When is the Best Time to Tweet?

When it comes to the world of Twitter, narrowing down the best time to tweet depends heavily on your desired outcome—whether it’s visibility, clicks or engagement. A social media science study by Buffer analyzed 4.8 million tweets across 10,000 profiles to provide some insight into when your 140 characters have the best chance of taking flight.

Some statistics vary across different time zones. The findings below are based on data from the Eastern Standard time zone, where about 50% of the U.S. population resides.

Do You Just Want Your Tweet to Be Seen?

Post during a popular time for users to be online. Twitter traffic peaks from 12:00–1:00 p.m., according to the Buffer study. Your tweets will receive greater exposure in this hour slot, but beware the influx of tweets will make it more difficult for yours to stand out enough for users to engage with it.

Are You Aiming for Clicks?

Buffer discovered that tweets sent between 2:00–3:00 a.m. earn the most clicks on average. However, a HubSpot study found that tweets from B2B businesses perform 16% better during business hours. For more click-throughs from this population, tweet between 5:00–6:00 p.m., a non-peak time that correlates with the day winding down and the evening commute home.

Or, Are You Chasing Likes, Retweets & Replies?

In the same study, Buffer reports that the smallest amount of engagement occurs during traditional work hours. B2B companies may work around this by tweeting during breaks in the work schedule, typically during 12:00–3:00 p.m. and 5:00–6:00 p.m.

Many social aggregation tools—including Hootsuite, Hubspot, Buffer and Sprinklr—have an auto schedule feature that uses an algorithm to determine when your company’s followers are most responsive based on past engagement. Experiment with this feature in your aggregation tool and the data above to refine your approach as you learn more about how your tweets perform.