With more focus on promoted posts rather than organic content, it’s no surprise that businesses are being more creative about what they post and when. It’s difficult to pay for increased reach with all of your content, so you must still rely on the organic method for some posts.

There have been countless studies done on when the best time to post on Facebook is, each with their own results. Bottom line: The best time depends largely on your business and its audience. There is no one-fits-all solution here, but there are some things you can take into consideration to determine what this “best time” is.

Know Your Audience

Do you really know who your audience is? Chances are, when you take the time to learn about them, you may be surprised by what your followers are actually like. You may review the age and gender of your followers using Facebook Insights and clicking on the “likes” tab.

You may also learn about your audience by clicking on “when your fans are online” under Insights to see the activity of your followers. This information is broken down by days and time.

Using this information, think about what a typical follower’s day looks like. Do they have a 9-5 job? Are they a stay-at-home parent? Do they have a full load of classes? You want to post content around these schedules so that your content is most likely to be seen, read and enjoyed.

What the Statistics Say

Facebook posts receives half their reach in the first 30 minutes. (Source: Socialbakers)

There are more than 750 million active users on Facebook, and a large percentage of these users access the site from their smartphones.

Seventy-nine percent of adult users have their phone with them for 22 hours a day. (Source: IDC Research)

Eighty percent of users ages 18-44 check their Facebook phones within 15 minutes of waking up. (Source: IDC Research)

If you use the above statistic, the general best time to post is in the morning, between the hours of 6:30 and 8:30, which is basically around the time people are leaving for work, school or just getting their at-home schedule started.

It’s also important to think about other “lazy” times in the day when people are likely to reach for their smartphone, such as commute times (on public transit), lunch breaks and watching TV.

Remember, there is no one solution. You need to do a lot of testing to see what works for your followers. Despite the most accurate statistics, it could be that your followers are most active on weekends or weeknights, giving you the most visibility during these times.