Which are the best days and times to post to a blog? Do capital letters, exclamation points, and question marks in titles lead to more engagement? On which social networks do readers share blog posts most often?
TrackMaven recently tackled those questions (and many others) in its Colossal Content Marketing Report, which was based on an analysis of 1.16 million posts from 4,618 blogs and 1.9 million social shares of those posts. The data set included blog posts from a range of publishers, including content marketers, individuals, and media companies.
Below, key findings:
Best Days and Times to Post
- 87% of the blog posts examined were published during the workweek, with Tuesday and Wednesday the most popular days for posting.
- However, the 13% of pieces published on weekends actually had more social shares per post on average.
- Saturdays were particularly ripe for blog post sharing: Only 6.3% of posts were published on Saturdays, but they received 18% of the total social shares.
- The bulk of blog posts examined were published during US working hours, from roughly 9 AM to 6 PM ET, with the peak at 11 AM-12 PM.
- Posting frequency steadily declined after 6 PM EST, but there was a secondary spike 12-1 AM ET, most likely due to scheduled posts at the start of the next business day.
- The peaks of engagement (social shares) with blog posts were actually clustered outside of working hours: The most social shares occurred 9 PM-midnight ET, with the highest point of engagement coming 10-11 PM.
- There were also additional smaller spikes in social sharing 4-6 AM ET, 7-8 PM, and 1-2 AM.
Blog Post Titles
Length
- The blog post titles examined were around 40 characters in length on average.
- However, those with titles a bit longer than average, around 60 characters in length, received the most social shares.
- Blog posts with titles beyond 60 characters in length had sharp declines in social shares.