Why Posting Brunch Pictures at Dinner Time Works

You may already be doubting this post as an excuse for selfies and “omg, look at this smoothie I made.” But let me explain, or the headline won’t make sense the way I want it to. To help you follow along with my thought process, I want tell you a bit about myself. I’m a senior in college with a schedule full of social events, income-earning responsibilities and career oriented tasks. In the middle of all the madness, I still want to share my life. Whether it’s a picture of my perfectly-made latte or the stack of textbooks that just came in the mail, I do not want to be left out of the social networking scene. Yet, I don’t want to overwhelm my friend’s and follower’s feeds with a post every hour. I want to get the most out of what I do post. How do I do it? How do I choose what to post and when?

Choosing what to post depends on what you want to share or how you want to be perceived. This applies to brands AND your personal accounts. Share something interesting, relatable, or helpful. Use these three words as a guide to what you post. My friends and I had a wonderful breakfast and the dish looked too fancy to actually eat. I’m not ashamed to snap a picture because that is what social media is for, sharing what we experience in our lives. If it catches your attention for a moment, find a way to save it. But wait! Didn’t I mention something about posting my brunch photo in the evening?

The truth is, I may not always get to post as much as I want in a day or I’m trying to avoid posting if I recently posted. Whatever the reason, I hold onto that picture. Why? Because I know my audience. The people I am branding myself to have a schedule and I know it well. I never intended to notice these trends but they become pretty obvious with slight observation. During certain times of the day, I noticed an increase in posts, shares, likes, and overall activity in my feeds. My audience is a very specific, similar type of persons. However, do your research to optimize the visibility of a post. Think about what your audience could be doing during that time of day; is there a better time where more of them will see it? Get online at different times of the day or times when you are not normally online. Gather observations of what you see in your newsfeed.  Post at different times to try to reach groups of people with various schedules. Lastly as a quick and probably obvious tip: posting should not be at the same time every day. Just keep this is mind when you have something to share or looking to reach more people.