Building a strong and relevant Instagram following is difficult, and what makes it harder is the fact that even if you post consistently, Instagram doesn't promise that everyone will see your post. That's why I cannot emphasis enough the importance of posting when your audience is there. So the tricky part about this blog post is that I can't just say "post at 5 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m.on Monday" because everyone's audience is different, and every audience is active at different times, but I can tell you how to figure out your golden hours.
WHERE DO I START?
Good question. A lot of figuring out your time has to do with testing, so the starting point is generally the hardest part.
If your Instagram account is set up as a business account, you can actually go into analytics (top right corner button that looks like a mini graph), click on "audience" and scroll to the bottom until you see the "followers" section. This will allow you to click through days of the week and see what times Instagram has determined them most active. So if you're looking to post on Friday, and Instagram says most of your followers are active at 6 p.m., try such random times before 6 p.m.
If your Instagram account is NOT a business account, then these are some general times that are good to start with:
Wednesday around 3 p.m.
Thursday around 11 a.m., 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. (this is generally the best day to post overall).
Friday at 5 a.m. (Yes, 5 a.m. This is because more often that not, people check their phones right when they wake up. If you get ahead of the game, they'll see your content first).
In general, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. does fairly well engagement-wise as well because that's when most people are off on lunch breaks.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
Now that you have your starting point, it's all about experimenting. Sometimes the best times aren't 4 p.m. or 4:30 p.m., they're 4:16 p.m. They only way to distinguish that difference, unfortunatlely, is to pay careful attention and keep track.
OK, now when should I really avoid posting?
For some accounts, it's important to stay consistent in posting once a day. In that case, it's even more vital to learn best posting times. If that's not you, then I would definitely recommend avoiding Sundays and Mondays. Most people are doing personal things Sunday and busy catching up on Monday.