When is the best time to post on Instagram to make sure your post gets seen?
What about the best day of the week to get the most likes? Most comments?
We ran the numbers to figure out the universal best time to post on Instagram. Of course, every company and audience is different, so we’ll also help you calculate the unique best time to post your brand.
…Or! If you don’t feel like reading, you can watch our video with the answer and tips.
Is there a better time to post on Instagram?
Each brand has its own characteristics for posting on Instagram. This is because every social media brand caters to a unique audience with unique behaviors.
But don’t lose hope! There are certain best practices that social media marketers can follow to achieve great results across the board.
Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes novelty, so it’s important to post when your followers are online. This means that, all other things being equal, a newer post will appear higher in the newsfeed than an older one.
Recentity is honestly one of the quickest and easiest wins when it comes to optimizing a post for success. (Although we have plenty more tips for getting free Instagram likes if you’re interested).
But beyond that, it’s also important to be clear about the goals of your Instagram marketing strategy . Do you have specific goals related to raising awareness, increasing engagement, or driving traffic? What does success look like to you, and when have your posts achieved that success in the past? Your past wins are a key guideline for when you should post in general.
To find these results, we analyzed data from over 30,000 Instagram posts from businesses of all sizes. We then consulted with our in-house social media team to get insights gained from posting to an audience of 170,000 followers.
(drumroll please…)
The universal best time to post on Instagram is 11:00 am on Wednesdays.
We found that Instagram users are most likely to interact with content during their mid-day and mid-week work hours. And it makes sense – this is the perfect time to take a break from work or school and scroll a bit. (And like. And comment.)
Weekends tend to be the worst days to post and generally don’t generate much interest. We suspect this is because people are in the real world and not scrolling through Instagram.
Planning to post more than once a week? Here’s a breakdown of the best times to post on Instagram for each day of the week .
(Oh, and don’t forget: the best times shown below are recorded in US Pacific Time)
If you’re just getting started on Instagram and don’t have a lot of past or audience data to work with, try posting during these peak hours.
As your account grows, we recommend adjusting your posting schedule to fit your specific audience’s activity patterns.
The best time to post on Instagram is Monday
The best time to post on Instagram on Monday is 12:00 noon. Most Instagrammers seem to enjoy starting the week off at work. By lunchtime, they browse their Instagram feeds to take a break.
The best time to post on Instagram is Tuesday
The best time to post on Instagram on Tuesday is 9:00 am. Engagement is also strong in the early morning, between 8-10 am, but peaks around 9:00 am.
The best time to post on Instagram is Wednesday
The best time to post on Instagram on Wednesday is 11:00 AM. Wednesday is also the day when accounts seem to get the most engagement overall.
The best time to post on Instagram is Thursday
The best time to post on Instagram on Thursday is 12:00 noon. In general, stretching from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm is good for high engagement on any weekday.
The best time to post on Instagram is Friday
2pm is the best time to post on Instagram on Friday. Employment on Friday is constant throughout the morning and lunch break, from 7:00 to 14:00.
The best time to post on Instagram is Saturday
9:00 am is the best time to post on Instagram on Saturday. Grab those eyeballs before people get down to their offline weekend plans!
The best time to post on Instagram is Sunday
The best time to post on Instagram on Sunday is 19:00. Busyness on Sundays is fairly consistent throughout the day and evening. It remains stable from 12:00 to 20:00.
The best time to post videos on Instagram
If you want to increase your followers and engagement on Instagram, posting videos at any time of the day is easy. Our data shows that videos can get 300% more engagement than regular Instagram videos.
At Hootsuite, we’ve been posting videos to our Instagram audience of 170,000 followers for over two years. During this time, we learned that the best time to post videos is 9:00 and 12:00 from Monday to Thursday.
How we found the best time to post on Instagram for our account
Here’s how we find the perfect time to post Hootsuite on Instagram.
Bryden Cohen, social marketing and employee advocacy strategist at Hootsuite, told us:
“Usually we like to post early in the morning and in the middle of the day. For Instagram, this means that we try to post any time between 8:00 am and 12:00 pm PST or 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm PST weekdays.”
Our Instagram posts – for Hootsuite’s North American B2B audience – work best when we choose early morning or lunchtime for our audience in the Pacific Time Zone, and during the hours we get to work or log out in the Eastern Time Zone.
(Remember, this is exactly what works for us. Prime times for companies in different industries and different time zones can vary greatly.)
Using the activity heatmap provided in Hootsuite Analytics, it’s easy to see when the Hootsuite Instagram audience is online:
Source: Hootsuite Analytics.
Cohen and the social team also use Hootsuite Impact tools to test the effectiveness of a post. “The available data tells us whether we should continue to focus on the same strategy or change things in the future.”
In general, Cohen says that deciding when to post on Instagram goes something like this:
“We use past performances as a guiding light and then analyze when the audience is online as a second opinion. If our content doesn’t perform well after this, we’ll check another time to see if it makes a difference to publishing performance.”
After all, an Instagram content calendar should be data-driven just like the rest of your marketing strategy.
And since the big picture matters too, here are some key Instagram statistics, benchmarks, and demographics to help you strategize:
- Companies post messages in their feeds on average 1 time per day.
- The average engagement rate for a post from a business account is 0.96%.
- People spend about 30 minutes on Instagram every day.
- Each visit to the platform lasts approximately 6 minutes 35 seconds.
- 63% of American users check Instagram at least once a day.
- 42% of American users check Instagram several times a day.
Tips for Finding the Best Time to Post on Instagram Today
Review your top performing posts
First, consider what kind of performance you are aiming for: brand awareness or engagement. Your approach to scheduling Instagram posts can vary depending on your goals.
Which of your past posts have generated high impressions? When did you publish them? And are these posts different from those that earn likes? What do the numbers tell you about your most compelling content?
Your Instagram insights and analytics are your best source of truth here. However, not all analytical tools are created equal. Some social media management tools can help you avoid processing large amounts of data.
Check When Your Audience Is Most Active Online
Then look at your analytics to determine when your followers are scrolling through their feed.
As marketers, we need to know our audience . If you’re targeting college sports fans on Instagram, their social media usage can be very different from those who wake up at 4am.
The Best Time to Post feature in Hootsuite automatically splits this information into a heatmap (see above). It also helps you experiment by predicting specific timeslots when your Instagram followers are online.
If you want to test a new tactic, it will also suggest good timeslots that you haven’t used in the last 30 days.
Consider When Your Competitors Post
Depending on your industry, your competitors may be doing the same calculations and experiments as you. Social listening (or even a full social competition analysis ) can help you keep an eye on what works for others.
Pro tip: Many brands post information about the hour marker. Avoid competition by posting a few minutes before or after: 00.
Post in your audience’s time zone
If you have a global audience or are outside of “regular”time zones, your best time to post might very well be 3am.
Instead of setting some really brutal alarms, can we suggest automating your Instagram posts? The Instagram Scheduler can help you make sure your posts come out at the right time, day after day.
Here’s a quick overview of how to schedule posts with Hootsuite’s Instagram scheduling feature:
Track and correct
Yes, optimizing your Instagram posts for success takes a lot of work – it’s a lot more than just choosing the right filter.
But taking the time to look at the numbers is actually one of the easiest ways to improve your reach. (Either way, it’s easier than leveling up your videography or writing skills. However, we recommend doing that too!)
According to Braden Cohen of the Hootsuite Instagram team, “We review our top-performing posts weekly to see if there are any insights to help us rethink our social media strategy or post frequency. But we usually only change post times every quarter, if that’s the case.”
Cohen noted that, for example, due to the impact of the pandemic on work schedules in 2020, many people spent less time commuting or taking the traditional lunch break. As a result, B2B audiences are spending more time on their phones, and Instagram usage has spread throughout the day.
The world is changing, and with it, the habits of viewers are changing. Set a reminder on your calendar to review results regularly and make adjustments.
Consistently prove yourself in the long run
It is important to be systematic in your publications in order to reap the benefits of all this knowledge about your target audience. Of course, you might not see a stunning bump just by posting a few hours earlier than usual from time to time. However, consistent use of data will move the arrow over time.
Once your audience gets used to seeing your brand in their feed, they will love your content and interact with it. Maintaining your presence on Instagram helps build credibility, trust, and a more meaningful relationship with your audience.
After all, when you have a genuine connection with your audience, the Instagram algorithm takes notice, and so does your bottom line.