Best Time to Post on YouTube Shorts [2023]

Imagine this…

You post on YouTube Shorts.

And, in a couple of minutes, you immediately see hundreds, if not thousands, of viewers engaging your Shorts.

You see tons of comments, likes, and shares, and your client goes wild upon seeing the massive success of your YT Shorts!

People around start slow clapping because of how a-m-a-z-i-n-g you are. 🕺

Sigh… 

Wouldn’t it be awesome if you kept getting the same results every single time?

Here’s the deal…

There are a lot of nuances you must consider to create winning YT Shorts.

We’ll share a more in-depth guide on the anatomy of successful YT Shorts in the coming weeks, but before we even talk about that, I need us to pay attention to one thing that impacts your Shorts’ performance.

And that is when you post your YouTube Shorts.

Knowing the best time to post on YouTube Shorts is crucial.

It’s something seasoned social media marketers pay attention to since it drastically impacts the performance of your posts.

After all, if you publish when your target audience is asleep or deep at work, you’ll never get the same level of audience engagement if you post your Shorts at optimal times.

TL;DR: Publish your YT Shorts at the best time… Or suffer. 😨

Sounds dreadful?

Welp, allow me to share the best times to publish so your YT Shorts don’t get ignored.

What you’ll learn:

• The not-so-good-news about figuring out the best YT Shorts publishing times
• Questions to ask to determine the best time to publish on YouTube Shorts
• Best times to post on YouTube Shorts… The generic version
• The one tool to determine the best YT Shorts publishing time
• Knowing the best YT Shorts publishing time isn’t enough

The not-so-good-news about figuring out the best YT Shorts publishing times

First things first…

Right off the bat, I’d like to tell you that no one-size-fits-all publishing time window applies to all demographics.

As you can imagine, the life dynamics of a fresh grad who’s recently started their 9-to-5 job are worlds different compared to a single mom who cares for preschoolers or toddlers.

The illustration shows how nuanced figuring out the best YT Shorts publishing time can be.

You need to pay very close attention to the dynamics of your target customers.

Also, you need to consider the type of content you’ll publish.

Are you looking to publish entertaining YT Shorts? Or are you looking to publish instructional how-to videos?

If it’s the latter, you could consider publishing earlier in the day since your audience needs answers to their questions before going to work.

If you’re looking to publish the former—the entertaining videos, I mean—publishing them later after work is a better fit since your audience wants to unwind and relax.

The key here is to have a firm grasp of your customers’ life dynamics.

Questions to ask to determine the best time to publish on YouTube Shorts

There’s a myriad of questions you ought to consider to learn the best YT Shorts posting time.

Allow me to point you in the right direction by sharing some of the best questions below:

• What time does their work end?
• When are their days off? Are their days off fixed?
• What time do they go to sleep?
• What time do they wake up?
• What are their break schedules?
• Etc.

If all else fails and you can’t figure out the answer to these questions, remember that you can always ask your audience when they’d like you to publish your YT Shorts.

You’ll get varying answers to this question, but you’ll see a pattern emerge.

The pattern gives you a better glimpse of the ideal time to post your YT Shorts.

Best times to post on YouTube Shorts… The generic version

If you don’t have a solid grasp of your customers’ life dynamics.

And you’re oblivious to when their work starts, when they go home, or when they wind down, don’t worry—there’s hope!

According to the survey conducted by Hubspot, the best time to post on YouTube is from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

This attests to the data Google shared. Google revealed that YouTube reaches more adults (compared to cable networks) during prime time on an average week.

(Note: YouTube might require a few hours to index newly published content. Therefore, it’s advisable to upload between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. to ensure your videos are indexed and ready by prime time.)

The time window above can be your starting point as you experiment and figure out the ideal publishing time that fits your audience.

However, start gathering first-party data about your customers ASAP.

You can run surveys using forms, polls, or ask your email list to gain as much insights about your customers as possible to help you determine your best posting times.

The one tool to determine the best YT Shorts publishing time

If you’re not too keen on using the generic YT Shorts publishing times, which you really shouldn’t, and you have no information about your customers’ schedules, then here’s another option.

Use Vista Social, a multi-award-winning social media management software trusted by over 20,000 social media marketing agencies and brands.

Vista Social suggests optimal times to publish your YT Shorts based specifically on your audience engagement, content velocity, etc.

That means the suggestions you get aren’t generic. They’re highly relevant to your business dynamics and the behavior of your audience.

Here’s how the suggestions look.

With Vista Social, you can avoid the hassle of doing tons of research and spending countless hours (and dollars) trying to figure out the best publishing times for your YT Shorts.

Just choose from Vista Social’s publishing time suggestions, and you’re pretty much ready.

We’re just scratching the surface, by the way.

Vista Social does so much more.

Some of Vista Social’s most celebrated features are:

• AI-assistant. Create fun, engaging, and compelling content 10X faster with Vista Social’s AI-assistant, powered by ChatGPT.
• Advanced scheduling & publishing features. You can schedule your posts in bulk and create content for various social media platforms from one simple dashboard.
• Smart team collaboration features. Vista Social allows you to save drafts, set an approval process, set permissions, receive notifications, etc. All of which help you streamline your social media marketing campaigns.
• Comprehensive reporting features. Create highly customizable and automated reports without writing a single line of code.
• Sophisticated audience engagement features. Easily reply to comments, reviews, and messages from your desktop. You can also sort and label your messages through Vista Social’s message tagging feature to better manage your engagements.

Knowing the best YT Shorts publishing time isn’t enough

Now that you know the best times to post on YouTube Shorts, it’s time to gear up and begin your YouTube Shorts domination journey.

It’s worth pointing out, however, that knowing when to publish isn’t enough.

Aside from publishing at the right times (and creating high-quality YT Shorts), you also need a reliable social media management tool to amplify your marketing initiatives.

That’s where Vista Social comes in.

Whether you plan to market only on YouTube or add Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook down the line, Vista Social has you covered.
Create a Vista Social account today.