Social media never stops. It’s a 24/7 environment regardless of your business. So, a common question is whether your business should be posting on weekends?
There are many blogs on when is the best time to post on each platform and how often, but these don’t usually discuss whether you should continue posting on a Saturday or Sunday.
The fact is, there is no right or wrong answer. Each platform and business is different and, like so many other things with social media, it’s often about trial and error. To help you determine what works, here are some things to consider.
Everyone is different
Posting on the weekend is often down to the type of business, its target audience and their interests. What works well for one organisation won’t necessarily be the same for another. For example, if your business is targeting consumers, weekends can be a great time to reach the public when they are more relaxed and have more time to consider a purchase. If you focus on a B2B market, it doesn’t mean you can’t post, it just means you may want to change the type of content posted. Weekends are great days to share laid-back posts, get creative and show your brands, and its employees’, personality.
Does anyone really switch off?
Even for the workaholics amongst us, the weekends are for enjoying time off and being with friends and family, but realistically, does anyone truly switch off? If we see a post on social media that is relevant to work, it is still highly likely to capture our attention. It may even get noticed more as there is less content to compete with. The important thing at weekends is to keep it fun and light-hearted. A post that requires more engagement like a poll or a video could also work well as the audience are likely to have more time.
Different platforms
The socials used by your business will also affect whether to post on weekends or not. Here, we look at the three main platforms:
- Twitter – Twitter can often be time sensitive so posting on this platform at the weekends will often depend on how much work you want to create for yourself You can schedule posts ahead of time, but can you manage engagement and comment or respond to tweets if necessary? Commenting two days later after the weekend is often a fruitless activity.
- LinkedIn – Although many people will switch off from work at the weekends, Sunday is often a time when people start mentally preparing themselves for the week ahead. A positive or motivational post may work well at this time. Alternatively, you may find a post on Saturday morning works well when there are less posts competing for the same audience.
- Instagram – A more visual platform, posting on Instagram at the weekends is a good idea if your brand has inspirational imagery or for products that people may purchase when they need more consideration time – a holiday for example.
Time and resources available
The final point to consider is the amount of time or resources you have at the weekend to allocate to social media. You may want to give yourself a break from the continuous operation that social media is. There are a plethora of tools available to schedule posts, but social media is also about engagement, it’s not just a one way dialog.
If a post at the weekend gets engagement, it’s important to be able to instantly react and engage with the audience. According to HubSpot, 80% of customers expect businesses to respond to them on social media within 24 hours. Whether a simple ‘like’ or the ability to respond to a negative comment, this immediate engagement not only helps with the infamous social media algorithms, but also keeps the audience engaged and creates a favourable impression of the brand and its customer service.
Quality content is key
Whatever you decide, it is a process of trial and error for each business to see what and when posts get the best engagement. Weekends can make a great opportunity to target an audience when they are relaxed and browsing at their own pace, but you also need to consider your ability to maintain the platforms at this time. There is no magical time to post, quality content will get read and audiences will engage whether it is at the weekend or a weekday.
If you would like to discuss social media for your business, get in contact with us hello@8020comms.com
