Time it right: When will you get the most action on Twitter?
Timing is important, says Jakob Nielsen, “the king of usability.”
Nielsen’s preferred tweeting time is 9:01 a.m. Pacific, because that encompasses working hours from California to the United Kingdom, where most of his audience members live.
He posts a minute after the hour so his tweet will show up above those of people who set their software to post at the top of the hour.
“One of the big downsides of stream-based communication compared to email newsletters is the highly ephemeral nature of the postings,” Nielsen says. “Once they scroll off the first screen, they’re essentially 6 feet under.”
Tweet on Tuesdays.
Tuesday is by far the most popular day for Twitter activity, accounting for 15.7 percent of all tweets, according to a report on Twitter usage by social media analytics provider Sysomos.
Next most popular: Wednesday (15.6 percent) and Friday (14.5 percent).
Make that Fridays.
People tweet most often on Tuesdays. But they retweet more often on Friday — and at 4 p.m. — than at any other day or time, according to viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella.
Looking to get retweets? Friday afternoon may be the best time to tweet, Zarrella says.
Make that weekends and afternoons.
Thursday and Sunday, followed by Saturday, are the best days for getting click-throughs on your tweets, according to new research by Zarrella. He attributes this to “link fatigue” during the week, when more links are posted.
And 2 p.m. is the best time for click-through rates, according Zarrella’s research.
So when should you tweet?
Depends on what you want to accomplish.
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About Ann Wylie
Ann Wylie is president of Wylie Communications Inc., a training, writing and consulting firm. She works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. Wylie is the author of RevUpReadership.com, a toolbox for writers, and Wylie’s Writing Tips, a free e-zine. She has earned more than 60 awards, including two IABC Gold Quills, for her work.
Copyright © 2010 Ann Wylie. All rights reserved.
