Every marketing agency will give you a chart showing the “optimal posting times” for each platform. Tuesday at 11 AM for Facebook. Wednesday at 5 AM for Instagram. Friday at noon across all platforms, according to Hootsuite’s 2025 data.

However, if your content is mediocre, posting at 11 AM on Tuesday won’t save it. And if your content is excellent, posting at 3 AM on Sunday won’t kill it.

The obsession with posting times is a distraction from the truth that most brands aren’t creating content worth engaging with, regardless of when it appears in feeds. But since you’re here for the data, I’ll give you both – the timing recommendations and why they matter less than you think.

Best Time to Post Social Media: Platform-Specific Data 2026

Sprout Social analysed nearly 2.7 billion engagements across 463,000 social profiles in 2025. Here’s what the data shows:

• Instagram. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 11 AM to 6 PM. Later’s analysis of 6 million posts shows 5 AM performs surprisingly well – early morning posts get initial engagement from dedicated users, signalling the algorithm to boost distribution throughout the day.

• Facebook. 9 AM on Tuesdays, with Wednesday at 11 AM and 1-2 PM also performing strongly. Activity rises mid-week and declines on weekends. Morning hours (4-6 AM) catch users during their pre-work scroll.

• LinkedIn. Tuesday through Thursday, 8-10 AM and 4-6 PM. People check LinkedIn before starting work and during the commute home. Weekends see significantly lower engagement.

• TikTok. Wednesday is the best day, with Thursday and Friday close behind. Buffer found that 3-5 posts per week is optimal, with early morning and lunch breaks showing higher engagement. Saturday sees a noticeable dip in views.

• X (Twitter). Wednesday and Friday, 8 AM-12 PM and 5-6 PM. Morning routines and evening downtime when users check feeds. Weekends are consistently weak.

• YouTube. Sprout Social data shows Tuesdays and Wednesdays perform best, with engagement concentrated in evening hours – 6 PM and 7 PM. Post 2-3 hours before your audience’s prime time to allow the algorithm to process and distribute. Weekdays 12 PM to 4 PM work well; weekends favour 9 AM to 11 AM.

• Pinterest. Hootsuite data shows 12 PM on Tuesdays and Fridays. Peak activity falls between 8-11 PM on weekdays when people are winding down and browsing for inspiration. Weekend mornings (9 AM-12 PM) also perform well for lifestyle and home content. Unlike other platforms, Pinterest rewards consistent pinning patterns over sporadic high-volume activity.

• Threads. Buffer’s analysis of 730,000 posts shows Wednesday is the best day, followed by Friday and Thursday. Optimal times are early morning (7-9 AM) when the 25-34-year-old core demographic checks feeds before work. Sunday and Saturday see the lowest engagement. Posts with images perform 60% better than text-only.

• Snapchat. Unlike other platforms, Snapchat is predominantly nocturnal – best engagement occurs between 10 PM and 1 AM. For younger audiences, the 4 PM to 6 PM after-school window works, while 8 PM to 10 PM captures evening leisure time. Tuesday through Thursday mid-week performs best. With 90% of US Gen Z teens on Snapchat, school schedules and social patterns matter.

Why This Data Lies to You

Here’s the problem with aggregated studies: they average data across millions of accounts with completely different audiences, industries, and content strategies. Sprout Social’s data includes B2C e-commerce brands targeting teenagers, B2B software companies targeting enterprise decision-makers, and everything in between.

When a B2B manufacturing company posts at 5 AM on Instagram because “the data says so,” they’re optimising for an audience that doesn’t exist. Their procurement managers aren’t scrolling Instagram at 5 AM. They’re checking LinkedIn at 8 AM with their coffee.

A practical example: I worked with a B2B logistics software company that religiously posted on LinkedIn at 8 AM Tuesday through Thursday, following the “optimal times” exactly. Engagement was terrible. We analysed their actual audience behaviour and found their target users – supply chain directors – were most active between 6-8 PM when they’d finally cleared their inbox. We shifted posting times to 6:30 PM. Engagement increased 340% in 30 days. Same content. Different timing.

What Actually Determines Engagement

Social media algorithms prioritise different signals than they did even two years ago. Meta’s August 2025 updates introduced enhanced AI detection that weighs genuine engagement over artificial interactions. TikTok now prioritises original content and reduces reach for reposts. Instagram heavily weights saves and DM shares as indicators of valuable content.

Notice what’s missing from that list? Posting time.

Algorithms don’t care when you post. They care whether people engage with what you post. Instagram’s engagement rate dropped to 0.5% in 2025, a 28% decrease year-over-year. That’s not because everyone is posting at the wrong time. It’s because most content isn’t good enough to cut through the noise.

The true secret: timing optimisation is a 5% improvement at best. Content quality is an order of magnitude improvement. But content quality is hard. Changing your posting time is easy. So that’s what everyone optimises.

Framework That Works

Instead of asking “when should I post?”, ask three better questions:

When is my specific audience actually on this platform? Your analytics already tell you this. Instagram Insights, LinkedIn analytics, YouTube Studio’s “When your viewers are on YouTube” – this data reflects your actual audience, not statistical aggregates.

A B2C fitness brand found their audience was most active at 9-10 PM, not morning hours when most fitness brands post. Why? Their customers were finishing evening workouts and scrolling while cooling down.

What behaviour am I trying to trigger? LinkedIn posts at 8 AM get morning scroll engagement – likes, maybe a quick comment. Posts at 6 PM get thoughtful engagement – longer comments, shares with notes, saves for later. Different goals require different timing strategies.

Can I consistently post at this time? Consistency matters more than optimal timing. The algorithm rewards accounts that post regularly. If “optimal time” is 5 AM but you’ll only maintain that schedule for two weeks before burning out, it’s not optimal.

B2B Exception

B2B social media operates on completely different timelines. When you’re selling to enterprise decision-makers, same-day engagement doesn’t matter. Your prospect isn’t buying today. They’re researching vendors over months.

A B2B cybersecurity company I consulted with obsessed over posting times to maximise immediate engagement. We shifted strategy entirely – instead of optimising for instant likes, we optimised for content that would be found and saved by people researching “cybersecurity compliance requirements” three months from now.

The result: immediate engagement dropped. Lead quality increased 180%. Sales pipeline from social grew 220% over six months. B2B buyers don’t impulse purchase when they see your LinkedIn post at the “optimal time.” They save valuable content, return to it later, and contact you when they’re ready.

Real Answer

The best time to post on social media is whenever you can consistently create and share content valuable enough that timing becomes irrelevant.

If you’re asking about optimal posting times before you’ve nailed content strategy, audience understanding, and value proposition, you’re optimising the wrong variable. You’re rearranging deck chairs while the content ship sinks.

Use your platform analytics to understand when your specific audience is active. Test different times and measure results. But if you’re choosing between “decent content at optimal time” and “exceptional content at suboptimal time,” exceptional content wins every time. The algorithm doesn’t reward punctuality. It rewards value.

If you’re tired of following generic “best time to post” advice that doesn’t work for your specific business, book a consultation. We’ll analyse your actual audience behaviour, identify the posting strategy that matches your business goals, and build a content calendar that prioritises value over volume.

Because crowing at dawn doesn’t matter if nobody’s listening.