You’ve figured out the Why? of Twitter…

You’ve figured out What to Tweet.

Now, you’re probably wondering When is the best time to tweet?

The answer may surprise you…

Statistics can be Used to Prove Anything

Much speculation has been proposed about the busiest day of the week on Twitter for tweeting, retweeting, overall tweet volume, etc. But like any statistical analysis, the results are mixed and depending on how they are used, they can “prove” just about any theory you’d like.

For example, let’s say 50% of Twitter’s tweets take place on Saturday. Sounds like you should be tweeting on Saturday then, right? Well, what about the fact that 50% of all tweets are in a language other than English.

Perhaps the majority of those tweets that are happening on a weekend are also heavily weighted in a foreign language. In that case, the higher tweet volume would be completely irrelevant to you and your target audience (assuming your target audience tweets in English).

Or perhaps you’ve heard that Sunday is a great day to get retweets because overall tweet volume is lower and therefore people are more likely to see and share your stuff. Sounds reasonable, right?

But what if you cater primarily to an audience that observes a religious holiday on Sunday and those tweeters are no where to be found on that day. Does it really matter that someone in New Delhi RTed your daily special on a Sunday afternoon if you cater to a religious group in New York City who are away from their computers on Sunday?

So When is the Best Time to Tweet?

The simple answer: Tweet when your target audience is listening.
But there is a qualification to this advice…

You must also be present, live, and tweeting in person in order for your tweets to be most effective.

Yes, there are tools to schedule your tweets and there can be some value in reaching your target audience through automated means if you absolutely can’t be online at the same time as your audience.

But what if at the very time you send an automated tweet, someone in your target audience decides to @ reply you, asking you a specific, public question about your product or service? That tweet will sit idle, giving the impression that you are too busy or just don’t care enough about your target audience to respond. In Twitter parlance, that’s a big #FAIL.

Twitter is worldwide, on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can always find an audience for your tweets no matter what time of day or even what day of the year (no, not everyone celebrates the arrival of jolly old St. Nick!).

Tweet whenever you’d like but you will get the most bang for your buck, the most mentions, @ replies, RTs and engagement if you tweet to your target audience. Over time they’ll come to know and trust that whenever they see your tweets they’ll know you are there, live, tweeting, reading and responding in real time at the other end of the social web.

And that is the best time to tweet.

Do you tweet in real time? Do you stay up late or get up early to tweet to your target audience or do you schedule your tweets? Let us know your best time to tweet by leaving a comment below.

Image Credit: Thomas Hawk