According to this survey, the best time to tweet is on a weekday, at 4:01pm! Well how’s that for being precise? If one reads the article until the end, and digs deeper into the methodology however, one realizes that while this study holds some interesting data and perspective, it is flawed simply because of how the survey was conducted. The author is quite transparent about it, and so despite of this caveat, it yields some interesting finding as to when is the best time to tweet, retweet or to get noticed on Twitter.
But if you want to know when is the best time to tweet, the real question is: who’s your target audience? Who’s following you and is likely to retweet you? And if you choose your hashtag topics wisely, when would the best time be to reach out to potential new followers?
Third-Party Apps
One good way to answer these question is through a twitter application called Tweriod. It allows you to find out when you’re followers are online, when they are most likely to tweet and retweet, and more importantly, when your tweets have been effective. So while some surveys may tell you when is the optimal time to get noticed on twitter IN GENERAL, what you really want to know is when YOUR audience is online, and when is the optimal time to reach out to tweet and retweet.
While Tweriod only calculates based on a sample of 5,000 of your followers, it gives a pretty interesting picture for your needs, and can help in making your content on Twitter go a long way, or at least getting more attention.
Timing is Everything – but Content is King
In fact, finding out what is the best time to tweet is no different than when is the best time to post a new status on your Facebook page, send out an email blast or post an article on your blog. It depends on many factors, the key and most common ones being: target audience, day of the week, time of day, and time of year. There are various schools of thought on the topic, and what works for a resort or airline many not work for its direct competitor. This article summarizes well the questions surrounding this point.
Personnally, I have tried and tested sending emails on most days of the week, even on week-ends, and have found that results varied greatly, but not necessarily in the expected way. Email marketers seem to agree a newsletter sent on a Tuesday morning would garner higher open rates than one sent on a Friday afternoon, but this assumes everything else being equal – same content, same target audience.
But often enough, there are variations on your target audience, so some folks may actually prefer reading their newsletter over the week-end. At the end of the day, though, it really boils down to content, and the story you are telling. Factor in some consistency, such as sending out your newsletter, updating your Facebook page or tweeting your content at consistent times and days of the week, and you will grow your readership, fan base and followership at a steady pace.
Do you think there is a best time of the day to tweet and get noticed?
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