Timing Your Tweets for Maximum Exposure
Businesses use Twitter for a wide range of different activities. Sometimes tweeting is done to send out timely news. Other times, the tweet is meant to help build a relationship with the followers, and still other times it is promotional in nature. Virtually all tweets are done with the hope that they will be seen by as many people as possible, and re-tweeted extensively.
There are many factors that can help ensure your tweets are seen by the maximum number of people, which will lead to more re-tweets. One of the most often overlooked, yet still very important, things to consider when using twitter is the time of day. According to a recent study by TrackMaven (available HERE), the time of the day a tweet is made is one of the best predictors of how many people will see the message.
This isn’t surprising, and few people would expect to have a tweet seen by their full audience when they send it out at 3AM. Figuring out exactly what time or times of the day to send out messages, however, takes some thought and research.
Things to Consider
The following items should be considered when deciding when to send out tweets to your audience. Each of them will provide valuable insight into your target audience, and help determine the ideal time for tweeting.
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Consider Your Product – One of the first things to think about is what types of things you’re selling (or promoting). What times of the day are people most likely to buy or use your product? Tweeting around that time may help give you an edge over competitors.
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Consider Your Audience – If your target audience is mostly working adults, you might want to tweet early in the morning before work, around noon for their lunch break, or just after work. If, on the other hand, you’re reaching out to college students, tweets later at night may be more effective. Think about when your audience will be most likely to be checking their Twitter account, and schedule your tweets around that.
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Time Zone – If you’re running a business that has a large regional, or even global reach, make sure to keep this in mind. Even a few hours’ time difference can be huge when trying to reach your audience. Sending out a message at 10AM in one area, can be 7AM in another, which can mean dramatically different engagement.
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Days of the Week – Just like the time of the day, the days of the week will have a big impact on how many people will see your messages. Tweets sent out on Wednesday, for example, may be seen by far more people than those sent on a Saturday. Or, the opposite may be true for your audience.
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General Data – While this isn’t specific to your business, it can be helpful to understand general data from studies on this topic. According to the report referenced above, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are among the hottest days to send out tweets. The busiest hour of the day for twitter is 12PM-1PM (Eastern Time). Retweets, however, are most likely to occur on Sundays. Factor these types of things in when scheduling your twitter activity.
Schedule Your Tweets Ahead of Time
Once you’ve figured out what times of the day, and days of the week are best suited for your twitter audience, you can take advantage of the option to schedule your tweets. You can write up as many tweets as you’d like, and then have them queued up to be sent for days, weeks or even months in the future. This is an excellent way to benefit from peak twitter hours, without having to schedule your whole day around social media trends.