The need-to-know question of any Instagram user continues to be, “When is the best time to post on my page?”. It would be nice to say there is a simple answer to this inquiry, but there are actually many factors that play into this. The good news is, there is a way to optimize your posting times and improve page engagement overall.

Factors that Affect Posting Times

Before determining the ideal posting times for an Instagram page, it is necessary to understand the components that influence this:

1. Instagram Algorithm: The topic of the Instagram algorithm could be a blog post of its own, but for the purpose of this explanation, it can be simplified for the time being. Fundamentally, it involves a mixture of information that determines where a post will appear in a given feed. This includes information about the post, about the person who shared the post, the activity of the Instagram user viewing the post and their history with the platform. All of this provides the app with signals indicating what each user might be interested in seeing. Essentially, it is building personalized predictors that are unique for each individual account on the platform.
2. Time Zone: The reality of different time zones is the reason that there isn’t one specific posting time that is the best across the board. Since each territory has different audience behaviors, it makes it difficult to provide one ideal posting time for every account. Especially considering that each account is likely looking to target various time zones across their audience base. There are some existing studies suggesting prime posting hours, but these appear to be ever-changing and overall inconsistent between the various findings. That is a direct result of the unique audiences associated with each Instagram account, making it impossible to have a one-size-fits-all answer.
3. Unique Audiences: As mentioned above, every account has a different target audience which will affect the ideal posting time. Understanding the location and popular activity times of your unique audience has become the most important factor to take note of. This knowledge will ultimately allow you to work around the Instagram algorithm and optimize your engagement rates on certain posts.

Finding Your Unique Posting Time 

There are a variety of ways to figure out the unique posting times for your Instagram account. But, it is most efficient to use an application that will do this for you automatically. Digital Stack offers a reporting feature that pulls information from past posts to determine when your audience is most active. 

This report will provide you with key audience insights including the all important “top posting times.” Once an Instagram account is authorized on Digital Stack, the platform will begin to access and track all the data and be able to display this information. Regardless if the post is scheduled via Digital Stack or natively, the report will receive the analytics and audience activity of that post. Posting during these times will cater to your audience's behavioral patterns. This is the most successful way to work around that tricky Instagram algorithm and reach your target audience more effectively. 

Capitalizing on Top Posting Times

Once determining the best posting times for your account, it is important to take full advantage of these hours. Essentially, your posting strategy should align with when your audience is most engaged with the platform. This will help ensure that your prioritized posts are reaching the majority of your audience and then filler posts can be added to keep the page relevant throughout the week. Digital Stack can help you determine which posts should be used at these ideal posting times within the reporting feature as well.

Since the ultimate goal is to optimize engagement rates, pairing your best posting times with well performing content is the perfect way to improve your Instagram page results.

To learn more, reach out to the Digital Stack support team! https://digitalstack.io/request-a-demo/