Let's Give Them Something to Talk About

Humans are social creatures by nature and a very necessary, sometimes awkward, part of being an independent author. It is important to not only let readers know information about your latest release but also something engaging about your personal life. And social media is the perfect platform for that.

And while, for a handful of authors, this comes naturally, most struggle with low engagement on their social pages despite putting in a lot of effort. But with a whopping 2.93 billion monthly active users spending an average of 57 minutes a day on Facebook alone, it's crucial to leverage social media to your advantage as an independent author. But how do you accomplish this?

As a side note, in today's post, we're going to focus on Facebook, but by no means is this the only option for engaging with readers. We'll look at other platforms in future posts.

To reach your target audience effectively, you must know the best time to share content when they are most active. While the general rule is to post when more of your followers are likely to be online, it's a little more complicated in practice due to different time zones and social behaviors during weekdays and weekends.  But posting at the right time can help boost early engagement and signal the Facebook algorithm to extend the reach of your posts. 

Based on an analysis of 30,000 media posts, Hootsuite found that the best overall time to post on Facebook is between 8 a.m. and noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Of course, you’ll need to think about the time zones in which your audience lives when planning these posting times.

That means 6:15 a.m. PST, 9:15 a.m. PST, and 12-12:30 p.m. PST are usually the best posting times. That first slot may seem awfully early for followers on the West Coast, but it’s already 9:15 in the major centers of Toronto and New York by then, so it’s the perfect time to reach Eastern time zone followers as they sip their first workday coffee. It also catches audiences in the UK and Europe while they’re still at work, reaching them mid-afternoon., so these little details in mind while planning your post timing is the first step.

Be consistent

This may be one of the most important steps. Many authors think occasionally posting will suffice but that’s a mistake. And when you’re first testing to see what times work best to post Facebook content, your posting schedule might be a little all over the place. But once you start to get a sense of what works, your goal should be to aim for consistency.

That means if you find a time that seems to work well for your audience, it’s a good idea to start posting consistently at that time. Your audience will come to expect content from you on that schedule, which will lead to greater overall engagement.

You can continue to test at other times. Remember, the average Facebook page posts 1.68 times per day, so you have more than one opportunity every day to see what might work best.

You can also play around with formats like Stories and Reels to experiment with new content-sharing times while continuing to maintain a consistent posting schedule for posts. Something as simple as an engaging graphic could spark conversation.

So whatever time you decide to do your post, make sure you are consistent and they are engaging. Restless Hearts Publishing offers graphic design and consulting to help you fine-tune the time frame best for you and get those creative juices flowing with our designs. So keep putting yourself out there in the fast-paced world of social media. The readers are eager to hear from you!

Susan Berry

Restless Heart Publishing Consultant