When setting up an Instagram account for personal and business use, you might hope for a high level of engagement on each of your posts. The reality is that you might not get the results you want depending on when you post on the platform. It is, therefore, important to examine and understand the best time to post on Instagram, especially when building a brand or promoting a product or service.

Why Posting At The Right Time is Important

Before looking at the best times to post on Instagram, we need to first understand why it is important. Instagram, like all other social media platforms, uses an algorithm to determine which posts are pushed to the top of people’s feeds. Posts that end up in these top positions are those that have a lot of engagement.

If you do not post at the right time, therefore, missing out on potential engagement, your posts will not be pushed by the algorithm. So, which are the best times to post on Instagram.

Weekdays

On Mondays, the best time to post is between 11 AM and 1 PM. Engagement levers start rising at 8 AM and peak at these times. It tapers off after 8 PM, and the worst time to post is between 11 PM and 6 AM.

According to Instagram data, the best day to post for engagement is Tuesday, where the peak times are between 10 AM and 5 PM. Engagement on Tuesdays is strong until about 10 PM.

For Wednesdays, post between 11 Am and 1 PM. Wednesdays are an anomaly because engagement starts rising at 6 AM and continues until 11 PM, although a peak is still observed between the times stated.

For Thursdays, ensure your posts are pushed to the platform between 11 AM and 1 PM. Engagement for this day goes flat after 4 PM, so ensure you post early. For Fridays, the best time to post is between 11 AM and 1 PM. Engagement on Fridays dips around 5 PM.

Weekends

Weekends are generally terrible for engagement on Instagram, although Saturday fares much better than Sunday. For Saturdays, the best time to post is between 10 AM and 1 PM. Engagement dips around 4 PM.

Sunday is the worst day for engagement on Instagram, although you can still see some engagement between 9 AM and 4 PM. The worst time to post on Instagram on Sunday is between 8 PM and 8 AM.

Scheduling

Even with this data from Instagram, it is still important to check your own posts to see when they see the best engagement. Once you do, you can use various scheduling tools to ensure your posts go out at the best time on each day. Many of these tools will also have built-in analytics to help you know the best times to post.

Because of the low engagement levels, it would be best to not put a lot of effort into posting on the weekend unless you have to.

If you are consistently posting on Instagram and not seeing the engagement you hoped for, the reason might be that you are posting at the wrong time. Use the time ranges provided above together with analytics to ensure your posts go out at the optimal time.