As a small business, you may not have a lot of time to schedule your social media posts. You want to ensure that the time you have goes into content that gets you the results you want. But how do you know how often you should post?
Why should I adopt an optimal posting frequency?
Posting too much or too little can kill your engagement. Not only is flooding someone’s timeline with posts annoying and could lead to them unfollowing you, but algorithms will penalise you for it. And not posting often enough can result in your followers forgetting or losing interest in your brand. Plus, with the limited time you have, you want to invest in quality over quantity.
Does the right posting frequency for me depend on my type of business?
The industry you’re in doesn’t have much of an effect on how often you should be posting. Although, bear in mind that your type of business does have an impact on the optimal times of day to post. We recommend taking a look at Sprout Social’s guide to the Best Times to Post on Social Media in 2019 to figure out which times are best for you.
Let’s run through the optimal posting frequencies for each social platform.
How often should I post on Instagram?
For Instagram, posting one to two times per day is the most effective frequency for most brands.
Instagram relies on visuals, and you may not have the time or resources to source a large number of images to post throughout the week. People may also be put off and unfollow you if you are flooding their feeds with too many images.
How often should I post on Facebook?
The recommended posting frequency for Facebook is once per day.
Facebook has changed its algorithm to favour organic content like posts from your friends and family. It’s now harder for businesses to get posts to reach their audience.
However, posting more frequently will result in you being penalised by the algorithm. The more you post daily, the less likely people are to see it due to the organic reach significantly dropping with each additional post.
How often should I post on Twitter?
The optimal amount of posts for Twitter is about four to five tweets a day.
Twitter has the highest amount of posts going out daily than any other social platform, with 500 million tweets being posted each day! Due to the large amount of tweets posted, you want to post more regularly on Twitter than you do on other platforms to make sure your content reaches your audience. Some studies suggest you should post up to 15 times a day. But as a small business, you don’t have the time to schedule 105 tweets a week.
Make sure to also engage with other twitter users daily. Spending some of the time that you would have spent on scheduling on engagement is a great way to potentially boost your reach on Twitter. Like, retweet, and comment away.
How often should I post on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn has recommended that it’s users publish 20 posts per month, which is an average of about once a day.
Posting once per day is a good enough amount to generate engagement. However, you can expect to see a significant drop in engagement when posting on Saturday or Sunday. LinkedIn is a professional networking site, and people often don’t want to be reminded of work whilst they’re trying to relax of a weekend. Some people may find little to no value in posting on weekends, so it may be best to only post on LinkedIn on weekdays.
The run-down
To re-cap, the recommended posting frequency for each social platform are:
- Instagram: 1 – 2 posts per day
- Facebook: 1 post per day
- Twitter: 4 – 5 posts per day
- LinkedIn: 1 post per day
Remember, no formula is perfect. It’s important to do what’s best for your business. Try out the recommended posting frequencies, as well as different schedules that you come across from doing your own research or through trial and error to see what works best for you.
What not to do
Let’s also re-cap what not to do. There are some things you should keep in mind when it comes to posting on each platform:
Don’t post too often, flooding peoples’ feeds could result in them unfollowing you.
For every additional post, your organic reach will significantly drop.
When posting only once a day, you’re not likely to get your content seen due to the high volume of tweets going out every minute.
Bear in mind that LinkedIn is a professional networking site. It has less to do with how often you post and more to do with the type of content you post. Make sure your posts are relevant to your industry/audience and have a professional tone-of-voice.
Need more advice?
If you’re looking for more insight on social media, have a read of our post on Organic Vs Paid Social Media.
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