Conventional wisdom suggests we communicate with our clients and constituents during the work hours—after all, when are we more glued to our computers than between 9 and 5? According to new research from Hubspot, a marketing firm based out of Boston, we’re doing it all wrong. Here are some surprising results on how to best talk to your Twitter followers, Facebook friends, and email and blog subscribers.
Twitter:
- Tweet late in the day and late in the week
- Think about followers in the Eastern time zone—50% of tweets originate from the East Coast
- Tweet as often as possible—followers are used to a barrage of info, and if they don’t like what they see they’ll just skip that tweet
- Have you heard about www.tweetwhen.com? If you plug in your Twitter handle you’ll get a neat graph showing your most retweetable days and times
Facebook:
- Post on weekends—many employers block Facebook at work, so you’ll have a more captive audience on the weekend
- Don’t overwhelm your fans! Posting every other day is best
- Update your pages around midday—your followers will cruise their Facebooks over their lunch hours
Email:
- Did you know 80% of people don’t have separate personal and work inboxes?
- Email open rates are highest on the weekend, when people have more time to pore over emails
- Open rates are also high early in the morning—who doesn’t prefer sifting through email when armed with coffee and a bagel?
- Don’t be afraid of unsubscribers: you didn’t want them anyway!
- Take the time to woo your new subscribers with a personal email welcoming them to your list—they’ll appreciate it and stick around longer
Blogging:
- Blog early in the morning (around 6am) or mid-morning (around 10am)—most people read blogs when they sit down for coffee or lunch
- Consider a blog survey to find out when people read your blog and what they’d like to read more about—they’ll appreciate being asked, and you’ll get some really valuable feedback
- Blog more–there’s no benefit to blogging less often
In case you’re having a panic attack about having to wake up at 6am to post your blogs each day, fear not! You can schedule your communications ahead of time so they hit your subscribers at exactly the time they’ll be likeliest to read it.
If you’d like to view the full Hubspot webinar, you can check it out here.
In sum, and against everything I thought I knew about web timing: “Tweet late, Facebook on weekends, email early, blog around lunchtime.”
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About the Author
Blair Feehan
Blair translates her off-air talents as a theatrical stage manager into project management at Collins, where she helps keep her clients and co-workers focused on the finish line.
