Imagine if you didn’t need to guess what time is the best for getting maximum clicks and engagement for your business on twitter. No doubt, this is valuable information that we are constantly in search of, hoping to discover the best ways to utilize social media in terms of length, frequency and timing. Through Buffer, we’ve been given an insight to the timing aspect of social media, gathered from over 2 million Buffer users. The results we found came from analyzing over 4.8 million tweets across 10,000 profiles and recording clicks and engagement throughout the day during different time zones.
We discovered that early mornings are the best time for tweets in order to get clicks. For total engagement with your audience through tweets, evenings and late night are the best times.
Here is an overview of the most popular times to tweet:
- 12 to 1 pm local time (on average for each time zone)
- The highest volume of tweets occurs between 11 am to 1 pm
- The fewest tweets are sent between 3:00 and 4:00 am
The following is a chart for the most popular tweet times around the world from 10 major time zones:
The following is a graph of the most popular times to tweet in each of the four major U.S Time Zones:
Major time zones in Europe and Africa are seen in the following chart:
The following chart represents major time zones in Asia and Australia:
Here’s a summary of the most popular hours for the top 10 major time zones:
Los Angeles and San Francisco (Pacific Time): 9:00 a.m.
Denver (Mountain Time): 12 pm
Chicago (Central Time): 12 pm
New York, Boston, Atlanta, Miami (Eastern Time): 12 pm
Madrid, Rome, Paris (Central European): 4:00 p.m.
Cape Town, Cairo, Helsinki (Eastern European): 8:00 p.m.
Sydney (Australian Eastern): 10:00 p.m.
Hong Kong (Hong Kong Time): 8:00 a.m.
Tokyo (Japan Time): 2:00 a.m.
Shanghai (China Time): 12 pm
What do the results mean?
The most popular posting times could be a result of various factors. The main reason is that these are the times in which most individuals have access to Twitter, via their mobile phones, tablets, work computers, etc. Essentially, these are the prime times where Twitter users are most heavily connected to Twitter.
While posting during peak times is one option, you can also be successful by posting at non-peak times when the volume of Tweets is lower. If you happen to have a large international following on Twitter, you could customize your posting times to match the local peak times in those regions. Different tools such as Crowdfire and Followerwonk can help you determine the different times that your audience is online.
When is the best time to tweet to get more clicks?
The data suggests that:
- Tweets sent between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. earn the most clicks on average
- The highest number of clicks per tweet occurs between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m
- The fewest clicks per tweet occur in the morning between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.
Below is a chart that represents the best times to tweet for clicks worldwide, using local time calculations for each time zone:
Below is a breakdown of the best time to tweet for clicks in each of the major time zones:
Los Angeles, San Francisco (Pacific Time): 2:00 a.m.
Denver (Mountain Time): 7:00 p.m.
Chicago (Central Time): 2:00 a.m.
New York, Boston, Atlanta, Miami (Eastern Time): 11:00 p.m.
Madrid, Rome, Paris, Berlin (Central European): 2:00 a.m.
Cape Town, Cairo, Istanbul (Eastern European): 8:00 p.m.
Sydney (Australian Eastern): 2:00 a.m.
Hong Kong (Hong Kong Time): 5:00 a.m.
Shanghai (China Time): 12 pm
Tokyo (Japan Time): 8:00 a.m.
Most Popular Hour to Tweet for Clicks (US Time zones)
One thing to remember is that a non-peak hour may occur at the same time as a peak-hour in another part of the world. When looking for the best time to tweet, remember that your Twitter audience is worldwide.
The Best Times for Tweets for Overall Engagement
What exactly is tweet engagement anyway? In respect to Twitter, we defined it as clicks plus retweets, favorites, and replies. When combining these interactions, we located the following trends to maximize tweet engagement:
- Tweets that are sent between 2:00 and 3:00 am have the most total average engagement
- The highest amount of engagement per tweet occurs between 11:00pm and 5:00 pm
- The lowest amount of engagement occurs between the traditional work hours of 9:00 and 5:00 pm.
The best times to Tweet for Favorites Worldwide:
As the data suggests, the best times to tweet for engagement are the opposite of the most popular times to tweet. Take a look at the Best Times to Tweet for Engagement for U.S Audiences:
A breakdown of the data shows that:
- Tweets sent out at 9:00pm earn the most retweets and favorites on average.
- The highest number of retweets and favorites occurs between 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.
- The lowest retweet and favorite engagement occurs at 3:00 a.m.
Thanks to Buffer, we now have an improved insight on workings of Twitter and its diversely interconnected network. This data can help improve the global outreach for Twitter users across the world, and give businesses a new edge in marketing their brands.
