"When to post" differs for every account
When deciding post times, many managers refer to recommended times found online. But those numbers are totals from other companies and other countries, and they don't necessarily apply to your followers. The best times change with how your audience lives: before lunch and evening for a restaurant, weekday mornings for a B2B company, and evenings when parents can relax for a school or class.
The most reliable clue is the engagement on posts you actually published from your own account. SNS TOWN's "Best posting time" counts that and shows it to you. The thinking behind choosing times is explained in detail in How to Choose When to Post.
What is counted
The counting works like this.
| Item | Contents |
|---|---|
| Posts counted | Posts published from SNS TOWN in the last 90 days |
| Engagement | Total of likes, reposts, replies, quotes and bookmarks |
| Slot | Day of week and time posted (Japan time, by the hour) |
| Slots compared | Only slots with 2 or more posts |
| What is shown | Top 3 by engagement per post |
The total engagement read back for each post goes into its slot, and engagement per post is worked out for each slot. Then only slots with 2 or more posts are compared, and the top 3 are shown. The condition of 2 or more keeps a slot that happened to do well with just one post from rising to the top.
What appears is a single line, "Times with good engagement (last 90 days, Japan time)", with three entries such as "Tue 12:00 8.4 per post" showing day, time and engagement per post.
Where it appears
This line appears above the calendar (week and month views) on the posts screen. Right above where you click an empty slot on the calendar to schedule a post, the good times are listed, so you can decide on the spot to put your next post at that time.
If you've selected one account in the header, it counts only that account's numbers. If you've selected "All", it counts all connected accounts together. The times when people watch often differ by network, so we recommend selecting one account when deciding times.
To schedule, click an empty slot on the calendar, or drag a post to move its time. How to use the calendar is explained on the calendar page.
When you want to look closer
If the top 3 isn't enough, the analytics screen has a "day of week x time of day" table. It splits posts from the last 30 days into slots by day and 3-hour time ranges, and shows engagement per post by color depth. It also shows which time ranges have few posts and which slots you haven't tried yet.
The top 3 times are "times that did well among those you have posted". Time ranges you've never posted in can't be compared. Trying new time ranges now and then gives you more to compare, and the numbers become more reliable.
Reflect it in your post cycle
Once you know the times with good engagement, match the times of your post cycle, which publishes at fixed times every week, and posts keep going out at those times without extra work. A post cycle's times can be changed after you create it. How is in Edit or Stop a Post Cycle.
After changing times, continue for one or two months, then look at this line and the analytics table again. Comparing engagement before and after the change tells you whether the change helped.
Conditions for using it
This feature uses numbers read back from post engagement. So analytics must be running on an account for a network whose engagement can be read back (X, Instagram, Facebook Page and YouTube). Analytics is available from the Team plan. You can compare plans on the pricing page.
While you have few posts, there is no slot with 2 or more, and this line doesn't appear. After you've posted a few times on the same day and time, more slots can be compared and it appears.
Frequently asked questions
The line with good engagement times doesn't appear
It doesn't appear unless there is a slot with 2 or more posts published on the same day of the week at the same hour in the last 90 days. Posting a few times at fixed times in a post cycle fills in slots so it appears. Analytics also needs to be running on a network whose engagement can be read back.
Is it decided by the number of impressions?
No. It compares the total of likes, reposts, replies, quotes and bookmarks. Some networks don't let us read impressions, so we use the engagement count, which can be compared on the same scale for every network.
Are the times in Japan time?
Yes, Japan time. Even for accounts aimed at overseas audiences, it counts in Japan time, so convert to your audience's local time when you read it.
Are posts published from the network's app counted?
No. Only the engagement on posts published from SNS TOWN is used. If you publish a lot from the app, fewer posts can be counted.
Why is the analytics table by 3 hours but this one by 1 hour?
They have different jobs. The analytics table groups by 3 hours to show the overall pattern of days and time ranges in one view. The good-times line is for deciding on the spot which time to put your next schedule, so it counts by the hour, the same fineness as scheduling.
Are posts published by a post cycle counted too?
Yes. Both posts you wrote and scheduled by hand and posts AI drafted in a post cycle are counted the same way, as long as they were published from SNS TOWN.
Should I put all my posts at the top times?
If you gather too many, posts overlap at the same time and engagement per post can drop. We recommend using the top times as your anchor while also trying other time ranges a little at a time, so you keep material to compare.
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