Short Answer : (TLDR)
The best time to post on Instagram in Australia is 8-9 pm Sydney Time, AEST, This is in line with other creators I speak to accounts ranging from 50k to 1.5M followers, all are posting at 8-9 pm in Australia.
The second most popular time that I see posting is 7 am. If your trying to find the logic have a look at this Time and Date Meeting planner screenshot it can help show a pattern of why this time emerged, however, times have changed so keep reading
Time Zones:
If you want to try this tool in the screenshot above you can also customize it yourself click here to find your best Instagram Posting time. It’s the meeting planner.
Don’t forget you can use tools like Later to ensure posts are pre-scheduled or just set an alarm to post.
Longer answer:
In the past, the suggestions would be that If you are traveling in Australia and you want your followers to be online the best time to post is the same as back at home to set an alarm and post at the same time as you always did. Keep it consistent.
But the chronological feed is something of the past, the new method is to just focus on your core group, which could be fellow creators or clients, the most important aspect is ensuring you allow time to interact with your community on the platform and not just login, post, and log off.
So think about who your tribe is, and your existing followers. new accounts you haven’t met yet, If you are a business when are your clients online, are they single mums? or CEO’s or both?!
As a creative, my focus is on the Australian photography community, which means one of the major reasons I use the platform is to talk to, engage with and comment on photography posts worldwide. The photography community like others is often the most excited to see a photo and discuss equipment and are obviously the target for what I create so I want to be online with them.
If you’re not part of one of these communities and haven’t met your tribe, then you can be more flexible in picking and choosing when you are online and just use the time you’re in the mood to post and comment yourself.
It’s better to find a time that works for you rather than forcing yourself to be online when you can’t be consistent or engage with others (Like and comment etc).
Other tips:
Do you have trouble posting at regular times? Using an app or scheduling service can really help you be consistent and also experiment with different times to post, Apps like Later are extremely useful and widely used by social media managers and creators to keep track of posts and in a lot of cases have the posts automatically published. Just make sure you keep an eye on them and don’t forget to engage with the users who reply to your post.
Use your insights
If you have a business or a creator account you can view your insights which will show your graphs like the following:
These will help you know whos online and when and in which region so you can focus your efforts, again this may not be as important as in the past when your post when online in chronological order.
Experiment
If things are going well it can be difficult to rock the boat and try alternative times, however, if they are not going well or you have a new account, test the waters and try different times.
An example of events is important, is getting a Photo of the Sydney Operahouse lit up for a special memorial event as quickly as possible more important so it can be shared by an online account Like Tourism Australia or City of Sydney, rather than waiting for your followers to be online.
Bonus tip! Content and Daylight
An often overlooked aspect is that when people are out in the bright sunlight they won’t be able to easily browse and appreciate details of your posts, or watch your videos so consider what looks the best at different times of day. While someone might be able to listen to a podcast or youtube video during the day, the perfect photo of the Australian landscape under the milky way might be best viewed when the mobile phone is in a dark environment at night.
This is an example of a shot that I posted at night so the details could be seen.
Final word
Just remember when you are online millions of others are as well, finding them and connecting, and engaging with a wider social world is half the fun of a platform like Instagram, so when you are considering what time to post in Australia, the time your online is probably the best 🙂
Thank you this has been really helpful 🙂
Very welcome!