The time of Posting Doesn't Matter for Better Traffic

I will say something with which social media “experts” will not agree.

It doesn’t matter much what time you post.

And this applies to all channels– even though you’re supposed to post during “business hours” on LinkedIn.

I made this above tweet at midnight– but because it evoked an initial reaction within the first 3 minutes, more and more people saw it, then engaged with it.

It doesn’t matter what time of day your audience is on the internet– Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, or whatever.

And even if there aren’t as many people up during the middle of the night, the algorithm will still show your post to people it thinks will appreciate it the next time they are online.

How the time of posting works?

The ultimate example is Google, where most of my website traffic comes from posts I wrote over ten years ago.

I could stop posting for months, and my traffic would be only slightly lower.

Now here’s the “trick”…

Posts like this tweet got a 10% engagement rate– a great signal on any social network. 

So, we’re going to cross-post it to other social networks with different time frames– with Twitter being the shortest, Google being the longest, and other networks in-between.

Thus, any “winner” can live forever in other channels as part of my “GREATEST HITS” to continue delivering traffic.

Significantly when I boost it for a DOLLAR A DAY, throwing fuel on the fire.

So, it doesn’t matter WHEN you post, as long as you’re posting QUALITY stuff that people want.

Don’t worry about how many hashtags to use, the “ideal length” of a post, or whatever the social media gurus breathlessly proclaim.

You do not necessarily need to space outposts to once per day or feel obligated to publish garbage just because you’re supposed to post X times per week on Y social network.

Share it when you have something compelling- as I do at midnight right now.

The fact that you’re reading this proves that the posting time doesn’t matter.

Facebook will show content to whoever is most likely to engage or find value– not by whoever posted in the last few hours.

Twitter is about the “latest news,” but Facebook is still about friends.

It boggles my mind that people worry about the best time to post. Don’t most of us have friends/followers in different time zones?

Because of this myth, there’s also a LOT LESS competition in newsfeeds during non-business hours!

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations. You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel. You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.

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