Notes from the Science of Timing Webinar I Attended This Week

Earlier this week, I was able to hear the audio portion of a webinar entitled "The Science of Timing" with Dan Zarrella who calls himself a Social Media Scientist. He's full of numbers, formulas, hard facts and a few theories. Sounds like a scientist to me. He talked a lot about contra-competitive timing for marketing. In other words, sending updates when others are not sending updates.

Here are a few of my notes. All times in notes are EST.
 

Fast facts

• More men are on social media sites in the evening.
• It is okay to tie your blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts together as long as you are not repeating everything. Add some original content to each outlet.
• Marketing events on Twitter should start happening two weeks out.

Twitter

• Most re-tweets happen during the day.
• If you post something to Twitter late in the day (2-5pm), it will be more likely to be re-tweeted. Also posts made late in the week have a better chance of being re-tweeted.
• Click-thru rates are stable throughout the week, including weekends. Monday and Thursday have the lowest click-thru rates.
• Click-thrus spike between 11am and 5pm.
• Do not fear that you are sending too many tweets. Tweet more!
• Tweet links to other sites more often than to your own site.
• Tool: tweetwhen.com to analyze your retweets

Facebook

• Don’t crowd your content.
• More articles are shared on Facebook on the weekends.
• 12am – 3am are the better times for Facebook postings.
• Post links to your site more often than other sites.
• Facebook is better for direct marketing.
• There is very little difference for marketing on Facebook between B2B and B2C.

Email

• Emails are read mostly in the mornings.
• Most emails are opened 5am – 8am
• Abuse/spam reports are highest on weekends.
• Open rates are higher on the weekends.
• Higher click-thru rates on weekends because of contra-competitive timing.
• Frequency – Know your audience.
• If you are sending quality, informative emails, once a week is good.
• Put the unsubscribe button right at the top of the page. Do not be afraid of unsubscribers. They help you keep your list up-to-date. Why would you want to market to someone who doesn’t care about your product/company?
• Send more emails! The more emails you send the lower your unsubscribe rates.

Blogs

• Most blogs are read in the morning between 10-11am
• Blogs have the most page views on Mondays, least amount of views on the weekends.
• More blogs are shared on Facebook on the weekends.
• More comments to blogs are made on the weekends.
• If you are blogging so others will share a link to your blog, then you should publish on Monday and Thursday.
• Blogs posted between 6-7am get the most links.
• The more frequently you blog, the better your stats