We often put so much of efforts into creating and posting our Instagram posts to get the attention of our followers. But imagine not getting enough of that attention on our posts despite putting our best efforts into it. It hurts right? Carl Lewis once said, “Life is all about timing”. And same is the case with Instagram as well, your greatest post can go waste if your timing is not right. There’s always best and worst time to post on Instagram. Sure, there are many people on this platform who casually post anything at anytime they want. But that’s because they are not looking to grow their presence on Instagram. But if you are the one who dreams of growing on Instagram then read on this article to know about the worst time to post on Instagram where you’ll be getting lowest engagement.
There’s lots of information about the best time to post on Instagram but lets’ talk about the reverse of this topic. Please know that to get successful on social media, experimentation is key. May be someone’s peak time is your worst time and someone’s worst time is your peak time giving you highest rate of engagement. So to increase the chances of you being seen to most of the people, keep on trying at different time intervals and with the help of Instagram insights feature, know your best and worst time. Now without any ado, lets’ dive right into more information about the worst time to post on Instagram.
Why Instagram?
The first question that comes in our mind is why should we use Instagram. There are so many social media platforms available like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. so why should we bother about Instagram anyways. Well that’s because Instagram is one of the most popular social media platform with over 1 billion active users on a monthly basis. This platform keeps on growing at a rapid pace. Be it bloggers, influencers, celebrities, politicians, brands, businesses, businessmen, etc. all of them are actively using this platform on a daily basis.
Every year Instagram is setting new records in terms of its popularity with its impressive growth. It is roughly divided into 3 categories of people, first who are using it for themselves, second who are using it for their friends and third who are using it to make profit out of this platform. And trust me when I say profit, I mean it in huge numbers. Millions and thousands of people are earning high amount of money out of this platform. It is more than just a photo sharing network as its also one of the most business friendly platforms that we have today.
Now that I have stated why you should use Instagram, lets’ come straight to our main topic “The Worst Time to Post on Instagram”.
What Does Worst Time Mean?
Before talking about the main topic, it is very important for us to explain you what does worst time on Instagram actually mean. If we put it in simple words then it means, the time when your audience is least active on this platform.
What is least active? It is the time when your audience is not in action or completely inactive on this platform. It depends on number of factors including your audience demographics, age, gender, etc. This is where you can check your Insights to know when your audience is least active to make proper posting schedule and get high rate of engagement.
Below I am sharing few points to make you understand a bit more about worst timing on Instagram:
- Despite we have a desktop version of Instagram, it still remains and designed mainly as a mobile application. So what is it like to post on the worst time on Instagram is when majority of your followers don’t have access to their smartphones or rather they are busy in their work on PC.
- The post that appears in one’s news feed aren’t chronologically ranked. Owing to the ever changing Instagram algorithms, it shows those contents mostly in the news feed that is most relevant and as per the interest of the Instagram users. This relevancy is usually based on certain factors like user’s activity on Instagram, what their preferences are (based on their hashtags), and their relationship with the creator of that content. Then again, the worst thing to post on Instagram would be to not cater to any of these factors we’ve mentioned and post anyways.
- One of the best thing about Instagram is that most of its users are youth. They are people from eighteen to thirty five in age. So, choosing that timeframe when most of the people from this age range is busiest would be your worst timing to post on Instagram.
What are the Worst Time to Post on Instagram?
According to many studies conducted by many Instagram experts, the worst time to post on Instagram is Sunday. This is the day most of the IG users are least active. In general, weekends are the worst time to post on Instagram as posting on these days will get you the lowest engagement rates on your posts.
And when we talk about those specific timeframes when you’d want to avoid posting on weekdays is between 3pm-4pm. This is the time when most of the people are busy in their work so they might not have any time to browse Instagram posts. Below I am sharing few general trends related to worst timings that are worth noting for you:
- Weekends are usually very slow on Instagram. Because many people prefer to relax at their home with their family or friends, some likes to party or like to stay out with nature enjoying the best of their times.
- If you have to post on Instagram on weekends, early morning are the worst timeframe you can choose to post your content.
- On weekdays, afternoon are considered as the worst time to post on Instagram.
These few points shared above are what most people have said about the worst timings and they are not wrong as well. One can consider these points before posting on Instagram. Also, this is what makes it very important for users to monitor their analytics as well to know about their peak or worst time.
Days of the week
Now that we’ve talked about in general the worst timings for Instagram posts, lets’ talk individually as days of the week. Below I’ve shared detailed information on each day of the week that you should keep in mind before posting on Instagram:
Monday
The most hectic and crazy day of the whole week is Monday. People go to work after a relaxing weekend and so most of the users don’t have time to use Instagram around 8am-10am. This time is what you should probably avoid posting anything on Instagram.
Tuesday
Many users tend to stay active on Instagram on Tuesday. But you try not to post anything during late night on Tuesday to avoid the worst time of the day.
Wednesday
Wednesday is also quite similar to Tuesday where people remain active for longer time. But if you don’t want your content to be lost, try not to post from 5pm-8pm on this day.
Thursday
The user activity remains pretty much the same like above. But the worst timeframes to post on are 8am or post 8pm.
Friday
Friday nights are famous for relaxation after a long tiring day so the user activity on the day is at its lowest. 4pm to 10pm is the worst time to post on Instagram.
Saturday
Now this is the day when Instagram goes down and from 1pm on, the user activity is almost next to nothing.
Sunday
Sunday is also known as Lazy Insta day. You shouldn’t really look for your audience’s attention on Sunday.
So these are the timeframes when you should be avoiding to post on Instagram on weekdays and weekends. There might be some fluctuations but usually the timeframes are more or less the same.
Time Zone
Time Zone is another factor one should consider to know about the worst time of posting on Instagram. It is important to learn at what time zone your audience are live. This is because one should know when they can interact with their audience as that will be the time they will be available for browsing Instagram. Also, by learning more about the demographical distribution of your audience, you’ll adapt to publish your contents accordingly.
In case you are not sure of your audience’s stats, check the Instagram insights to gain deeper knowledge of their time zone, demographics, age, gender and plan accordingly.
Peak Timings
Now that we’ve learned so much about the worst timing on Instagram for post, let’s talk about the best timings to post on Instagram:
- The best time to post on various days are as:
Monday- 11am
Tuesday- 7pm
Wednesday- 11am, 1pm and 3 pm
Thursday- 10am and 1pm
Friday- 10 am and 11 am
Saturday- 11 am and 1 pm
Sunday- Try not to post on this day
- Best day for posting- Thursday
- Highest rate of engagement- On Tuesday to Friday from 9 am to 6pm
- Posting at early mornings from Tuesday to Friday is also good and provides high rate of engagement as many people like to scroll their Instagram as soon as they wake up.
- Weekdays- 11am-3pm is a great timing to post as people go on lunch during this time so the chances of them using Instagram during this time is quite high.
- So try out different timings and see which day or what time is best for your posts, giving you high rate of engagement on your posts.
Conclusion
So this is all about the worst timing to post on Instagram. No matter what time you choose, make sure that you are regular on Instagram with posting as being irregular with your posts can make your engagement rate quite lower. To be regular with your posts, you can schedule your posts on automation so it will be posted without you having to post it every time. Hope you like all these recommendations and get the best result out of it. If you still have any query related to it then you can ask us via the comment section given below. We will try to answer as soon as possible.
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