We marketers continuously wonder: what can I do differently to reach my audience better? Maybe I should start creating different types of content? Or publish it more often?

And even though the times of obsessively checking the best time to post on any social media channel have passed, every now and then we’re still asking ourselves if we’re posting at the right times.

And there is actually one formula for finding the best time to post on Instagram. We’re happily sharing it below.

How to find my best time to post on Instagram?

There are several things you can do to find your best time to post on Instagram.

1. Analyze when your followers are using Instagram

The first thing you should monitor is when your followers are actually using Instagram. This is the first step in deciding on your posting strategy, because there is no sense in posting new content when your audience isn’t there.

As you should be increasing the chances of displaying your content at the top of your audience’s feeds, why should you even consider posting at 10 am if they are working at this time?

To learn when your followers are on Instagram you can use Sotrender, which is a social media analytics tool and can provide you with many useful insights about your audience.

You can easily check when your Instagram followers are active on the platform

By taking a look at this chart you can find out easily on what day and what hour you have the biggest number of online followers. The more intense the color is, the better would be the time to post new content.

2. Monitor when your followers interact with your content

The time when your followers are on Instagram doesn’t necessarily have to be the same as the time they’re interacting with your posts or watching your Stories.

Maybe on their way to work, they’re just scrolling through their Explore Page, and they prefer to take a look at your content in the evening when they find some time to relax?

This can also vary a lot between weekdays. On some days you may have significantly higher engagement than on others.

And again, by heading up to Sotrender, you can check when your followers are interacting with your content.

Analyze on which days you have the biggest engagement on your profile

If you wonder what the Activity Index is, it’s a metric that measures the total engagement on your profile, which makes it a great indicator of your performance.

By taking a look at the example above, why should you even consider posting on Fridays when you usually have a 10 times bigger engagement on Tuesdays? For this specific profile, mid-week sounds to be the best time to post new content.

3. Try learning more about your followers

With all that being said, we have to realize, however, that the most important thing, which isn’t as straightforward to discover, is learning who your Instagram followers are.

• What are they interested in?
• What is their daily routine?
• Do they have a full-time job or are they freelancers?
• Or maybe they are students?
• How much time do they spend daily on Instagram? 
• Are they consuming content rather in the morning or in the evening? 

These are just some of the questions that you should find answers to.

If you’d be looking at your follower demographics, you can easily check that in Sotrender, too.

Analyze your follower demographics in Sotrender

Apart from checking their sex and age data, in Sotrender you can also monitor:

• from which countries your followers are coming from,
• from which cities,
• which languages are they using (based on their app language).

As Instagram, and especially the Stories format, is a great medium for direct communication, you can always simply ask your audience about their needs or expectations toward your future content. By using all the interactive forms, like pools or question stickers, you can easily find out their preferences on a specific topic. And as you have such possibilities right at your fingertips, why shouldn’t you use them?

Is there a universal best time to post on Instagram in 2024?

Let’s make it clear one more time – there is no universal best time to post that every Instagram creator should follow.

The reason is simple: every profile is different, has a different audience, operates in a different time zone, etc. If your target audience is students or young teenagers, they will be interacting with your content in a different way and at a different time when compared to, for example, young moms or people in their thirties, working full time.

And even though we are all able to find online many articles covering the best time to post on Instagram or any other social media channel, this data isn’t something that you should solely trust. It can be of some help, especially if you’ve just started your Instagram account, however, for every profile, the best time to post will be different.

And now, we hope that you know how you can find yours!

Happy Instagramming!