As they say, timing is everything. The second hand of an increasingly anachronistic analog clock ticks through each moment of our lives and stops for no one. There are the occasions where we wish we could will time to move faster and just as many that leave us wondering in dismay where it all went.

Of course, there is also the careworn wisdom that’s often trotted out in an attempt to offer comfort: the notion that there is a correct time for major and minor things alike. From mundane events to life’s milestones, we subscribe to the notion that some moments are more favorable than others for everything from booking a flight to meeting the right person. And it turns out that there are opportune times for posting content to social media.

Although it’s true that the internet never sleeps, online traffic varies depending on time of day and day of the week. Increased views translate into more shares and a boost in traffic to your site. You’ve optimized your content to be SEO-friendly, but can you guarantee that your tweet, blog or post will be seen by a broad audience?

Luddite Weekends

The best way to capture the attention of potential customers and people in your network is to share content when they are online. It may be obvious from your own habits that the worst time to share content is over the weekend.

Throughout the workweek, most of us are chained to our devices in some manner. Saturday and Sunday offer a glorious reprieve from screentime, and plenty of people indulge in activities that keep them away from the internet. When sharing your content, steer clear of posting anything over the weekend.

Aside from weekends, the worst time to post content is before 8am and after 8pm. Think of it this way: you can’t capture someone’s attention before they’ve had their morning coffee and it’s tough to compete with evening primetime.

Zuck’s Social Network

Every single day, 757 million users log on to Facebook from desktop and mobile devices around the world. The consensus from a number of studies indicates that weekdays between 1-4pm is the best time to post content to Facebook for optimal clicks and shares. The afternoon slump is an ideal time to engage Facebook users who would rather still be on their lunch break than back at work. Posting funny or uplifting content during these hours can be a good way to energize your followers, as well as helping to make the time pass a bit more quickly.

Tweetily Deetily Deet

At 140 characters or fewer per post, Twitter markets in morsels of information. This allows people a different degree of interaction, and complements mobile device use. Millennials are considerably more likely to log in to Twitter on their mobile device (smartphone or tablet), and statistics indicate that these primary mobile users are 181% more likely to access Twitter during their commute. This means that content posted weekdays between 5-6pm will get a lot of traffic.

Twitter is often a go-to during downtime. In addition to the droves who check it during their commute, tweets that go out between 12-3pm on weekdays can capture a lot of attention.

Social media is an integral part of your business, and though data can help to provide parameters, the reality is that online behavior varies according to industry and target audience. The best way to ensure that your shared content is getting the attention it deserves is to pick a posting schedule and stick with it for a month.

Heather Candon is a writer living in New York.