I’ve been recommending PostPlanner to many of my clients (and friends) for months now.
If you don’t know what PostPlanner is, it’s a way to schedule, manage and measure updates on your Facebook Page (here’s a video tutorial).
They recently added a feature that allows you to quickly see what time of day is best for you to update your Page.
Now Facebook Insights does allow you to download a CSV file and figure this out manually, but it takes a while to prepare the data for analysis (date posted and time posted live in the same cell – yuk).
How to view the best posting time in PostPlanner
With PostPlanner, all you have to do is rank your updates by likes, comments and/or clicks to see what time of day seems to be most prevalent.
The following two screen shots shows what seems to work in terms of time of day:
Time of day is just one factor
I should mention here that there are many other factors that increase engagement. Here are the biggies:
- Is the content optimized for Facebook? Cross-posting the same content across multiple channels generally doesn’t work as well as understanding the culture and technology of each platform.
- Is it interesting? Your content has to be interesting to your fans (you don’t matter) for them to share it. Their homebase is the Newsfeed, which they scan.
- Is it relevant to your audience? Knowing your audience well is the number one rule for content marketing.
![Facebook Edgerank Explained by Batman and Robin [Infographic]](http://www.johnhaydon.com/wp-content/themes/headway-2013/media/cache/images/eplus-post-18091-leaf-164.gif)
![How To Post Smart And Successful Facebook Page Updates [Infographic]](http://www.johnhaydon.com/wp-content/themes/headway-2013/media/cache/images/eplus-post-17839-leaf-540.gif)
![The Nonprofit Marketing Personas Workbook [FREE DOWNLOAD]](http://www.johnhaydon.com/wp-content/themes/headway-2013/media/cache/images/eplus-post-17739-leaf-540.png)
A common response I get: “You mean I have to plan how to post on Facebook? Huh?” Awesome resource. Thanks.
Yeah, plans are often under-rated.
I like to plan when to plan…but that’s just me
Great idea, John. Thanks for pointing out this awesome resource.
Thanks Bill!
Hi, I’m sorry, but how do I get to this section of Post Planner? I’ve been looking for it for the past hour or so and still can’t find it. Is it only available for Branded Apps? Or can I check it with the Pro App?
Click the small icon to the right of your scheduled posts.
I still don’t see it. >< Right next to my planned posts? Is it available for Pro users?
Yes. The purple icon.
This is a load of rubbish! Don’t Americans realise that audiences are worldwide.
First, it depends upon the Page. And Insights will tell you that.
Second, leading with “This is a load of rubbish” is not a good way to win an argument or enter a healthy discussion.
What’s with winning arguments?
Wow. Talk about missing the point completely. Here’s an idea: If you have trouble with reading comprehension, perhaps it’s best to not make snarky, obnoxious comments.
Pity you missed the point completely but let me help you. My comment is not about Post Planner, PP has some good stuff. It’s about
“PostPlanner tells you instantly what time of day to post on your Facebook Page”
Explain to me how this is useful outside your own time zone.
Here’s a clue …
Think about when a post is read, not when it’s sent.
It’s great to have your pity bestowed upon the commenters here. Please come back again soon! We need as much pity as we can get!
It’s great to have your pity bestowed upon the commenters here. Please come back again soon! We need as much pity as we can get!
I see that you’re still not getting it.
The recommendations that PostPlanner makes ARE based on the times a post is read, not when it’s sent. I should think that that much is obvious.
Also obvious is that the times listed in PostPlanner are local to the sender, but reflect GLOBAL activity around a particular post. I’m not sure how else you would propose to handle it, but listing the times local to the sender seems to me to be pretty much necessary for one to know what the hell is going on.
As John Haydon pointed out, different Facebook pages have different audiences. Let’s assume for a moment that you have a page with a global audience, straddling all time zones.
You could use PostPlanner to track the performance of posts published X times per day (spread over a 24 hour period) over a course of several weeks.
After a time you’ll garner insight into which precise times are better for engaging your audiences around the globe.
Do I really need to point out that, when looking at whether 3 AM or 5 AM New York ET is better, you’re NOT looking at a New York ET local time audience, but rather one that’s mid-afternoon in the Far East, early to mid-morning in the UK, etc.?
In other words, if PostPlanner tells you that posts published at your local time of 5 AM New York ET do well engagement-wise, you need to make the giant leap and realize that it’s basing that recommendation on what’s happening in ALL time zones.
It’s ok to criticise a comment but not a person. You should know better.
The times listed in PostPlanner are local time.
The times listed in PostPlanner are local time.
The times listed in PostPlanner are local time.
Handy info – thanks for sharing.
Anytime, Celina! Thanks for stopping by.