Instagram is the biggest image sharing social platform worldwide. Boasting over a billion users, Instagram reaches out to a large segment of society with a very significant prospect of business improvement.

Several marketers and business owners choose Instagram when they have to market their products. The presence of advertisements in Instagram stories has further boosted Instagram’s position as a medium.

However, utilizing Instagram to its full potential needs to have a lot of factors considered other than the content itself. Arguably one of the most important determinants of success on the platform is timing.

You can post killer content that should bear high fruits for your profile but to no effect. This can be due to a bad time; posting when users are not active.
Let’s not get into jitter, here are the best times to post on Instagram:

So when should you post?
Several pieces of research conducted about this have produced interesting results. Weekdays have been established to have the highest number of engagements, which might come as a surprise.

This is topped off with the ideal time frame lying between 10-3 PM. Excluding 1-2 PM in most cases, engagement with Instagram posts in the UK peaks out when people are starting their workdays around 10 and 11 AM and during their lunch breaks after 2 PM.

Weekends have surprisingly low engagement in normal circumstances. However, considering the current lockdown rules being implemented in the UK, you might see higher than usual engagement on weekends too. For now, we’ll look at the data backed by statistics exclusively.

The reason for high engagement during the week can be attributed to people checking their feeds before the day begins and during their free time. Once they get free from work, they are more likely to head out and engage in physical activities than social media.

What times should be kept in mind?
As a rule of thumb, here are the time frames that should be kept in mind according to each day in a week:

The best times to post on a Monday are 6:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., and 10:00 pm. This is indicative of how users check their phones when they get up, before they start work, and before they go to sleep in the night. You should post around these times if you want to get the most out of your posts.

For Tuesdays, 2:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m., and 9:00 a.m. constitute the best times to post. These timings have consistently shown high forms of engagement from users, which serves as an adequate reason for you to post new content around these times.

Wednesday sees the most engagement around 7:00 a.m., 8:00 a.m., and 11:00 p.m., once again showing that users check their phones right after they get up in the morning and before they go to sleep.

On Thursdays, you should keep 9:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., and 7:00 p.m. in mind when choosing a time to post new content. Users refresh their feeds during their breaks and after they get free from work and reach home, which is why you should post around these times to garner high engagement ratios.

For Friday, 5:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 3:00 p.m. have repeatedly shown signs of high engagement and users being active on the platform, meaning that you should post around these times to ensure your post reaches its maximum potential.

On the first day of the weekend, i.e. Saturday, 11:00 a.m., 7:00 p.m., and 8:00 p.m. have shown peak engagements as users are free from work (in most cases) and wake up late, spend the day with families, and get time to check their phones around nighttime. Do note that this is an analogy and there is nothing set in stone as to why users engage in certain time frames more than another.

Last, on Sunday 7:00 a.m., 8:00 a.m., and 4:00 p.m. are when most users are active on Instagram and this is why it is the ideal time for you to post on the platform.

Is it the same for everyone?
This is a question frequently asked by all marketers, is the formula same for every profile? No, it is not.

You might face variations, which is why analytics is crucial. Analyzing the best time for your business’ profile is essential for success.

While industrial statistics can be used to find out the best time to post, it is not a smart decision to rely on stats exclusively. Taking guidance from them is logical; considering them your Bible, however, is not.

What does Instagram prefer?
Instagram’s algorithm has changed drastically from what it used to be. Since 2018, the chronological order of posts has been abandoned in favor of posts that are of direct interest to users.

Posts from friends/families of a user are shown above all others since many users want to see new posts from their close ones above brand posts. This is further paired with preference given to posts that directly correlate with what the user likes.

The entire concept of making the feed relevant for users has seen a lot of brands complain about their post reach being affected. However, this is not particularly the case as Instagram clarified in 2018 that all posts go on the feed of users (i.e. users that have followed a profile on the platform), it’s just about being relevant to the user’s preferences.

To end this, it is vital to remember that there are no set criteria as to what will work for your business’ profile. Your profile can have varying results from the timings shown above; don’t let this demotivate you.

Take a deeper look into your profile’s analytics and you will get to know why posts published in a certain time frame see higher engagements than others. If this does not cut it for you, reach out to an expert who can do this for you and then curate a strategy for your page so that your posts get the attention they truly deserve.