But if you’re manually posting each Reel, especially multiple times a day, you’re doing more harm than good. Your team will end up spending hours each week on a repetitive task that can easily be automated with a social media scheduling tool.

Scheduling Instagram Reels in advance helps you post consistently, hit peak engagement times and focus on creating better content. It’s also a great way to keep the algorithm happy and rake up those views, likes, comments and shares.

In this post, we’ll show you 3 ways to schedule Instagram Reels.

Can you schedule Instagram Reels?

Yes! You can schedule Instagram Reels in three different ways:

• Natively using the Instagram app
• Using social media scheduling tools (e.g., Sprout Social)
• Using Meta Business Suite

We’ll show you how to schedule your Reels with each method below.

Note: Scheduling Instagram posts and Reels is only available for Instagram Business or Creator accounts (not personal accounts), so make sure you check your account type before diving in. Learn how to switch to a professional account here.

How to schedule Instagram Reels from the Instagram app

Third-party scheduling tools for Instagram have been around for a while, but the app itself did not support native scheduling until the end of 2022. Users can now schedule up to 25 posts daily and up to 75 days in advance directly through the Instagram app only. Scheduling is only available through the native app and not through desktop login.

Keep in mind, only Instagram Business and Creator accounts have access to this feature. Personal profiles are unable to schedule content.

Follow these steps to get started.

Step 1. Create a new Reel

Open your Instagram app and tap the + at the bottom of the screen or swipe right on your home feed to create a new Reel.

Select Reel from the content types at the bottom.

Step 2. Film or upload your video

Either shoot clips directly using the in-app camera, or upload videos from your phone.

Step 3. Edit and finalize your Reel

Add text, stickers, music, effects, etc., then add your caption.

Step 4. Schedule your Reel

Tap More options at the bottom of the screen.

Toggle the Schedule this reel option on, then select your preferred date and time from the menu that appears.

Go back to the previous screen and tap Schedule.

While Instagram’s native scheduling is straightforward, it has some limitations. For example, you can’t cross-post to other accounts. So if you need to share content across multiple platforms, check out methods two or three for scheduling Reels.

Using a third-party scheduling tool also gives you access to more in-depth analytics to track the performance of your Reels. We’ll talk more about that later.

How to schedule Instagram Reels with Sprout Social via desktop

Scheduling Reels through Instagram’s native app works fine for some businesses. But if you’re a business dealing with a larger social strategy, you’ll need a tool that lets you easily schedule and manage content across multiple platforms.

Sprout Social is one of those tools that let you do more than just schedule Reels. You can cross-post on other networks, collaborate with your team, engage with your audience and track in-depth analytics—all in one place.

Here’s how to schedule Instagram Reels with Sprout on your desktop.

Step 1: Sign up and connect your Instagram profile

Before you can schedule your Reels via Sprout Social, you need to connect your Instagram profile(s). Log in to your Sprout dashboard or sign up for a free 30-day trial here.

Click Connect a Profile and choose Instagram from the various options. Then, follow the on-screen guidelines to link your Instagram profile to your Sprout account.

Note: Link all your Instagram profiles to Sprout to schedule Reels to multiple accounts. You can also connect your other social profiles, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (X).

Step 2: Compose your Instagram Reel

Once you’ve connected your profile, click Publishing on the left to open Sprout’s social media calendar. You can switch between list, week or monthly calendar views.

Hover on your calendar to schedule a Reel on a specific day. There’s also an option to leave notes (e.g., Reel ideas you want to share with the team).

You can also skip the calendar view and click the blue pencil/paper icon in the top right corner from any screen to create a new Reel.

Select the Instagram profile you want to publish to from the drop down menu.

Now, you can start composing your Reel. If you’re looking for inspiration, here are some Instagram Reel ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Add your Reel video

Start by uploading your media. There are several ways to do this in Sprout:

• Upload your Reel video directly from your computer
• Import from Bynder, Dropbox or Google Drive
• Add a video from your asset library in Sprout

Once you’ve uploaded your video, you can change the thumbnail frame by clicking on the pencil icon that appears when you hover on the attached media. You can also upload a different image to use as your thumbnail.

This is also where you can toggle the option to share your Reel to your profile feed or have it appear only in the Reels tab.

Write your caption

Next, write an engaging caption for your Reel. You can also add relevant Instagram hashtags, or tag users and other brands in your caption (e.g. during a partnership).

Sprout pro tip: Use our Enhance by AI Assist feature to generate more caption ideas and speed up your creative process. If you’re not sure what to post about, Enhance by AI Assist can help you create content based on a draft you input into the Compose box. If you’re looking to change the tone of the content (think: confident, friendly or professional), try Suggestions by AI Assist to align captions with your brand’s tone of voice.

Set a Mobile Publisher (optional)

If you want to use audio from Instagram’s sound library in your Reel content, you’ll need to choose a Mobile Publisher. This person will post your Reel from Instagram’s mobile app and will get a reminder (push notification) from Sprout’s mobile app on their device when it’s time to do so.

Step 3: Schedule your Reel

Scroll down to When to post and select your preferred date and time. This is when your scheduled Reel will go live. You can also adjust the time zone if your audience is located in a different country or region.

If you’re not sure when to post your Reel, select Optimal Send Times to see data-driven recommendations when your audience is most likely to see your content. Sprout’s ViralPost™ technology suggests the best times to post based on your historical engagement data to help you maximize your Reel’s impact.

After finalizing the date and time, click Submit or Schedule to add it to your calendar.

How to schedule Instagram Reels with Sprout Social via iOS app

Scheduling Instagram Reels using Sprout’s iOS app is similar to doing the same on desktop, with some minor differences. You can easily schedule videos on the go from your phone.

Follow the steps below to schedule Instagram Reels using Sprout’s iOS app.

• Step 1: Tap the Compose box and select your Instagram profile.
• Step 2: Upload your Reel video from your iOS device or Asset Library to the Compose box.
• Step 3: Write a caption, add your hashtags and insert any mentions or tags.
• Step 4: Tap Done and add Mobile Publisher Notes.
• Step 5: Tap Notify and then choose a publishing date and time for your Reel.
• Step 6: Tap Save. Your Reel is now scheduled and will appear on the publishing calendar.

How to schedule Instagram Reels from Meta Business Suite

You can also schedule Instagram Reels using the Meta Business Suite.

First, connect your Instagram account to your Facebook page so you can access both from the Meta Business Suite. Then follow the steps below to schedule your Reel.

Step 1. Create a new Reel

Log in to the Meta Business Suite, and click Create reel.

Step 2. Add media and caption

Upload one or more videos for your Reel content.

This is also where you can write a compelling caption to go with your video. Include any relevant hashtags, location tags or mentions.

Step 3. Edit your Reel

You can make basic edits to your Reel before you publish or schedule it.

Crop your video, add trending sounds from the built-in library, insert text and even enhance the original audio. There’s a timeline editor at the bottom to make editing and syncing audio easier.

Step 4. Schedule your Reel

Hit Next and select a date and time to schedule your Instagram Reel.

You can also add a poll and adjust privacy settings (Public or Restricted) at this step.

When you’re done, click Schedule. Your Reel is now ready to go live at your chosen time.

Why should you schedule Instagram Reels?

If you’re like most marketing teams, you’ve figured out that Reels are your ticket to growing on Instagram. But if you’re posting your videos manually throughout the day, you’re doing it the hard way.

Here’s why scheduling your Reels in advance might be the best thing you do for your Instagram strategy.

Maintain a consistent presence

Scheduling Instagram Reels ahead of time helps you consistently post fresh content, which keeps your audience engaged and your brand top-of-mind.

It also signals to your followers that you’re active and invested in connecting with them. Without consistency, even the best content can get lost in the noise, and your audience may drift away.

Sprout’s scheduling tools make it easy to maintain a regular posting cadence. You can plan your publishing calendar well in advance and make sure you’re not just posting Reels but also mixing in other content types like image posts, Carousels and Stories.

Maximize reach and engagement

Reaching your audience when they’re online is key to getting your Reels noticed. Instagram’s algorithm rewards content posted at the right time with more visibility and engagement.

But figuring out the best times to post isn’t always easy, especially when your audience is active in different time zones.

That’s where Sprout’s ViralPost™ feature can help. It analyzes your audience’s activity and recommends the best times to post for max engagement. Instead of guessing, you can rely on data to schedule your Reels for when they’re most likely to make an impact.

Save time and improve efficiency

Posting Reels manually every day can take time away from other important things like strategy building or content creation. Scheduling lets you batch your work, which frees up time to focus on those big-picture tasks that truly matter.

Need proof? Our Social Media Productivity Report revealed 63% of marketers feel that manual tasks hold them back from doing high-impact work. With the right social media management tools, however, 59% find they have more time to finish their tasks.

With Sprout’s publishing tools, you can upload and schedule Reels in bulk, plan weeks ahead and eliminate the stress of daily posting. With everything organized in one platform, you’ll have more time to think creatively and engage meaningfully with your audience.

Improve content quality

Creating great Reels isn’t just about hitting “post”—it’s about planning, editing and crafting content that truly resonates with your audience.

When you schedule your Reels in advance, you have more time to research customer needs and preferences, brainstorm content ideas, refine your visuals, write thoughtful captions and pick the best hashtags to boost visibility.

Combine that with Sprout’s AI Assist to get caption suggestions and help with drafting posts. Our smart writing tools make sure every Reel you share is polished and high-quality.

Streamline your workflow

Managing social media content can get overwhelming, especially when you’re juggling multiple platforms or working with a team. Scheduling keeps you organized and prevents last-minute issues like mistakes, typos or missed deadlines.

Sprout Social simplifies this further with a centralized workflow for drafting, approving and scheduling Instagram Reels and other posts. Team members can collaborate on, review and approve social content, making sure it’s aligned with your brand before it goes live.

Make data-driven optimizations

Understanding how your Reels perform is crucial for improving your strategy. Metrics like reach, views and engagement rates reveal what’s working and where there’s room to grow. Without these insights, you’re just guessing what your audience wants.

Sprout Social’s powerful Instagram analytics let you track your Reels’ performance in real-time. With granular data on your audience as well as individual posts, you can adjust your content, target the right audience and improve ROI in the long run.

Start scheduling Reels today

Let’s be real: manually posting Reels throughout the day is probably not the best use of your time. Sure, Reels are crushing it on Instagram right now—but spending hours on publishing means less time actually creating great content.

Good news? Scheduling changes everything. You’ll keep a consistent posting rhythm and free up time to focus on growing your brand on Instagram. No more dropping everything to post a Reel right this second.

Using a tool like Sprout makes this even easier, giving you everything you need to manage, schedule and optimize your Reels in one place. Sign up for a 30-day free trial now and see the difference scheduling makes.

The post How to schedule Reels on Instagram in 3 ways appeared first on Sprout Social.

Learning how to schedule Instagram posts in advance frees up your social media team to focus on more important tasks, like building an Instagram marketing strategy, creating quality content, analyzing performance and engaging with your audience in real time.

In this article, we’re going to talk about the different ways you can schedule your Instagram content, the benefits of doing so and a few great scheduling tools to consider in your techstack.

Can you schedule Instagram posts?

Absolutely! There are several ways to schedule Instagram posts:

• Using Instagram’s native app
• Using Meta Business Suite
• Using social media scheduling tools (e.g. Sprout Social)

We’ll walk you through each method in the next few sections.

But first, let’s talk about why scheduling is so important for brands on Instagram.

According to our Social Media Productivity report, 63% of marketers feel that manual tasks hold them back from doing high-impact work. But with the right social media management tools, 59% find they have more time to get things done.

Think about it: when you’re not scrambling to post content manually or setting alarms for optimal posting times, you can focus on what really matters—creating unique, compelling content and building authentic connections with your followers.

Now, let’s look at the different ways you can schedule Instagram posts in advance.

Quick note: Scheduling is only available for Instagram Business or Creator accounts (not personal accounts), so make sure you check your account type before diving in.

How to schedule Instagram posts from the Instagram app

After years of users asking for it, Instagram finally added in-app scheduling near the end of 2022. Users are able to schedule up to 25 posts per day and up to 75 days in advance.

Keep in mind, only Instagram Business and Creator accounts have access to this feature. Personal profiles are unable to schedule content.

Follow these steps to get started:

Step 1: Open your Instagram app and tap the + at the bottom of the screen or swipe the home feed to the right to create a new piece of content.

Step 2: Select Post or Reel, depending on the type of content you’re creating.

Step 3: Either take a photo or record a video using the in-app camera or upload one from your camera roll.

Step 4: Add any text, stickers, music, effects, etc., then add your caption.

Step 5: Tap Advanced Settings at the bottom of the screen.

Step 6: Toggle the Schedule this post option on, then select your preferred date and time from the menu that appears.

Step 7: Go back to the previous screen and tap Schedule.

Keep in mind, scheduling within the Instagram app prevents you from cross-posting to other accounts, such as a Facebook profile or Page or even Threads. If you’d like to schedule and cross-post to other accounts, explore the next two options.

How to schedule Instagram posts from Meta Business Suite

You can also use the Meta Business Suite to schedule your Instagram content. First, connect your Instagram Business Account to your Facebook Page so you can access both from the Meta Business Suite.

Then follow these steps:

Step 1: In Meta Business Suite, click Create post or Create reel.

Step 2: Specify which Instagram account you want to share your post or Reel to. It may also include your Facebook Page—it’s up to you whether you also want it to post to your Facebook Page or only to Instagram.

Step 3: Upload your media, then write out your caption. Be sure to include your mentions and hashtags (you can even save hashtags to reuse in your content). You can even geotag a location if you wish.

Step 4: Click on Schedule, then select your preferred date and time. Click Active times to access a popup showcasing some of the upcoming times that your audience is active.

Step 5: Once you’ve selected your time, click Save then click Schedule.

How to schedule Instagram posts using Sprout Social

Scheduling Instagram posts natively is straightforward, but how about when you have a larger social strategy across multiple platforms to plan and schedule?

With a dedicated social media publishing tool like Sprout, you can do so much more. Cross-posting, team collaboration and permissions, in-depth analytics—the list goes on.

We make it so easy to schedule all kinds of Instagram posts, including single posts, Reels, Carousels and Stories. Whatever you want to upload, simply finalize your content and schedule it on desktop or mobile. You can also use Sprout’s Instagram grid planner to visualize how your scheduled posts will actually look on your profile.

Follow the steps below to learn exactly how to schedule Instagram posts using Sprout.

Step 1: Connect your Instagram profiles to Sprout Social

The first thing you need to do is log in to Sprout Social and link your Instagram profile (If you don’t already have an account, sign up for a free 30-day trial).

From the dashboard, click Connect a Profile and select Instagram from the different options. Then, follow the on-screen instructions to easily connect your Instagram profile.

Quick tip: Have more than one Instagram profile? Connect them all. Sprout lets you manage and schedule posts to multiple accounts from one dashboard. In fact, you can also link your other social profiles, including Facebook, Twitter (X) and LinkedIn.

Sign up for a free 30-day trial

Step 2: Open your Sprout publishing calendar

Once you’ve linked your profile, click Publishing in the left menu to open Sprout’s social media calendar. You can view this as a list, week or monthly calendar.

Next, it’s time to choose the image(s) or video to post. If you’re not 100% sure what you should publish, check out our in-depth guide on Instagram post ideas.

You can directly schedule posts or leave notes by clicking through the spaces in your calendar. This keeps you organized and gives you a bird’s eye view of your content strategy.

Step 3: Compose your Instagram post

Hover on your calendar to schedule a post on a specific day, or click the blue pencil/paper icon in the top right corner of your screen to create a new post.

Choose the Instagram account you want to publish to and specify the type of content you want to schedule—post or Story.

At this point, you can start composing your post. Start by writing a compelling caption for your content. You can also add relevant Instagram hashtags or tag users in your caption.

Sprout pro tip: Use our Enhance by AI Assist feature to generate more caption ideas and speed up your creative process. If you’re not sure what to post about, Enhance by AI Assist can help you create content based on a draft you input into the Compose box. If you’re looking to change the tone of the content (think: confident, friendly or professional), try Suggestions by AI Assist to align captions with your brand’s tone of voice

Now, upload your visuals. There are several ways to do this in Sprout.

You can upload an image(s) or video directly from your computer or mobile. Another way is to choose a visual from the Asset Library. This is helpful if you already have shared media uploaded on Sprout, such as company or product photos.

Upload images directly from Canva

If you don’t have any premade assets to upload and want to create beautiful Instagram posts on the spot, our Canva integration can save the day.

To create and export images directly from Canva, click Upload Media in the compose window and select Design on Canva from the drop down.

Log in to your existing Canva account on the screen that pops up or create a new one in a few minutes. Then, select a template, customize it and click Export to Sprout when you’re done. Easy!

Step 4: Select your preferred date and time

Scroll down in the Compose box to the When to post section. Choose your preferred date and time. You can also specify the time zone if your audience is located in a specific region.

Alternatively, select Optimal Send Times to see data-driven recommendations when your audience is most likely to see your content. Our ViralPost technology suggests the best times to post based on your historical engagement data for maximum reach opportunity.

Step 5: Stage your post for scheduling

After your content is edited and approved, you can click Schedule to add it to your calendar.

Other scheduling options in Sprout are to Draft, Queue or Submit for Approval. Let’s take a look at each option:

• Draft: Not sure if your post is ready to go live quite yet? Want to create multiple “backup” Instagram posts for the future? Draft is a great spot to park your unfinished content or items that still need approval.
• Queue: The Sprout Queue is ideal for edited posts ready to go live—especially if you’re not sure when to post your content. When you queue your Instagram posts, Sprout picks the best time to publish within the window you specify.
• Submit for Approval: Choosing an approver ensures your content is properly edited, timely and on-brand. Select specific approvers to review your content before it goes live. This option is perfect if you have or plan to establish a social media workflow.

Benefits of scheduling Instagram posts

Businesses have begged for scheduling features on Instagram for years. But why are so many marketers eager to queue up their content? Below are some of the biggest benefits of scheduled Instagram posts.

1. Develop a more comprehensive and consistent content strategy

Food for thought: Different types of content (think: carousels, images, Stories and Reels) all receive different rates of engagement. This means brands need to diversify their content strategies and not just post the same type of content over and over.

When you schedule posts on Instagram, you give yourself time to actually assess your content calendar, identify gaps and opportunities, and gather the various assets you need to create fresh, compelling content.

Scheduling also enables you to stay consistent with your posting strategy, whether it’s one daily post or multiple posts a day. This helps keep you top of your followers’ minds (and feeds) and also gives you a boost with the Instagram algorithm.

2. Allows for more real-time engagement with followers

If nothing else, scheduling Instagram posts can free up some serious time in your schedule. That means more opportunities to interact with followers and reply to comments.

Even the best Instagram scheduler can’t do the legwork of building relationships with customers. When you stick to a social media post scheduler consistently, you create more time for dedicated customer engagement.

3. Better time management means increased productivity

Think about the effort that goes into creating Instagram posts or campaigns beyond writing captions and editing images. There’s also tagging accounts. Adding locations. Checking hashtags. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface.

Creating Instagram posts last-minute is a recipe for burnout. When you schedule Instagram posts in advance, you can batch your time and be more productive. For example, you could write all your captions in one sitting or edit a week’s worth of images at once.

This helps your brain stay focused instead of constantly switching between different types of work. The result? You get more done in less time and craft more meaningful posts.

4. Create seamless marketing campaigns beyond Instagram

Your social media campaigns shouldn’t be siloed.

From organic and paid social to email and beyond, all of your channels should be on the same page in terms of creatives, landing pages and promotions. This creates a better customer experience.

Through social scheduling, you ensure that your posts fire off at the right time. If you’re using a social media management tool such as Sprout Social, you can actually sync all of your social channels (think: Instagram, Facebook and TikTok) so you don’t have to publish manually or in real-time.

5. Encourage collaboration and brainstorming

Again, scheduling encourages brands to begin working on posts well in advance.

This means marketers and colleagues have time to partner on messaging and creative assets.

For social teams and brand marketers looking for feedback or approval workflows, collaboration and Instagram scheduling go hand in hand. Coupled with a social media approval process, it’s a cinch to get multiple sets of eyes on your content before it goes live.

Tips for scheduling posts on Instagram

We’ll say it again: You can’t just queue up your posts months or weeks in advance and expect your Instagram to grow on autopilot.

Below are some key considerations for brands looking to leverage Instagram scheduling.

1. Optimize your post timing to maximize engagement

A nice added bonus of scheduling is that your business isn’t beholden to “business hours.”

Based on our research on best times to post on Instagram, there’s a correlation between time of day and engagement:

Although these numbers aren’t the be-all, end-all of follower activity and vary based on your time zone, they’re eye-opening in terms of when the average Instagram user is active:

Marketers using Sprout social as their Instagram scheduler can increase engagement with our ViralPost algorithm that optimizes post timing. Rather than guess or decide when to post via trial and error, you’ll know exactly when to post, based on real follower engagement data.

2. Take extra care when crafting your captions

It’s no secret that Instagram captions represent valuable real estate when it comes to engagement.

They shouldn’t be treated as an afterthought. For each post, consider:

• Which hashtags are you using? How many? Are they in your first comment?
• Do you need to tag any accounts?
• Did you write a strong call-to-action?
• How does this caption compare to your most recent one(s)?

Much like your content strategy needs to be diverse, the same rings true for your Instagram captions.

When you schedule posts in advance, you have time to put your captions under the microscope and ensure there’s some variety. Likewise, you can confirm that you’re using the right Instagram hashtags and aren’t missing any key details before your post goes live.

3. Keep a close eye on your content calendar

Scheduling based on a defined content calendar encourages both variety and consistency in terms of your posts.

As you queue up your posts, ask yourself:

• Are we hitting the appropriate publishing frequency?
• Is there enough variation in our content schedule?
• How are we promoting this content to encourage engagement?
• Are there opportunities to cross-post or repurpose this content to other networks?
• Have the appropriate stakeholders reviewed this post before it goes live?

The answers to all of the above ensure more thoughtful, goal-driven posts that are poised to perform well. Below is a quick snapshot of what a content calendar looks like in Sprout:

4. Block off time to engage with customers

Despite popular belief, scheduling Instagram posts doesn’t make your presence more “passive.”

Quite the opposite, honestly.

Yet again, scheduling frees up your schedule to interact with customers in real-time.

Mind your notifications and make sure your comment section never gathers cobwebs. Be proactive and make a point to respond to social customers ASAP for the sake of satisfaction and loyalty.

In addition to Instagram scheduling, Sprout aggregates messages from all your social networks into a singular Smart Inbox that you can use to filter and categorize messages, while also allowing for real-time collaboration between your team. No message goes unanswered and you’ll also avoid response collisions.

5. Know when to hit “pause” on your scheduling

Whether due to a brand emergency or a bigger crisis management effort, sometimes you need to put a stop to your scheduled content.

Failure to do so could come off as inauthentic or result in otherwise poor engagement when your followers’ minds are elsewhere. For example, publishing promotional content during certain holidays, on somber occasions or in the wake of tragedies could result in adverse affects on your brand reputation.

This speaks to how Instagram scheduling is so much more than putting your brand on autopilot. Sprout has built-in features to pause scheduled posts and resume them when the time is right.

Instagram scheduling tools to use

Third-party tools can make Instagram scheduling even easier than the in-app tool. Additional apps allow you to schedule content to multiple social media platforms at once, offer more features and can help with your overall social media management, from automation to analytics.

Here are three tools you might consider.

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management platform that allows users to schedule and publish content across various social media networks including Instagram. It provides a visual content calendar for planning and organizing posts and offers analytics to track post-performance and engagement. Sprout Social also includes features for social listening and engagement allowing users to monitor mentions and conversations about their brand.

2. MeetEdgar

MeetEdgar is a social media scheduling tool that focuses on automating content recycling and evergreen content. Users can create a library of content categorized by topic and schedule posts to be automatically shared and reshared across their social media channels including Instagram. MeetEdgar aims to help users maintain a consistent social media presence with minimal ongoing effort by automatically filling their content calendar.

3. SocialBee

SocialBee is another social media management tool designed to help users plan content across multiple platforms including Instagram. It offers features like content categorization, a visual content calendar and post-performance analytics. SocialBee also emphasizes content variation with options to customize posts for each social media platform, ensuring optimal messaging and format for different audiences.

Learn how to schedule posts on Instagram today

If you want to build a better Instagram presence and free up more time in your busy day, you need to start scheduling.

Doing so might seem simple, but making the most of Instagram scheduling means understanding the key details of any given post and how to best engage followers.

With the tips above and a tool like Sprout, you can create a compelling content calendar that does exactly that. Sign up for a free 30-day trial and check it out for yourself.

The post How to schedule Instagram posts: The complete guide for 2025 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Regularly uploading videos builds a routine for your audience, increasing YouTube engagement and getting them excited for more. Posting consistently also boosts your channel’s visibility by signaling to YouTube’s algorithm that you’re active and worth recommending.

So, how do you stay consistent and maintain a healthy work-life balance? Batch film your content and schedule it to publish in advance so you always have videos to post.

This guide will teach you more about the benefits of scheduling YouTube Shorts and how to schedule them using Sprout Social and the native YouTube app.

What are YouTube Shorts?

Launched in 2020, YouTube Shorts are vertical short-form videos, similar to TikTok videos or Instagram Reels. The videos can be up to 60 seconds long and made using the Shorts camera in the YouTube app or uploaded from your computer. Users can find and watch Shorts on the YouTube homepage, in the Shorts tab on YouTube, on a creator’s channel homepage and Google search results.

How to schedule YouTube Shorts in Sprout

The scheduling workflow for a YouTube Short is the same as what you would do to post a YouTube Video. You just need to make sure your video file matches the required specifications for a Short.

Here’s the whole process, broken down step by step.

1. Select the camera icon in the Compose box.

2. Select the video file you want to upload.

Ensure your video follows these specifications:

• File type: .MP4 or .MOV
• Max length: 60 seconds
• Aspect ratio: Square or vertical
• File size: 3 GB

3. Give your video a title.

4. Open the YouTube Video Options section to add key details to your video.

These details include:

• Adding YouTube tags, separated by commas.
• Deciding if you want the video to be Public, Private or Unlisted.
  Selecting a Category for your video and a Playlist to publish your video to (optional).

5. Click Show Advanced Settings to expand and manage other video settings.

These settings include license rights and ownership, allowing embedding and publishing to subscription feeds.

6. Schedule your YouTube Short.

You have the option to:

• Select your desired publishing date and time.
• Create a Draft to save your post and schedule it later.
• Queue the Short to automatically post it at a pre-set time.
• Publish the Short immediately.

Alternatively, selecting the Use Optimal Times feature powered by ViralPost®, will give you options for the best times to post your Short for your unique profile and audience behavior.

How to schedule Shorts on YouTube

Want your YouTube Short to publish at a specific time? Scheduling Shorts on YouTube is pretty straightforward.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.

2. Click Create and choose Upload videos.

3. Pick the file you want to upload and fill in your video details.

Make sure your video meets the specifications for YouTube Shorts.

4. Click the Schedule card and set the date, time and time zone you want your video to go live.

5. Click Schedule and you’re all set.

Changing a scheduled publication time for a YouTube Short

If you change the scheduled publish time, or decide you want to publish your video right away, follow these steps:

• Sign in to YouTube Studio or use the YouTube app.
• From the left Menu, select Content.
• Select the video you want to edit.
• Select Edit Visibility from the dropdown menu.
• To change the scheduled publish time, ensure the visibility is set to Private. Click Edit Draft then choose the new time under Schedule.
  • To publish the video immediately, set the visibility to Public.
• Select Publish.

How to schedule YouTube Shorts on your phone

Follow these steps to schedule a Short via YouTube’s native mobile app. Sprout users can also schedule shorts through the mobile app.

• 1. Open the YouTube app.
• 2. Click the Create button (the plus icon at the bottom center of your screen) and tap Create a Short.
• 3. Record your Short or select the media you want to upload.

There are also options to add music to your video (just make sure it’s non-copyrighted if you want to monetize it), text, voiceovers and filters.

• 4. Click Next and add more video details like titles and captions.

• 5. Select Visibility to choose how you want the video to be published (i.e., Public, Unlisted or Private).
• 6. Tap Schedule to select a publishing date and time for your Short.

• 7. Go back to the Add Details screen.

Under Visibility, you should now see your scheduled date and time.

• 8. Click Upload Short to schedule your YouTube Short.

Why you should schedule your YouTube Shorts

Scheduling your content in advance on the native platform is a good place to start. However, using a social media management platform like Sprout Social will save you time and help you maintain a consistent content calendar.

Here are three reasons why:

• Stay organized and efficient. Instead of trying to keep track of all your content ideas and video clips while posting in real time, a YouTube marketing tool like Sprout enables you to schedule, publish and promote your Shorts content in one place.
• Publish at the right time. Capabilities like our Optimal Send Times™ analyze your audience’s engagement patterns and schedule your posts to publish at the best times automatically. This means you worry less about scheduling and focus more on creating great content.
• Gain insights to optimize your efforts. Sprout Social’s analytics and reporting features offer deep insight into how your audience responds to your content, so you can make smarter decisions and get better results.

Schedule for YouTube Shorts success

Scheduling YouTube Shorts is a great way to stay organized and publish regularly.

There may still be times when you’ll want or need to post in the moment. Still, pre-scheduled content gives you the flexibility to experiment and take advantage of trends or current events without worrying about gaps in your content calendar.

Finding a healthy balance between organization and creativity is the best way to maintain an authentic and meaningful relationship with your audience.

To help you strike the right mix, use our YouTube strategy template to audit your current efforts, analyze competitors and define your goals and audience.

FAQs

The post How to schedule YouTube Shorts [2024 Guide] appeared first on Sprout Social.

In this article, we’ll cover the different types of social media content calendars and how to create a social media calendar. We’ll also explore the benefits of using a social media calendar like streamlining cross-team collaboration and effective planning for product launches and campaigns. And we’ll share social media calendar apps you can use, along with a template so you can get started optimizing.

What is a social media calendar?

A social media calendar is a strategic, hyper-detailed plan of upcoming posts for all your social channels organized by publish date and time. Along with the publish date and time for posts, your social media calendar can also include links, tags, @-mentions, copy and media, such as images and video.

You can use a digital calendar, spreadsheet or a social media management platform like Sprout that offers an interactive dashboard and the ability to schedule posts.

Benefits of using a social media calendar

A content calendar is the key to a successful social media plan because there are so many benefits to using one, from saving time to streamlining collaboration.

Here are a few:

1. Saves time and widens team bandwidth

A social media calendar saves time by staying organized, especially when managing multiple accounts. As a social media manager, planning out a social calendar months in advance saves you from scouring trending topics and news stories every day looking for ideas. It’ll give you more bandwidth to track and test different strategies to see what resonates most with your audience. Your team will also have more time to focus on creating high-quality content.

2. Maintain a consistent posting schedule

Of course, there’s no hard rule for how much you should post, but it’s important to post frequently to maintain an active presence. A social media content calendar allows teams to prioritize quality, not quantity. Plus, planning will also build greater consistency in terms of your brand voice and style, rather than posting in a reactive or unplanned way.

3. Quality assurance and brand safety

Proactive scheduling allows social teams to check their work and protect their brand’s reputation. It’s easier to catch a typo or prevent a potential public relations crisis when you aren’t rushing and a workflow approval process is in place. Using a social media calendar will help catch these mistakes sooner rather than later.

4. Streamline cross-functional collaboration

A well-crafted social media calendar improves visibility because it provides an overview of upcoming content. A content calendar streamlines communication and cross-functional collaboration because everyone can look at the calendar and know what lies ahead. It also promotes alignment for department or organizational-wide initiatives because it provides a set posting schedule.

Having a posting schedule is important because your social media should support your overall organizational marketing efforts. Social media calendars help with tracking deadlines and responsibilities, reducing the chances of last-minute rushes and missed opportunities. Overall, social media content calendars play a crucial role in synchronizing efforts in dynamic marketing environments.

5. Optimize approval workflows

Social media calendars are instrumental in streamlining approval workflows within organizations. By providing a visual overview of planned content, social media calendars establish clear communication between teams, ensuring everyone is aligned on objectives, timelines and expectations for execution. A centralized approach to content scheduling simplifies the approval process because it provides simultaneous visibility among contributors and stakeholders. This visibility ensures all participants understand the steps involved for reviews, iterations and approvals. Having everyone on the same page will support timely approvals, prevent bottlenecks‌ and maintain a consistent flow of quality content.

5. Effective planning for product launches, campaigns and events

Social content calendars streamline cross-functional collaboration and workflows. They help facilitate strategic planning for product launches, campaigns and events. For example, your team can ensure social posts sync up with larger campaigns. Stakeholders in the campaign can easily view what you’ve planned and provide feedback, if necessary.

Social media calendars support meticulous planning because they empower teams to align on timing, content types, key milestones and deadlines, so each phase of the launch or event is effectively highlighted and promoted. This strategic alignment also helps keep messaging consistent across all channels.

6. Repurposing your successful content

Calendars can also help with repurposing content for social media. By maintaining a record of past posts and their performance metrics, you can easily spot high-performing content that can be recycled or adapted for future use. Repurposing content saves time and resources while ensuring consistent delivery of content proven to engage your audience. This approach enhances content strategy and strengthens engagement over time.

7.  Better engagement and performance tracking

Social media content calendars enhance the effectiveness of social media reporting by providing a framework for tracking performance and engagement. If you use a social media management software like Sprout, you can maintain your content calendar and reporting in one place. For example, the Post Performance Report will show you top-performing content and when it was published. This can help you identify specific posts with spikes in engagement and you can fine-tune your social media content as needed.

Types of social media content calendars [+ template]

There are various social media content calendars you can use to address your different needs. Let’s review some of the calendars–we’ll also share a social media calendar template you can use.

Sprout Social social media calendar

Marketers plan content on different levels: daily, weekly and monthly. Sprout’s Publishing calendar helps you streamline your content planning and execution.

Instead of using separate calendars for each cadence and social network, Sprout’s calendar has weekly and monthly views where you can plan and schedule content across multiple networks. This makes it easy to see your content schedule at a glance, enabling you to make changes as needed. This cross-network visibility will help you maintain a cohesive social media strategy with an optimized publishing cadence and messaging tailored for each network.

Best time to post social media calendar

Social media planning isn’t just about publishing content consistently—time is another major factor because it can impact your reach and engagement. The best times to post on social media varies by network and also depends on when your audience is active. To help nail down timing, you can use a weekly social media calendar outlining ideal publishing times.

Social media calendar templates

Instead of creating new calendars from scratch each week or month, use social media calendar templates to save time and effort. We created a downloadable social media calendar template designed to support organization, visibility and alignment to specific key performance indicators.

Download template

How to create a social media content calendar

1. Conduct a social media audit

Before creating your social media content calendar, you need to conduct a social media audit of past content to evaluate your current online presence.

Consider the following during your audit:

• Important metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for each account by network to define success
• Your brand’s goals for each account by network
• Your target audience
• Highest and lowest performing posts and campaigns
• Opportunities for improvement or experimenting
• Publishing frequency

Pull native analytics from sources like Meta Business Suite or Instagram Analytics. If you’re using Sprout Social, you’ll find metrics across multiple social networks in one place: Sprout’s Report Builder.

Pay attention to your brand’s analytics to pin down what could be contributing to your highest and lowest performing posts. If you want more ideas for your calendar, consider doing a competitive analysis during your audit. Auditing a competitor in your industry can help you identify gaps in your (or their) strategy.

Completing an audit will help you identify how to curate posts for your social media calendar template and what content you should create for your audience. The goal is to give you a strategy to fill each day of your content calendar. If you’re able to identify what’s going well and opportunities for improvement, you’ll be better positioned to meet your brand’s goals.

2. Use a social media calendar template

Create a social media content calendar template to stay organized, streamline workflows, improve collaboration and track metrics. Your social media calendar template should include the following:

• Social media networks and accounts
• Date and time
• Social copy, including hashtags and links
• Media (GIFs, images, video, etc.)
• Approval steps
• Space for collaboration and feedback notes
• KPIs
• Key (a color-coordinated key with labels to organize your content)

Level up your social media content calendar template with these advanced additions:

• Published post links
• UTM tracking links
• Geo-tag
• Network-specific format (Story, feed post, short-form video like Reels or TikTok, etc.)
• Associated campaigns, like a new product launch
• Approval status
• Paid or organic post (include budget details for paid posts)

These additions provide more context, especially if you want to dig deeper into tracking performance. For example, UTM tracking links enable you to measure traffic from a post, traffic type (referral, paid or organic) and the specific campaign that brought the traffic in. Use a digital calendar or spreadsheet for your template, or automate it with tools like Sprout’s social media calendar to lower your lift.

3. Select your social media channels and content types

Now that you’ve completed an audit and created a social media content calendar template, you’re ready to choose the channels and type of content you want to post.

Which channels does your audience engage with the most? And what types of content resonate with them? Lean on your analytics while brainstorming your social media post ideas, identifying themes and/or categories to determine the type of content you’ll schedule in the content calendar.

Once you have a few basic topics in mind, go deeper with a research tool like social listening to learn more about what your audience wants to see. By using listening for competitive research, you’ll see a comprehensive view of the hashtags, keywords, brands and topics that engage with your audience across different social channels. Use this information to plan posts that are highly relevant to your audience and expand your reach to others who may be interested in your content.

Overall, make sure that the majority of the content you work into your social media calendar is intended to help your audience. While the exact mix will vary depending on your brand, niche and what resonates with your audience, a good rule of thumb is to make two-thirds of the content informational and one-third or less promotional.

Promotional content tends to be sales-focused, so a constant stream can alienate followers. Prioritize engagement over selling in your social media calendar.

4. Define a social media calendar posting schedule

Once you have an idea of the content you’re going to post, you’ll need to create a posting schedule to help keep track of ideal times for publishing. You should aim for a sweet spot based on your audience’s preferences, because social moves fast—posting too much, too little or too late can cause dropped engagement. Posting frequently is important, but don’t emphasize quantity over quality. Be wary of sharing content that’s irrelevant or redundant for the sake of meeting a posting quota.

Consider the patterns that arose from your audit and competitive analysis. Take a look at publish dates and times for each network and make a note of any specific themes. This information will help you organize and plan your posts to get the most visibility.

There’s a lot of competing information on publishing cadences. Some professionals recommend posting as regularly as possible to stay top of mind. Others suggest only posting if you have high quality and valuable information to add to the conversation.

There are also best practices around the best times to post on each network, broken down by specific industries and niches. Check out our guide on how often to post on social media per channel to learn more. Sprout’s data science team looked at how often over 30,000 Sprout Social customers posted to find out what the average is for some of the most popular social media networks.

Sprout also takes the guesswork out of posting cadences by analyzing the best times for you. Using a tool like Sprout’s ViralPost® feature helps you target posting times based on your individual audience data. ViralPost reviews this data and suggests Optimal Send Times for each network you use.

5. Track and analyze your social media content calendar

Your social media calendar isn’t just a planning tool. It’s also a way to track and measure metrics across every network you use. Analyze the information you collect from your social media campaigns and continue to optimize your social media calendar.

If you tag posts to specific campaigns, you can track content that may need to be optimized or repurposed. When content performs well, save it or make a note to reintroduce it again in the future when it’s time to brainstorm new posts.

For example, Sprout’s Asset Library lets you store videos, text and images in an easy-to-access library so you can re-incorporate high-performers into your social media strategy. Storing everything in a pre-approved library also ensures that all creative assets are on point in terms of quality and brand style guidelines.

Also account for specific campaigns across different social networks. Different social media networks serve different purposes, so you should plan strategically when looking to increase the reach of a given post on other networks. It’s important to remember that just because a post is popular on one network, doesn’t mean it’ll perform well on others.

6. Improve your social media calendar by sharing across teams

You probably work frequently with other teams within your organization since social is a key pillar for many brands’ marketing strategies. Social media collaboration can strengthen your content and help your brand reach organizational goals. Seek feedback from your team and marketing stakeholders to improve your social media calendar. The goal here is to iterate your social media calendar as your marketing strategy and business evolves.

Including teams outside marketing will give you fresh ideas for things to post, while also supporting priorities across the organization. The product team can let you know when new features, services or products will be launching. Human resources and public relations can remind you of important dates and company milestones worth posting about.

You need an easy and reliable way to make sure that everyone involved can access the right tools, accounts and organize their deliverables. When your calendar is integrated into a social media management platform like Sprout Social, you increase the visibility of what needs to be created and approved across contributors.

Sprout’s content calendar includes tools like approval workflows that emphasize collaboration so you can grant different teams access to relevant parts of the social media calendar.

Social media calendar apps

There are many social media management tools and social media scheduling tools to choose from. Here’s a quick overview of our top three favorite tools:

Sprout Social

Okay, so yes, we’re definitely tooting our own horn here, but Sprout’s tools will truly help your social media team. Our interactive content calendar, publishing and scheduling tools are designed to increase visibility, improve team efficiency and boost customer loyalty, so social teams have more bandwidth for creative efforts. For instance, you can follow up on your scheduled posts by establishing a process for responding and engaging with your audience in the Smart Inbox. With Sprout, you can also take the guesswork out of posting at the right time using Optimal Send Times™, which will tell you the best time to post your content. Essentially, Sprout’s interactive content calendar enables you to manage the social experience, end to end.

Google Calendar/Sheets

Google Calendar and Sheets are free and fairly intuitive to use. There are a bounty of social media calendar templates you can use from Google Sheets and Calendar. Both apps can be used to allow users to easily view upcoming posts and add comments for feedback and other collaboration.

Notion

Notion is a powerful note-taking app, but it’s also a tool for marketers. The app has a database feature that can be used to create templates, including social media calendars. Notion is highly customizable and collaborative, so users can easily view the status of content and give feedback via comments all within one platform.

Ground your planning with a social media calendar

Your time is too valuable to spend deciding what to post every single day. A well-planned social media content calendar empowers you to use your time to plan for the future and focus on other aspects of your marketing strategy. You can create a social media calendar from scratch, but using a template and personalizing it to your brand’s needs will save you time while ensuring you have all the essential components. Take your content planning to the next level with Sprout’s social media calendar template.

The post A complete guide to creating a social media calendar (plus template) appeared first on Sprout Social.

Manual publishing also has its challenges. What if an image gets cropped weirdly? Or the sticker link you included doesn’t work? Now, instead of focusing on other tasks, you’re stuck troubleshooting tech issues. However, scheduling Instagram Stories can help avoid these scenarios.

We’ve created this in-depth guide to show you how to schedule Instagram Stories. You’ll learn the benefits of scheduling and step-by-step instructions for using Sprout Social and Facebook Business Suite’s scheduling features.

Why should you schedule Instagram Stories?

Short answer: scheduling Instagram Stories makes a social media marketer’s life a lot easier. But here are a few of the most impactful benefits.

Save time

According to Harvard Business Review, workers spend under four hours a week reorienting themselves after toggling between apps and websites, or 9% of their overall annual work time. Scheduling Stories allows marketers to focus on one task at a time instead of interrupting what they do throughout the day to post, saving them time, effort and focus.

Create scheduling consistencies

Stories appear right at the top of the Instagram feed, so they’re often the first thing people see when they open the app. Scheduling your content helps you appear consistently at set times throughout the day or week. It also allows you to take advantage of the best times to post on Instagram to maximize visibility.

More opportunities for strategic content planning

Publishing different types of Stories (e.g., promotions, behind-the-scenes, user-generated content) will help engage your audience and keep them interested in your brand. Maintaining a balanced content mix is much easier when scheduling Stories in advance. It allows you to zoom out to cover all your bases—rather than just posting to post without a strategic plan.

Maintain cohesive branding with templates

With their temporary nature, many brands’ Instagram Stories are less strict and polished than their Feed posts. Marketers can still take the less-polished approach when scheduling Stories, but having a set schedule gives you the opportunity to prepare the content in advance and maintain a more cohesive look and feel with design tools like Instagram templates.

Plan for large campaigns

Planning for a wide-scale marketing campaign? You’ll likely have a variety of deliverables to create and push out before, during and after the event. Getting proactive by setting up as much content as possible ahead of time, including scheduling Stories, will help you stay organized and give you more capacity to devote to real-time engagement when the campaign is live.

Coordinate with other marketing efforts

Let’s say you’re launching a new product. You’re running Meta ads, have an email blast scheduled for your subscribers‌ and have posts lined up on your Instagram and TikTok feeds. Scheduling your Instagram Stories to go live simultaneously ensures that your entire digital audience sees the same message across all channels. When someone sees the ad, checks their email‌ or scrolls through Instagram, these efforts reinforce your message and strengthen your product launch.

How to schedule Instagram Stories with Sprout Social

Want to save time, maintain consistency and stay active on Stories when your audience is? Use Sprout Social’s Instagram Story Scheduling workflow to streamline content creation and scheduling.

Here’s how to schedule Instagram posts, specifically Stories, with Sprout Social on desktop and mobile.

How to schedule Instagram Stories on desktop with Sprout

• Step 1. Select the Compose box and select the profile you wish to post on.
• Step 2. Toggle This is a story on.

• Step 3. Select and add media to the Compose box from your desktop, Bynder, Canva, Dropbox or Google Drive, according to the following specifications:
  • Video:
    • File type: .mp4, .mov
    • Max file size: 650 MB
    • Max length: 2 minutes 30 seconds
  • Image:
    • File type: .jpg, .png
    • Max file size: 20 MB
• Step 4. Optional: add an Approval Workflow in the Publishing Workflows section for extra accountability.
• Step 5. Schedule the Story. You have four options:
  • Select your desired publishing date and time
  • Create a Draft to save to your social media calendar and schedule it later
  • Queue the Story to automatically post at a pre-set time
  • Send it right away to publish the Story immediately

• Step 6: Click Schedule or Submit. Your Story is now scheduled and will appear on the Publishing Calendar.

How to schedule Instagram Stories on the Sprout iOS app

• Step 1. Select the Compose box and select the profile you wish to post on.
• Step 2. Toggle This is a story on.

• Step 3. Select and add media from your iOS device or Asset Library to the Compose box. Choose up to 10 photos or videos according to the specifications in the desktop scheduling workflow.
• Step 4. Tap Done and add Mobile Publisher Notes or a Link Sticker URL for each Story frame. You also have the option to add story notes and texts to copy to your clipboard when you’re ready to post.

• Step 5. Tap Notify and then choose a publishing date and time for your Story. You also have the option to create a Draft, add it to your Queue or Send it right away.
• Step 6: Tap Save. Your Story is now scheduled and will appear on the Publishing Calendar.

How to schedule Instagram Stories with Meta Business Suite

• Step 1. Navigate to your Meta Business Suite and select Create story.

• Step 2. Choose where your post will appear: Facebook, Instagram or both.
• Step 3. Select and add visual content to the Media section. Choose up to 10 images and videos to preview before you schedule your post.

• Step 4. Select a scheduling option for your post. Click Share now to publish your post immediately, Schedule to manually select a future date and time to publish your post or Active times to share your Story at a recommended time when your followers are most active.

• Step 5. Click Schedule (the blue button in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen) to confirm your scheduling option and publish or schedule your post.

Start scheduling your Instagram Stories

Since its launch in 2016, Instagram Stories has been a popular feature for social media marketers. Because they only last 24 hours, brands are often more authentic and creative with their Stories’ content than their Feed. Thanks to their poll, question and quiz features, they’re also great for real-time engagement.

Adding scheduling tools like Sprout Social or Meta Business Suite to your Instagram Stories content production process allows you to reap all the benefits of this fun feature on your own schedule. It also helps ensure you post the most impactful content at the right time for your audience.

But if you want to use Stories strategically, you can’t always post on the fly. Scheduling your content in advance will help you show up at the best times with the most impactful message. While this guide will help you do just that, Instagram Stories are just one piece of the Instagram puzzle. You need to think bigger if you want to own this platform. Check out our Instagram for Brands guide to step up your Instagram game and future-proof your strategy.

The post How to schedule Instagram Stories [2024 Guide] appeared first on Sprout Social.

But to do this, you’ll need to step up your game and build a solid TikTok marketing strategy. This involves creating highly engaging videos and joining in on trending discussions. You could also work with influential creators and run targeted TikTok ads to boost visibility.

And the right tools can make your job so much easier. From helping you save time to improving your performance—these 30 TikTok tools can fuel your growth.

All-in-one TikTok management tool

Using TikTok for business has become a powerful way for marketing teams to grow and nurture their audience. But the platform may not have all the tools you need to manage a scalable video campaign or strategy. Luckily, Sprout Social can help you manage your posts, analytics and more–all in one place.

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform that offers all the tools you need to manage your TikTok. This management tool saves you the manual effort that comes with having multiple social media accounts. So you have more room to concentrate on your business goals.

Key features:

• Smart Inbox that captures and organizes incoming messages so your team can respond to followers quickly
• Tracks your performance and your competitors across multiple social media accounts so you can see how you measure up
• Analyzes data and metrics from all your social accounts and your posts’ impact on traffic to your website
• Provides vital social media insights to understand your audience and inform your TikTok strategy
• Premium analytics with advanced filtering to focus on your most relevant metrics
• Advanced scheduling that enables you to post content across platforms on your time
• Optimal send times, meaning it analyzes your account to determine the best time to post automatically
• Influencer recognition to find the right creators for your TikTok influencer marketing campaigns
• Social listening to stay on top of trending conversations and understand what matters to your audience
• Uses AI analytics to find the latest TikTok trends and help you stay one step ahead of your competitors
• Creates engaging captions for your TikTok videos using AI

If you don’t already use Sprout, try out some of these features with our free 30-day trial.

TikTok content creation tools

TikTok is all about engaging videos. Precise transitions, eye-catching media and relevant sound effects can take your videos to the next level.

So editing your videos is a crucial step to create content that represents your brand and meets your goals. Make sure to use the right TikTok editing tools to simplify the process. Here are some of the best tools for TikTok video editing.

2. Splice

Splice is a mobile video editor that offers a set of intuitive tools to create the videos your audience wants to see. It allows you to have as many work-in-progress (WIP) projects as you want with advanced editor workflows.

Key features:

• Aspect ratio format based on the platform where you’ll post your video
• Automatic subtitles
• Voice recording over your videos
• Editing section where you can add media, text, music, overlay and sounds
• House all of your projects in one place

Source: Splice

3. Picsart

Picsart is a photo and video editor that includes graphic design tools and templates, so you don’t need to be an expert to have beautiful media. The free version comes with standard editing tools and limited AI features.

Key features:

• Available templates for you to use
• Millions of stock images
• AI background remover
• Templates for every social network
• Video editing tools
• Image library

Source: Picsart

4. CapCut

CapCut is a free TikTok video editor that comes with templates and filters to speed up video creation. It offers a host of AI capabilities to scale your video editing efforts.

Key features:

• Ready-to-use video templates
• AI background remover
• AI color correction
• Background noise remover
• Filters and effects
• Songs and sound effects

Source: CapCut

5. InVideo

InVideo is an AI-powered TikTok editing tool with pre-made transitions and effects to create videos like a pro. It offers a wealth of stock content and robust editing features to power your TikTok video strategy.

Key features:

• AI-powered video script creation
• 6,000+ pre-made video templates
• Millions of stock content
• Automated text-to-speech
• Team collaboration tools
• Pre-designed graphics
• Video effects and transitions

Source: InVideo

6. Canva

Canva offers essential tools for TikTok video editing. You can create highly engaging videos with built-in editing tools, graphics, sounds and effects.

Key features:

• Online video recorder
• Free stock videos
• Templates with pre-made transitions
• Music library
• Voiceovers with AI voice generator
• Effects, filters, stickers and text

Source: Canva

TikTok marketing tools

A marketing tool should help you grow your audience and ultimately get more sales. But when you’re just starting out on social media, your reach may be limited.

Partnering with an influencer or content creator in your niche can help you reach new audiences. The trust they’ve built with their audience makes it easier for your business to boost credibility. And you can streamline this collaboration using marketing tools.

Additionally, successful TikTok marketing requires perfect timing and consistency. You need to post consistently and at a time when your audience is most active. And this can be throughout the day or in the middle of the night. These timings can overlap with your other responsibilities, so a scheduling tool is essential to make your job more efficient.

The following TikTok tools can help you with various aspects of your marketing.

7. TikTok video scheduler

The TikTok video scheduler is a built-in TikTok feature that allows you to upload videos up to 10 days before publishing.

Key features:

• It’s a native feature, meaning it’s free.
• It’s simple to use.
• You can run a copyright check.
• Get push notifications when your video is live.

Source: TikTok

8. Planable

Planable is a collaboration tool for teams to plan and approve social media content. It lets you invite team members or clients to collaborate on your workspace. See your posts from a feed, calendar, grid or list view.

Key features:

• Workflow tool for content collaboration
• User-friendly tool
• Integration with the most popular social media platforms
• Create customized labels to filter your posts

Source: Planable

9. TikTok Creator Marketplace

The TikTok Creator Marketplace lets you collaborate with ideal content creators to promote your brand. It helps you identify the right creators based on your budget, industry and business goals. It also shows you TikTok trends relevant to your niche like hashtags, most engaging TikToks and creators.

Key features:

• Browse and invite creators directly from TikTok.
• See the base payment of the creators you want to work with.
• Check your target creator’s performance and video data.
• Track your campaign’s performance with engagement data from the creator’s account.

Source: TikTok

10. Influencity

Influencity is an AI-powered influencer marketing platform that simplifies the influencer identification process. You can use the platform to find influencers and manage your campaigns in one place.

Key features:

• Database of 130+ million TikTok influencers
• AI-powered filters to speed up influencer discovery
• Growth filter to find fastest-growing creators
• Audience Lookalikes tool for identifying creators who can reach people similar to your customer base
• Influencer relationship management
• Shopify integration to power seeding campaigns
• Comprehensive campaign reports

Source: Influencity

11. Later

Later is a social media scheduling tool that lets you plan your TikTok videos in advance. You can upload your videos and customize them with the right hashtags and mentions within the platform.

Key features:

• Auto-publish features to schedule multiple TikTok videos
• Best time to post suggestions to auto-publish videos when your followers are online
• Comment moderation tools
• Customizable Link in Bio page

Source: Later

12. CoSchedule

CoSchedule is an all-in-one marketing calendar that gives you a unified view of all your marketing efforts. This helps you align your TikTok strategy with the rest of your marketing goals to maximize impact.

Key features:

• Visual content calendar to plan and schedule your TikTok posts
• Best time schedule to optimize your post timing
• AI-powered Social Assist tool for generating ideas and social messages
• Built-in optimizer to craft engaging TikTok video captions
• Pre-defined social sharing plans

Source: CoSchedule

13. Aspire.io

Aspire.io is a leading influencer marketing platform to power your TikTok through word-of-mouth. It comes with comprehensive tools to help with end-to-end campaign management.

Key features:

• Influencer search tools and filters to identify ideal creators
• Creator marketplace to attract inbound applicants
• Campaign management tools
• Influencer relationship management
• Content management features
• Analytics and reporting to track campaign performance

Source: Aspire.io

TikTok analytics tools

Now that you have your video ready and in queue, you’ll want to monitor your TikTok analytics to measure your success and plan your next move. Here are some TikTok analytics tools to check your metrics:

14. TikTok’s native analytics tool

A built-in tool, TikTok analytics gives you insight into your engagement metrics to track the performance of your videos.

Key features:

• Organizes your data into four sections: Overview, Content, Followers and LIVE.
• Track your engagement metrics in the Overview section. See your video views, profile views, likes, comments, shares and number of followers.
• Get specific data of your videos in the Content section, like total play time, average watch time, full watched videos and audience reach. Also, identify your trending videos (with the fastest growth over the past seven days).
• Identify your followers’ growth rate, demographics and activity in the Followers section.
• Get information about your followers from LIVE sessions. See your total views, total time, new followers, unique viewers and top viewer count—all within your selected date range.

Source: TikTok

15. Socialinsider

Socialinsider gives you comprehensive insights into your TikTok performance. You can analyze your profile, get access to post-specific TikTok metrics and understand how your KPIs have changed over time.

Key features:

• Key performance metrics including video views, engagement rate, likes, comments, shares and saves
• Top hashtags by average engagement
• Historical data to understand KPI evolution over time
• Post tagging to group posts based on keywords and topics
• Detailed competitive insights

Source: Socialinsider

16. Exolyt

Exolyt gives you a holistic understanding of your TikTok account performance. You can extract valuable insights to inform your strategies and boost your results.

Key features:

• 360-degree account overview
• Video performance insights
• Audience demographics
• User-generated content sentiment analysis
• Trending topics, sounds and hashtags
• Real-time industry trends

Source: Exolyt

17. Keyhole

Keyhole offers TikTok tools to gain a comprehensive understanding of your performance. It provides insights into the hashtags you should use and the types of posts that get your audience’s attention.

Key features:

• Video performance insights
• Profile statistics
• Top hashtags by engagement
• Optimal post time recommendations
• Competitor insights and profile comparison
• Most engaging video effects

Source: Keyhole

18. Rival IQ

Rival IQ is a competitive analytics platform that shows you how your competitors are performing on TikTok. You can discover insights to inform your own strategy and get ahead of the competition.

Key features:

• Free head-to-head report to see how you measure up to the competition
• Post-specific competitor performance insights
• Leaderboard standings to understand post frequency and engagements
• Automated insights to closely monitor top competitors

Source: Rival IQ

TikTok growth tools

The key to growing your presence on TikTok is engaging with your customers. When your video gets a ton of engagement, the TikTok algorithm tends to show it to the right people.

This further boosts your visibility and helps you attract more followers for your TikTok account. Moreover, engaged followers are more likely to keep buying from or refer your brand.

Here are some TikTok tools to fuel your growth.

19. TikTok Q&A

TikTok Q&A helps you engage directly with your audience by letting them ask you questions through your profile or the comments.

Addressing your customers’ burning questions helps to reduce friction in their journey. This, in turn, makes the buying process easier and removes barriers to purchase.

Key features:

• TikTok Q&A is available when you’re LIVE
• Respond to questions with comments or video replies
• Add the Q&A feature to your profile bio
• Your audience can review previous questions

To activate the Q&A feature on TikTok:

• Go to your Profile
• Tap into the 3-dot (or 3-line) icon at the top of your screen
• Select Creator tools
• Tap on Q&A
• Select Turn on Q&A

Source: TikTok

20. Swat.io

Swat.io is a social media management tool that lets you manage all your customer interactions in one place. It allows you to keep track of your TikTok comments and come up with timely responses to keep your audience engaged.

Key features:

• Unified social inbox to track all your comments and brand mentions
• Ticketing system to assign tasks to your team members
• Central user profile for an integrated customer experience
• Sentiment analytics to easily identify brand ambassadors

Source: Swat.io

21. Iconosquare

Iconosquare helps you keep track of your TikTok conversations and identify engagement opportunities. You can visualize all your comments and easily manage them in one place.

Key features:

• Unread comment identification to easily find ones that need a response
• In-platform moderation tools to reply or delete comments

Source: Iconosquare

TikTok social listening tools

Social media listening gives you qualitative insights to understand your audience on a deeper level. You can use it to uncover content and conversations related to your brand. These insights will give you a better idea of your audience’s needs, pain points and preferences.

You can tune into trending discussions and join in on them to garner your audience’s attention. Moreover, these insights can also help you identify potential brand crises and manage them before they escalate.

Here are some of the best social listening tools to monitor TikTok conversations.

22. Konnect Insights

Konnect Insights is a social media management platform with robust listening features. It unifies conversations across various social media platforms to understand your audience.

Key features:

• Share of Voice analysis
• Sentiment analysis to understand how people feel about your brand
• Product category insights for understanding conversations about a specific type of product
• Real-time monitoring to identify potential brand crises and manage them on time
• Brand health monitoring for a holistic view of your brand perception

Source: Konnect Insights

23. Brand24

Brand24 is an AI-powered social listening tool that monitors millions of online sources. It provides you with real-time tracking to identify critical mentions and address them on time.

Key features:

• Sentiment analysis to separate negative mentions from positive ones
• Reach and engagement monitoring to measure brand awareness
• Qualitative conversational insights for better audience understanding
• Hashtag tracking to measure the impact of specific TikTok promotions

Source: Brand24

24. Mention

Mention is a social media monitoring tool that lets you track TikTok mentions in real time. It provides you with conversational insights around specific topics and brands.

Key features:

• Trend identification features to inspire your content creation
• Influencer identification to find creators talking about your brand or about specific topics
• Keyword and hashtag monitoring

Source: Mention

TikTok ads tools

Tactics to reach your audience wouldn’t be complete without mentioning ads. Here’s how these TikTok ads tools can help you promote and grow your brand.

25. TikTok Promote

Promote is a native TikTok tool to reach a wider audience and boost followers, engagement and traffic to your website. The video you choose to promote must be public and will appear as an ad.

Key features:

• Choose your goal whether it’s video views, website visits or followers. TikTok will promote your video to people more likely to perform your desired action.
• Define your target audience based on gender, age, locations and interests.
• Get your estimated views according to your budget and duration of your campaign.
• Track views, comments, likes, shares and website visits of the video you’re promoting.
• Dig into the demographics of people who have seen your video.

26. TikTok ad library

The TikTok ad library contains the highest performing TikTok ads over the last 30 days. The library comes directly from the TikTok Creator Center, where you can see trends, ads and insights on the app. So, it’s a good source of information to learn from high-performing ads.

Key features:

• Get more ideas about the type of content that attracts people and better your own ads.
• The search bar allows you to look for specific ad content via keywords.
• Sort ads by reach, CTR and view rate.
• Filter the highest performing ads on TikTok by industry, objective, duration, country and publish date.

27. TikTok Pixel

TikTok Pixel is an HTML code that you can embed on your website to track the behavior of your visitors when they land on your site via a TikTok ad. If a visitor purchases a product from your site and the Developer Mode Pixel will collect data about the product and customer.

Key features:

• Set up the “events” or actions from which you want to collect information. For example, if a visitor clicks a button, purchases a product or visits another page.
• Default cookies that help TikTok Pixel measure and optimize your campaigns with behavioral data. This information is helps to create audience segment funnels and match people from your website to TikTok users.
• An events manager where you can create, add or edit events.

28. PiPiAds

PiPiAds is a product research tool‌ to get a glimpse of your competitors’ TikTok ads. It also has a variety of filters to find the kind of TikTok ad you’re looking for and a vast library to get ideas for your ads.

Key features:

• Ads are added and updated to the library every day
• It’s a product research tool
• It has a broad library of TikTok ads
• Identify trending TikTok products before your competition does
• Advertiser analysis helps you discover how your competition runs their ad campaigns

Source: PiPiAds

29. AdRoll

AdRoll is a leading ads management platform that simplifies TikTok advertising. It allows you to create, manage, monitor and optimize your TikTok ads in one place.

Key features:

• Audience identification and retargeting
• Multi-channel campaigns for improved ROI
• Historical campaign data to inform your strategy
• Comprehensive ad metrics to measure campaign performance
• In-platform ad editing and optimization features
• AdRoll Ad Library to centralize ad creative management

Source: AdRoll

30. Minea

Minea is a TikTok AdSpy tool that identifies the most effective TikTok ads and uncovers trending products. It provides you with insights to help you stay ahead of the competition and get more out of your TikTok ad campaigns.

Key features:

• Daily stream of top-performing TikTok ads
• Ad performance insights
• Performance data on ad creatives and target audiences
• Qualitative insights on top-performing influencer product placements

Source: Minea

Grow with the right TikTok tools

Whether you need to find influencers or edit your videos—there’s a wealth of tools for every aspect of your TikTok strategy. But switching from one TikTok tool to another can be time-consuming.

Simplify the process with an all-in-one tool to optimize every aspect of your TikTok marketing. Sprout’s TikTok management tools allow you to manage everything from publishing to social listening. Sign up for a free 30-day trial to check out how these tools can support your TikTok strategy.

The post 30 TikTok tools to skyrocket your growth appeared first on Sprout Social.

It’s important to understand how posting on TikTok at the right times can be a huge benefit to your TikTok marketing strategy. Global users on average spend 23.3 hours per month on the platform, meaning there is an opportunity to engage with a consistent audience. Keep an eye out for emerging trends or subcultures on the platform and test your own content.

Learn how to identify your best times to post globally on TikTok with a free trial of Sprout Social and test our ViralPost® feature.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social include users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded globally (not by Central Time), meaning you should be able to publish with the times provided in any timezone and see positive engagement results. Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times. We recommend testing with your own accounts to find the most optimal send times.

When is the best time to post on TikTok?

• Best times to post on TikTok:
  • Tuesdays from 4 to 6 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 9 to 11 a.m., noon, and 2 to 6 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 9 to 11 a.m. and 2 to 6 p.m.
  • Fridays from 4 to 6 p.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok: Wednesdays and Thursdays
• Worst days to post on TikTok: Sundays

As the youngest digital platform on this list, TikTok has grown significantly and made waves in half as many years as the others on this list. With the app now amassing over 1.5 billion active global users who spend an average of 23 hours on the app every month, TikTok has competitive power against other platforms.

The best times to post on TikTok are Tuesdays and Fridays from 4 to 6 p.m., Wednesdays, Thursdays mornings from 9 to 11 a.m. and Thursdays from 2 to 6 p.m. Afternoons are when the highest engagements are on the platform; users are looking to fill their afternoon entertainment boost. However, generally, mid-morning through the afternoon (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) on Tuesdays through Fridays see above average engagement on the app.

With TikTok trends changing quickly, it’s important to understand how trends start, evolve and influence. Once you understand how these forces, moments or signals work, you can create a better TikTok trend strategy to implement rather than participating reactively.

What is the best day and time to post on TikTok?

We know the best time to post on TikTok overall, but what about for each day of the week? If you’re looking for the best day and time to post on TikTok, read the analysis below.

Best time to post on TikTok on Monday

The best time to post on TikTok on Monday is between 3 and 6 p.m., coinciding with after-school hours for Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences.

Best time to post on TikTok on Tuesday

The hours that are the best times to post on TikTok on Tuesdays are 4 to 6 p.m. and above-average engagement is nearly 3x the amount compared to Mondays.

Best time to post on TikTok on Wednesday

The best times to post on TikTok on Wednesdays are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with only 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. as an exception to this engagement.

Best time to post on TikTok on Thursday

The best times to post on TikTok on Thursdays are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. However, engagement slightly drops between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Best time to post on TikTok on Friday

The hours that are the best times to post on TikTok on Fridays are 4 to 6 p.m., even though above-average engagement reflects a typical workday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Best time to post on TikTok on Saturday

The best time to post on TikTok on Saturdays is 9 a.m. to noon, in relation to the rest of the day. Generally speaking, we’ve noticed that Saturdays and Sundays have less engagement compared with rest of the week across most social platforms.

Best time to post on TikTok on Sunday

In relation to the day itself, the best time to post on TikTok on Sundays is from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. to see only average engagement, compared to the rest of the week. Sundays have less engagement throughout the day across most, if not all, social platforms.

Best times to post on TikTok for hospitals & healthcare

• Best times to post on TikTok for Hospitals & Healthcare:
  • Mondays from 5 to 8 p.m.
  • Tuesdays at 4 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 2 to 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.
  • Thursdays at 2 p.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok for Hospitals & Healthcare: Mondays and Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on TikTok for Hospitals & Healthcare: Sundays

Hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers use social media for more than navigating healthcare crises. Social media is used by hospitals and healthcare providers to educate the public, help patients feel more comfortable with healthcare visits and doctors’ appointments, promote their programs for aspiring physicians and establish themselves as pillars in the community.

The best times to post on TikTok for healthcare and hospitals nearly tripled compared to the year prior. Hospitals, healthcare and clinics see average to above average engagement Mondays through Thursdays starting at 10 a.m. and extending as late as 6 p.m. However, the best times to post on TikTok for hospitals and healthcare are Mondays from 5 to 8 p.m., Tuesdays at 4 p.m., Wednesdays from 2 to 5 p.m. and Thursdays at 2 p.m.

Hospital & healthcare social media resources

• A healthcare team’s guide to HIPAA compliance on social media
• The power of social listening for healthcare organizations
• How to realize the ROI of social media in healthcare
• Supporting HIPAA Compliance on social: a cheat sheet

Best times to post on TikTok for restaurants

• Best times to post on TikTok for Restaurants:
  • Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 3 to 6 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 3 to 6 p.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok for Restaurants: Tuesdays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on TikTok for Restaurants: Mondays

Online orders and delivery service apps saw an increase in use over the last few years, innovating the way restaurants interact with their audiences. And restaurants saw over 2x more engagements on TikTok than last year’s analysis. Target audience and platform goals factor into how businesses connect with their customers, such as offering unique promotions or updates.

Those in the food and beverage restaurant industry see most of their engagement concentrated to the lunch hour during weekdays. The best times to post for restaurants on TikTok are Tuesdays through Thursdays between 3 and 5 p.m., generally.

Restaurant social media resources

• Auntie Anne’s Bari’s TikTok Bootcamp [Webinar]
• Franchise Marketing Guide: Social Media Best Practices for Franchisors and Franchisees
• Social Spotlight: How Tim Hortons puts people first in its social strategy
• How Classic Culinary Brand America’s Test Kitchen Connects With New Consumers

Best times to post on TikTok for schools & education

• Best times to post on TikTok for Schools & Education:
  • Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok for Schools & Education:
  • Thursdays
• Worst days to post on TikTok for Schools & Education:
  • Saturdays and Sundays

Universities, higher education institutions and schools saw a significant increase in high engagement times on TikTok compared to last year’s analysis. Keep in mind that some schools manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet these needs and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time. 

High opportunities for engagement for schools reflect a typical school day plus evening hours. Tuesdays through Fridays see consistent engagement from around 10 a.m. until about 5 p.m.However, the hours with the highest engagement and therefore the best time to post on TikTok for schools are Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

From highlighting student life to sharing school updates, a social media strategy for schools needs to fulfill various purposes: from engaging with students past, present and future, to keeping a pulse on brand health.

Schools and education social media resources

• 15 ways to use social media for education
• University branding: How to build your school’s brand on social media
• Higher ed playbook: Using social to unite your university

Best times to post on TikTok for travel & hospitality

• Best times to post on TikTok for Travel & Hospitality:
  • Fridays at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
• Best days to post on TikTok for Travel & Hospitality: Thursdays and Fridays
• Worst days to post on TikTok for Travel & Hospitality: Sundays and Tuesdays

Travel and hospitality industries once again doubled their engagement on TikTok relative to last year. Hospitality businesses pivoted their strategies as the post-pandemic spike in travel continues, and they saw a return on their efforts throughout most of the day.

The best times to post on TikTok for travel and hospitality businesses are a bit sporadic throughout the week but are above average beginning around midday nearly every day of the week. However, the day with the highest engagement and the best time to post on TikTok for travel and hospitality is Fridays at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Travel and hospitality social media resources

• Social media and hospitality: How 3 brands are serving 5-star experiences
• Sprout Social helps keep NJ TRANSIT’s social strategy on track
• How Loews Hotels & Co succeeds at scale with Sprout Social’s all-in-one platform
• How to set up a travel social media marketing strategy
• How to manage multiple social media accounts

How to find your own best times to post on TikTok

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. And as platforms evolve, how brands and consumers use social will evolve with them, or vice versa. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways, or even find new segments and personas you weren’t focusing on before.

How to find your best time to post on TikTok with Analytics

While you may be ready to jump in and post at these provided peak engagement times as part of your strategy, consider pairing this data with your own TikTok analytics. You may discover that your specific target audience is active at different times.

To find your best times to post with native TikTok analytics via desktop, follow these steps:

1. Login to your account at tiktok.com.
2. Hover over your profile icon, then click Business Suite.
3. Then, select Analytics in the left-hand navigation.

How to find your best time to post on TikTok with Sprout Social

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different factors like post author or types of content, and drill down into how your posting time influenced your social success.

Sprout’s patented ViralPost® technology uses the same data we’ve used to look at all our customer accounts to determine the best time to post tailored for your account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in all plans. Our proprietary machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

With Optimal Send Times, the specific times offered are based on when your audience engages the most using your publishing history. ViralPost® also continually updates and refines to save you time from doing repeated the analysis, and allowing you more time to craft great content.

Want to see it in action? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social or request a personalized demo and try it for yourself.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

• Best times to post on Social Media
• Best times to post on Facebook
• Best times to post on Instagram
• Best times to post on LinkedIn
• Best times to post on Twitter

The post Best times to post on TikTok in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

With over 1 billion members in 200 countries and regions, businesses have a large audience and employee advocates to extend their reach. With the right LinkedIn marketing strategy, combined with these optimal posting times, you could see improved engagement.

Learn how to identify your best times to post globally on LinkedIn with a free trial of Sprout Social and test our ViralPost® feature.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social includes users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded globally (not by Central Time), meaning you should be able to publish with the times provided in any timezone and see positive engagement results. Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times. We recommend testing with your own accounts to find the most optimal send times.

• When is the best time to post on LinkedIn?
• What is the best day and time to post on LinkedIn?
• What is the best time to post on LinkedIn by industry?
  • Hospitals & Healthcare
  • Restaurants
  • Schools & Education
  • Travel & Hospitality
• How to find your own best times to post on LinkedIn
• How Sprout gathered the data

When is the best time to post on LinkedIn?

• Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon
• Thursdays at 10 a.m.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn Company Pages: Tuesdays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn Company Pages: Weekends

Unsurprising for this professional-focused social platform, LinkedIn engagement times are consistent with general business hours. High engagement hours are more concentrated midday and don’t extend too far out past the workday hours. Businesses are less likely to get eyes on their LinkedIn marketing efforts on the weekend when engagement and usage drops.

Because LinkedIn content is centered around professional thought-leadership and career growth, it makes sense that a majority of audiences engage with this content throughout their working day. By midday, there’s buzz on the platform, and the best times to post on LinkedIn are Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and noon and Thursdays at 10 a.m..

Yes, LinkedIn is a business and employment-focused platform, but it’s more than a job board and networking platform. LinkedIn provides a platform for professional storytelling and advocacy, from both employees and employers alike. Contributors of all levels can share their subject-matter expertise, create conversations that challenge business-as-usual and uplift professional voices around the world.

Businesses on LinkedIn are finding new ways to generate leads, find co-marketing partners, highlight company culture and attract talent. Because of these additional business opportunities LinkedIn provides, it makes sense that posting and engagement match with the business hours.

What is the best day and time to post on LinkedIn?

We know the best time to post on LinkedIn overall, but what about for each day of the week?

If you’re looking for the best day and time to post on LinkedIn, read the analysis below.

Best time to post on LinkedIn on Monday

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Mondays is between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Note that every weekday sees above-average engagement on LinkedIn on what matches the typical business workday.

Best time to post on LinkedIn on Tuesday

The best times to post on LinkedIn on Tuesdays are between 10 a.m. and noon. Tuesdays are one of the higher engagement days on LinkedIn compared to any other day of the week.

Best time to post on LinkedIn on Wednesday

The best times to post on LinkedIn on Wednesdays are 10 a.m. to noon., generally around the late morning and lunch hours.

Best time to post on LinkedIn on Thursday

The best times to post on LinkedIn on Thursdays are from at 10 a.m., but be ready to see above-average engagement between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., very similar to Wednesday.

Best time to post on LinkedIn on Friday

The hours that are the best times to post on LinkedIn on Fridays are generally between 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., very similar to Monday’s hours.

Best time to post on LinkedIn on Saturday

The best time to post on X on Saturdays is between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. for light engagement. Due to the professional nature of the app, you’ll see less interactions with your content during the weekend.

Best time to post on LinkedIn on Sunday

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Sundays is between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. for any engagement. Saturdays on LinkedIn have less engagement throughout the day across most, if not all, social platforms.

Best times to post on LinkedIn for hospitals & healthcare

• Best times to post on LinkedIn for Hospitals & Healthcare:
  • Most weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., but especially
  • Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon
  • Thursdays from 2 to 4 p.m.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn for Hospitals & Healthcare: Weekdays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Hospitals & Healthcare: Weekends

Hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers use social media for more than navigating healthcare crises. Social media is used by hospitals and healthcare providers to educate the public, help patients feel more comfortable with healthcare visits and doctors’ appointments, promote their programs for aspiring physicians and establish themselves as pillars in the community.

The best times to post on LinkedIn for healthcare and hospitals saw a shift in hours that users are engaging with their content. Hospitals, healthcare and clinics see average to above average engagement concentrated to reflect the traditional workday, starting around 9 a.m. through around 6 p.m. Posting on LinkedIn weekdays during those times should result in positive engagement, but the best times to post on X for hospitals and healthcare are Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon and Thursdays 2 to 4 p.m. for peak engagement.

Hospital and healthcare social media resources

• A healthcare team’s guide to HIPAA compliance on social media
• The power of social listening for healthcare organizations
• How to realize the ROI of social media in healthcare
• Supporting HIPAA Compliance on social: a cheat sheet

Best times to post on LinkedIn for restaurants

• Best times to post on LinkedIn for Restaurants:
  • Wednesdays at 10 a.m. and from noon to 3 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 9 to 11 a.m.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn for Restaurants: Tuesdays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Restaurants: Weekends

Online orders and delivery service apps saw an increase in use over the last few years, innovating the way restaurants interact with their audiences. And restaurants saw over 2x more engagements on X than last year’s analysis. Target audience and platform goals factor into how businesses connect with their customers. Many restaurant businesses used LinkedIn to promote job fairs, individual employment positions, as well as panels at national industry conferences.

Those in the food and beverage restaurant industry see most of their engagement concentrated to the business hours during weekdays. The best times to post for restaurants on LinkedIn for peak engagement are generally Wednesdays from noon to 3 p.m. and Thursdays from 9 to 11 a.m.

Restaurant social media resources

• Franchise Marketing Guide: Social Media Best Practices for Franchisors and Franchisees
• Social Spotlight: How Tim Hortons puts people first in its social strategy
• How Classic Culinary Brand America’s Test Kitchen Connects With New Consumers

Best times to post on LinkedIn for schools & education

• Best times to post on LinkedIn for Schools & Education:
  • Tuesdays at 11 a.m.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn for Schools & Education:
  • Tuesdays and Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Schools & Education:
  • Sundays

Universities, higher education institutions and schools saw an increased engagement on LinkedIn compared to last year. The 134,000 schools listed on LinkedIn might manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet these needs and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time.

Opportunities for engagement are concentrated to a traditional business during weekdays, and virtually nonexistent over the weekends. Most days on LinkedIn see above average engagement between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. However, there was on specific time that appears to be the best time to post on LinkedIn for education and schools: Tuesdays at 11 a.m.

From highlighting student life to sharing school updates, a social media strategy for schools needs to fulfill various purposes: from engaging with students past, present and future, to keeping a pulse on brand health.

Schools and education social media resources

• 15 ways to use social media for education
• University branding: How to build your school’s brand on social media
• Higher ed playbook: Using social to unite your university

Best times to post on LinkedIn for travel & hospitality

• Best times to post on LinkedIn for Travel & Hospitality:
  • Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from noon to 4 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m.
• Best days to post on LinkedIn for Travel & Hospitality: Tuesdays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Travel & Hospitality: Saturdays and Sundays

Travel and hospitality industries shifted their concentration on LinkedIn to reflect a traditional business day; a trend that seemed to happen across most industries on LinkedIn.

The best times to post on LinkedIn for travel and hospitality are Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesdays from noon to 4 p.m., and Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m.

Travel and hospitality social media resources

• Social media and hospitality: How 3 brands are serving 5-star experiences
• Sprout Social helps keep NJ TRANSIT’s social strategy on track
• How Loews Hotels & Co succeeds at scale with Sprout Social’s all-in-one platform
• How to set up a travel social media marketing strategy

How to find your own best times to post on LinkedIn

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. And as platforms evolve, how brands and consumers use social will evolve with them, or vice versa. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways, or even find new segments and personas you weren’t focusing on before.

How to find your best time to post on LinkedIn with Analytics

While you may be ready to jump in and post at these provided peak engagement times as part of your strategy, consider pairing this data with your own LinkedIn data analysis. You may discover that your specific target audience is active near the peak times we’ve outlined or hours earlier. If you use a LinkedIn analytics tool, it should contain a host of relevant data.

To find your best times to post with native LinkedIn Analytics for your LinkedIn business page, follow these steps:

1. Login to LinkedIn and go to your LinkedIn business page admin view.
2. Click on Analytics.*
3. In the Analytics tab, select which metrics you want to view: Content, Visitors, Followers, Leads, Competitors or Employee Advocacy.

* Note: Only users with Admin or Analyst roles assigned to them for the business page can access page Analytics.

How to find your best time to post on LinkedIn with Sprout Social

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your own analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different factors like post author or types of content, and drill down into how your posting time influenced your social success.

Sprout’s patented ViralPost® technology uses the same data we’ve used to look at all our customer accounts to determine the best time to post tailored for your individual account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in all plans. Our proprietary machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

With Optimal Send Times, the specific times offered are based on when your own audience engages the most using your publishing history. ViralPost® also continually updates and refines to save you time from doing the repeated analysis yourself and allowing you more time to craft great content.

Want to see it in action? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social or request a personalized demo and try it for yourself.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

• Best times to post on Social Media 2024
• Best times to post on Facebook 2024
• Best times to post on Instagram 2024
• Best times to post on TikTok 2024
• Best times to post on Twitter 2024

The post Best times to post on LinkedIn in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

With the help of our Data Science team, we analyzed nearly 2 billion social media engagements across 400,000 social profiles across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok and X. And even more, we’re able to provide an analysis of when the best time to post on Facebook is.

As the third most visited website worldwide after Google and YouTube, and boasting nearly 3 billion monthly active users, there’s no denying the power of Facebook. Because of the large engagement opportunity, it’s important to understand how posting on Facebook at the right times will benefit your social media content strategy.

Learn how to identify your best times to post on Facebook with a free trial of Sprout Social and test our ViralPost® feature.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social include users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded globally (not by Central Time), meaning you should be able to publish with the times provided in any timezone and see positive engagement results. Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times. We recommend testing with your own accounts to find the most optimal send times.

When is the best time to post on Facebook?

• Mondays from 9 a.m. to noon
• Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
• Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
• Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
• Fridays from 9 to 11 a.m.
• Best days to post on Facebook: Mondays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Facebook: Sundays

It’s true: Facebook is still the most used platform by marketers worldwide at 89%, and by monthly active users at 3.05 billion (yes, billion). The impact Facebook has on our social media use as consumers and marketers is still ever present. Compared to last year, high engagement periods on Facebook are still within mid-mornings during weekdays and matching general business hours.

Optimal send times for Facebook are Mondays through Fridays starting mostly at 9 a.m. until early afternoon, generally 2 p.m. What does this mean for marketers? Most users are taking a quick break in their routines for Facebook, making it the best time to schedule posts for target audiences to interact with.

With a solid Facebook marketing strategy, businesses connect with the right audiences with their content, whether it’s keeping audiences informed of products or sharing access to exclusive deals. Remember, engagement is a combination of how often you post on social media and what content types you post.

What are the best days and times to post on Facebook?

We know the best time to post on Facebook overall, but what about for each day of the week?

If you’re looking for the best day and time to post on Facebook, read the analysis below.

Best times to post on Facebook on Mondays

The best time to post on Facebook on Mondays is from 9 a.m. to noon. While there’s decent engagement from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the optimal send and engagement times are those few hours before lunch.

Best times to post on Facebook on Tuesdays

The best time to post on Facebook on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and again at 5 p.m., even though there’s notable engagement throughout the entire business day.

Best times to post on Facebook on Wednesdays

The best times to post on Facebook on Wednesdays are from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and again at 5 p.m., making   this one of the most active days for publishing on the app.

Best times to post on Facebook on Thursdays

Similar to Wednesdays, the best times to post on Facebook on Thursdays are from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and again at 5 p.m.

Best times to post on Facebook on Fridays

The best times to post on Facebook on Fridays are from 9 and 11 a.m., showing that users are transitioning into the weekend mindset. Although, the entire workday still sees user engagement on the app.

Best times to post on Facebook on Saturdays

The best time to post on Facebook on Saturdays is between 8 and 11 a.m., in relation to the rest of the day. Generally speaking, we’ve noticed that Saturdays have less engagement during the reset of the week across most social platforms. Even with Facebook, there’s a significant decrease during the weekends than during weekdays.

Best times to post on Facebook on Sundays

In relation to the day itself, the best time to post on Facebook on Sundays is 9 to 11 a.m. Similar to Saturdays, we’ve noticed Sundays have less engagement throughout the day across most, if not all, social platforms.

Best times to post on Facebook for hospitals & healthcare

• Best times to post on Facebook for Hospitals & Healthcare:
  • Most weekdays between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m., but especially:
    • Tuesdays from 5 to 7 p.m.
    • Wednesdays at 5 p.m.
    • Thursdays at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
• Best days to post on Facebook for Hospitals & Healthcare: Tuesdays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Facebook for Hospitals & Healthcare: Sundays

Hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers use social media for more than navigating healthcare crises. Social media is used by hospitals and healthcare providers to educate the public, help patients feel more comfortable with healthcare visits and doctors’ appointments, promote their programs for aspiring physicians and establish themselves as pillars in the community.

The best time to post on Facebook for healthcare and hospitals is more concentrated than last year. Most weekdays see solid engagement around 9 a.m. on weekdays. Yet, peak posting times on Facebook for hospitals are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 5 p.m.

Hospital and healthcare social media resources

• A healthcare team’s guide to HIPAA compliance on social media
• The power of social listening for healthcare organizations
• How to realize the ROI of social media in healthcare
• Supporting HIPAA Compliance on social: a cheat sheet

Best times to post on Facebook for restaurants

• Best times to post on Facebook for Restaurants:
  • Mondays at 11 a.m.
  • Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Fridays at 11 a.m.
• Best days to post on Facebook for Restaurants: Most weekdays, especially Tuesdays and Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on Facebook for Restaurants: Sundays

Online orders and delivery service apps saw an increase in use over the last few years, innovating the way restaurants interact with their audiences. And restaurants saw nearly 2x more engagements on Facebook than last year’s analysis.

Those in the food and beverage restaurant industry see consistent engagement between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. almost every single day, especially weekdays. The best times to post for restaurants on Facebook though are just before or around lunchtime: Mondays at 11 a.m., Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Fridays at 11 a.m.

Different networks offer a unique way for businesses to connect with their customers. Offering unique promotions and updates suited for each social platform will keep your restaurant in mind for potential customers.

Restaurant social media resources

• Franchise Marketing Guide: Social Media Best Practices for Franchisors and Franchisees
• Social Spotlight: How Tim Hortons puts people first in its social strategy
• How Classic Culinary Brand America’s Test Kitchen Connects With New Consumers

Best times to post on Facebook for schools & education

• Best times to post on Facebook for Schools & Education:
  • Mondays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Fidays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Saturdays from 9 to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.
  • Sundays at 9 a.m.
• Best days to post on Facebook for Schools & Education:
  • All weekdays, especially Wednesdays through Friday
• Worst days to post on Facebook for Schools & Education:
  • Sundays

Universities, higher education institutions and schools saw a significant increase in high engagement times on Facebook compared to last year’s analysis. Keep in mind that some schools manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet these needs and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time. 

High opportunities for engagement for schools reflect a traditional workweek. Mondays through Fridays from either 9 or 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. are the best times to post on Facebook for schools and education institutions. Don’t discredit the weekend either: Saturdays from 9 to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., and Sundays at 9 a.m. saw significant engagement for this industry.

From highlighting student life to sharing school updates, a social media strategy for schools needs to fulfill various purposes: from engaging with students past, present and future, to keeping a pulse on brand health.

Schools and education social media resources

• 15 ways to use social media for education
• University branding: How to build your school’s brand on social media
• Higher ed playbook: Using social to unite your university

Best times to post on Facebook for travel & hospitality

• Best times to post on Facebook for Travel & Hospitality:
  • Mondays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Saturdays from 8 to 11 a.m.
  • Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Best days to post on Facebook for Travel & Hospitality: Tuesdays through Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Facebook for Travel & Hospitality: Fridays

Travel and hospitality industries saw a concentrated shift for engagement on Facebook. Compared to the year prior, hospitality businesses pivoted their strategies as the post-pandemic spike in travel continues, and they saw a return on their efforts throughout most of the day.

The best times to post on Facebook for travel and hospitality brands are most every day: Mondays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Tuesdays through Thursdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Weekends also see some significant engagement on Saturdays from 8 to 11 a.m. and Sundays 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

In general, on Facebook, there is significant engagement midday nearly every day of the week for travel and hospitality, as people are preparing for their weekend destinations.

Travel and hospitality social media resources

• Social media and hospitality: How 3 brands are serving 5-star experiences
• Sprout Social helps keep NJ TRANSIT’s social strategy on track
• How Loews Hotels & Co succeeds at scale with Sprout Social’s all-in-one platform
• How to set up a travel social media marketing strategy
• How to manage multiple social media accounts

How to find your own best times to post on social media

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. And as platforms evolve, how brands and consumers use social will evolve with them, or vice versa. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways, or even find new segments and personas you weren’t focusing on before.

How to find your best time to post on Facebook with Insights

While you may be ready to jump in and post at these provided peak engagement times as part of your strategy, consider pairing this data with your own Facebook data analysis. You may discover that your specific target audience is active at different times.

To find your best times to post with Facebook Insights, follow these steps:

1. On either mobile or desktop, log into your Facebook Page account (not personal profile).
2. In the top right corner, click on your profile picture (you may see the three horizontal lines on mobile) and select Professional dashboard.
3. To find all posts published within a specific time frame, select:
   1. Content (on desktop).
   2. Insights (on mobile).
4. To find your Facebook posts with the highest engagement on desktop:
   1. Adjust the time span filter from the last 90, 60, 28 or 7 days.
   2. Adjust the sorting filter by Engagement
   3. Your most engaged post will appear in descending order.
5. To find your Facebook posts with the highest engagement on mobile:
   1. Select See all next to Performance then Engagement
   2. Scroll to Recent Content and select See all.
   3. Similar to desktop, you can filter the date range and by Engagement.
6. With this list, check your top engaged posts and find trends with the day, time and content types (e.g., text only, image, video).

How to find your best time to post on Facebook with Sprout Social

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different factors like post author or types of content, and drill down into how your posting time influenced your social success.

Sprout’s patented ViralPost® technology uses the same data we’ve used to look at all our customer accounts to determine the best time to post tailored for your account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in all plans. Our proprietary  machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

With Optimal Send Times, the specific times offered are based on when your audience engages the most using your publishing history. ViralPost® also continually updates and refines to save you time from doing the repeated analysis and allowing you more time to craft great content.

Want to see it in action? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social or request a personalized demo and try it for yourself.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

• Best times to post on Social Media 2024
• Best times to post on Instagram 2024
• Best times to post on LinkedIn 2024
• Best times to post on TikTok 2024
• Best times to post on Twitter 2024

The post Best times to post on Facebook 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Remember: with Instagram as a discovery platform of trends, brands, products or services, it’s important to get high-quality photos and content in front of potential consumers’ eyes at the right time.

Learn how to identify your best times to post on Instagram with a free trial of Sprout Social and test our ViralPost® feature.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social include users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded globally (not by Central Time), meaning you should be able to publish with the times provided in any timezone and see positive engagement results. Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times. We recommend testing with your own accounts to find the most optimal send times.

When is the best time to post on Instagram in 2024?

• Best times to post on Instagram:
  • Mondays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.
  • Fridays at 11 a.m.
• Best days to post on Instagram: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram: Sundays

Where Facebook was the most-used platform by marketers worldwide, Instagram comes in second at 80%. Interestingly, Instagram ties with Facebook for the social media platforms that offer marketers the highest ROI at 29%. This is because social media continues to evolve with ecommerce and offering frictionless experiences to users. And even though the competition for short-form video between Instagram and TikTok continues to heat up, Reels still generate more likes and saves than static Instagram posts.

The best times to post on Instagram are weekdays generally between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., with Tuesdays and Wednesdays engagement times extending to 4 p.m. We recommend scheduling posts Tuesdays through Thursdays between 10 and and 3 p.m. for optimal engagement. It’s wise to test these benchmarks against your current metrics too.

Instagram has grown a long way since its photo-only days. The app, which has 2 billion monthly active users, is a platform to share images, videos, Reels and live streams, just to name a few creative content types. It is also an avenue to collaborate and partner with other brands and provides a stream of revenue through its ecommerce capabilities.

The Instagram algorithm is unpredictable. To be successful on the platform is a balance of consistently posting high-quality content that will engage and entertain your audiences. That’s a lot to ask for with each piece of content published. But using that as a guiding post can help with your Instagram marketing strategy.

Best times to post on Instagram for hospitals & healthcare

• Best times to post on Instagram for Hospitals & Healthcare:
  • Mondays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Fridays from 11 a..m. to 3 p.m.
• Best days to post on Instagram for Hospitals & Healthcare: Tuesdays through Fridays
• Worst days to post on Instagram for Hospitals & Healthcare: Sundays

Hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers use social media for more than navigating healthcare crises. Social media is used by hospitals and healthcare providers to educate the public, help patients feel more comfortable with healthcare visits and doctors’ appointments, promote their programs for aspiring physicians and establish themselves as pillars in the community.

The best times to post on Instagram for healthcare and hospitals nearly tripled compared to the year prior. Hospitals, healthcare and clinics see average to above average engagement every day starting at 8 a.m. through most of the day, as late as 10 p.m. However, the best times to post on Instagram for hospitals and healthcare are predominantly Mondays through Fridays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. For more specific time frames, see the table above.

Hospital and healthcare social media resources

• A healthcare team’s guide to HIPAA compliance on social media
• The power of social listening for healthcare organizations
• How to realize the ROI of social media in healthcare
• Supporting HIPAA Compliance on social: a cheat sheet

Best times to post on Instagram for restaurants

• Best times to post on Instagram for Restaurants:
  • Mondays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Fridays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Best days to post on Instagram for Restaurants: Weekdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram for Restaurants: Weekends

Online orders and delivery service apps saw an increase in use over the last few years, innovating the way restaurants interact with their audiences. And restaurants saw over 2x more engagements on Instagram than last year’s analysis. Target audience and platform goals factor into how businesses connect with their customers, such as offering unique promotions or updates.

Those in the food and beverage restaurant industry see most of their engagement concentrated to the lunch hour during weekdays. The best times to post for restaurants on Instagram are Mondays through Fridays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., generally.

Restaurant social media resources

• Franchise Marketing Guide: Social Media Best Practices for Franchisors and Franchisees
• Social Spotlight: How Tim Hortons puts people first in its social strategy
• How Classic Culinary Brand America’s Test Kitchen Connects With New Consumers

Best times to post on Instagram for schools & education

• Best times to post on Instagram for Schools & Education:
  • Wednesdays from 2 to 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.
• Best days to post on Instagram for Schools & Education:
  • Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram for Schools & Education:
  • Sundays

Universities, higher education institutions and schools saw a significant increase in high engagement times on Instagram compared to last year’s analysis. Keep in mind that some schools manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet these needs and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time. 

High opportunities for engagement for schools reflect a typical school day plus evening hours. Mondays through Fridayys see consistent engagement from 10 a.m. until about 6 p.m. However, the hours with the highest engagement and therefore the best time to post on Instagram for schools are Wednesdays from 2 to 4 p.m. and again at 9 p.m.

From highlighting student life to sharing school updates, a social media strategy for schools needs to fulfill various purposes: from engaging with students past, present and future, to keeping a pulse on brand health.

Schools and education social media resources

• 15 ways to use social media for education
• University branding: How to build your school’s brand on social media
• Higher ed playbook: Using social to unite your university

Best times to post on Instagram for travel & hospitality

• Best times to post on Instagram for Travel & Hospitality:
  • Wednesdays from noon to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
  • Sundays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Best days to post on Instagram for Travel & Hospitality:
  • Wednesdays and Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram for Travel & Hospitality:
  • None; all days receive moderate engagement

Travel and hospitality industries once again doubled their engagement on Instagram relative to last year. Hospitality businesses pivoted their strategies as the post-pandemic spike in travel continues, and they saw a return on their efforts throughout most of the day.

The best times to post on Instagram for travel and hospitality businesses saw average engagement between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. nearly every single day of the week. However, two days saw the highest engagement and are the best times to post on Instagram for travel and hospitality: Wednesdays from noon to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Travel and hospitality social media resources

• Social media and hospitality: How 3 brands are serving 5-star experiences
• Sprout Social helps keep NJ TRANSIT’s social strategy on track
• How Loews Hotels & Co succeeds at scale with Sprout Social’s all-in-one platform
• How to set up a travel social media marketing strategy
• How to manage multiple social media accounts

How to find your own best times to post on Instagram

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. And as platforms evolve, how brands and consumers use social will evolve with them, or vice versa. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways, or even find new segments and personas you weren’t focusing on before.

How to find your best time to post on Instagram with Insights

While you may be ready to jump in and post at these provided peak engagement times as part of your strategy, consider pairing this data with your own Instagram analytics. You may discover that your specific target audience is active at different times.

If you have a creator or business account already, find your best times to post with Instagram Insights following these steps:

• From your profile, tap ≡ in the top right corner.
• Tap Insights.
• Tap the metrics underneath the Overview section or specific content you’ve shared for more details. From here, tap Total Followers and scroll to see their most active times.

How to find your best time to post on Instagram with Sprout Social

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different factors like post author or types of content, and drill down into how your posting time influenced your social success.

Sprout’s patented ViralPost® technology uses the same data we’ve used to look at all our customer accounts to determine the best time to post tailored for your account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in all plans. Our proprietary machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

With Optimal Send Times, the specific times offered are based on when your audience engages the most using your publishing history. ViralPost® also continually updates and refines to save you time from doing the repeated analysis and allowing you more time to craft great content.

Want to see it in action? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social or request a personalized demo and try it for yourself.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

• Best times to post on Social Media 2024
• Best times to post on Facebook 2024
• Best times to post on LinkedIn 2024
• Best times to post on TikTok 2024
• Best times to post on Twitter 2024

The post Best times to post on Instagram in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.