Research reveals social network peaks

Intelligent advertising company RadiumOne has revealed the results of some number-crunching that explored the times people are most active on various social networks. A press release said this had "strong implications for businesses" through dictating the "optimal time to reach their respective audiences".

The data was taken from over 10,000 publishers, using RadiumOne's own po.st tool, and it found social networks mostly peaked in the two hours before noon and between 8 and 10 p.m. Additionally, the UK "showed itself to be unusual" in having a sharing spike at 6pm, presumably coinciding with people either about to head home, or commuting home and using social tools on public transport.

The research also showcased that different networks each have their own peaks: Google+ peaked at 10 a.m., Twitter at around 1 p.m., and Facebook at 5 p.m. Pinterest was reportedly "for night owls," with sharing highest at 11 p.m., and email was for "early birds," with most shares happening at 7 a.m. Further complicating matters for anyone keen to target specific users, devices also showed big variations, with mobile usage peaking at 10 p.m., tablet users most active at 1 p.m., and computers most-used at 9 p.m.

There was, however, one common figure across the bulk of the research: on mobile, tablets and computers alike, the lowest 'share count' time happened at 4 a.m., presumably on account of the majority of people being asleep.