Is it better to post on Instagram at night or in the morning?
Finding the best time to post on Instagram today is actually easier than it seems and this quick read will teach you exactly how to do it for your account.
We’ll cover how to learn more about your Instagram followers plus:
- how do you know when to post on Instagram
- using analytics to figure out the best times to post on IG
- what to do after you post on Instagram
- understanding your audience
Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links and I could earn a commission at no cost to you if you make a purchase using them.
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Easy Trick to Find the Best Time to Post on Instagram
There are two ways to find the perfect time to post your latest IG content:
- Using your insights to see when followers are online
- Seeing how many of your followers are online NOW
Let’s check out your Instagram Insights first.
How to learn more about your followers
Open the Instagram app and click on your profile image icon.
Then, click the Insights button just above your story highlights.
Beside Your Audience, click See All.
Your Follower Breakdown shows:
- Growth
- Top Locations
- Age Range
- Gender
- Most Active Times
For the purpose of how to know when to post on Instagram, we’ll want to focus on Top Locations and Most Active Times.
Top Locations
The default setting on Instagram shows you the Top Cities your followers come from however, clicking on Countries gives you insight as to where around the world your followers are located.
Seeing my analytics below, there’s a stark difference between the Cities my followers are from versus the Country they’re from.
Just 1.5% of my followers are from my hometown, Vancouver, BC!
But according to these statistics, 3.1% of my followers are from three Canadian hubs – Vancouver (1.5%), Toronto (0.9%), and Calgary (0.7%).
This page also tells me that 1.9% of my followers are from US cities – New York (1.3%) and Houston (0.6%).
Now, compare that against the countries my followers are from – 73.2% live in the United States and 14.9% are from Canada.
I can see that I have a lot more American followers than I do Vancouverites!
And when comparing to Cities, I actually have a lot more followers on East Coast Time than I do Pacific Time.
So, posting at a time more geared towards ET is going to be more beneficial to me despite living in a PT time zone.
Most Active Times
Personally, I don’t find this one that accurate for my profile – but maybe it’ll work better for you!
In theory, this simple tool is supposed to tell you when most of your followers are active but I haven’t had good results with posting at Instagram’s recommended times.
From the Follower Breakdown screen, scroll down to Most Active Times.
You’ll see a day of the week and a number of different times ranging from 12am to 9pm.
Clicking on any of these bars will show you approximately how many of your followers are active on Instagram around that time.
To check a different day, click the left and right arrows to navigate to the one you want.
Finding out which days of the week your followers are most active on is as simple as tapping the Days option from the Most Active Times menu.
As you can see, it doesn’t make much of a difference for me!
Again, tapping on the bar graphs will show you further insights.
Now, the trick you’ve all been waiting for.
How to use Instagram Live for Best Times to Post
From the home menu, click on Your Story as if you’re going to add to your Instagram Stories.
Then click your profile image icon again if you already have current stories active.
From there, scroll to the Live tab – don’t worry, you’re not actually going to go live right now!
You’re just opening up the tab to have a look.
Now, do you see what I see?
There’s a little tidbit above that reads “77 followers active now“.
Meaning there are 77 chances to get your content in front of people who already follow you.
The Best Time to Post on Instagram Today
It takes a little bit of research to figure out your followers patterns using the Instagram Live tool – I’ve been watching mine for about a week and noticed spikes of activity at 11am and 5:30pm PT.
Comparing to the regional analytics we talked about above, this makes sense for me.
Since my followers are predominantly based in the United States and Canada – and share time zones throughout the countries – these times indicate a presence of both East Coast and West Coast followers.
My West Coast followers are probably breaking for lunch or finishing their workdays while my East Coast followers are wrapping up work or scrolling on their phones before bed!
Knowing your followers makes all the difference when it comes to posting on Instagram.
What to do After Your Post on Instagram
After posting on Instagram, engagement is crucial!
I like to scroll through my Instagram home feed and start interacting with all of the content I see – that means liking, commenting, and sometimes, saving!
Spend 5 to 10 minutes interacting with your home feed then, click on the magnifying glass icon to visit the Search page.
Browse a couple of your favorite hashtags and again, like, comment, and save posts from the Recent and Top categories. Do this for between 5 to 10 minutes.
And once the comments start coming onto your Instagram post, be sure to reply right away to boost your post’s engagement.
On top of creating quality content that viewers want to engage with, the first 15 minutes after you post to Instagram is crucial in predicting how your post will do!
Who are Your Followers
Going back to our Follower Breakdown screen, you can see that my Followers are predominantly women – 93% women, in fact!
Since my blog is written for women and moms, this is exactly what I want my analytics to look like.
From there, I can create and gear content towards them and imagine how they spend their days.
Stay at home moms putting their little ones down for a nap (11am PT and 2pm ET) or scrolling their phones while at school drop off or pick up.
So, who is your audience? How do they spend their days?
It helps if you can relate to your ideal Followers!
How do you know when to post on Instagram?
Using your Instagram insights to see when followers are most active and Instagram Live to see how many members of your audience are online right now will show you everything you need to know!
Take the guesswork out of when to post by relying on the information you already have in front of you.
I’d love to know more about you and how you use Instagram in the comments below! Take a minute to introduce yourself 🙂
Happy posting, friends!
Nikki Slivarich
Writer
Blessed mama of two beautiful little girls. I’m a full-time blogger and social media content creator who teaches moms and boss babes how to start an online business. Follow me on social for clever ideas to make money using the platforms you already love!