So you’ve written a relevant and informative blog post with the right keywords for your audience and you want to make sure as many eyes see it as possible. What’s next? You need to promote it. Yes, that’s right. We’re not living in the field of dreams here. Just because you write it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will come walking out of a stand of corn to read your brilliant blog post.
Maybe you’ve been promoting your posts already using social media and your email newsletter. Excellent work! If you’re not seeing the engagement and traffic that you’d like, perhaps you need to take a look at the timing of your promotion on social media. When it comes to social media, when you post is as important as what you post and where you post it. Here are a few social media tools that you can use to help you figure out when your fans and followers are online so that you might reach them at the right time.
Facebook Insights
Facebook Insights offers useful data that tells you when your fans are online. Just look for the “Insights” on the admin panel, i.e. the column on the lefthand side. You can find a lot of helpful information there, but to find out when your fans are online, click on “Posts” from the overview page and you’ll see the times for “When Your Fans Are Online.”
Tweriod for Twitter
Tweriod helps you find the best time to tweet for your target audience. You can use analytics for your own tweets as well as your followers’ tweets. Tweriod also connects directly to Buffer, which will schedule your tweets at ideal times based on what the data says.
CircleCount for Google+
CircleCount analyzes your activity and engagement around your updates in order to tell you the best times to post on Google+. It also offers an excellent way to track the effectiveness of your content.
Google Analytics for LinkedIn
Google Analytics has a relatively simple process that allows you to determine the best days and times to be active on LinkedIn. Check out the video below for detailed instructions. Note that if you have a set schedule for posting on LinkedIn, your results will be biased toward that time, so you’ll need to set up a testing period and publish throughout the day for 7, 14 or 30 days before you run the analytics report described in the video.
Tailwind for Pinterest
In addition to using Tailwind to find the best time to add your pins, it can be used to see which pins are trending, top repinners, influential followers and who’s sharing your content the most. You can link your account with Google Analytics to track click-throughs that lead to sales.
Fannit created a helpful infographic that offers, in general, the best times to post. We’re sharing these with the HUGE caveat that they are general guidelines that won’t always apply to your audience. Remember to cross-reference these times with the best times you find for your readers, fans and followers using the tools we’ve offered above.
Blogs
Best times: Monday, Friday and Saturday at 11:00am
Worst times: 11:00pm–8:00am
Facebook
Best times: Weekdays: 6:00–8:00am, 2:00–5:00pm
Worst times: Weekends 10:00pm–4:00am
Twitter
Best times: Weekends 1:00–3:00 pm
Worst times: 8:00pm–8:00am
Google+
Best times: 9:00–11:00am
Worst times: 6:00pm–7:00am
LinkedIn
Best times: 7:00–8:30am, 5:00–6:00pm
Worst times: Monday and Friday, 9:00am–5:00pm
Pinterest
Best times: Saturday 2:00–4:00pm, 8:00–11:00pm
Worst times: 1:00–7:00am, 5:00–7:00pm
One more time, with feeling: it’s crucial to research and test what timing works with your target audience. If you’re a B2B company, the best times to promote your business blog posts on social media may well be quite different from those of a B2C company. Luckily, there are plenty of free social media tools available to help make your job easier.
Are there other free and inexpensive tools that you find pivotal to the promotion of your business blog posts on social media? Have you had a great success in the promotion of your blog posts? Please share your suggestions and experiences in the comments section.
Contact Filament if you have any questions about creating a content strategy that will light up your online presence.
