When Should I Post on Social Media?

“When should I post?”

It’s one of the questions I hear most often. And while it’d be nice to give a clean answer, Tuesday at 10am, job done but the truth is, the right time to post depends on your audience, your platform and your business.

Rather than searching for the “perfect” time, you’re better off thinking about your customer. When are they most likely to be paying attention? And how do you align with that?

Here’s how you can figure that out:

What Platform Are You Using?

Each social platform has its own rhythm and so do the people using it.

As best practice, LinkedIn tends to see more engagement on weekday mornings and around lunchtime. Instagram and Facebook might pick up in the evenings. Email often works best when people are clearing their inboxes early in the day.

But none of that matters if your audience is different.

Start with what the data tells you. If your LinkedIn analytics say your top posts landed at 2pm on a Tuesday, test that again. If your emails get the best response on a Sunday evening, build on it.

Tip: Use scheduling tools like Buffer or HubSpot to test different post times over a few weeks. Then refine based on what gets the best reaction.

What Industry Are You In?

Your ideal posting time will shift depending on who you're trying to reach and when they're most switched on.

In professional services, we often find engagement rises earlier in the day, before diaries get away from people. But events, networking, and industry-specific habits can influence that too.

Example: When we released our last newsletter about getting more from business events, we deliberately held it back from Thursday morning to Friday midday. Why? Because many of our readers in professional services attend events on Thursday nights. By giving the content space to land, when people were in reflection mode and scrolling with a coffee, we saw one of our best-performing campaigns of the year.

We didn’t just get better open rates. We got responses. Direct enquiries. People saying: “This was bang on timing.”

A small shift in scheduling. A big shift in results.

Tip: If your audience is attending events, launching products, or hitting deadlines at specific points in the week, plan around that. Timing is about alignment, not averages.

When Is Your Service Available?

This one’s often overlooked. If you only take bookings Monday to Friday, is Sunday evening the best time to drive traffic to your site? Possibly not.

Think about your sales window and when you’re ready to act on interest.

If someone messages you off the back of a post, are you there to reply? If they want to buy, is your product or team ready?

Posting when your service is live and supported helps turn attention into action.

Tip: For time-sensitive services like events or bookings, add a simple call to action with availability “Booking now for July,” or “2 slots left this week” can help drive immediate results.

What Blueprint Delivers

We help clients get more from the content they’re already creating by making it consistent, structured and delivered when it counts.

With Blueprint, we:

• Build a content plan around your audience’s habits

• Schedule posts across platforms based on engagement data

• Help you turn attention into action through your CRM

No more guessing. Just a clear, consistent rhythm that works for your business.

What’s Next?

Next week, we’re sharing a quick-start guide to using customer questions as your content engine and how the answers you’re already giving can become your most powerful marketing.

Until then, if timing your posts has felt like a guessing game, maybe it’s time for a better system.