The factors that drive the success of the post on Instagram are aplenty — but there is one factor that you should never overlook: the timing of your post. One of the biggest mistakes when posting on Instagram is to ignore the algorithm. Imagine putting all your time and resources into creating a post and publishing it during the worst times to post on Instagram. Some marketers say there is a worse time and a best time to post on Instagram. Experts at a social media marketing agency or digital marketing agency refrain from these Instagram posting mistakes to stay on top of their game!
Worst Time To Post On Instagram
Late nights and early mornings are supposedly the worst times to post on Instagram, usually around 3-6 AM during weekends. For weekends, Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons are also not the best time to post anything as many users may be busy with chores, sleeping, or enjoying offline activities. When you post at these times, you may get lower engagement on your post as fewer people are online or focusing on the app.
On the other hand, the best time depends totally on the audience’s peak activity time. According to Buffer, they analyzed around 2 million posts on Instagram to find out the best time to post on Instagram is generally around 3 PM to 6 PM on weekdays. And the best time to post on the weekends is 6 PM.
| Day | Time |
| Monday | 7 AM – 9 AM |
| Tuesday | After 9 PM |
| Wednesday | Afternoon (5 PM – 8 PM) |
| Thursday | Before 8 AM |
| Friday | 4 PM – 6 PM |
| Saturday | 1 PM – 6 PM |
| Sunday | 10 AM – 3 PM |
What Does It Mean By The Worst To Post On Instagram?
There is not a single universally accepted best time to post on Instagram which guarantees success. However, there are certain times and days when the reach tends to maximize more.
Brands such as Starbucks, Duolingo, Disney++, Apple, and Adidas strategically time their posts to make sure it reaches maximum audience. Using the Instagram Insights section helps in analyzing what time slot is perfect for your audience. These brands do not follow the universal best time for posting, but follow a specific audience’s active hours to make a post. This is how big names schedule their posts to go live during the peak engagement period.
Why You Should Avoid Posting During These Times
Instagram usually prioritizes posts that it believes the users will find intriguing. It uses factors such as engagement such as likes, comments, share, and save, the relationship of the poster and the user, and whether the post is timely or not. Posting when your audience is most active allows you to make the best out of every post and avoid the worst case scenario.
Limited Audience Reach
When you post something at the odd hours when your users are not the most active, your post will not reach as many users as you expect. When you consistently post at an ungodly hour, your potential customers do not see it and you can create brand awareness.
There is a higher chance that your audience reach is contributing directly to your customer base and acquiring new customers. This means you will not get more customers, and if you have launched a new product or service, there are higher chances that you won’t hit it out of the park.
Weak Initial Engagement
The initial wave of engagement, including the likes, comments, and shares are very important for Instagram. It determines whether the algorithms will push or bury your post to show fewer or more users. Apart from that, when fewer people are aware of your product or service, it means you will have a smaller customer base and fewer sales.
It also means that key market segments will not see your product, giving your competitors an edge over you. Lastly, when the engagements are lower, your marketing efforts to achieve sufficient reach are wasted which leads to a poor ROI.
Algorithm Suppresses Your Post
No matter how much well-made, thoughtful, and high-quality content you have produced, if it fails to garner the attention of the users — instagram algorithm will suppress it. Instagram algorithm likes content that people interact with and shows user content that they are likely to be very interested in.
If you schedule a post at an unsuitable time, you will most likely receive a lukewarm response on Instagram due to less immediate engagement which leads the algorithm to “suppressing it”.
Conclusion
All in all, avoiding posting on instagram around late night/early morning proves to be lethal for many businesses’ social media pages. However, if your target audience interacts the most during night, you may need to reconsider the worst times to post on Instagram. The worst day to post on Instagram is during major holidays as many people are spending time with friends and family. It is not the best time to post any asset and it may result in lower engagement or worse — increased competition — which can make your post get lost in the noise.
Instead, you can experiment with different behaviors and check your instagram insights to analyze your users’ behavior. This analysis will help you come up with a suitable time focusing on your target audience. You can also try posting on Instagram at different times to find out what works best for you.
