Author - Sarah Gemmell Category - Twitter, Facebook, Email marketing, Blogging Posted - 03/30/2011 5 Comments | Add Comment
When to send emails, when to tweet, when to do everything!
Yesterday I watched a great webinar put on by Hubspot called "The Science of Timing," and hosted by social media "scientist," Dan Zarrella. It focused on how important timing is in tweeting, Facebook posting, blogging and sending out email blasts. Here's some of what I learned in the webinar:
Timing for Twitter
You'll get the most retweets on your tweets between 2 & 5PM EST
You'll get the highest click-through-rates on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. When it comes to exact hours of the day though, click-through-rates remain pretty steady with no real high point or low point.
Thus: Tweet more. It's ok to tweet the same article multiple times each day, just include a different quote or thought about the article each time you do so.
Timing for Facebook
You'll get the most shares on the weekends, specifically Saturday.
During the day, you'll get the most shares between 10 & 11AM EST and 1 & 2PM EST.
Timing for Emailing
You'll get the most opensand the most clicks on Saturday and Sunday but...
You'll get the most bounced emails and abuse reports on the weekend too. (This is because people spend more time reading emails on the weekend.)
You'll also get the most clicks in the wee hours of the morning.
Thus: Experiment with sending email blasts on the weekend, but only to your best clients and customers -- people who won't mark your email as SPAM.
Email is also a great way to do some lead nurturing. 1-3 days after someone signs up for your email list is when they'll be the most receptive to your emails. So send them your best offer or promotion to get them to buy.
Timing for Blogging
You'll get the most page views of your blog posts on Monday, and the least on Saturday but...
You'll get the most comments on Saturday.
During the day, you'll get the most views if your post was published between 10 & 11AM EST.
You'll get the most links to your blog post on Monday and Thursday, between 6 & 7AM EST.
Want more? Check out Dan's answers to 5 questions asked after the webinar in this blog post.
Comment posted by Rachel Blaufeld on 04/04/2011 04:53pm
Thanks for the useful info! It is actually funny because I stopped looking at my blog numbers on Saturday because they are always bad....glad to hear that I am not the only one. What I am curious about is the low twitter activity on Mondays -- must be because people are getting back to their work week. Rachel
Comment posted by Communitech on 04/05/2011 10:53am
I've been looking everywhere for this kind of information, so thanks! I'll definitely be doing a little tweaking to my blogging and tweeting schedule after reading this.
Comment posted by Sarah Gemmell on 04/05/2011 11:11am
Thanks for your comments!
@Rachel- I agree with you about the low twitter numbers on Mondays. And, I bet another reason is because more tweets go out on Monday, which means your tweets have a bigger probability of getting lost in the stream.
@Communitech- Don't thank me, thank Hubspot! They put on some really useful webinars, you should definitely check them out.
Comment posted by Fiona Stolze on 04/05/2011 01:50pm
This was a fascinating post. However, I was wondering if the figures are slightly different for the UK. I have found that I get the best response in the late afternoon/evening (approx. 4pm GMT onwards) for FB updates, blogs, tweets.
Any thoughts?
Fiona Stolze
Comment posted by Sarah Gemmell on 04/05/2011 04:38pm
Good point, Fiona. As far as timing for Facebook, the difference between the US & UK could be the result of more companies in the UK blocking Facebook, so people have to wait until the evening to log on. As for Twitter & blogging, maybe the differentiation is that people in the UK stay on task more at work ;) Something worth researching, thanks for pointing this out!