Best Time to Post on Social Media

The mistake this tool exists to fix

Almost every “best time to post” article gives you a table of times without saying whose clock they are on. They are on your audience's. If you live in a different timezone from the people you are posting for — which is true of most freelancers, agencies and remote teams — copying those times straight into your calendar publishes into an empty room.

Pick where your audience is, pick where you are, and the grid above converts the benchmark onto your own clock, daylight saving included.

What each platform actually looks like

• Instagram — Lunchtime and the evening scroll. Tuesday to Thursday are strongest.
• Facebook — Mid-morning to mid-afternoon on weekdays. Weekends drop off sharply.
• LinkedIn — The commute and the lunch break, Tuesday to Thursday. Weekends are dead.
• TikTok — Late evening dominates, with a smaller wake-up peak. Thursday is the best day.
• X — Morning news cycle, weekdays. Traffic thins out considerably at weekends.
• Pinterest — Evenings, and the weekend is the peak — planning behaviour, not habit scrolling.
• YouTube — Publish a few hours before the evening peak so the algorithm has warm-up data.

Please replace this with your own data

Benchmarks describe an average audience, and you do not have an average audience. Every platform will tell you when your own followers are online: Instagram in Professional Dashboard, TikTok in Analytics, LinkedIn in page analytics, YouTube in the Audience tab.

Use the grid to pick a starting slot, run it for two or three weeks, then move to the times your own numbers point at. This tool is scaffolding, not an answer.

Timing is worth less than consistency

An excellent post at a mediocre time will beat a mediocre post at the perfect time, every single time. Posting timing is a multiplier, and it multiplies whatever the post is already worth. Get the schedule stable first; optimise the hour second.