Timing on Twitter Is Everything
Posted on February 22, 2016, at 8:00 p.m.
by Leah Tobak.
I’m sure we’ve all heard that there are optimal times and days to post on each social media platform to reach the highest level of readership and interaction. What many people don’t know, however, is that these time-specific actions can also be divided by topic and industry.
Examining Twitter in particular, the best time and day overall to post falls on weekends 1-3 p.m. This timeframe makes sense; since Twitter is considered a right now platform, traffic increases at times when people are out and about, doing fun things to post about (aka the weekend). But, when broken down further, as I learned in Randall Huffaker’s social media class, this overarching time of best fit is more applicable to some industries than others.
The fashion industry follows the overarching trend, and yields a 30 percent higher engagement rate via Twitter on the weekend. Why? As previously stated, Twitter is all about in-the-moment interaction. So it’s reasonable to assume that fashion receives the most mentions when people are out shopping or wearing their latest purchases.
Sports also falls under the weekend radar, although the ultimate time for retweets lands outside of the aforementioned timeframe, at 5 p.m. Why does the industry uphold this pattern? That’s when the games are. Fans and viewers live-tweet their predictions and commentary throughout games, and even those who are not watching check social media consistently for updates.
Entertainment begins to vary from the general weekend trend. Its primary days on Twitter are Sunday and Monday, as people review happenings of the previous weekend and begin to plan for the next. On these days we see a 23 percent increase in engagement.
Publishing industry tweets peak on Saturday, when people have the free time to catch up on their reading. Interestingly enough, though, while Saturdays have a 29 percent higher than average engagement, only 7 percent of publishing brands choose to use Twitter on that day.
Within each social media platform, statistics can be broken down to strategize the precise time to post and topics to relay. The companies that pay more attention and study these results will attain more success and reputability as social media continues as a top PR strategy.
