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Ending it once and for all: This is officially the best time to post on Instagram

I want solid evidence and actual results

6 years ago | UPDATED 5 years ago

As we all know, Instagram is not a game. It’s a serious way of life and engagements are what we crave. Instagram posts are carefully posed, selected, edited and then posted – with hope of bringing in loads of likes. The feeling of validation is all you want, like yeah – my post did good. But, is there a way to guarantee that feeling? There are claims there are optimum Instagram posting times for best engagements – but are they true? When is the best time to post on Instagram?

Here is every piece of evidence there is a best time to post on Instagram, our own investigation and the ACTUAL answers.

When is the best time to post on Instagram?

According to industry research, the best times to post on Instagram are Wednesdays at 3pm, Thursdays at 5am, 11am, 3pm and 4pm, and Fridays at 5am.

This research found Thursdays are the best days to post, Sundays are the worst.

The “safest” times to post to Instagram are Tuesday through Friday, 9am til 6pm.

However, this data is for business profiles only – so might not apply as much to personal accounts.

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Expert Voice also say the best time to post depends on what day it is. They are: Sundays at 5pm, Mondays at 5pm and 10pm, Tuesdays at 3am and 10pm, Wednesdays at 5pm, Thursdays at 7am and 11pm, Fridays at 1am and 8pm and Saturdays at 12am and 2am.

So, the best advice is to avoid day time posting – always go for evenings and even the early hours to get the most likes.

They found Wednesdays were the best days to post, and Sundays and Mondays were the worst.

Testing out the best times to post

To do this you will need to have set up your Instagram account as a business account. You can do this under settings, and then “switch to business account”.

You can then see how many people have viewed your Instagrams, when your followers are most active, and which posts get the most likes.

How to see your best performing posts:

1. Go on Insights and click “Content.”

2. Click on “See All” under “Feed posts.”

3. Instagram will show your best performing posts within the last year, in the order from having the most impressions to least impressions.

You can then see which posts got the most impressions, and look at what time you posted them.

There’s also a quicker way to look at individual photos, you can go on the picture and then click on “view insights” underneath and Instagram will tell you what time it was posted, and how many likes and comments it got.

Findings:

We tried out a range of different types of posts on two different accounts and found that there is clear evidence that certain times are better than others for posting.

Evening posting: 166 likes

Night time posting: 196 likes

This is the best time to post

Daytime posting: 88 likes

Daytime posting: 97 likes

Conclusion: For selfies, the best time of day to post is in the evening – after 7pm.

So if you have a bank of HUJI selfies, or a backlog of fit pics to make your ex jealous – schedule them out for over the evenings and they will definitely bang.

For pictures of landscapes, places and things, or any other pictures that don’t necessarily have people in, the times are slightly different.