TikTok is a pioneering social media platform that has drawn in millions of users from across the globe, especially youths. As of 2019, the app had already gathered roughly 500 million active users worldwide whereas in Malaysia, there were about 4 million users and were expected to grow at an exponential rate.
Nearly half of TikTok users are aged 25 and below, making the app’s user base fairly young. In Malaysia alone, TikTok is ranked the fifth most widely used social media platform just behind Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
With the pool of users they have, TikTok surely has the potential to serve as a powerful marketing tool for brands of any nature; to help increase brand awareness and yield a larger following.
To earn recognition on TikTok, it’s important to know how the app works, first.
Simply, it is a short-video based platform (1 minute) with the videos following a certain trend—it could be an action or a dance to a specific song.
TikTok trends are meant to be adopted by users on the platform. One popular example is the #flyingchallenge that went viral back in 2020, with thousands of Malaysian TikTokers uploading composite videos of themselves jumping in many takes so the end result would appear as though they were ‘flying’ around the house.
With that in mind, TikTok functions as a highly effective marketing tool all brands can use to their advantage, and most importantly, at a relatively low cost. Bear in mind that knowing the best time you should post your content can actually help you in the long run.
What is the Best Time to Post on TikTok in Malaysia?![]()
TikTok is an ultra-versatile platform that allows you to create your content and then schedule it. This automatically means that you need not be awake and go on your phone to post it manually. Rather, feel free to create your content whenever then schedule it to be posted at the peak hours we are about to share.
These are the best times for you to post on TikTok Malaysia:
What is the Best Time to Post on TikTok Globally?
On the other hand, these times have been learnt to be the most active for global TikTok users. The peak engagement and activity times for TikTok is around Tuesday (10:00 AM) and Friday (10:00 AM & 6:00 PM).
That Said, the Best Time to Post on TikTok Also Differs for Everyone
Remember that of course, the time to post also boils down to the nature of your content, as well as your location. As a business owner, you should also realise that there isn’t a one-size-fit all solution.
Your best time to post may not align with that of the global peak activity. It depends largely on your niche, specifically their age, interest, gender and locality.
Frankly, it’s a journey full of trial and error. This means that you’ll have to attempt multiple tries and evaluate which time frame works best for your brand.
Oftentimes, you’ll realise that if you’re targeting local Malaysian consumers, they’re prone to be active in after-school and after-work hours. This also includes the activity dips before bedtime, in the wee hours of the morning and picks up again right before lunch.
Strategies and Tactics You can Adopt to Discover the Best TikTok Posting Time
If you’re just starting to venture into this app, there are baby steps you can take to discover your best posting time.
1. Sign Up for a TikTok Pro Account
By allocating a small weekly or monthly fee to this campaign, you’ll be able to grasp all the parameters linked to your account. These include where most of your viewers come from, how many followers your account has reached in a specific month, total daily views and likes
Most importantly, you’ll get to see what the peak engagement time is like for your account. This will give you a better perspective on when you should schedule your videos in order to maximise the number of engagements.
2. Learn About TikTok Analytics
Once you have a TikTok Pro account, it’s time you do some exploratory research by understanding what all those graphs and pie charts indicate about.
Most of the data displayed is straightforward and intuitive. For instance, the number of followers you have gained in a day or the total number of views you have obtained over several days, weeks or months.
Knowing about the data isn’t all, you must also understand how to fully harness it. Numbers on TikTok are amongst the most important factors deciding your success. Learn what type of content your niche is most drawn towards. This can be seen in the number of views each of your videos has. After that, you can limit down your focus on producing something that’s similar.
3. Where Are Your Followers Coming From?
Another aspect to take note of, is to learn about the locality of your audiences. Since it’s an open platform, anyone from anywhere in the world is free to view your content, TikTok analytics provides this information according to countries.
Generally, your followers and viewers will stumble upon your content depending on the hashtags you use, and how similar your content is to the ones they’re already following.
Producing trendy and relevant content in the country you’re targeting is paramount. Suppose you’re targeting the Malaysia niche, consider incorporating topics, languages, slangs and trends that Malaysians find relevant.
4. Find Out When Your Followers Are Most Active
As mentioned above, the demographics of your followers differ from account to account.Thereby, there isn’t any general rule of thumb on when exactly your followers are most active. At the end of the day, it still depends on the type of content, interests, age range and other demographic factors of your followers.
With that, it’s best to refer to your own analytics to discover when your audiences are most active at engaging with your content. There’s a helpful section in the pro account that tracks when your viewers engage most, on an hourly basis. Alternatively, you can also check during the day to pinpoint which days are the best.
5. Remember to Convert the Data Into Your Time Zone
Many TikTok analytic sources will tell you that the golden time to upload ranges between 6 AM to 10 AM, and 7 PM to 11 PM in Eastern Standard Time. Say you’re in Malaysia, please make sure you convert any recommended time into your local time zone. In the case of Malaysia, the best time to post would be 7 PM to 11 PM, and 8 AM to 12 PM daily.
However, your posting time should also be based on your own channel’s analytics. If the majority of your followers come from another country, they may not necessarily conform to Malaysia’s time zone. You’ll have to adapt to your followers’ times accordingly then.
6. Learn From Your Most-Viewed Videos
Another effective way to discover your best posting time is to replicate your best performing videos—understand what made it so well received.
Better yet, suppose you have a viral post, try and reproduce what has made it so successful. This doesn’t mean copying your own videos. Rather, you pick up on the elements and attempt to incorporate them into your upcoming content.
7. Tracking Your Own Performance
After replicating your best videos, you may proceed to gather important data from them. Compare and contrast their performance in terms of posting time, content and parameters. After analysing your content, identify the elements that have made these videos perform better than others.
In the near future, you can harness the combination of those elements to produce and schedule your next content. You may not be able to get it right for the first time. However, experimenting more often will reveal better data.
8. Venture Into Other Social Media Platforms
Harnessing TikTok is great, but you may want to consider branching out to other platforms as well. Other options such as Instagram and Facebook are also great for video content.
The more platforms you are on, the better the chances of you reaching out to a wider group and demographic. The more you diversify your platforms, the more followers you stand to get. This is definitely a wiser step for your brand in the long run.
To Sum Up
The general answer for ‘when is the best time to post on TikTok Malaysia’ would be anywhere from 8 AM to 12 PM, and 7 PM to 11 PM daily in local Malaysian time.
Nevertheless, kindly do your own research as all TikTok videos are apt to perform differently. The peak engagement periods for a specific video very much depends on its content, the origin of its viewers and many other factors.
Should you be requiring professional assistance on TikTok advertising, reach out to our team on Marketing Signal Lab today so we can start collaborating!