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The Best Days and Times to Post on Social Media for Restaurant Brands

 

Social media is constantly evolving. You likely have a social media presence as a restaurant brand, but are your current efforts optimized? The time of day, day of the week, and platforms you post on can all impact the engagement your brand’s social media content receives. 

 

This blog will discuss which social platforms are best for those in the restaurant industry while also looking at the best days and times to post. While we won’t cover the kind of content your restaurant brand should leverage, our Localized Social Content Guide can help.  

 

A Look Into the Platforms Your Restaurant Brand Should Leverage

 

Generally, your restaurant brand’s locations should have individual local social profiles claimed across multiple platforms. Facebook should be your number one priority if you’re stretched for resources. With more than 2.93 billion monthly users, much of your target audience is likely active on Facebook. 

 

While Facebook is non-negotiable, below, you’ll find a breakdown of the most popular social media platforms for each age group in 2021 from the Pew Research Center.

 

 

A blue and green graph showing the best days and times to post on social media by age group

 

 

Instagram comes in second with one billion monthly users and is another excellent place for your restaurant brand to invest its efforts. While Instagram doesn’t provide the ability to create a corporate account connected to local accounts, it’s still essential. 

 

Each of your restaurant locations can have its own Instagram account, which can be managed by a social tool explicitly created for multi-location businesses, which we’ll get into later in this blog. 

 

Twitter and LinkedIn are also valuable social platforms for restaurant brands. LinkedIn can increase your restaurant brand’s investment opportunities and partnerships. Depending on the type of restaurant, you can also leverage LinkedIn to find potential employees. 

 

Unlike Facebook and Instagram, Twitter focuses on sharing brief informational messages. Twitter has a 280-character limit and allows your restaurant brand to share information about menu updates, specials and promotions, events, and more. With 450 million monthly active users, much of your target audience is likely on Twitter. 

 

The Best Days and Times to Post

 

CoSchedule analyzed more than 37 million social media posts from more than 30,000 organizations to find the best times to post on social media on every social platform. While these numbers account for businesses in various industries, not just restaurants, they can still serve as a general rule of thumb. 

 

The times and days included are the best in terms of engagement, which includes likes, shares, and comments. It’s also worth noting that all of the below times are in the timezone of your target audience.

 

1. Facebook 

 

When looking at Facebook, the report found that the best times are 7:00 p.m, 7:00 a.m., and 3:15 p.m. The worst times to post were at midnight and other times throughout the night. 

 

Best days to post on Facebook: Friday, Wednesday, and Monday 

 

 

2. Instagram 

 

The best times to post on Instagram are later than on Facebook, which can likely be attributed to Instagram’s younger audience. The best times to post are 9:01 a.m., 7:59 p.m., and 9:00 a.m. Like Facebook, the worst times to post on Instagram are between midnight and 4:00 a.m. 

 

Best days to post on Instagram: Wednesday, Friday, and Tuesday

 

3. Twitter 

 

The top  three times to post on Twitter are all in the morning — 8:38 a.m., 9:26 a.m., and 10:00 a.m. The worst times to post on Twitter are between 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. Twitter differs from other social platforms in terms of posting frequency. While your restaurant brand would likely want to keep posting limited to one or maybe two daily posts on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, your posting frequency on Twitter can be slightly higher.

 

Twitter is also more of a communal social media platform than others. So consider favoriting, retweeting, replying, or mentioning others as long as you stick to your social media and brand guidelines.

 

Best days to post on Twitter: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday

 

4. LinkedIn 

 

Surprisingly, one of the best times to post on LinkedIn was 1:00 a.m., followed by 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. It’s worth testing a few posts at 1:00 a.m. since this study found that it performed well, but if your restaurant brand doesn’t see strong engagement, then consider trying other times! 

 

Best days to post on LinkedIn: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 

 

Tailor Your Social Strategy To Your Restaurant Brand

 

The above information is backed by data, and you should use it when planning your local social strategy. With that in mind, it’s also essential to consider what differs in the restaurant industry. 

 

For instance, if your restaurant brand has a Tuesday night two for the price of one special, and Tuesday isn’t one of the top days to post on Facebook, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post about it. Similarly, while all the best times to post on Twitter are in the morning, don’t hesitate to post in the evening when your target audience is likely scrolling through Twitter before deciding where to eat. 

 

Finding a balance between what works for your restaurant brand and the data provided is critical. This balance requires tracking and analyzing the performance of your local social efforts, which we cover shortly. 

 

Find the Right Social Media Solution

 

Now that you know which platforms your restaurant brand should focus its local social efforts on and have an idea of when you should post, it’s time to put in the work. While managing local social efforts between corporate and restaurant locations can be challenging, SOCi has a tool that can help streamline the process.

 

SOCi understands that restaurant brands are not only facing the unique challenge of managing their brand on endless social platforms and limitless local pages, but they also need to deliver engaging content that drives meaningful results. That’s where SOCi Social comes into play.

SOCi Social Solution showing how you can schedule posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn

 

 

SOCi Social enables restaurant brands to manage and deploy localized content at scale while maintaining brand consistency. The tool allows corporate and local teams to organize and share content libraries and gain visibility into local publishing schedules. It also allows your restaurant brand to analyze performance at the account, group, or location level to ensure that your content gets the most brand engagement.

 

For more information on how SOCi can help you dominate the competition with an effective local social strategy and beyond, request a demo today! 

 

 

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