Crazy days we are living in. Routines feel like something from the past and we are all feeling a bit stuck in the twilight zone as we wait on answers surrounding the current state of events. States are hopeful about taking tangible steps to reopen but in the meantime, everyone is trying to maintain the “new normal”. During this time, everyone’s life and work has deviated from in person to virtual interactions and as such, social media has proven to be a pivotal means for connection.
SproutSocial recently shared a review of data from their 20,000+ customers illustrating the use of social media and the changes we have seen on social platforms so far. They have updated their data through April 2020 to provide insights that are critically valuable to marketing strategy and to emphasize changes to consumer interests over the span of the global health crisis.
In their data review, SproutSocial found that best times for posting content on socials has changed along with changes to peoples work and life habits; more interestingly, it was determined that these times have seen even more changes over the course of the last few weeks than were seen from 2019 to early 2020. We have outlined below the changes to reflect what are not considered the best times for posting per social media outlet.
While it was previously determined that 11am and 1-2pm on Wednesday were the most optimal times to post on Facebook, recent data shows 10-11am Monday, Wednesday and Friday as the best time for posting.Wednesday was previously an overall peak day, but the most recent data showed that user activity was consistently higher throughout every weekday, especially at 11am.
Previously, 11am on Wednesday and 10-11am on Friday were identified as the best posting times; however. 11am on Monday, Tuesday and Friday and 2pm on Tuesday are now considered the best times to post on Instagram. User activity is now much more concentrated in the work day, with a distinct drop-off seen after 6 p.m. As a more mobile-centric network, Instagram could be taking a bigger share of time as a source of entertainment and distraction.
Currently, the best time to post on Twitter is 7-9am on Friday while it was previously 9am on Wednesday and Friday. Recent data also shows that activity is currently peaking around 9am.
Like Twitter, the best time to post shifted slightly. Previous optimal posting times were 8-10am & 12pm on Wednesday, 9am & 1-2pm on Thursday, and 9am Friday, but current best times for LinkedIn are 3pm Wednesday, 9-10am Thursday, and 11am-12pm Friday.
When it comes to content being posted, it is also super important to have a firm grasp on what content is performing best along with optimized content sharing times. As people are looking for reliable information relating to the pandemic, we have seen a +5.3 increase in message volume and content shared from Healthcare entities. On the contrary, people are also are looking for inspiration or for ways to distract themselves from the crisis at hand – this has lead to a +8.9 increase in content from media and entertainment entities.
