Everything is a Learning Experience - Test your Market

By Molly Grane - Social Media Specialist at Xapsis Integrated Marketing

When it comes to Social Media, I find myself constantly overwhelmed by the changes made to each platform. Questions I have to ask myself each day include, can I write about this, is this post legal for a campaign or what size picture do I need for this platform? One of the biggest questions I find myself trying to answer is when is the best time to post on Facebook? Everything is a learning experience and the answer simply points to testing out your own market. Through recent research, I've found that the type of business you are in receives different responses different times of the day along with a higher response on certain days.

According to an article in the Entrepreneur, if you are involved in a business such as us, Advertising and Consulting, the highest days to receive response is on Tuesdays, Thursdays and the weekend. The same goes for Entertainment, Automotive, Food and Beverage, Health and Beauty and Travel. Now, I know we all want to take the weekend off and let our social media take a vacation, but one interesting fact I found for the Advertising business is that “posts on Saturday and Sundays receive 69% higher interaction, but only 11% of posts are published on the weekends.” Hmmm…something to think about, I know it was for me.

Now, if you were in the retail business, the stats show a very interesting turn, Thursdays trump all other days of the week. I had to sit and think about this one for a minute. Why? Okay, the answer has come to me thinking back to my days in college. Thursdays, everyone is getting ready for the weekend. Do we have a wedding to go to, an event to showcase our adorable dress or are you looking for a great deal? All reasons why Thursdays seem to make the best stance for retail.

Surprising facts aren't they? Facebook is definitely not a math problem, which is very hard for me to take in. I’m a number person, I happened to LOVE advanced calculus in college. So no, not even a simple math problem, such as a+b=c, can calculate how a potential “liker” responds. My best answer for everyone looking to pump up the social media and receive more viewers is to test the market out. Post at different times of the day, post on different days. Keep trying and eventually you’ll figure out your own target audience.

"Entrepreneur”  entrepreneur.com.  "The Best Days to Post on Facebook, Based on Industry (Infographic)"  Web. 8 April. 2013. 8 January, 2013 <http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/225419>.