Knowing the best time to post on Instagram is as important as producing quality content and posting consistently.

Making great content and posting every day may not yield the expected results if your audience doesn’t actually come across your content. That’s why thinking strategically is key.

Instagram numbers are impressive – over 1 billion users, with 500 million using Instagram Stories every day and recently-launched features such as Reels. This means that, among so many people, it’s likely that your target audience has an Instagram account. Because of this, everyone wants a slice of the pie and competition is fierce.

With this said, in order to ensure good engagement on Instagram and prevail over the competition, all you need is the right timing. Therefore, keep reading and learn more about the best times to post on Instagram, those with the best chances to stand out.

Choosing the best time to post on Instagram

In order for you to obtain more visibility, engagement and even sell more on Instagram, you need to understand social media management. After all, many points can influence your profile’s success.

Knowing the best time to post on Instagram is one of them, considering that there are times of the day when your audience is more active. Therefore, posting your photos and videos at these times means that you have a better chance of them viewing and interacting with your photos and videos.

To find out what these times are, it’s important to consider the following topics:

Know your persona

Knowing your persona, which is the representation of your ideal consumer, is the first step. It’s from this persona that you’ll know the best tone, format and time to post.

Even though you can’t see it now, knowing exactly to whom you’re talking, knowing your audience, will guide you to knowing the best time to post on Instagram and to sell on the internet.

Ask questions and study your audience, gathering information about their lifestyle, age, daily routine and anything else that is relevant for your business.

Know your audience

As you may already know, Instagram provides an analysis tool called Instagram Insights. All you need in order to use it is a business account.

What’s interesting about the tool is that it offers several metrics for Instagram, such as the days and times when your followers are usually on Instagram, in addition to their age bracket, location and even their peak interaction.

This is one of Instagram’s features which can help you choose the best time to post.

Know where your followers are

Another point that influences when it’s time to determine the best time to post is where your followers live or where they are.

This is because, depending on the city, state or country where your target audience is, peak internet access or even time zones might be different.

Therefore, pay attention to this when planning your posting calendar.

How to find the best time to post on your business’ Instagram profile

At this point, you already know which factors influence your improved visibility on Instagram.

Check out below, three tips to help you determine the best time to post on Instagram:

Use the Instagram for Business data

The platform shows several items that can help your business establish the best time to post on Instagram, such as the actual reach, age and location of use, and the times your audience accesses the most.

In order to view this information, first you need to login on the platform, and then click on the button with “three parallel horizontal lines”.

Then, just click on the “Information” option, and then the “Audience” option. Finally, click “Followers”, and then the “Time” option.

That’s it! This is a simple action, but it allows you to improve your performance on Instagram.

Run tests

This is an arduous, but extremely necessary process.

Automatic evaluations are nice, but they must be viewed as complements. If you want precision, you need to “get your hands dirty”.

Run tests, such as the famous A/B tests, and don’t forget monitoring in order to understand what’s working best.

Use social media tools

Several tools offer social media metrics and are of great help so you can know the best time to post on your business’ Instagram profile.

These consist of Instagram automation tools that perform analyses based not only on the time, but also on the type of post made and user behavior. Among the main ones, we have the following:

• Hootsuite – Contains several other features, assisting not only in the understanding of the best times, but also to improve posting on other social media

• Socialbakers – Allows you to analyze your competitors, assisting in other factors besides the issue of times

• Sprout Social – Also helps analyze interactions between page users, allowing the capturing of new information
• UNUM – Includes a specific tool to help you understand the best time to post on Instagram, called “Best time to post”, mainly showing which posts had the most user interactions during the week.

Some of these tools have cell phone apps and include several features that help manage social media, such as performance reports and post scheduling.

What are the best times to post on Instagram for each segment?

The truth is that it’ll depend a lot on your market niche.

The best times to post on Instagram may vary depending on your niche. For example, the health niche might not have the same “peak engagement” time as the tech niche, understand?

Below, we present the data captured by Sprout Social, which performs analysis from general interactions in different types of markets. Check it out.

The best times to post on Instagram

Overall, these are the times to post on Instagram:

• Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.– 4 p.m

Moreover, according to Social Sprout, user engagement is at its lowest before 6 a.m. and after 9 p.m. 

The best times for the non-profit segment

For these organizations, the best time to post on Instagram is between 12 pm and 5 pm, from Monday to Friday.

It’s also understood that the best day to post is every Tuesday, with the worst being on Saturdays.

The best times for the teaching segment

For institutions that work with various teaching offers, the best time to post on Instagram is on Mondays at 8 pm, perhaps because Monday is always a day for action and decision making for most people.

On the other days of the week, posting should be between 11 am and 4 pm, and Sundays should be avoided.

The best times for the health segment

Posts with the best performance should be made on Tuesdays at 1 pm, with Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9 am and 4 pm being the days when posts receive the most engagement from the audience.

For this niche, weekends correspond to the worst days for posting, with little interaction.

The best times for the tech segment

In the case of tech companies, Sundays are the worst day for post interactions.

The best time to post on Instagram is on Wednesdays at 10 am, with the highest engagement peak occurring on Wednesdays and Fridays, between 10 am and 5 pm.

The best times for the retail segment

For the retail segment, the best time to post on Instagram is on Saturdays between 11 am and 1 pm, perhaps due to the fact that most people are off work.

Engagement occurs every day of the week, between 10 am and 3 pm, with Mondays being the day with the lowest business and page engagement.

Guarantee your “slice of the engagement pie” now!

If you have read this post carefully, you’ve probably noticed that the secret behind the best time to post on Instagram is knowing your audience and the market.

Having good planning, and all other “prerequisites” is important, but without knowing your audience and the market, you’ll hardly know what the best time to post is and guarantee your slice of the engagement pie.

If you’re looking to improve your performance on Instagram, you’ll enjoy reading about the top 9 social media tools and their features. Actually, one of the tools mentioned here, is also included there!