TikTok has rapidly surged in popularity, becoming a global sensation in a remarkably short period. With millions of users, influencers, and brands vying for views and likes, it's essential to connect with your audience at the right times and in the most effective ways. This gives you the best chance of increasing engagement and reach and even going viral. A single viral video can spark global recognition, boosting visibility and sales.
When it comes to posting content on TikTok, timing is key. This isn’t revolutionary. After all, timing was an essential consideration back when news feeds were structured chronologically.
As marketers know, algorithms are the gods of social media platforms. These are the set of rules and data-driven processes that decide whether or not your post will be seen. On TikTok, the algorithm judges the value of your content by the hashtags you attach, your account settings, and user interactions.
Yet, the time you post will also have a significant impact. So, how do you know when people are most active and engaged? Why does it matter when you’re scheduling and posting TikTok videos? Below are the answers to the best times to promote content, and perhaps even go viral, on TikTok.
To determine the right time to publish TikTok posts to attain maximum views, likes, and comments, you first need to find out who your followers are and, most importantly, where they are.
TikTok has a global user base and is active in different time zones. Even if your account has many followers abroad, your business may primarily function in the UK. That's why it's crucial to ask yourself the target audience you want to address and, if necessary, bring experts into the team to analyse your target market.
Understanding the people you want to target will not only determine the right time to post content but also the type of content most likely to be effective.
In order to identify your target audience, take the following steps:
Kolsquare Insight: TikTok now allows you to schedule posts up to 10 days in advance. This means no more waking up at odd hours or interrupting meetings to publish TikTok posts at the best times for maximum engagement. This feature is available to both Creator and Business Accounts, making it easier to manage your content strategy.
It’s best to check the following times against the previous analyses so that you can determine the times that are right for your content to go viral.
Your UK business is likely present in other markets; therefore, find your top territories and consider exactly the different time zones of your audience. It's common that some will follow Coordinated Universal Time or Eastern Standard Time, rather than GMT or BST.
Nevertheless, if you want to target the UK market, use the following schedule as a guide.
While it may feel like weekdays and weekends will cause the only differences, each day of the week has specific best time slots.
Here are the best times to publish your TikTok post in the UK, broken down by days of the week:
Monday: 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 10 p.m.
Tuesday: 2 a.m., 4 a.m., 9 a.m.
Wednesday: 7 a.m., 8 a.m., 11 a.m.
Thursday: 9 a.m., 12 p.m., 7 p.m.
Friday: 5 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m.
Saturday: 11 a.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m.
Sunday: 7 a.m., 8 a.m., 4 p.m.
The numbers above give a general idea of the most popular time slots, but your followers may react differently.
Therefore, to find out your best times to post, experiment with different times and see how they work. For example, schedule a TikTok post for 4 a.m. on Tuesday one week and 9 a.m. the next. Once trends begin to emerge, you can optimise your approach.
In addition, use the data from your TikTok pro account to see when your followers are online and the days of the week when they are most active.
To discover more data about when to publish a TikTok post, ensure you have created a TikTok Pro account; you can use the built-in tools to find out vital data, including:
Following the recommended times and setting up a TikTok pro account is a good starting point for posting TikTok videos that drive engagement. Yet, there are more tactics TikTokers can use to get their posts seen.
Let's dive into some other vital data, such as frequency, types of posts, and trends.
It is crucial to publish TikTok posts continuously and regularly. It can be challenging, but that means you should never post less than once a day if you want to maximise your chance of success.
Above all else, consistency gains you favour with the algorithm. The more regularly you post, the more TikTok displays and pushes your content, helping you grow.
While any regular posting schedule is beneficial, one to three times a day is ideal. This allows you to prove your dedication to the algorithm while allowing your audience to consume all your new content on the “For You” page without feeling bombarded. Posting too frequently can lead to fewer views and interactions because your followers are unlikely to see every post.
Implementing popular trends is another way TikTokers can increase their reach and grow their audience. For example, by using trending sounds and songs in videos or implementing popular styles and hashtags.
While trends are helpful, it is good to limit yourself to a specific content type or niche. This way, TikTok can better recommend your content to your target audience. Consequently, it makes little sense to jump on every trend that is currently going viral on TikTok to benefit from that wave. Instead, you must find the right balance between brand identity and platform trends.
When you do target a trend, make sure to publish content while the trend is still popular. TikTok posts featuring a fading trend may bore viewers and make your content and brand feel outdated.
Adding popular hashtags can also help increase the reach of your content. Read on the Kolsquare blog: A Guide to Using Hashtags on TikTok in 2022.
Duration, or how long followers watch your content, is a crucial factor for the algorithm.
The longer the average watch time of a video, the more it will be promoted. Prolonged watch durations tell the algorithm that the video was “well received,” so it will be promoted further.
Therefore, for the best results, you should constantly look for unique ways to grab and maintain the audience’s attention. By being concise and encouraging users to stay or interact with your content, you can increase engagement rates and thus the likelihood that TikTok will recommend your videos. It's truly a game-changer.
Finally, it’s important to identify successful patterns and replicate what has proven profitable in the past. Take a close look at your most successful videos and analyse all the factors that contributed to their success.
Following these tips will help you to maximise growth and increase engagement on TikTok. This type of data-driven influencer marketing will make your campaign more profitable, engaging, and targeted.
Read more on the Kolsquare Influencer Marketing Blog on how to feed your strategy with data to improve it, too.
While understanding the best times and approaches to market on TikTok is important, many brands launch multi-channel campaigns. This helps you reach different audiences in different ways on different platforms.
Here are how the algorithms of other popular platforms work and the best time slots for posting.
Facebook's algorithm is now more sophisticated and AI-powered than ever. The algorithm uses various ranking factors, including the creator of the post, the type of content, and interactions with the post, to determine what appears in users' feeds.
It has also made efforts to prioritise top content by promoting content with high engagement rates and allowing users more control over their feed through features like "My Favorites."
For businesses and marketers, mastering the algorithm involves using visual media, harnessing interactive features, posting regularly at optimised times, analysing data, and experimenting with different strategies. Additionally, leveraging Facebook groups and niche communities can enhance engagement and foster loyalty among users.
The particular times that work best are as follows:
Peak engagement times typically occur in the morning and early afternoon throughout the week. Unlike TikTok on Saturdays, where early evenings are preferred, early afternoons are better on Facebook.
Learn more about the Facebook Algorithm here!
Pinterest has evolved into a powerful e-commerce platform where users increasingly search for products and make purchasing decisions.
Unlike traditional social networks, Pinterest functions more as a visual search engine that prioritises image and video content. The algorithm evaluates pins based on relevance, quality, recency, and user engagement. Influencer marketing on Pinterest focuses more on showcasing products and services rather than personalities, making it ideal for long-term content visibility.
There are multiple best times to post on Pinterest, but late evenings are a great way to connect with and grow followers. Again, weekends have the lowest reach:
Learn more about the Pinterest algorithm here.
LinkedIn is the go-to platform for B2B networking. Unlike other social media platforms, it's professional and work-oriented.
In May 2022, LinkedIn updated its algorithm, enhancing the platform's ability to favour engagement, posting time, and content quality. As of 2023, the algorithm categorises posts into three types: Spam, Average, and Standard.
Spam posts are immediately flagged or removed, while Average posts are visible to followers but succeed only with consistent engagement. Standard posts, which use relevant keywords and moderate tags, generally perform well over time.
Despite its advantages, LinkedIn still poses challenges for influencer marketing, mainly due to limited analysis tools and data access. The only way to break through on this tough platform is through creating high-value content, avoiding engagement baiting, and leveraging LinkedIn's unique features like webinars and live events to bring real interactions.
As a professional platform for white-collar workers, the best time slots on LinkedIn are on weekdays. They break down as follows:
Click here to learn more about the LinkedIn algorithm in 2024
Instagram's algorithm, once mysterious and near-impossible to predict, has become more transparent in recent years. One of its key features is that it doesn't rely on a single algorithm but rather uses a combination of different algorithms for features like the Timeline, Explore tab, Reels, and Shopping sections.
The platform's primary goal is to keep users engaged by showing them content they are most likely to interact with based on their past activity and preferences.
Instagram ranks its content primarily on check-ins, comments, likes, and views. Yet, saves are the gold medal as they indicate high-quality content that users want to view again.
To make the most of Instagram's algorithm, a good idea is to focus on creating fun and interactive content that sparks interactions.
The optimal times to post on Instagram are late mornings and early afternoons. And just like TikTok, on Saturday and Sunday, it's quieter:
Click here to learn more about the Instagram algorithm and how the platform ranks content.
Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, a data-driven solution that allows brands to scale their KOL Marketing strategies and implement authentic partnerships with KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders). Kolsquare’s technology enables marketing professionals to easily identify the best Content Creators profiles by filtering their content and audience, and to build and manage their campaigns from A to Z, including measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors. Kolsquare has built the largest community of influencer marketing experts in the world, and offers hundreds of customers (Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, El Corte Inglés, Lacoste, …) the latest Big Data, AI and Machine Learning technologies to drive inspiring partnerships, tapping into an exhaustive network covering 100% of KOLs with more than 5,000 followers in 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. As a Benefit Company, Kolsquare has been pioneering Responsible Influence by championing transparency, ethical practices, and meaningful collaborations to inspire change.
