When Is the Best Time to Post on Facebook for Your Small Business?

As a small business owner, determining when to post on Facebook to maximize reach and engagement with your audience can be a challenge. With so many potential customers on Facebook, you want to ensure your content appears at optimal times when users are most active.

Through an analysis of multiple studies combined with my own experiences managing small business Facebook pages, I have put together this definitive guide on the best posting times for your industry.

Weekday Afternoons See Peak Engagement

Facebook usage during weekday daytime hours far exceeds late nights and weekends according to research from Sprout Social.

Posting between 1-4 pm during Tuesday through Thursday gives you the highest chance of reaching users during their afternoon media consumption. This window aligns with lunch breaks and downtime where users casually browse Facebook.

I always advise my small business clients to concentrate Facebook efforts in the Tuesday-Thursday 1-4 pm window for this reason.

Avoid Posting on Weekend and Late Nights

While exceptions exist depending on your audience, most industries see engagement plummet over 35% on Facebook posts made after 8:00 pm according to TrackMaven. Late night posting also diminishes ability to respond to comments in a timely manner.

Posting on the weekends can also be hit or miss depending on your business. For most enterprises not directly tied to weekend shopping or dining, I actually recommend avoiding weekend posting in favor of other high opportunity times during the work week.

Tailor Timing to Your Audience

Use Facebook Insights to study when your existing audience engages most actively and align posting times accordingly. If current followers do show high weekend activity levels, concentrate more content in these windows.

Continuously analyze performance by day and hour to optimize timing on an ongoing basis. Every page audience has unique habits you can uncover in Insights.

Mix Up Posting Schedule

While keeping the best windows for your audience in mind, vary specific posting times throughout the week. Avoid falling into patterns users begin ignoring.

Tools like Hootsuite allow you to efficiently plan an entire month’s variable posting schedule aligned with your audience habits and peak Facebook hours.

Optimal Posting Times By Industry

Beyond broader engagement trends, research shows posting performance varies significantly across industries. Here are optimal Facebook posting times for popular business categories:

Determine if your niche aligns with an industry category above and focus efforts during those recommended times. Continue testing to validate effectiveness.

By combining an analysis of your audience’s unique habits with industry best practices, you can determine when to post on Facebook for maximum success. Let me know if you have any other questions!