With skunks and social media, timing is everything

If a key element in real estate is location, location, location, I’d argue that in social media it comes down to timing, timing, timing.

The biggest competitor for your audience is their time - and you need to be relevant, with a well-executed message that is connected to, but stands out from, their daily lives.

I try to time it (barring any last-minute emergencies) that this LinkedIn article/newsletter comes out each Tuesday, before 9 a.m.

“It’s perfect, I read your articles just as I’m drinking my morning coffee and having my breakfast,” one subscriber wrote last week.?

This is by design. I know that the best times to post on LinkedIn are generally midweek mornings (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 9-11 a.m.).? I'm hoping to catch readers before they start their day.

In social media, as in life, your timing can be off. Like yesterday morning around 4.30 a.m. when I let the dog out - and he bumped into a skunk.?But let's move on.

Carleton University found itself skunked in 2014, when it launched its #DistinctlyCarleton social media campaign hoping to highlight distinctive alumni (full disclosure: I’m a Carleton Masters of Journalism grad). Unfortunately, the university's timing was off. It didn’t do a proper environmental scan and soon the hashtag was hijacked by disgruntled students tweeting photos of broken bathrooms, and the giant new parking garage while their tuition was going up.?

But when done well, timing on social media can be so, so sweet. Consider the 2013 Super Bowl when the lights went out - for 45-minutes. Oreo showed us all that a cookie can have perfect timing. Here’s Oreo’s now infamous tweet:

In the 24 hours after it was posted, the Dunk in the Dark tweet had about 15,000 retweets, and the Facebook post had approximately 20,000 likes. The image created (holy cow I hope that designer got a massive bonus) earned more than $525-million U.S. in earned media impressions.

The most effective ad of the 2013 Super Bowl? A tweet The Huffington Post called ‘one of the most buzz-worthy ads of the SuperBowl.’ And it didn’t cost Oreo a penny.

What can we learn about Oreo’s quick feet and solid passing during the blackout? (is it obvious that I don’t play football?)

You have to know your audience and their habits.

Yes my friends, when you’re trying to figure out the perfect time to post, you can have a general idea of when to reach them, but it comes down to knowing your audience. Really understanding them, what keeps them up at night.?

I’ve been thinking about when to post lately, and looking at studies that are out there. Like this study released earlier this month from Sprout Social that just analyzed data from its 30,000 customers. All times are in CST, but it provides some great insights:

The Best Times To Post On Facebook

1. Engagement on Facebook has shifted from mid-mornings to early mornings.
2. The best times to post on Facebook are Mondays through Fridays at 3 a.m.
3. The worst day to post on Facebook is Saturday.

Gut check: Most of my ‘friends’ on Facebook are busy during the week, and I’d say my posts get more activity in the evenings and on weekends. What about yours? This is a reminder that these studies are great generalizations, but not hard and fast rules.

The Best Times to post on Instagram:

1. Mondays at 11 a.m.
2. Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
3. Thursdays and Fridays 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.

So I’ve been testing this with my own audience. I get most of my engagement (admittedly it’s mostly fitness folks who live at the gym each morning) in the evening.?

Don’t post on LinkedIn on the weekend?

Sprout Social’s report says your posts won't get a lot of engagement on LinkedIn on the weekend, and identifies these high traffic times:

1. ?The best time to post on LinkedIn is identified as Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon.
2. The best days to post on LinkedIn are Wednesdays and Thursdays.
3. Reality check: I’m really curious to know when you’re reading this.?

?In fact, take a look at this LinkedIn heat map Sprout Social created of its 30,000 customers:?

Wait... Is everyone taking breaks during their work day to check out LinkedIn?

?As stated earlier, stats like these from Sprout Social are great guides - but they may not speak to your audience.?

I enjoyed this piece from the social media tool Buffer, which stated we should reconsider the ‘best time to post’ social media studies.?

?“Many of these studies suggest best times to post based on aggregated data. The challenge with this is that the data includes businesses and individuals from different locations and different industries while your audience is unique to you. It’s hard to say that the average best time to post for a wide range of businesses would apply to your business.”

I don’t think this means we should ignore the Sprout Social?study, but it’s important to consider if this is true for your target audience.?

While they’re great guidelines,you need to recognize the habits that make your audience different. Find them on the platform they use (I can’t imagine posting this blog post on Pinterest, for example) and at the time they use it.?

A mom blogger may find that her audience is more active in the evenings, after the kids have gone to bed. Or maybe it's during the day, during an afternoon nap.

Regardless, when to post requires reflection and is another argument to really get to know your audience.

Otherwise, an ill-timed post can end up like our yellow lab in the backyard with a skunk. It’s a real stinker that leaves you soaking wet at 5 a.m., questioning whether it was all really worth the effort.