The Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2024

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

What is the best time to post on Instagram to make sure the post is visible?

And what about the best day of the week to get the most popularity? More comments?

Keep reading to find the best Instagram posting time that seems to work worldwide - and how you can find the best posting times for your product, and different (because every business and audience is different).

…Or! If you do not like to read you can watch our video for answers and tips.

Is there a better time to post on Instagram?

Every type of product can have a slightly different fun posting point on Instagram - because each type requires a different audience, with different behavioral patterns on social media. But, that being said, there are some best practices that you can follow that often produce good results across the board.

Usually, posting where your followers are online is important, because the Instagram algorithm puts the latest first. This means that, if all goes well, new posts will appear at the top of the newsfeed rather than the old ones.

The latest is definitely one of the fastest, easiest when it comes to preparing posts for success. (Although we have many tips for finding free Instagram likes, if you like).

But more than that, it is also important to know what, exactly, your goals are for your Instagram marketing strategy. Do you have specific goals for building awareness, high performance, or driving traffic? What does success look like to you, and when did your post achieve that success in the past? Your previous success is an important guide to when to post, overall.

All in all a great time to post on Instagram

We have combined data into more than 30,000 Instagram posts from businesses of all sizes, as well as comments from our social team and reviews posted to an audience of 200k followers to find the best time to post on Instagram:

11am Wednesday.

We found that Instagram users are the most likely to share content during the day and week. And that makes sense - a great time to take a break from work or school and scroll down. (And likes. And comments.)

Weekends are usually less stressful. We suspect it is because people are out doing things in the real world, instead of being on their phones browsing Instagram.

Do you plan to post more than once a week? Here's a breakdown of the best times to post on Instagram each day of the week.

Great time to post on Instagram on Monday

The best time to post on Instagram on Monday is 12:00 PM. It seems that most Instagrammers would like to start their week strong at work, but during lunch, they are looking at their Instagram feed break.

Great time to post on Instagram on Tuesday

The best time to post on Instagram on Tuesday is 9:00 AM. The interaction is intensified in the early morning hours, between 8-10 AM, but rises at about 9:00 AM.

Great time to post on Instagram on Wednesday

The best time to post on Instagram on Wednesday is 11:00 AM. Wednesday is also the day when accounts appear to receive the highest share of total.

Great time to post on Instagram on Thursday

The best time to post on Instagram on Thursday is 12:00 PM. Generally, the time band from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM is strong for sharing on any day of the week.

Great time to post on Instagram on Friday

2:00 PM is the best time to post on Instagram on Friday, although the wedding fits well in the morning and at lunchtime, from 7 AM to 2:00 PM.

Great time to post on Instagram on Saturday

9:00 AM is the best time to post on Instagram on Saturday before people get into their offline weekend programs maybe.

Great time to post on Instagram on Sunday

The best time to post on Instagram on Sunday is 7:00 PM, although interaction is not uncommon all afternoon and evening, from 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

So, if you’re just starting out on Instagram, and you don’t have a lot of past data or audience details to work with, try posting at the times we checked out above, and see how it works for you. As your account grows, you may want to adjust your posting system to better fit the Instagram activity patterns of your particular audience. Here's how we can get the best Hootsuite posting times on our Instagram account.

Brayden Cohen, Hootsuite's Social Marketing and Employee Advocacy Strategist told us:

“Generally, we like to post very early in the morning and in the afternoon. For Instagram, that means we try to post anytime between 8AM-12PM PST, or another 4-5PM PST during the week. "

Cohen pointed out that — at least for North Korean B2B Hootsuite audiences — our Instagram posts do a great job when we arrive at the wake-up hours or at noon for our local Pacific time audience, as well as sit-to-work or logging. . hours in Eastern time zone.

Using the activity map provided in Hootsuite Analytics, it is easy to see when the Hootsuite Instagram audience is online:

Cohen and the social media team use tools at Hootsuite Impact to monitor the performance of posts and campaigns. "The available information tells us that we must continue to focus on the same strategy or look for whatever is ahead."

All in all, Cohen says deciding when to post on Instagram goes like this:

“We use past performance as a guiding star, and then review when the online audience is a second impression. If our content does not work properly after that, we will evaluate it at different times to see if that changes the performance of the post. ”

All in all, the Instagram content calendar should be driven by data just like any other marketing strategy.

And since the big picture is important, too, here are some important Instagram statistics, benchmarks, and demographics to help you create strategies:

• Businesses send in their feed an average of 1x per day
• The average engagement rate for posts from a business account is 0.96%
• People spend 30 minutes on Instagram every day by 2020 (from 26 minutes a day in 2019)
• Each visit to the platform takes 6 minutes and 35 seconds
• 63% of American users check Instagram at least once a day, and 42% of American users check Instagram several times a day.

Great time to post on Instagram Reels

If you are looking to grow your Instagram followers and engagement, posting Reels at any time of the day makes no sense. Our data shows that Reels can receive up to 300% more engagement than regular Instagram videos.

At Hootsuite, we have been sending Reels to our Instagram audience of 170k followers for over 2 years. At the time, we learned that the best time to send Reels was 9 AM and 12 PM, Monday through Thursday.

Tips to find your best time to post on Instagram

Review your most effective posts

First, think about what kind of work you intend to do: product awareness or engagement. Your timing of your Instagram post may vary depending on which one is most important to you.

In the past, which of your posts has gained the upper hand? When did you post them? And are these posts different from the ones that are gaining popularity?

Your Instagram stats are your best true source here. Of course, not all analytical tools are born equal, and some social media management tools can help you avoid heavy data collection.

The Hootsuite's Best Time to Publish feature, for example, suggests the best times and best days to post to Instagram based on historical performance. Analyzes your posts from the past 30 days, compiles them weekly and hourly, and calculates the average exposure or engagement level to determine the appropriate times when your posts have the greatest impact.

Check when your audience is most active online

The next step is to find your best posting time to look at your stats to determine when your fans are scrolling through their feeds.

As advertisers, we need to know our audience. If you refer to Gen Z sports fans on Instagram, their social media usage habits can be very different from technology managers who get up at 4AM to meditate on their infrared saunas.

The Hootsuite's Best Time to Publish feature will automatically split this information into a temperature map (see above). It will also help you to check by predicting posts of time when your Instagram followers are online.

It will also raise time gaps that you have not used in the last 30 days so you can move your delivery times and explore new strategies.

Consider when your competitors post

Depending on your industry, your competitors are likely to perform similar statistics and tests you perform. Social listening (or full analysis of social competition) helps keep an eye on what might be working for audiences in your industry.

Expert Tip: Most brands post to the hour mark, so consider posting a few minutes before or after 00:00 to avoid competing with limited shelf space.

Post at the time of your audience

If you have an international audience, or you yourself are stationed outside the "normal" time zones (see you, Mumbai; how are you, Sydney?) Your best delivery time may be 3 a.m.

Instead of setting up some really vicious alarms, we might suggest that you automatically create your own Instagram post? One of the best tools that can help you achieve this is to use the Instagram editor to make sure your posts are up to date, day by day.

Here's a quick overview of how to post using Hootsuite's Instagram editing feature:

Monitor and adjust

Yes, optimizing your Instagram post to succeed takes a lot of work — more than just choosing the right filter. But dialing numbers once a quarter to find the right time to post is actually one of the easiest ways to make sure your content makes it visible to the right eye. (It's easier than upgrading your video or writing skills, though — though we highly recommend both.)

According to Brayden Cohen, of Hootsuite's Instagram team: “We look at our best posts weekly to see if there is any understanding that will help us redefine our strategy or post cadence. But we usually change our delivery times quarterly, if that is the case. ”

Cohen noted that, for example, as a result of the epidemic in action in 2020, many people are spending less time on the road or enjoying a lunch break. B2B audiences are mostly on their phones, and that is reflected in the use of Instagram, which is distributed throughout the day.

The world is changing, and viewer habits are changing, so set a reminder on your calendar to review your results and make changes.

Show consistently in the long run

To get the full rewards of all this information about your audience, it is important to be organized about your submission. While you may not notice a drop in the jaw by simply sending a few hours before the usual routine, constant use of data will move the needle over time.

Good circle: your audience gets the habit of seeing your product from their feed, they enjoy your content, and engage with it. Regular appearances on Instagram increase loyalty, trust, and create meaningful relationships.

At the end of the day, when you have a real connection with your audience, algorithm notifications, as well as your bottom line.