How Often Should I Be Posting On Social Media?

How Often Should I Be Posting?

As a business owner, there are many questions that you probably asking yourself when it comes to social media. And one of the most prominent which you have probably asked yourself and may still be looking for the answer to is how often should you be posting?

Is there a magical number of times that you should be posting on your social media page?

Is there a particular time that is more effective to post than others?

Can you post too much and put your audience off or flood them with information?

These questions can sometimes race around in your head and leave you unsure as to if you're even on the right lines when it comes to your social media strategy. 

Thankfully, today we are going to take a look at the correct strategy in a lot more detail to help you understand how to utilise your social media pages more effectively.

Don't be overposting

A lot of studies have found that the ideal number of times you're going to want to post on social media depends upon what social media channel. These same studies have also found that if you post more than this, it can cause a drop in engagement.

This is quite understandable if you think about it. On your social media, if you're browsing through your home feed on Facebook for example, as you're scrolling you want to see a diverse range of posts, seeing the same people, or in this case, businesses, posting can start to be a little tedious.

The recommended number of times to post is as follows:-

• Facebook = 1 to 2 times a day.
• Twitter = 3 to 5 times a day.
• LinkedIn = 1 time a day (no more than 5).
• Instagram = 1 to 3 times a day.

Of course, the above are just recommendations and aren't a proven science. Depending upon your niche and your audience, it can heavily vary.

If your business is very community-centric, posting more than the times above can sometimes be more effective.

The best time to post on social media

The next big question that businesses look to answer is what time is the best to post on social media. And again some studies have discovered some of the best recommended times to post on social media. But again depending upon your niche, this can vary.

These studies of course have done a fair amount of research before coming up with these recommendations. Sometimes analysing engagement from tens of thousands of different social media posts to see if there were any trends amongst those that received the most engagement and found the following:-

• The best time as a general recommendation across social media is 10 am either on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays.
• For Facebook, in the morning between 8 and noon on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
• Instagram likewise is 11 am on Wednesdays.
• Twitter is also between 8 am and noon but instead on Mondays and Thursdays.
• Finally, LinkedIn is 9am on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

So looking at the above, the general findings are that both mornings and midweek days are the best times and days to post on Facebook.

These are the best times to start off with adhering to however through trial and error you may find that weekends, for example, might be more effective for your business in particular.

It's also good practice to schedule your posts, as this will reduce the pressure on you, of having to think of new content to post everyday.

To find out more about the benefits of scheduling posts on social media check out this post 7 social media scheduling tools to help you market your business

How to find out when the best time is that your business should be posting

Of course, as we have mentioned above, the recommendations are simply just that. Depending upon your niche and your audience the ideal time and number of times you should be posting on social media can vary hugely.

Firstly you want to do some research on your audience. When are they most activate?

Find out when your audience is predominantly online and start posting during these times and hours to see how much engagement you begin to get from these posts.

Then you want to start seeing if your engagement levels start to drop if you post let's say 4 times a day and if they go back to normal when you drop back to 2 times a day for example.

In summary

There are plenty more social media top tips that we can run through, but the information above will help if you are worrying about how often you should post on social media.

Marketing your business on social media requires a lot of planning, thought and research. If you feel like you need a chat regarding your business and its social media plan, you can get in touch here.

I've worked with businesses across the country helping them to utilise their sales and marketing and I'd love to help you to.