The Best Time To Post on TikTok

TikTok is the trendiest, youngest social media platform. Its young, international audience, features designed to help new advertisers to succeed, and targeting algorithm make TikTok for business a contender in the social media marketing landscape. 

Why Should Your Business Use TikTok?

Reach Gen Z

TikTok’s reputation as an app for the younger crowd is based in reality. 43% of TikTok’s users are 18-24 years old. If your target audience is under 25, TikTok is the place to reach them. 

Raise Your Engagement Rates

TikTok users engage with content more than other social media users do. Young adults spend an average of 80 minutes per day on TikTok compared to 58.5 minutes per day on Facebook. 

Expand the Reach of Your Video Content

Viewers retain 95% of a message when it’s communicated by video. Video ads are effective because they stop people from scrolling to watch them.  TikTok videos are easy to watch and easy to share on other platforms. 

Reach an International Audience

TikTok is a truly global platform. Though the US has the largest number of active users, the platform is very popular in East Asia and the Middle East. 

Do TikTok Posting Times Matter?

TikTok organic reach is high

Organic reach on TikTokis extremely high compared to other social media platforms. Thanks to its highly targeted For You Page, TikTok is more focused on discovering new content from creators you don’t already follow than other social media platforms. 

If you post when people are active on the app, they’ll be more likely to discover your content. 

Get Featured on the For You Page

The TikTok algorithm curates a personalized page of videos based on the user’s preferences. This is called the For You Page (FYP). The FYP shows videos on topics that are getting a lot of engagement. Some people call it social media’s first page of Google. Posting at the right time leads to more engagement, which makes your videos more likely to appear in the FYP. 

Get ideas

The more engagement you get, the more data you have about the content your audience likes. This will help you create more successful TikTok content in the future. 

The Overall Best Times to Post on TikTok

The best time to post on TikTok isn’t universal, but there has been some research on overall best posting times. Influencer Marketing Hub and Hootsuite have both studied this, but the data is a little different. 

Data via Influencer Marketing Hub

Times are in Eastern Standard Time (EST)

Data Via Hootsuite

Times are in Pacific Standard Time (PST)

The Worst Times to Post on TikTok

You can’t have the best without the worst. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, these are the worst time slots for posting on TikTok:

• 5 pm, 6 pm, and 9 pm on any day of the week
• 10 am — 3 pm on Sunday through Wednesday
• 12 am — 4 am on Friday through Monday
• Any time after 9 am on Tuesday

How to Find the Best Time to Post on TikTok for Your Business

The overall best and worst times for posting on TikTok aren’t universally true. Not everyone uses TikTok the same way. Not everyone is awake at the same time.I Maybe your audience isn’t in the time zone you assumed it was. Maybe a lot of your viewers work the night shift. Fortunately, if you’re posting at the recommended times and still not getting many views, there are ways you can find out why and adjust accordingly. 

1. Change Your Account to a TikTok Pro Account

A Tiktok Pro account offers more detailed insights and analytics than a standard account. You can switch to a pro account in three simple steps:

• Open Privacy & Setting Tab from your profile page
• Click on Manage Your Account
• Click on Switch to Pro Account

2. Find Out Where Your Global Audience is Based

Obviously, posting a TikTok when people in New York are awake won’t be convenient for your followers in Tokyo. One of the things you can check on TikTok’s Analytics with a pro account is where your audience is based. If you click on the followers tab, you’ll see your top territories. The time zones you post in should match your audience’s location. 

If your audience lives in multiple time zones, you may have to find time slots that overlap with all of them to cater to all sections of your audience. 

3. Find Out When Your Followers Are Online

Your followers’ activity can tell you what time of day your followers are most active. This can help you directly know when the best times to post are. 

4. Track How Your Content Performs

The content tab shows you how well each of your videos perform. This information is important for planning future content.  The metrics in this tab include

• Shares
• Video Views 
• Comments
•  Likes

5. Test Which Times Get More Engagement

Once you know what type of content works and when your audience is active, the next step is finding out what posting times will get engagement from your target audience.

Publish quality content with relevant hashtags multiple times when your audience is active, then look at the data to find the times when your content gets the most engagement.

6. Learn As You Go

Finding the best time to post on TikTok can take a little trial and error. If something isn’t working, try something else. If you’ve found a time slot that gets a lot of engagement, keep posting in it. 

Schedule Your TikTok Posts for the Perfect Time

Creating a posting schedule may sound tedious, but it actually saves you the effort of having to think about when to post your videos. As of March 2021, Creator Accounts and Business Accounts can schedule TikTok video posts anywhere from 15 minutes to 10 days in advance of publishing. Here are the steps for creating a posting schedule:

1. Log in to your account on a web browser
2. Click on the Cloud icon at the top right-hand corner
3. You will then be directed to the upload video page
4. Upload and edit your video. Make sure to include captions, hashtags, and sound effects.
5. Toggle the schedule button
6. Select a date and time to schedule your post. The time zone will default to your computer setting.
7. Click schedule to schedule your post! 

You can see your scheduled posts in the profile view along with your drafts.

TikTok tips to get more engagement

Posting TikTok content at the right time isn’t the only thing you can do to grow your following and get more engagement. Follow these tips and you could rule to For You Page in no time. 

Find Your Niche

Anyone can post a video to TikTok, but not everyone can grow a big TikTok audience. Stand out from the crowd by building a niche based on what makes you unique. 

Aim for Creative Relatability

People like content they can relate to, but they also like to be surprised. You can accomplish a little of both by making videos on topics people in your target audience demographics find relatable, but approaching them from a creative angle. 

Create Good Headlines

A good headline will give just enough information to get the viewer interested, but leaves a little out so they’ll be interested in watching. The best TikTok headlines tend to be:

• Bold claims
• Questions
• Surprising facts
• Emotional

Here are some headline examples of headline formats for TikTok videos that lead to high engagement:

• X things about ____ you wish you knew sooner
• Why/how to ____ even if you _____
• The truth about ______
• This is why I don’t _______.
• Everything you know about _____ is wrong

Collaborate with other TikTokers

Working with other TikTok personalities is a powerful way to reach a captive audience. There are TikTok influencers for every niche from fashion and beauty to pet care. Collaborating with them will get more eyeballs on your videos. However, make sure you choose your collaborations wisely. Don’t just hit up Addison Rae because she’s popular with the kids, I think. Choose who you work with based on their relevance to your niche and the affordability of working with them.

Stick to 15-second videos

The optimum TikTok video length is 15.6 seconds. 80% of 2019’s top 100 TikTok were 20 seconds or less, and only 2% ran the maximum length. 15 seconds is the original video length allowed by the platform. The maximum is now 3 minutes. 

Stay positive

A study of viral TikTok videos by Semrush found the following about viral videos and emotional tone: 

Videos that make the viewers happy or surprised get the highest engagement rates by far.

For example, Adventures on the Rock posted this TikTok that went viral with over 1.8 million views because they used surprise and storytelling to hook the viewers in.

Use Trending Hashtags and Sounds

Piggybacking on trends gets your content in front of more eyeballs. Don’t stray too far from the topics of your content, though. 

Use FOMO

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is a powerful driver of social media marketing. TikTok is no exception. If your content is promotional in nature, it shouldn’t just be about the product itself, but promoting an aspirational lifestyle that the viewers could have.

Post every day

 The TikTok algorithm prioritizes frequent posters, but posting too often can backfire or look spammy.  TikTok recommends posting 1-4 times per day, but don’t sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity. Create variations on formats, themes, and genres that you can post about often. 

Use Upbeat Music

Videos with tracks above 120 beats per minute have the highest watch-through rate. Upbeat music makes viewers more excited and keeps them watching. 

Use Smart Video Soundtrack

Smart Video Soundtrack is a feature that automatically pairs your video with relevant music. It’s not only easier because it’s a choice you don’t have to make, but using popular sounds can increase your reach because TikTok users can track sounds the same way they track hashtags. 

Try trends outside of your comfort zone

Doing something silly that’s outside of your typical brand can pay off on TikTok. For example, after the video of a guy skateboarding and drinking cranberry juice while a Fleetwood Mac song played in the background went viral, Mick Fleetwood created a TikTok account specifically to recreate the video and Ocean Spray even got in on the action themselves and recreated the video with its CEO. You can riff on goofy trends too to get more visibility. 

Repost low-performing videos

When a video doesn’t get a high number of views, that doesn’t always mean something is wrong with the content. Sometimes the timing is just off. It doesn’t hurt to repost the same video a few hours later and delete the old version that didn’t get very many views. When you post it later, it could be presented to more people. 

See What Works and Optimize Accordingly 

Any strategy takes a little trial and error. Track the metrics in TikTok ad manager to see your strengths and weaknesses. Then keep doing what works and change what doesn’t. 

Don’t try too hard

TikTok loves humor, positivity, relatability, and authenticity. Trying too hard at any of those things can backfire. That’s why the most important thing about TikTok is to enjoy yourself. If you have fun making your content, chances are your audience will have fun watching it too. Timing your posts right is just a relatively easy way to get more eyes on your content. 

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