How Often Should I Post on Social Media? #FAQuesday

When a business begins using social media to connect with customers, one big question is always how often to post content. The short answer? It depends. It depends on who your audience is, for example, or what platform you’ll be using. Although there isn’t a standard formula for a successful social social media strategy, at The Web Guys we can provide some helpful tips and general best practices to nudge you in the right direction.

Let’s examine a few of the top social media outlets using data provided by Buffer and SumAll.

Facebook

Ah, Facebook, the social media giant. Pretty much everyone and their mothers have an account nowadays, so I’m sure we’re all familiar with how it feels to hunt for posts that are relevant or engaging enough for us to enjoy. As a business, you understand the importance of a Facebook page and how much benefit a successful page can bring. Is there a magic number of posts that guarantees interaction? No. But there is a sweet spot.

Ideally, one to two posts per day is plenty — especially if you can effectively schedule those posts around the times people are most active with your page. Facebook Insights can give you that information. And it’s OK if you don’t have enough content to post that often. It’s better to spend time making fewer, more engaging posts than it is to flood the page with noise just to have something there.

Twitter

Twitter users are a little less stringent than Facebook. Since the feed reads more as a conversation and less of a post, more daily submissions are acceptable. A good rule of thumb would be three or four tweets each day. Do keep in mind that these are actual tweets, not replies. If someone tweets at your business, you should certainly reply regardless of how many times you’ve already tweeted that day.

Google+

This one is a little different than the others. While the recommended number of posts per day is two to three, the interesting piece is that research shows if posting slows down, engagement can drop as much as 50 percent. Most other social channels don’t share this data point. But don’t let this intimidate you. You’re probably creating more post-worthy content than you think. Some good examples of things to share on Google+ to keep engagement up are blog posts, new customer reviews, and Facebook posts. Even though this particular platform is more demanding to keep followers paying attention, it’s also easier to find content to share here.

Pinterest

Pinterest comes in at the highest recommended daily post count, with five or more. Again, don’t let this scare you. Unlike Google+, Pinterest users don’t demand that you maintain that level of activity. The higher number of posts is simply a result of the way the platform is browsed, and research shows that more frequent posting leads to a more rapid growth of engagement.

At the end of the day, these numbers are just suggestions to help you get started. You should certainly conduct your own research and study your own results to come up with a plan that’s tailored to your business. If you find that posting more than three times a day on Facebook brings in more likes, then by all means keep posting! Social media is an ever-evolving ecosystem, and the rules aren’t set in stone. Discover what works best for you and build upon that.

If you have any questions regarding social media or digital marketing in general, contact The Web Guys today at (317) 805-4933. You should also check out our recent blog series What Is Digital Marketing? for a deeper look into all things digital marketing.