"Best time to post" advice is often generic and not actually based on your specific audience. Here's a more useful way to think about it.
Check your own analytics first – Every platform's native analytics show when YOUR followers are actually active, which matters more than generic industry averages.
Account for your audience's time zone, not your own, if they differ significantly.
Test and compare – Post similar content at different times over a few weeks and actually compare the performance, rather than guessing.
Day of week matters too – Engagement patterns often differ meaningfully between weekdays and weekends depending on the platform and audience.
Generic advice ("post at 9am and 5pm") is a reasonable starting point if you have zero data, but your own analytics will always beat a generic recommendation once you have enough posts to compare.
Has your own data ever contradicted the generic "best time to post" advice?
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