Here’s my dilemma.
I am trying to get this blog out to more people and to engage with more of you, but clearly I’m doing something wrong. Because crickets.
I’d like to think that it’s not my content that stinks, but rather that my blog posts are getting lost in all the noise. At any rate, that’s the story I’ve settled on.
So I decided to do some research about when is the best time to post blogs and why. Here’s what I found.
According to Kissmetrics, the best time to post a blog in order to get the most traffic is, apparently, Monday mornings around 11:00 a.m. EST. Really? That was a huge surprise to me. Who are all these (unemployed) people who can spare time on the second busiest day of the week (Tuesday is the busiest) to read blogs? A good number of you it seems. Mondays are my worst days. Everyone wants a piece of me. My students, my staff, my boss, my family . . . . In my household, Mondays are everything they’re reputed to be.
So dilemma #1: Should I post at a time that’s the worst for me because it’s shown to be the best for traffic, or should I say, heck with it and post when it suits me?
Decisions, decisions!
The same study also shows that whereas it’s probably good to post at times when people are most likely to be reading, posting at high-traffic times could result in your posts being drowned out in all the noise. Hey, who am I to go up against a Perez Hilton, or Seth Godin, or Darren Rouse! My lowly post will fly through the universe with nary a butterfly flap and be lost forever, like that star, over there.
So no Monday mornings for me.
But traffic is just one piece of the puzzle. What about engagement? When are readers most likely comment on and share your posts?
Turns out the best time to get reader engagement is on Saturday mornings around 9:00 a.m. EST. Okay, this is getting warmer. I am usually up at that time and (sometimes) even have my wits about me. Saturday mornings might be a good time for me to post my blogs. For one, I wont be competing with all those high-profile bloggers, and two, if my readers are anything like me, their Saturday mornings are wide open–not much going on at all. The kids are grown so no soccer or dance; the husband has plugged himself in so no high-romance; I have a stack of papers that need grading, so posting would be a good diversion; and most of my boozy girlfriends are still sleeping off their Friday nights, so no lengthy chit-chatting.
Saturday mornings just took the lead, I think.
But what about all those other days in the week?
Tuesday? Busiest workday of the week, but also considered (by other research not shown here) to be the best day to post. Go figure. Turns out the day we are working hardest is also the day we are most likely to be reading blog posts.
Wednesday? This is supposed to be a pretty good day, too. Other research shows that it’s the next best day to post.
Thursday? Supposed to be a good day for inbound links (whatever that means)
Friday? Good if you’re posting kitty videos and other light-hearted fare.
Sunday? No bueno. Most people are at church. Or Disneyland.
So there you have it. A complete run down of when to post your blogs.
Okay, so this is about the time you’re thinking, Oh whew! A blog post that’s short and sweet, for once!
Not so fast buckaroo! All this data I’ve presented is about when to post stuff on your blog (website). But what about social media? When should you post your blog to social media? This is an important question, right? Because don’t we all use social media as our personal curation devices? I know I do. At least 50% of the blogs I read come through social media–maybe even more. Social media (Facebook in my case) is my one stop shop for everything–news, entertainment, events, personal conversations, snarky comments, birthday reminders, and, yes, blogs. So I’m thinking it’s just as important to understand posting and reading trends on social media as it is on the blog itself.
Here is a summary of what I found with regards to the best time to post on social media:
First, Facebook. Kissmetrics shows that the highest number of facebook shares of your post occurs on Saturdays at around 12:00 noon EST. (By the way, the reason I’m posting everything according to Eastern time is because that is the time zone that has the highest population in the U.S.)
As for Twitter, the best days to tweet are midweek (Wednesdays) and weekends (both Saturday and Sunday) and the best times are 12:00 noon (the lunch hour) and 6:00 p.m. (as people are getting home from work). Makes sense.
One final word about posting on social media. The best tweeting frequency is about 1-4 tweets per day, and the best Facebook sharing frequency is 0.5 posts a day. (No, that does not mean that you have to post half a blog on one day and the other half on the second day . . . then again, maybe it’s just me that thinks that way).
Okay, so lots to chew on. Having digested all this, I’m thinking that maybe I’ll post first on Thursday mornings (to get the winding-down-for-the-weekend crowd) and then share that post on Facebook and Twitter on Saturday mornings with the hope that I’ll get more comments and shares.
What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below. I would really appreciate your insights.
Categories: Reflections
Tina, I love the research! I want to know what happens when you try it! You will follow up with a post on the results? I confess I still stubbornly post randomly and erratically, allowing the muse and mercy of open windows in which I get to write to dictate the “when”… The bright butterflies of other projects call, and off I go…usually, and then the blogpost sits a bit…and then…for years my writing day was Friday (when I had child care) and that’s when it went up (on the quietest day ever). But it gave me a place to develop work that seeded other work, even if not widely read at the time. No work is ever lost, I like to think. Sending you love and fortitude!
I will definitely keep you posted. I am experimenting with different days and times and also with different platforms–facebook, twitter. I totally feel you about the “writing when you can” paradigm. That’s how I write as well–although lately, since I do have more time, I’ve been more disciplined about writing. But I think the thing I’m doing differently now, is not necessarily posting right after I write; rather, I am trying to post on the same day each week, even if the post was written a few days/weeks prior. Everything I read suggests that posting at a predictable time each week is the way to go.
Who are Seth Rodin and Darren Rouse? 😏
Seth Godin is a big name (influencer) in all things marketing and entrepreneurship (he blogs daily), and Darren Rouse is the founder of ProBlogger–one of the biggest (if not the biggest) website about all things blogging. They both have huge followings.
I was reading this at 9:05 AM on a Saturday, so maybe there is something to the Saturday morning piece of it. I struggle with how I use social media to curate. Am I seeing enough good stuff! Do I follow too many people resulting in good stuff getting lost? Let us know how your weekly posting schedule works!
For sure! I’m a weekend/batch consumer as well, so I like the idea of posting at the weekend, but I might be in the minority, so we’ll see.
Tina, I too appreciate the research. Like Tania, I’ll really like to hear your results. I’m a random poster myself. And don’t forget, content makes a difference too!
Will do. I’m pretty sure that having a regular posting schedule helps. There are a few people I follow, and I miss it when they miss a regularly scheduled post.