When Is The Best Time To Post On Instagram?

Usually, the general best time to post on Instagram is around 9 am – 11 am EST or 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm IST.

But this is a broad and generalized time. Every account has a different best time slot for it. Why? We live and influence people in different regions of the world. And each region has a different time zone.

If you post at the right time, it can have a significant effect on the post’s organic reach and engagement. The best time slot also varies during the days of the week.

So, when is the best time for your Instagram profile? Let’s find out.

Find the Best Time to Post on Instagram For Your Account

It is no surprise that sharing a post on Instagram when most of your audience is online is a good schedule to follow. Instagram is prioritizing newer content on a user’s home feed. So, posting at the right time is your best shot to get more people to see your posts.

Check your Insights, they are pretty useful

First of all, your account has to be either a business or a creator account to get access to insights. A creator account gives you additional insights as compared to a business or personal profile.

On the insights page, go to the audience page where you can see the follower breakdown. Here you can see the details about the number of followers you have gained over the past 7 days, your top locations, age range, gender and most active times.

Scroll down to the ‘most active times’.

As shown in the picture above, you can analyze the most active times for each day of the week and during the hours of the day. Try to post at peak times to get the best possible organic reach.

Though, timing is not the only thing you need to make a post perform good. It is one of the factors that play a part in it. Intriguing captions, right hashtags, quality content, creative Instagram stories, engaging on the platform in a social way like it’s supposed to be, are the things which are to be focused on.

There’s a hack using which you can find out the hashtags from which you get the most impressions on your post. It doesn’t involve any third-party app so don’t worry it is completely safe to use.

I’ve been using it for the past few weeks and my reach is now more constant than before. Read about it here.

Also Read: How To Grow On Instagram Using Pinterest

Which posts have performed well in the past 30 days?

Finding the best time slot from the insights is sort of experimental. You have to try out different timings first to land on the sweet spot.

Here’s one more thing to help you with that.

In the insights, go to the posts page where you will see all the posts listed. You can re-order them using the stats: likes, follows, reach, impressions, shares, saves, comments, engagement, etc.

The post type can also be filtered: Any, photos, videos, carousel posts and shopping posts. You can select the time period of whose posts you want to see: last 7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 6 months, past year or last 2 years.

The last 30 days or 3 months should be fine for analyzing the best time. Sort the posts by their reach.

Also Read: How to Reuse Videos on Multiple Social Media Platforms

Now you’ll be able to see clearly the top-performing posts you made in the past month, according to their reach. What next?

If you check the timings of these top posts, you can have one more insight into which timings have worked for you previously. But it is not possible to see the exact time when you shared that post on Instagram.

For this, you need the Creator Studio which comes along with a creator account. Here is how you can log in to your creator studio dashboard. Go to the content library page and you can see the exact time at which a post was made.

No#1: On your phone, open the insights, see the posts made in the past 30 days, sort them by reach.

No#2: Open Creator Studio on your laptop or desktop, scroll and note the timings of the post which got the highest reach (as seen in your phone)

No#3: Schedule your posts at those timings. I strongly recommend scheduling because a.) it is not certain that you will be free to post at that time. b.) When you schedule posts, you get an ample amount of time to write a thorough and meaningful caption.

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Also Read: How To Make A Seamless Multi Post On Instagram Without Photoshop

Creator Studio Dashboard is your pot of GOLD

In your Creator Studio’s Dashboard, go to audience info and you will see the details as shown in the pictures above.

This is your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The first picture clearly shows you when the majority of your audience is online and scrolling through their Instagram feed. Schedule posts during peak hours because sometimes you might be busy at those peak hours. Don’t use any third app for scheduling them, you can do it right through your Creator Studio Dashboard.

If your stats show that most of your followers are online between 6-8 pm, schedule posts at 6 pm, 7 pm and 8 pm for the coming three days. Keep a track of the post’s performance and see which timing works the best.

Also Read: How To Grow On Instagram The Right Way In 2020

More time & flexibility

You won’t have to spend time on creating a caption, finding hashtags, engaging, etc. all together. If your post is scheduled beforehand, you have free time on your hands to engage with people more often.

You can write better captions

If you are manually creating a post at the peak time, it is obvious that you’ll be in a hurry with the caption so that you don’t miss your time slot. That’s not good. Captions are just the second time that a viewer sees on your post and it has a huge potential.

A caption that provides some value can greatly affect your post’s performance. Share your experience, feelings at the moment, tips and trick, micro-blog content, etc. All of this will enable more number of saves and shares.

Saves probably effect your post more than likes.

Better engagement = Better organic reach

You have now written a meaningful caption, chose the right hashtags, posted it at the right time (plus quality content which is of the utmost importance).

When people comment, share or save your post, Instagram bumps up your post higher in other people’s feed. It is a kind of exponential growth. The comments and other kinds of engagement that you receive in the first hour decide the overall performance of the post.

You’re getting what I’m saying right?

The best time to post on Instagram is important on many levels.

JACKPOT: Explore page

Do keep in mind that you can do every one of these technicalities about the timings, hashtag, etc. and not get an amazing result if your content doesn’t resonate with your audience.

But this also doesn’t mean that it’ll fail. It will succeed to a level.

It is those special times, that we crave, when everything goes right, the engagement goes off the rough, and boom you’re on the explore page! The Las Vegas of Instagram. If your post makes it to the explore page, your impressions will increase to the next level.

Once you make it there, there’s no coming back. Sit back and enjoy your sweet little victory! 😛

Think about your followers, when are they free?

Generally, the best times to post on Instagram are lunchtime (11 am-1 pm) and evenings (7-9 pm). Instead of posting while you’re at your desk, schedule Instagram posts during the workday so you don’t have to worry about it during your free time!

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