HOWTO: Get More Twitter Retweets, Facebook Likes, Blog Comments And Email Clicks [STUDY]

By Shea Bennett at Media Bistro:
In social media, timing can be everything.
A common mistake that many marketers make is trying to force their audience to fit their schedule – typically, 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday, local time – rather than trying to schedule their posts at the right time for their audience.
A new study has taken a closer look at the optimal times to update on Twitter and Facebook, submit blog posts and send emails to maximize user engagement and clicks – and the results might surprise you.
The report, by Hubspot’s Dan Zarrella, suggests that it’s submissions made on Saturdays that generate the most Facebook Likes, email click-throughs and blog comments. Only Twitter bucks the trend – to get the most retweets Zarrella recommends you post on a Friday.
Why? Essentially, it comes down to noise – or lack thereof. When there is less noise to compete with – other people’s tweets, Facebook updates, emails and blog posts – your content is better placed to gain more attention. Updates made on Saturdays (and Friday for Twitter) face less competition and are more likely to be noticed by your audience (and customers).
Your content still needs to be strong (i.e., worthy of attention), and some marketers and brands will get better results by updating at different times of the week. It pays to study your audience demographic carefully (and continuously). But by applying this contra-competitive timing and engaging with your community outside of ‘normal’ hours, you might just be able to give your brand that much-needed edge over your competitors.