays. If you’re looking to post later in the day, you should do so between the hours of 6 PM and 9 PM on weekdays.

These are the hours when people commute to and from work. So it makes perfect sense why these are great times to post content on Twitter.

But for B2C accounts, HubSpot recommends that you tweet on weekends. It’s the opposite for B2B accounts. They’re better off tweeting on weekdays. Why? People looking for business solutions will tend to do so during work hours. But those that are shopping for personal needs will likely buy on weekends.

When should you post on Twitter?

While three different credible sources suggested different times and days, they all share similarities.

Based on data, the most optimal time to post on Twitter is early morning during weekdays.

If you want to post Twitter content after work hours, you should do it when people are commuting from work to get the most engagement.

Schedule posts based on your own data

The studies we covered above can give you a general idea of the best time to publish Twitter posts. This is good if you’re just getting started but it doesn’t take into account the needs of your own audience.

The best time to post on Twitter will depend on your audience.

When experts research the best time to post on Twitter, they are using their own data. That means you’re getting results based on someone else’s audience.

So while these give you a starting point, the only way you’ll get a definitive answer is for you to gather data from your own followers. You’ll need to experiment with posting times and see when you get better engagement rates.

Only then can you know the best times to post on Twitter for your specific audience.

The good news is that this isn’t really that hard to do, especially if you have access to the right tools. We’ll walk you through the whole process in a later section.

In the meantime, let’s talk about some other factors that you’d want to consider when scheduling tweets.

Other considerations when scheduling a Twitter post

People are creatures of habit. Those of us who are set in our ways will always go on social media during specific times. There are users who can’t help but pull out their phones while in transit. Some will check their Twitter feed before getting out of bed in the morning.

There are even people who’d go on Twitter to kill time as they do their business in the bathroom.

Here’s the point:

Setting a posting schedule isn’t a guarantee that you’ll get tons of engagement. Every person is different. And there are plenty of factors that go into their decision on when they’ll check tweets.

Below are just a few examples.

When there’s a breaking news

Who doesn’t go on Twitter when there’s breaking news? It’s a great source of information, especially if you’re following the right accounts. If nothing else, it’s a quick way to gauge where the people you follow stand about a pressing issue.

That said, most people are engaged on social media platforms whenever there’s a developing story. Marketers can argue that this would be a good time to send a tweet.

However:

This can be tricky. Jumping into hot button issues can backfire. Remember Shell’s Twitter mishap? The oil company tried to start an energy debate — which its critics took as an attempt at gaslighting the public.

So if you’re going to ride the wave of breaking news to get more eyes on your tweets, don’t post anything distasteful. An average post should be enough.

When there’s a big event

Is there a big concert in town? Is there a big event happening near you? Is the local sports team playing?

Then you can bet that most people in your community are on Twitter finding and sharing information about it.

Big events draw people to social media. Getting everyone’s reaction as things unfold and even sharing your own thoughts on it are great reasons to be on Twitter.

So if you’re posting content and want to make sure that your followers are on Twitter when you do so, try scheduling them during big events.

When there’s a celebration

A Twitter user will also go on the social media platform when there’s an occasion worth celebrating.

So it’s actually not a bad idea to schedule your posts when there’s a huge celebration going on. The most obvious occasions are national holidays but you can also try to do it for lesser-known celebrations like World Water Day or International Day of Families.

But again, you want to be careful about it.

You don’t want to do what Burger King did on International Women’s Day.

The tweet was trying to draw attention to the fact that there’s a lack of representation of women in the restaurant industry, the tweet came off as misogynistic. This led to Burger King issuing an apology and quickly deleting the tweet.

When employees are on their breaks

People create tweets when they’re not doing anything. For workers, that means they go on Twitter while commuting. But that’s not the only downtime they get in a day.

People will go on lunch and coffee breaks every day. And when they do, they’ll scroll through their Twitter feeds to help pass the time. So take that into consideration the next time you schedule your posts.

Schedule Twitter posts by industry

CoSchedule suggests that there are optimal times to post on Twitter based on the industry you’re in.

For B2C businesses, you’ll want to post your content between 8 AM and 10 AM, 12 PM, or 7 PM to 9 PM. It’s about the same for B2B businesses.

Companies that are in the software business want to schedule their posts at 10 AM, 2 PM, or 6 PM. CoSchedule explains that if your target audience belongs to this industry, you’ll want to catch them when they’re in a work mindset and not when they’re taking a break or headed home.

Mornings are better for those in the healthcare industry. 9 AM is the best time but you can also try posting at 6 PM.

Media companies, influencers, and bloggers are some of the heaviest publishers of Twitter content according to CoSchedule. If you’re in the same niche, it’s advisable to supply your followers with a steady stream of tweets throughout the day. The best times to do just that would be 6 AM to 7 AM, 11 AM, 7 PM to 8 PM, and 10 PM.

If you’re in the higher education space, you’ll have to stick to mornings and evenings. You can post at 8 AM, 5 PM, 7 PM, or 9 PM and still get a good audience engagement rate.

How to get meaningful engagement for your Twitter account

Yes, it is important to post tweets at optimal times. But there’s more to getting great Twitter engagement rates. If you want your followers to interact with your tweets more, use these time-tested Twitter strategies.

Add visual elements to tweets

Twitter’s study of 3.7 million accounts showed that tweets with a GIF had 55% more engagement than those without.

Tweets are harder to miss if you attach a visual element. So they have what it takes to grab all your followers’ attention. They’re useful in other ways too. You can use them to convey additional information about your product or service. Some Twitter accounts add images or GIFs to inject personality.

Every bit helps when you’re optimizing tweets for maximum engagement. And adding visual elements is the bare minimum you could do.

Interact with your audience

If you want your followers to engage your account, then you should extend the same courtesy. Liking, commenting, and retweeting won’t cost you anything. So if you think your followers have great content—especially those that involve your brand—then you don’t really have a reason not to respond.

Responding to your followers’ tweets will help you establish a community. And when people are part of a growing community, they’ll look forward to hearing from you. That means they’ll actively seek out content from your account.

That’ll make your life as a marketer a whole lot easier.

Join a conversation

You can easily find trending topics in your niche. So when you find something that’s completely relevant to your business, don’t be afraid to speak out.

This will make it so much easier for your target audience to discover your content.

And while we’re at it, you should learn how to use the right hashtags. Not only will it help your posts land where they need to be, it’s a quick way of letting people know what your content and Twitter account is all about.

Launch polls

Everyone has an opinion about something. And when you hit the right buttons, people won’t have any problem letting you know what they think.

Twitter polls are a great way to interact with your community and increase user engagement. And not only are they easy to set up, but they could be practically about anything. You can’t really go wrong unless your poll is about a topic that’s too controversial or divisive.

We suggest that you keep your polls relevant to your niche as you don’t want to alienate your core followers.

Polls are also a great opportunity for you to learn more about how your followers perceive your business. These are just as good for doing product research. If anything else, you can use polls to have fun with your audience.

Shorten your tweets

According to multiple online sources, the ideal tweet length is anywhere between 70 and 110 characters — including hashtags and user tags. Tweets that are around that character length tend to get retweeted more.

Experts found that 70 to 110 characters are short enough to retweet but adequate enough to offer value for other users.

Besides, you don’t really want to bombard your audience with so much information. If your post is too long, there’s a good chance that users will simply scroll through it to get to the next tweet. That’s not what you want.

Shorter tweets have a higher chance of retaining a user’s attention.

Conclusion

You can go through all the posts about the best time to post on Twitter that you’ll find online. But the truth is that nothing will beat using your own Twitter data to determine when you should post your content.

Using a social media scheduling and analytics tool like Sendible will help you understand your audience a little better. You can run experiments with it to learn when your followers are most active on Twitter.

That way, you’ll have a better shot at improving your Twitter engagement rate by posting at the right times.

Also, don’t forget to incorporate some of the suggestions we included in this post. Engaging users isn’t all about when you post. What you post and how you do so are just as important.

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