What’s the best time and place to post on social media?

If this isn’t one of the most frequently asked questions, there aren’t any.

After all, if you use social media as a required component of online marketing, it would be really nice to know where and when to make your investments in social sharing more effective.

Turns out, the answer depends on a couple of things.

The shortest distance to an answer.

First, you have to get clear on the social media networks that you use. And with the explosion of platforms available, it makes sense to spend some time hanging out on the major ones where you think your prospects and customers are probably hanging out too.

If you’re seeing a stream of content and shares that aligns with the prospects and customers you’re targeting, chances are you’re looking in the right place.

Next, you’ll want to find out when your target audience is online and what social media they’re actually using. If you turn to a social sharing platform like HootSuite, Buffer or SproutSocial, these great tools collect data and provide insights on these activities and much more.

Guidelines from the social majors.

The beautiful infographic below, which summarizes data from several sources including HubSpot, Mashable, Buffer, TechCrunch and more, informs us that Thursdays and Fridays are when most people are online.

Additional input by KissMetrics finds that people are more engaged with Facebook and Twitter on weekends.

Keep your eyes on the dashboards.

These are general guidelines for where to start your own social media analysis. But the right answer about when and where to post in social media should come from the actual social media accounts that you use.

For example, Facebook Insights provides great statistics on what posts engage your fans and when they are interacting with or sharing them. Twitter also allows you access to analytics of your account once you’ve signed up for Twitter Ads. Some may consider this a high price to pay for a noisy ad stream in your Twitter experience but the insights might be worth the price.

Pinterest, Google Plus, and LinkedIn also offer analytics that will give you an idea of when your posts generate the most engagement from followers.

A where and when picture of success.

This infographic also provides some helpful data from some of the biggest social media and analyzation platforms. The good news is that there is a range of optimum posting days and times that can improve your reach, engagement and social media effectiveness.

There is also some guidance on times and days that you might want to avoid or consider using infrequently. Take a look, and then use this handy data as a place to start improving your social media results.

Just remember, there are no silver bullets or one-size-fits-all answers that will meet everyone’s requirements or needs.

Take advantage of insights from the social pros.

Leveraging the heavy lifting analysis that these social media heavyweights have conducted should shed some light on the best days and times to post on your social media accounts.

Feel free to share these findings and guidelines with your community!