Want the largest audience for your post on Facebook? Want the most likes, favorites or clicks? Like cooking a soufflé or preparing a good roux, there’s an art to the timing of your posts.
Fast-food posting (serving the masses)
According to ragan.com, If you want the most eyeballs possible on Facebook, make sure to post on weekdays between 6-8 a.m. and 2-5 p.m. For quick reference, here is the cheat sheet:
| Weekday | Weekend | |
| 9-3 p.m., esp. 9, 1 & 3 | 1-4 p.m. (Less overall) | |
| 10-12 p.m., 3-5 p.m. | 1-3 p.m. (More overall) |
If only it were that simple. This works for measuring overall eyeballs, but engagement via favorites, shares, likes and so forth are another story. If you have ever been on a social network when most of your friends are, you realize quickly that you do not spend a lot of time with each post but swap into scan-mode looking for the best bits.
Salt and pepper to taste (making it yours)
Remember that this is nationwide data. It may turn out that you have a bunch of moms on in the middle of the day or shift workers logging on in the wee hours of the morning. Matching this information with your knowledge of the community, you have a perfect recipe for success. Also, there are many tools to help you analyze your Twitter followers for the best time to tweet.
Even if your schedule doesn’t match that of your audience, you can write at your own time and schedule posts using a service like HootSuite to serve up your perfectly crafted social media posts still piping hot when your audience is online and ready for a little something.
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