Social media secrets: when to publish and why

Hands up whoever is completely absent from social networks today. No profile, no avatar, no interest in the flow of news and potential knowledge that this universe makes available to us with increasing frequency. The number of hands raised is certainly small: social networks have been part of our daily lives for some time now and have become practically essential for social interaction.

But are all social networks the same? Absolutely not: although some of them may have many traits in common, or may even all seem very similar, each platform is substantially and conceptually very different from the others. And each, of course, has its own unique features and little ‘secrets’.

Have you ever posted at the same time on two different social networks and obtained diametrically opposed feedback – in terms of views, likes, shares or users reached -? This is precisely the consequence of what we have written: each social channel has its own history. There are a number of factors to be taken into account, in particular that of the target audience.

Each existing target group is defined by very precise characteristics, consequences of their respective lifestyles, commitments, desires and habits, which condition their days: it is only by interweaving these factors that it is possible to define a general ‘calendar’ of the group concerned, within which the use of each platform is placed.

This data is extremely interesting and of considerable importance: not only for private use of social channels, but also from a business perspective. By studying the characteristics of the target audience, in fact, it is possible to understand when (in terms of days and also times), how much and for what reasons it is advisable to post on each specific platform.

A first fundamental distinction to be made is that relating to the usefulness, not the use, of the social channel in question: is it browsed for business reasons or with the intention of having fun? This is an important distinction, which determines, for example, the ‘ideal calendar’ of LinkedIn: a serious platform, a channel used for official communications, which in fact lives during the early hours of the working day.

Diametrically opposed is the use of other social networks, of which the ‘king’ is Instagram: they are channels of entertainment, ways of escaping from daily commitments, in which users take refuge to ‘disconnect’ as soon as they have a break. It follows that the best times to post on these channels are those that coincide with breaks from the usual working hours, or before and after them.

There are also many exceptions, each defined by the nature of the users and of the social network itself: Facebook is a very hybrid platform in this sense; TikTok does not seem to have a real ideal reference time because the flow of posts within it is varied and continuous; Pinterest is dedicated to late evenings and weekends, those moments when relaxation is truly total. Discover all the secrets of the main social channels by scrolling through our infographic in the article!