Did you know a tweet is going to get its highest engagement 18 minutes after you post it? After that, it’s pretty much downhill for people engaging with your tweet. With such a short lifespan, timing your tweet is really important. We have done a lot of research and testing with this, so I would love to share with you what we have learned firsthand from managing the Twitter accounts of our real estate agent clients.
First, not only is time of day important, but the type of content you are posting at that time of day is important. The only way to truly succeed with tweets is to think about living a day in the life of your target audience.
For example, let’s say I am managing the account of a real estate agent whose audience is made up of business professionals living downtown. Here’s how I would tweet throughout the day:
7:30 a.m.
Most likely our audience is waking up, so I will share with them any big news stories (local or national) that are timely and important to their day. For example, tweets about road closures, weather alerts or major finance/business/housing market stories.
8:30 a.m.
They are on their morning commute to work, so sharing more time-sensitive news, also major stories, works well. When your audience shares that story with co-workers or retweets it, they are going to subconsciously remember you were the person who originally told them.
Noon
It’s lunchtime. Chances are they will grab their phone as they take a break from their work. Usually I will post another news item or something fun. If I know of any new restaurants opening up downtown, this would be a perfect time to share a new lunch idea.
5:30 p.m.
They are now on their commute home. Research has shown consumer-based tweets actually work best at this time. Usually, I will tweet about home-related products, interior design ideas or my client’s listing. For example, I could tweet about a great local store to buy modern contemporary furniture or about how the Apple Watch can be used to automate your home.
9:45 p.m.
It’s nighttime now and your audience most likely wants to relax. Any tweets done after dinner are usually fairly fun and focus on sharing a smile. I usually post amusing human interest stories, but I make sure it is related to real estate or the audience’s local community. For example, I could tweet a link to photos of Jay-Z and Beyonce’s new mansion or a list of the best events happening in town this weekend. Whatever it is, the idea is to keep it light.
Try experimenting with different types of content at different times of the day. If a particular tweet gets a lot of clicks or retweets, make a note of the time and content because you’re onto something.
That’s basically it. As real estate agents, you work around the clock, and your focus is usually on real estate. Try to remember your audience has a different daily schedule than you, and their interests will also differ from yours. If you take a “day in the life of your target audience” mindset, you are going to see a strong and steady increase in engagement.
Mark Wilson is a social media strategist at Mystro.