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ago

Instagram vs. TikTok: When is the best time to post?

Outside of work and video games, my main hobby is going to gigs and live music. I've been to over 40 gigs and five festivals this year alone, so I thought I should try and be productive at the same time to get the most out of it, which means I've started creating edited highlight videos for both Instagram and TikTok of some gigs.

However, I haven't worked out the secret for when is best to publish new videos yet. I've only just started uploading to TikTok, so most of my experience is with Instagram Reels, but I'm not seeing much correlation yet between publishing time and video engagement.

What experience do you folks have?

Created at 11:17am, 13th December, 2024. Page last updated at 7:48pm, 15th December, 2024.

Sturmer 12/13/2024, 11:42:56 AM

It depends on several factors, but it generally applies to any media.

Discovery Algorithms - If you rely on algorithms, you need to account for the indexing/learning time lag. Each platform has its own pace, but it’s typically around 30 minutes.
Subscribers - If you rely on direct subscribers, engagement is almost instantaneous.

Another key factor is your audience’s prime time. For example, if your audience is split between the US and EU, there’s some overlap, but it’s better to focus on one region.

Finally, consider consumption habits. When does your audience watch your content? Based on analytics, my four key contact points are:

As they wake up (7AM)
During lunch (1PM)
An hour before the workday ends (5PM)
Right before sleep (11PM)

So for instance, if you want to target a random audience in the US, you post at 18:30 CET to service at 13:00 EST (+30m prep timer included).

FirestormGamingTeam 12/13/2024, 12:46:52 PM

Sturmer

Sturmerr, people read these posts looking for information. There is no round robin Alorithim and it certainly does not apply to "all media" and posting times on social media have NOTHING to do with time of day. YouTube does not work the same as TikTok, Twitch does not work the same as Instagram.

Every social media is based on watch time, social media platforms are 24/7, so time is not a factor nor is when you post it.

I may get in trouble for this post but I am tired of watching you post on things which you clearly know nothing about, this leads to false information being spread. Stop looking at posts and then hitting google and then posting the first article you see online.

BoomerMod12/13/2024, 3:31:21 PM

FirestormGamingTeam

To be fair there are human elements that can be accounted for, such as when during the day your target audience are likely to browse.

For example if I ran a channel targeting parents then I would avoid scheduling content for 7-8am (school drop off), 2:30-3:30pm (school pick up), 5:30-7:30pm (dinner) etc.

Early mornings are likely to be bad for teenagers but good for older people, where the opposite is true for late evenings. Working adults are more likely to have a defined lunchbreak, typically between 12-2pm, so that's probably when they'll be browsing on their phone.

There's no doubt each platform prioritises content differently, often down to who their average user is and what their consumption habits are, but you can make informed decisions based on who you want your audience to be.

FirestormGamingTeam 12/13/2024, 12:36:23 PM

Hiya

The answer is there is no good time to post. When you post on either as we do every day, they will circulate the video amongst 200-400 people who follow such hashtas and if your video gets the watch time it keeps being circulated, if it doesn't, it just gets stuck on around 200-300 video views, it's a flawed system but that's how both platforms work in regards to views.

So our Instagram we have videos at 15k views so far and others are stuck on 200-300 views it's the same on TikTok but it is harder to get an audience on Instagram than it is on TikTok.

It has NOTHING to do with the time of day/people at work or any of that. It's just suggested videos on hashtags and or content based on circulated viewing to watch time.

BoomerMod12/13/2024, 4:01:06 PM

Do you know what sort of audience you're trying to build, i.e. what age bracket, location, level of experience etc do you expect from your followers?

MURRRAAAAY 12/13/2024, 4:37:48 PM

i would genuinely say time no longer matters apart from live streaming, what does matter is the quality of the content, if its good, the algo will find the audience for it, if its not it wont go anywhere.