Weekly Dose of Data Analyst#4 — What time does Trump usually sent out his tweet ?

Trump really likes to tweet. I am curious about what is his favorite time to send out these twitter.

Please notice, all the time recorded in the database will be Eastern Standard Time (EST) as it is the time zone of Washington D.C. and New York State, these are the two main areas where Trump sent out his tweets.

Summary

Overall (from 2009 May his first tweet to 2020 October), Trump likes to send out his twitter during weekdays rather than weekends. During weekdays, he likes to sent out tweet in the afternoon usually around noon, 7 and 8 PM.

However, his tweeting times pattern do change during different period. This will be discussed further in detail section below.

Detail

I have separated his time on twitter into following period:

1. Before 2016 presidential campaign (May 5th 2009 to June 15th 2015)
2. During 2016 presidential campaign(June 16th 2015 to November 9th 2016)
3. During his presidency (January 20th 2017 to June 17th 2019)
4. During 2020 presidential campaign (June 18th 2019 to Now)

Tweeting time heat map before Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign

Before he officially announced his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump usually tweets during weekdays, specifically in the middle of the week. And he sent out the most tweets around 7&8 PM on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Tweeting time heat map during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign

During his 2016 presidential campaign, a clear change in the timing of his tweets can be observed. He was tweeting more often during the weekends. And the time he sent out most tweets becomes Monday to Wednesday midnight (1AM and 2AM).

Tweeting time heat map during Trump’s presidency

During his presidency and before he officially announced his 2020 presidential campaign, again, his tweeting time has changed. He sent out most of his tweet around noon (10AM to 1 PM). Compare to weekdays, he tends to send out more tweets during weekends.

Tweeting time heat map during Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign

During his 2020 presidential campaign, his favourite tweeting time has become Thursday and Friday noon (11 AM to 12 PM).

In the end, I have also prepared a heat map with a date filter. So whoever are interested can play with it and find out if there are any other patterns there.

Please click the link here to access my Tableau workbook.

Data Source:

All Trump’s tweets data are downloaded from Trump Twitter Archive. You can check their website by click here.