(PRWEB UK) 9 July 2013 -- Posting on social media sites can be a very time consuming task so it is vital to make sure posts and comments have maximum impact and reach as wide an audience as possible. It can be a distraction from the day job to compose and submit impactful posts, so it is easy to resort to a scatter gun approach sending out tweets and status updates when a natural break occurs. It is important to plan and schedule posting times, as a well written post that nobody reads or is buried below hundreds of more recent updates is worthless.
These results have been formulated from response to a free website report offered by iQ interactive which includes a social media activity section. During the last twelve months they have been analyzing a wide range of social media posts and their impact based on a number of factors. Looking specifically at Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Pinterest which seem to be the most popular used business social media sites.
First, looking at twitter, this can be the easiest trap to fall into. It was found many businesses posted tweets at the end of the day when they get a chance to clear their desk and inbox. Unfortunately these posts are rarely seen and just get buried with the next peak reading time which is first thing the next day, even if they are read there was little evidence of any meaningful action taken. From the research, early afternoon around 1-3pm seemed to be the best time to send tweets, with the most views by far and real actions triggered such as sales, sign ups and re-tweets. Another good time is first thing around 9-10am as people spend time reviewing their feeds and inboxes before diving into their daily work schedule.
Linkedin was somewhat surprisingly very different with the optimum times at either end of the average working day, 8-10am and 4-6pm. There can be less immediate interactivity with Linkedin with an update email going out to connections sometime later. It was found the best opportunity for interaction was in forums and discussions, it provides the opportunity to get noticed and show your expertise answering a question or contributing to a debate.
Facebook is similar to Twitter although it was found there is more longevity in Facebook updates and users are more likely to scroll down recent history so whilst there is slightly more impact, any updates submitted towards the end of the day or outside of business hours had a low impact. So again early to mid afternoon is the optimum time and this noticeably tails off as the average working day heads towards its conclusion. Engaging and succinct posts submitted in optimum times induced real immediate results, there are lots of ingredients to get good results but timing of posts is certainly a factor.
Whilst Pinterest is still emerging in the business world it’s value cannot be under-estimated, especially in creative industries, retail shops and the entertainment sector. Best time for interactivity was late evening from 7 through 11pm with noticeable spike in responses and content sharing.
On a general note whilst it is minimal, there is a trend showing that social media impact is higher earlier in the week, this concurs with other forms of online marketing such as email campaigns and online advertisements, however is worth considering when planning the weeks activity. Timing is key, if you could imagine the cost of running a television advert in between a film premiere or X Factor compared to early morning hour repeats, with social media there is a level platform on posting during peak interaction times so this should be taken full advantage of.
Whilst scheduling posts and updates can be submitted automatically, it is advisable to do this manually as it can be dangerous if content is no longer relevant or contradicts other messages that have subsequently been released. Set aside an hour at the start of the week to compose the rough content of posts and then schedule reminders for the optimum time each day. It is very difficult whilst under pressure of a day job, to remember and then suddenly be creative whilst recalling what the mission theme was. It is all too easy to resort to a quick “what I had for lunch” comment, thinking it light hearted but in reality damaging brand confidence and future engagement levels.
We will be regularly adding ongoing research and findings on our website http://www.iqinteractive.co.uk and we welcome any feedback and patterns you have noticed within your business or sector. We engage in web design discussions and the impact of social media.
This research was across a wide range of industries including small start-ups to FTSE 100 companies so obviously there will be variances, our advice is to analyze and record activity and results, it was found few companies did this, which was surprising. Any investment in time such as social media activity should be analyzed and the actual results compared, this doesn’t need to be done as a complex scientific algorithm, just basic comparison of posts against sales or engagement then refine, refine, refine. Poorly planned social media activity can do more harm than good and if there isn’t a constructive learning process a huge amount of unnecessary wastage occurs.
Matt Rogers, IQ Interactive Ltd, http://www.virtual-video.co.uk, 0845 872 8657, [email protected]
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