Ulric Musset runs Marblism, a company that sells AI tools to handle social media for small businesses. On Oct. 23, he sent customers something more useful than a product pitch: a look at one month of posts published through Sonny, the company’s AI social media manager. That’s about 150 million views. His bottom line: “post a short video on Saturday afternoon and skip the hashtags.”
That’s a lot of conventional wisdom thrown out in one sentence. Some of it deserves to go. Some of it needs more testing before you rebuild your calendar around it.
Do you still need followers to get views?
On TikTok, apparently not. Marblism found that accounts with fewer than 50 followers drew about the same views as accounts with thousands. If you’ve been holding back until you “build an audience,” that excuse just got weaker. The platform is deciding who sees a post based on the post.
Does video really beat photos?
Depends where. On Facebook and Instagram, a business’s videos reached four times as many people as its photos. On LinkedIn and X, format made no difference. So the four-times number is a reason to film for two platforms, not all of them.
When is the best time to post?
Probably not when most people are posting now. About 38% of posts in the data went out between 8 a.m. and noon. Posts published between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. got more views. Musset’s point is simple: post at 9 a.m. and you’re competing with everyone who read the same advice you did.
Weekends tell the same story. Only 27% of posts went out on Saturday or Sunday, yet weekend posts drew 8% more views. On LinkedIn, B2B posts did 21% better on weekends. The room is where the crowd isn’t.
Which posting rules don’t matter?
Three, according to the data. Hashtags showed no measurable effect. Links in Facebook posts carried no penalty. And opening with a question, a favorite move of anyone who’s taken a copywriting course, cost 7% of views.
How much should you trust this?
Enough to test it. Not enough to treat it as law.
This is one month of data from accounts using one company’s tool, and Marblism hasn’t published how it counted views or compared accounts. Afternoon posts may do better partly because of who chooses to post in the afternoon. And Marblism sells the tool that produced the numbers. None of that makes the findings wrong. It just means the useful question isn’t whether Musset is right. It’s whether he’s right for your audience.
What this means if you create money content
Financial creators and advisors work under pressures most brands don’t: compliance review, required disclosures, and an audience that can smell a sales pitch. A few of these findings land differently in that world.
The weekend LinkedIn result is the one worth acting on first. Advisors and fintech founders tend to post only during business hours, which is exactly why Saturday is open. A thoughtful post that goes out when people actually have time to read it costs nothing extra.
The question-opener finding should give money creators pause, too. Finance content leans hard on hooks like “Is your 401(k) on track?” If those cost views, lead with the number or the answer instead.
The Facebook link result helps anyone who needs to point readers to full disclosures or a longer explainer. You don’t have to choose between compliance and reach.
And for new financial educators, the TikTok finding removes the waiting period. You don’t need an audience first. You need consistent, useful posts.
Run your own test
Don’t rebuild your strategy on someone else’s data. Spend a month finding out what yours says.
Pick the one platform where you post most. Split your next 20 posts between your usual time and the 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. window, with at least four on weekends. Drop hashtags from half of them. Track views and saves in a simple sheet. After 30 days, keep what moved the numbers and stop doing what didn’t.
That last part matters as much as the test. Every rule that turns out not to matter is one less thing to do.
FAQ: Best Time to Post on Social Media
What did Marblism’s data cover? One month of posts published through its Sonny tool, about 150 million views, with results reported for TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.
Does this apply to YouTube? Marblism’s email didn’t report YouTube results, so treat these findings as unproven there.
Should financial advisors post on weekends? For B2B content on LinkedIn, weekend posts did 21% better in this data. Advisors under compliance rules should run weekend posts through the same review as weekday ones.
A confession: I use Marblism
Since you’ve read this far, you should know I’m a Marblism customer. Our blog writer at AskTheMoneyCoach.com is a Marblism AI employee named Penny. Marblism tells us she saved 94 hours of work in October, enough to put her in the top 0.5% of its AI employees.
That doesn’t make Musset’s data gospel. Everything above about testing it against your own audience still stands. But 94 hours is more than two full work weeks, and for a small media business, time is the scarcest thing we have.
If you want to see what an AI employee could take off your plate, try Marblism through my link.
Disclosure: Earl Cox uses Marblism in his own business, and this article contains affiliate links. If you sign up through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
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