Sprout Social has published its annual listing of the best times to post to each of the major social media apps, based on analysis of engagement trends among Sprout’s 34k+ users over the past year.

And for the first time, Sprout has also included TikTok data, which could help to provide some additional guidance in your broader social media marketing process – though it is worth noting that these are generalized results across a range of brands and users.

Sprout has also published industry-specific breakdowns for more specific insight, but a key note is that results will vary. While these reports can be helpful guides to hone in your strategy, it all comes down to experimentation, and analyzing what works best for your specific audience.

With that said, here are Sprout’s notes on the best times to post for each of the major social apps this year (all results in local time, based on performance across regions).

First up is Facebook, which remains the key focus for many brands.

According to Sprout’s data, the best times to post to Facebook in 2023 are:

• Mondays from 8am to 1pm
• Tuesdays from 8 am to 2 pm
• Wednesdays from 8 am to 1 pm
• Thursdays from 8 am to noon

So mornings are better, according to response rates, while weekdays perform better than weekends.

That could give you some direction for your posting approach, and a kicking off point for your posting experiments.

On Instagram, meanwhile, mornings are also when the most engagement is happening.

The best times to post to IG are:

• Mondays from 10 am to noon
• Tuesdays from 9 am to 1 pm
• Wednesdays from 10 am to 1 pm
• Fridays from 9am to 11 am

For both Facebook and Instagram, Sundays are the worst days for engagement – though concurrently, that could also open up new opportunities for engagement if other brands aren’t posting on Sundays.

Again, it’s all about experimentation, and using this data to consider not only the direction you may want to go in, but what’s driving these figures.

Could it be that more brands are posting on weekdays, and that’s why weekends see less engagement?

Could your business do better on weekends, based on how people are likely using these apps in their off time?

Mornings, evidently, are also the best time to tweet:

9am to midday, from Tuesday to Friday, sees the most overall tweet engagement, aligning with the more real-time news focus of the platform.

Of course, Twitter is a confusing one at the moment, given the various changes under its new chief Elon Musk. But if you are looking to get a better idea of the tweet potential for your brand, these notes could help.

On LinkedIn, Sprout says that Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 am to noon are the best posting times for company pages.

Weekends are no good – but again, results will vary, etc.

For TikTok, afternoons are actually better, according to Sprout’s insights.

Tuesday to Thursday, after 2pm, and before 6pm, sees the most engagement – which highlights the variance in social app usage, and when people are looking for different types of engagement.

Still, the data also suggests that weekends are not good for TikTok engagement either, which you would think would also be reversed from the other apps.

Finally, we have Pinterest, which Sprout says sees the highest engagement between 1pm and 3pm, Tuesday to Thursday.

Friday is also a high engagement day – though Sundays and Mondays see less activity.

There’s some interesting food for thought here, which could help to guide your posting strategy – though again, I will reiterate (because someone will respond and say that this data is all wrong), these notes are designed as guides only, and are not necessarily prescriptive instructions for every business.

Use the info here to consider your posting approach, and maybe try out some new times, and see what results you get. It could lead to a big boost in activity – or it may enable you to cancel out another time for your strategy.

You can read Sprout’s full 2023 best times to post guides, including industry breakdowns, here.