Let’s face it: Twitter is an incredibly busy network. Every second around 6,000 Tweets are send out to the world. On the busiest day in Twitter history, the number of Tweets totaled 500 million. With that in mind, how do you make sure that your Tweets are seen and reach the maximum number of people?

1. Find Out When Your Followers Are Active

To ensure that you maximize your reach, you need to tweet when most of your followers are active. Here’s how you can find out when to tweet (+ how to automatically apply your ideal schedule to your Buffer account):

  1. Visit followerwonk.com
  2. Enter your Twitter account name
  3. Select ‘analyze their followers’

Analyze your Twitter Audience

This chart breaks down the hourly Twitter activity of our followers.

Most active hours of DKKMA's followers

Most of our followers are active between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. (UTC +2); 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. (UTC -4). That’s because the majority of our followers are based in the US.

2. Schedule Your Tweets To Be Most Effective

We decided to tweet 6 times a day. Our schedule works out to be

  1. 4.20 p.m. (UTC +2); 10.20 a.m. (UTC +4)
  2. 4.42 p.m. (UTC +2); 10.42 a.m. (UTC +4)
  3. 5.03 p.m. (UTC +2); 11.03 a.m. (UTC +4)
  4. 5.24 p.m. (UTC +2); 11.24 a.m. (UTC +4)
  5. 1.03 a.m. (UTC +2); 07.03 p.m. (UTC +4)
  6. 1.38 a.m. (UTC +2); 07.38 p.m. (UTC +4)

If you are using Buffer, you can automatically copy your ideal schedule. Simply set the number of times you’d like to tweet per day and press ‘Schedule at Buffer’. If you do not see the button, you will be prompted to sign in with Twitter first.

Automatically create a schedule in Buffer

Pro Tip #1: Don’t Over Automate

A word of caution: Do not post too frequently and only share content you and your audience genuinely cares about. We strongly advise against RSS feeds (automatic posting) unless it’s your own blog’s feed.

Pro Tip #2: Schedule Your Tweet With Twitter

There are a lot of great tools that help you schedule tweets. The two most popular ones are Buffer and Hootsuite. However, if you prefer not to use any third party tools, you can schedule tweets from within Twitter. Here’s how:

Visit ads.twitter.com and look for Creatives > Tweets

Schedule a Tweet on Twitter

Now you can compose and schedule your tweet:

Schedule a Tweet on Twitter

3. Optimize Your Twitter Schedule

It’s important to remember that these times are subject to change. Make sure that you come back regularly to make adjustments. You can keep track of your past performance at analytics.twitter.com.

Pro Tip #3: Find Out When Others Tweet

It’s always a good idea to find out when others in your industry tweet. This is great, especially if you’re looking to reach a similar audience. In this case we have a quick look at HubSpot’s account:

Most active hours of HubSpot's Twitter account

Most of HubSpot’s tweets are sent between 3 p.m. and 1 a.m. (UTC +2) or 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. (UTC -4). Interestingly, the majority of these tweets are directed at individual users. The number of regular tweets stays consistent throughout the day and night. We can only assume that this is because they are aiming to reach a global audience.

Share Your Experience

Voice out in the comments and let us know what timing works best for you and your business.