Social Scheduler Best-Time-to-Post Suggester

WHAT IT DOES

This script scans social media scheduling dashboards—Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Sprout Social, and others—for engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares, impressions) and post timestamps, then analyzes historical performance to suggest the best times to post. It displays a floating panel with a heatmap showing engagement scores for each day/hour slot, platform-specific recommendations like "Best time: Tue 10am," and a list of top-performing past posts with their metrics. Users can select a specific platform, view engagement trends, and export recommendations as CSV. All engagement data is stored per platform locally, enabling cumulative analysis across visits.

WHERE IT RUNS

Works on any social media scheduling or analytics dashboard that displays posts with engagement metrics and timestamps—Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Sprout Social, Agorapulse, or any platform with a feed or analytics view. The script scans page content for post data and engagement numbers, making it compatible with most social media tools.

HOW TO USE

The panel appears automatically when you visit a social media dashboard. It detects posts, extracts engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares, impressions) and timestamps, then analyzes the data to find patterns. The heatmap shows engagement scores by day/hour—darker green cells indicate higher engagement. Use the platform selector to filter data for a specific platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). The "Best times to post" section shows the top 3 recommended time slots for each platform based on historical engagement. The "Top Performing Posts" section lists your 5 most engaging posts with their metrics. Click "Refresh Data" to rescan the page for new posts. Export all collected engagement data as CSV for offline analysis. Use "Clear Data" to reset stored engagement data for the current domain.

TECHNICAL MECHANISM: MULTI-PASS POST EXTRACTION WITH ENGAGEMENT SCORING AND TIME-BASED AGGREGATION

The script uses a comprehensive detection strategy. First, it searches for post containers using a variety of selectors (.post, .feed-item, .status, .tweet, .social-post, etc.), and falls back to scanning divs, list items, and articles containing date/time patterns. For each detected post, it extracts engagement metrics using regex patterns for likes, comments, shares, impressions, and reactions. It also extracts the timestamp using date and time patterns (MM/DD/YYYY and HH:MM with AM/PM), and identifies the platform by scanning the text for platform names (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.). Each post is then scored using a weighted formula: likes × 1 + comments × 2 + shares × 3 + impressions × 0.1, producing an engagement score. The analysis engine groups posts by platform, then aggregates scores by day and hour, calculating average engagement for each day/hour slot. The heatmap displays these scores with color intensity (green for high engagement, yellow for medium, gray for low, dark for no data). Recommendations are generated by finding the highest-scoring day/hour slots for each platform. All extracted data is stored per domain with a 500-entry cap, enabling cumulative analysis across multiple visits and longer-term trend detection.

THE PANEL

The best-time suggester appears in a draggable, resizable panel that remembers its position per site. The panel shows a platform selector, a heatmap grid with day/hour engagement scores, and platform-specific recommendations. The top-performing posts section lists the most engaging posts with metrics. Drag by the header to reposition, collapse to a compact icon with a click, and resize using the bottom-right corner. The panel snaps to screen edges for tidy placement and closes with the Escape key. All settings—selected platform preference and panel position—persist per website using GM_setValue, so your view returns exactly as you left it.

PLEASE NOTE

This script requires the free BotGentz extension to run. Post detection relies on the page displaying posts and engagement metrics in a parsable format—some social media tools may use non-standard layouts that prevent automatic detection. The script does not access your social media account data beyond what is visible on the page. All engagement data is stored locally in your browser via GM_setValue and never transmitted. The engagement scoring formula weights different engagement types (shares > comments > likes) to reflect their relative importance; adjust the formula manually if your metrics priorities differ. The script can only detect data that is currently visible on the page—scroll to load all posts before using the panel.