How To Find the Best Time to Post on Twitter

Have you ever posted the wittiest 280 characters of your life just to get two Likes and one Retweet? Nothing screams wasted potential like a badly-timed tweet. On your personal account, it might be but a blunder, but when it comes to business, every failed tweet is money wasted.

But how do you ensure you’ll get the best possible engagement on all your tweets? Finding the right time to post is key. Here are a few tools to help you determine when to share your thoughts for maximum exposure.

What’s the Best Time to Post on Twitter?

While there’s constant activity on such a dynamic platform as Twitter, don’t expect your followers to be constantly glued to their screens. A report says that an average Twitter session lasts no longer than six minutes, which means the time frame for a tweet to get seen is quite slim.

Ensuring your tweet reaches a reasonable size of audience as soon as it’s posted is crucial. How the tweet performs early on will determine how much exposure it can get later and whether it will make it on top of your followers’ feeds when set to “Top-Ranked.”

According to a study by Buffer, the most active period on Twitter is between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. (local time). This is when the largest number of tweets are sent out.

However, another research by Sprout Social reveals that the hours with the highest engagement might be even earlier than this. According to their findings, tweets posted around 9 a.m. (CST) on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays will generally get the most attention. On the other hand, Sundays seem to be the worst day to tweet your genius ideas.

Nevertheless, user habits vary from place to place and from demographic to demographic. Many factors play a role in the best time for tweeting, so statistics can merely give us general pointers. To determine the most suitable time for you, you’ll need the help of an analytics tool.

How to Determine the Best Time to Post on Twitter

The surest way to determine the best time to tweet is by using a specialized tool for the task. If you have some time on your hand, you can also analyze your Twitter statistics yourself. Let’s see how each method works.

Use Circleboom’s Twitter Tool

An analytics tool will give you insight into your follower’s habits and activity, letting you know when most of them are online to see your tweet. Circleboom’s Twitter Management Tool can tell you exactly that, so we’ll use it as an example to explain how you can determine the best posting schedule.

This tool has a myriad of features besides the ability to analyze your followers’ most active times. It can help you manage your old content, identify fake and inactive followers, track keywords and hashtags, and even suggest accounts to follow.

To utilize this tool, first, you’ll need to create an account:

1. Head to Circleboom’s website, hit “Get Started,” and select their Twitter Management Tool.
   
2. Sign up for an account and connect your Twitter to the app.
   
3. You’ll be taken to your dashboard, where you’ll see some statistics about your account right away. Move your cursor to the left to open the sidebar.
4. Locate and expand “User Analytics” in the side menu.
   
5. Scroll down until you find the “Best Time to Tweet” option.
   

Pro and Enterprise subscribers will immediately see a graph depicting how active their followers are throughout the week.

Smaller circles on the graph indicate that fewer of your followers are online at the given time, while large circles indicate the times with the highest activity. Find the largest circles and check the corresponding day and time on the graph, or hover your cursor over the circles to see the best time to tweet instantly. Tweeting during these times will give your posts the best chance of getting noticed.

You can also download or print the graph in various file formats for reports and other documents.

1. Click the three-dot menu in the bottom right corner of the graph.
   
2. Select the file format in which you want to save the graph. The supported image file formats are PNG, JPG, SVG, and PDF, and the supported data file formats are JSON, CSV, XLSX, HMTL, and PDF.
   

Unfortunately, the Circleboom analytic tool that tells you the best time to tweet is only available to Pro and Enterprise subscribers. However, the Twitter tool is free to try with limited features, and the company offers four months free for annual Pro subscriptions.

Take a Look at Your Twitter Stats

If you’re a more casual creator trying to figure out when their friends and followers are active, Twitter’s analytics tool can also provide valuable insight. This is a built-in tool you can start using anytime.

Here’s where to find it:

1. Go to Twitter and log into your account.
   
2. Click the three-dot “More” button in your sidebar.
   
3. Expand the “Creator Studio” section.
   
4. Select “Analytics” from the dropdown menu.
   
5. If you haven’t yet activated this feature, you’ll receive a prompt to do so on Twitter’s Analytics page. If Analytics is already on, you’ll go directly to your dashboard.
   
6. Find the “Tweets” tab at the top of the page.
   

You’ll see statistics on how your content has been performing on this page. A graph will show you which days have been the most successful for you. You can also check your performance over time by defining the desired range in the top right corner of the page. This information is also convenient for determining the best day to share content.

Next, scroll down to check the number of impressions and the engagement rate for each of your tweets. Switch between “Tweets,” “Top Tweets,” “Tweets and Replies,” and “Promoted Tweets” to get precisely the information you want. Identify the tweets that received the most attention to get an idea of what kind of content your followers like and when they engage with it most often.

Time Is of the Essence

Getting ample engagement on your tweet early on is crucial for the content’s visibility at later times. While certain time frames during the day and week see more engagement than others, only personalized analytics can tell you when your followers are the most active. Use an analytics tool, like Circleboom, and you’ll be able to direct your efforts to the right place.

Have you used any of these tools before? How was your experience? Let us know in the comments section below.