When is the right time to share something on Instagram?
The short answer is that it depends on where your followers are!
Later, after analyzing 12 million Instagram messages, it was discovered that the best time to post on Instagram is between 9am and 11am EST.
However, that may not be the best time to post for your business.
Every verified Instagram account has a distinct audience of followers from various cities, countries, and time zones, so it’s critical to determine your personal best time to post on Instagram.
We discuss how to find the best time to post on Instagram below, as well as the best times for each day of the week.
When Is It Best to Post on Instagram?
We evaluated 12 million global Instagram posts from accounts of 100 to 1 million followers to determine the best time to post on Instagram in 2021.
Each day of the week, here are the top three global best times to post on Instagram, represented in Eastern Standard Time:
For your convenience, here is a summary of our findings:
- Monday: 6 a.m., 10 a.m., and 10 p.m. EST
- Tuesday: 2 a.m., 4 a.m., and 9 a.m. EST
- Wednesday: 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 11 p.m. EST
- Thursday: 9 a.m., 12 p.m., and 7 p.m. EST
- Friday: 5 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. EST
- Saturday: 11 a.m., 7 p.m., and 8 p.m. EST
- Sunday: 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 4 p.m. EST
While these are the most popular times to post on average, if you want to get the most engagement, you can find your tailored best times based on your particular audience.
Instagram’s timeliness has always been significant, but it’s becoming even more so with the latest Instagram algorithm.
Since Instagram is now prioritizing “fresh” content in people’s feeds, posting while the majority of your followers are online and scrolling the app is your best bet for getting your content in front of them.
You can actually hack the algorithm in this way to increase your scope and get more likes and followers!
Methods for Determining the Best Time to Post on Instagram
The Best Time to Post function in Later is the simplest way to measure your optimum posting times, but it is not the only way. We’ve highlighted a few more choices below:
Option #1: Determine Your Top Time Zones and Check to See When Your Followers Are Online
When determining the best time to post on Instagram, keep your Instagram followers’ time zones in mind.
The best way to find your perfect Instagram posting time is to study your audience using Instagram’s native analytics tool, Instagram Insights.
Instagram Insights provides you with everything you might want: you can see where your followers are located, their gender, age, and, most importantly, when they are most active on Instagram.
Bear in mind that in order to gain access to Insights, you must first create an Instagram company profile or an Instagram creator profile.
One of the additional advantages of converting to a creator profile is access to the Instagram Creator Studio dashboard, which is jam-packed with useful audience insights, including advanced data on when your followers are online.
For example, you can use your audience data to determine your top time zones and discover when your Instagram followers are most active right from your desktop.
Later’s Instagram audience analytics can also be used to monitor when your audience is most involved on Instagram and then use that data to improve your posting times.
Option #2: Experiment with Different Posting Times and Monitor Your Progress
If you want to crunch the numbers yourself, you can make a spreadsheet that tracks how much engagement you get when you post at various times on different days.
Begin by selecting five separate times during the week.
If you find that your followers are most active between 5 and 9 p.m. EST, schedule your posts to appear at 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 p.m.
Track how many likes and comments each post gets in your spreadsheet, as well as the date and time you posted them.