3W Explains: Social Media - Part 1: A Question of Time
Social Media has never been short of attention, but the launch of Google+ has helped keep the spotlight firmly trained on the arena. As part of our year-long series of education pieces, we couldn't avoid the subject for long. Recently, however, we have been having some second thoughts about what social media is and what it might be good for. Google+ received a great deal of praise from early adoptors, and yet I have an account and right now, to my mind, it's pretty boring in there. How might it play a role in the future in terms of corporate and business communication? That remains to be seen.
In the meantime, use of the, dare we say, 'traditional' social media tools like Facebook and Twitter continues unabated. Do you have a coherent social media plan? Is it working? Here's one aspect of your plan to review and consider: when to post.
KissMetrics always do a great job of sourcing data and churning out lovely infographics. A 3-part set on social media timing caught my eye, and is worth a little digestion. Consider, for example,
what time it is.
The key points are:
- 50% of the US population is on eastern time.
- 80% is eastern or central.
- Most retweets happen right at 5pm EST. Facebook's prime time is noon.
Don't tweet more than 4 times an hour - you'll become a nuisance. Once every 2 days is enough for Facebook. Sadly for those of us who like to keep 'regular' work hours, tweeting on the weekends is a good thing. The biggest day on Facebook by far is Saturday. Is your organization posting over the weekend?
Compare this to blogs, the great-grandaddy of social media tools. Most blogs are read in the morning, with Monday being the prime day (11am specifically). Interestingly, people hold their comments all week until Saturday. (You would think some of them would be more well thought out in that case.)
Finally, look at the
same sort of data for email marketing. Conventional wisdom has always been to avoid Mondays and Fridays - their minds are either only half in or already half out of the door. The data is less clear cut than the previous examples, because of the inter-related nature of the data. The better times for open rates and click-thrus are also the times for highest unsubscribe rates and abuse reports. Certainly avoid the dead zone of 10pm to 6am, but it's best if you can catch people when they log on, take lunch or are logging off at the end of the day.
Using this data, it is possible to suggest the following sample social media week:
Mon
|
Tues
|
Wed
|
Thur
|
Fri
|
Sat
|
Sun
|
Blog in the morning
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Email around lunchtime
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Tweet at 5pm
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Facebook after 5
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Tweet from Happy Hour
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Facebook at lunchtime
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Pre-Tweet about your blog
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How does that compare to your current social media habits? The question of timing could mean a huge difference in the effectiveness of the message.
