Content Marketing
What is the BEST time of day to post on social networks? WHO CARES.
May 05 2014
I train thousands of businesses in social media each year, and I often get asked about the mechanics of social media optimization; questions like:
– What time should I post?
– Do pictures still outperform text on Facebook?
– How do I optimize for the Facebook algorithm?
– Should post a link at the beginning, middle or end of a Tweet?
– I’ve heard that pages that don’t engage get more likes? Should I engage more?
I hate every single one of these questions.
Why?
Because these are the most common questions about social media optimization, yet they probably only account for 5% of your success on social media (or even less).
Also, the ACTUAL right answer to ALL OF THESE questions is TEST FOR YOUR AUDIENCE. Studies that create these best practices are national averages for generic brands. They don’t necessarily apply to your audience.
To be clear, I’m not saying to completely ignore best practices. What I am saying is that 1) You should test that these practices apply to your audience and 2) You should focus on the big factors that determine your success first.
The big groundbreaking idea that will lead you to success in social media isn’t optimizing for these “science of social media” tricks.
The big idea, that you should be asking about is How To Create Amazing Content That People Actually Like. This is 95% of the success on social media. Great content. Sharing stuff that your audience is interested in seeing.
The reason that people would rather ask the other questions is because they are easier to answer. They have specific answers (in theory) that dictate exactly what you should do. Post at 2:00 PM. Use a Picture. Add Plz RT to the end of a tweet.
Creating great content that your audience really cares about is much more difficult than simply posting at 2 instead of 4. It involves deeply understanding your audience, spending time on the creative process and executing with excellence. It is hard.
That being said, creating great content has the reward of achieving social media success.
So PLEASE, stop asking about when to post, and focus more on WHAT you post.
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