In just 1 minute over 250,000 tweets are sent on Twitter; as such the ‘life’ of a tweet is short, estimates are between 18 and 60 minutes. Similarly 75% of Facebook engagement happens in the first 2.5 hours.

Therefore the time at which you tweet / post to reach the most number of people is important, and there are many bits of research suggesting best times.

The best days to post on Facebook are Thursday and Friday, with Monday through to Wednesday getting the lowest engagement rates. In addition, Facebook peaks by 10 percent on Fridays. The best time of day to post on Facebook is between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and more broadly, 9 a.m. through to 7 p.m.

Twitter users are generally more active on their way to work and are more likely to use Twitter during school or working hours. For maximum retweets, tweet at 5 p.m., 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. However 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. also deliver higher click-through rates.

Due to the short life, it’s a good idea to post at least four tweets a day to ensure you maximise your exposure in the newsfeed. You can of course post more than this, including retweeting your old tweets, if they are still relevant.

To save you time on Twitter you can use tools to schedule your tweets so they go out automatically during the day at certain times. Facebook also allows you to schedule your posts