Are you tired of your social media posts not getting the engagement they deserve? You’re not alone! It’s a common frustration among marketers. Too often we start out with a vague goal in mind, like I want more followers. Or, we create our goals based on someone else’s advice, like ‘my friend said that she gets the most engagement from her posts on Tuesdays at 5 PM’. But think about it: why would someone else’s goals be the same ones that work best for your brand? Do they have similar values? Do they share an audience with yours? Are their business practices aligned with yours in any way? The answer is probably “no.” To avoid this trap altogether, you want to analyze your own unique set of data and uncover what times work best for you and your audience. Below are five simple steps you can take to boost your engagement and reach more customers on social media.

Identify your brand’s objectives.

Social media is a great tool for brands to connect with customers, but it can be hard to measure its effectiveness. That’s why it’s important to set goals upfront. You can then evaluate how well your efforts are working and adjust as needed—and that makes your social media strategy more effective in the long run. Before you set out on your journey, it’s important to define the problem you are trying to solve. Are you looking for more engagement? More leads? The answers don’t need to be overly complicated; they just need clarity and direction so that all of your efforts can be focused on getting there.

 

Build a consistent posting schedule.

To find your own best times to post on social media, you first need to develop a consistent posting schedule. Posting consistently is key for building a following and expanding your reach, but it can be difficult when you’re just starting out. It takes time and effort to build content and a routine, but once you get it in place (and even if your routine changes), consistency will yield the best results. Once you’ve found the ideal times for posting on different platforms (more on that below), stick with them.

 

Measure and track interactions.

It’s important to measure your social media performance. Whether you’re looking for ways to improve engagement or just want an objective sense of how your content is doing, it helps to have concrete data. If you don’t already use a software like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to track interactions, you can partner with a company like us to track all your interactions, likes, and shares across different platforms in real time. Not only does this help transform your social marketing strategy, it can also help uncover crucial information about your audience.

 

Optimize based on data.

Now that you’re measuring and tracking interactions, you can quickly identify when engagement levels are declining and why. If your content is performing better on Facebook than Instagram, it may be smarter to allocate your resources to Facebook instead of trying to reach people on both. Keep in mind, your best post times and best performing platforms may change as your audience grows, so it’s important to keep tracking and optimizing as you continue to post content.

 

Schedule your posts.

By now you should have a good idea of who your audience is and what times they’re most likely to check social media. Next, it’s time to analyze the best times for posting on each platform and create a posting schedule. To do this, start tracking engagement with posts across various social media platforms—and compare engagement over time in order to identify trends in when people respond best on which platforms. For example, you may find that your truck driver audience is most likely to engage on weeknight evenings. You can adjust your schedule based on those insights. 

Finding the best post times for your brand will take some trial and error, data analysis, and then acting on the insights you learn from monitoring your performance. The most important thing is to try out different times and measure their success so that you can adjust accordingly. If you’d like help in taking these steps, reach out to KJ Media to find the best times for posting on social media for your own business. Visit our YouTube channel to learn more social media strategies.