The Best Time To Post on Facebook for Maximum Engagement

Facebook has billions of active users, making it a powerful social media platform for growing your brand — especially if you know the best time to post on Facebook.

Successfully timing your posts boosts engagement, prompting the Facebook algorithm to promote your content. So, learning the best and worst time to post on Facebook could mean the difference between gaining a couple views and going viral.

When’s the Best Time To Post on Facebook?

Across industries and demographics, peak Facebook usage typically occurs between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m in each time zone. During this time, user engagement often spikes between noon–3 p.m. and 6–9 p.m. 

That said, the best hour to post on Facebook also depends on several factors, such as:

• Audience demographics — Top social media use varies for different professions, lifestyles, and age groups, meaning ideal posting times depend on your target viewers. 
• Time zone — Consider time zone differences and share when your primary audience is most active. 
• Day of the week — The day of the week influences audience activity, and popular days depend on your industry and target demographic. Content geared toward teens performs better on weekends, while B2B content gets more weekday engagement. 
• Season — User activity fluctuates due to seasonal trends and events. Shopping content and product reviews may get better engagement around the holidays, while travel content may perform better during the summer. 
• Content format and type — Your content type impacts optimal posting times. For example, educational content usually performs better during the morning and lunch breaks, while demand for entertainment content typically peaks in the evening. 

What’s the Best Day of the Week To Post on Facebook?

Optimal posting days vary depending on your audience and content format, but there are general patterns to consider. 

On average, weekday Facebook posts get more engagement than weekend posts. Most marketers agree that Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are the best days to post on Facebook, followed closely by Monday and Tuesday. While you can get decent enough engagement on Saturday, avoid posting on Sunday when there’s low average user activity.

Best Content Types To Post on Facebook

The best-performing content types on Facebook constantly change, so keep up with trends and diversify your posts for maximum engagement. In general, though, popular types include:

• User-generated content (UGC) — UGC videos, customer reviews, and product or lifestyle images help promote launches and brand awareness. 
• Giveaways and contests — Competitions generate engagement by encouraging participation in exchange for a potential reward. 
• Facebook Live — Live streams promote user interactions and make people feel like they belong to an active community. 
• Inspirational content — Motivational quotes and images create a positive tone that builds connection and rapport with your audience.
• Current events — News stories, viral trends, and community updates keep your audience informed and spark interest and conversation. 

How Do I Know When To Post on My Specific Account?

Rather than scheduling content during the generic best time to post on Facebook, adjust your posting strategy to accommodate your target audience. Facebook Insights offers information about viewers and followers, letting you tailor publishing cadences to the right people. 

Facebook Insights offers the following information about your audience:

• Age
• Gender
• Hobbies and interests
• Location
• Relationship status
• Profession

Use the Active Time graph to understand when your audience is most active and the days that attract the highest engagement. Experiment with peak and non-peak hours to determine what works best for your scheduling strategy. 

8 Tips for High-Performing Facebook Posts

Great Facebook content blends commercial appeal with creativity. Remember these eight tips when designing your posts.

1. Use Different Content Types

Diversify post formats to keep your content fresh and engaging. Videos are the most popular content type and should feature prominently in any social media strategy. Other formats include:

• Animated GIFs and clips
• Memes and cartoons
• Images with captions
• Reviews
• Polls, interviews, and questionnaires
  

2. Pose Questions

Asking questions is a great way to start conversations and encourage engagement. Use questions to get customer input on business decisions or motivate followers to take a specific action (like commenting on or sharing your post). You can also leverage polls and questionnaires to create future content based on responses. Just prioritize fun, easy questions over difficult ones so viewers are more likely to participate. 

3. Know Your Audience

Insights into your audience’s behavior and preferences helps you get to know them, building a bond so you can create content that “hits” for this crowd. Learn what your fans enjoy, respond to comments, and participate in their polls and questionnaires. You might also share your hopes and accomplishments to encourage them to do the same and create relatability.

4. Track Competitors

Conduct a competitor analysis to see what other content creators in your sphere do well. Identify gaps in your marketing strategy and learn from competitors’ mistakes to improve your posts. 

5. Keep it Short

Make your posts short and sweet (under 160 characters) and reserve long-form content for other platforms like a blog or email campaign. Avoiding wordy sentences and unnecessary tangents helps you stay on message and keep the reader’s focus. 

6. Structure Your Posts

Every post should contain a hook, body, and call-to-action (CTA). The hook grabs viewers’ attention, the body delivers value, and the CTA tells viewers what to do next. Think of this structure as a story you’re telling, be it promotional, informational, or entertaining. 

7. Appeal to Emotion and Humor

Emotional language and personal posts encourage audience connection, and humor can make your content more relatable. Try to balance posting both funny and serious material to appeal to as many users as possible. 

8. Add Value

Always strive to educate, inspire, or entertain your audience. Sharing infographics, links to educational videos, and uplifting stories shows you care about delivering value — and this encourages trust and brand loyalty.

Create Your Facebook Videos With Captions

There’s a massive demand for engaging video content on Facebook, with users watching over 100 million hours on the platform daily. Given this demand, your Facebook marketing strategy must prioritize creating compelling videos. 

Captions makes it easy to craft eye-catching content. Remove background noise, trim filler words, and add subtitles to your videos in seconds with Captions’ AI-powered tools. Resize and compress videos to fit Facebook and optimize sharing and distributing your content in a few clicks. 

Try Captions today and start scheduling your next viral Facebook video.