Canary Island Social Media: Focus On Quality Not Timing

There is a huge amount of information available about the best time to Tweet, post on Facebook and publish blog posts. Most of it is from America where there is only an hour’s time difference separating the entire audience. For Canarian tourist businesses, timing is far less important than the quality of content we provide. This is because our audience is spread across several time zones.

At 0.900 the British are arriving at their desks, just as the Germans start to think of their first mid-morning coffee. The Finns are already planning lunch and in Rekjavik, they have only just woken up. Given these differences, working out the optimal time to send out your stuff is futile.

That said: If your customers are mostly from one country, then timing is worth considering. Social media activity peaks at around midday or 13.00. This is when people stop working and start thinking about lunch. Who doesn’t have a quick look at their Facebook page during their lunch hour? Other good times are about 9.00, when most people are just starting work, and about 16.45, just before they finish.

There is also a widespread theory that the weekends are a poor time to share content on social networks. For tourist businesses this is probably not the case. People plan their holidays and research destinations online when they have spare time. Sharing photos and blog posts at the weekend is a good way of reaching them, especially as the social networks tend to be quieter: Your competition is probably not working so your content stands a much better chance of being viewed.

An obsession with timing pushes many businesses towards using third-party apps to prepare their posts in advance. This is fine for Twitter and for blogs but not for Facebook: It punishes posts sent automatically by lowering their EdgeWeight.

Trying to time your posts and updates is largely a waste of time. Focus instead of publishing quality content regularly and you will become part of your audience’s online habits. The “what” is far more important than the “when”.