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For a business thinking about how they use social media as a marketing tool, what and how often should you post on social media are important considerations.

We know that many businesses are unsure of the optimum posting frequencies for the platforms they use as it is one of the most frequent questions we get asked during our training sessions or networking events is; “how often should you post a day on social media?

We have updated our advice over time from our 2015 frequency suggestions to the 2018 minimum posting frequency.

Social Media Posting

Answer The Question…… Tell Us How Often You Should Post On Social Media?

Like many aspects of an effective social media strategy, there is no catch-all answer that can be applied to any business. Each social media platform is different and the best practice guidelines are continuously being updated as platforms tinker with their setups and algorithms.

The right frequency of posting will generally depend on a number of different factors relating to the target audience, the platform you are posting from and ability to produce sufficient quality content. The importance of posting many times a day can be affected by the perception of the consumer to your social media account and whether you boost posts on a platform to artificially boost the reach of your posts.

Although there is no absolute answer to how often you should post on social media, there are some recommended minimum social media posting frequency guidelines we can offer. These are based on our experience on what gets the best results and protects your businesses reputation.

Based on our research and experience the Optimum Levels of Posting On Social Media are as follows

Twitter –  Eight Times Per Day (As often as you can)

Getting noticed on Twitter is getting harder and harder, so it is important to post regularly to snatch what attention you can. As a fast-moving platform if you blink you can miss some great content, therefore we recommend posting content just over once every hour during business hours and interspersing this with engagement on top. Some of our clients gasp at having to post that often initially but with some planning and software such as Hootsuite it is easily achievable

Facebook – 2 times per day

The need to post regularly to gain reach has been scuppered for many by changes to the Facebook algorithm that meant that organic reach has been severely throttled. This means that paid advertising and boosting of posts is now almost mandatory to get your message out. The effect of this is that your posts can be less frequent as you know you are going to reach the right audience.

Space these posts out to target when your audience is most active, this is often before starting work, lunchtime and the evenings.

 

LinkedIn Business Page & Personal Profile – A few times a week

Posting onto your companies LinkedIn page keeps your business followers in the loop to what your are doing in your company. Use this space to share updates about your company, daily is optimum but a few times of week will have a similar impact if you are struggling for things to say. The same advice applies for your personal profile, although the style of the updates should be more tailored to your professional rather than company persona.

Instagram – Once Per Day

The key with Instagram is consistency rather than quantity.

You may be thinking “what images can I post once I run out of selfies” however images are popular and highly shareable so posting as often as possible is recommended. However three times a day is a reasonable commitment to aim for.

Pinterest – Consistently

Sharing quality content on Pinterest can really get your business in front of your audience, even if you are sharing other peoples pins posting regularly shows you are part of the community and helps build engagement. Commit to how often you are going to post and stick to that rather than setting a daily or weekly target.

Key Changes From 2015 To 2018

The main changes to our content frequency recommendations are that businesses should

  • focus on consistency and quality of content rather than the volume
  • Only post new blog articles to Google+ because as a social platform it has largely expired
  • Amplify popular content using social media advertising
  • Only focus on Twitter if you have the resources

What Do I Do If I Cannot Post That Regularly

If you were to use every social media platform listed in this article you would need to dedicate a lot of resources to get content of a suitable quality.

If you do not have the resources to implement a social media plan with this much content, then we recommend reducing the number of platforms you are active on so you can post more on the ones you use the most.

It is better to be brilliant at one or two than average at five or six so prioritise the platforms with the most potential for your business and post on those more.

So how often you should post on social media platforms, the ball is in your court, what will work for you?

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