On average, businesses post on Facebook 3-4 times per week. Are you posting at least this often on Facebook and other social media platforms? Have you been wondering how often you should post on social media?
There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding how often to post online. Listed below are some of the most important things to keep in mind when creating or fine-tuning your brand’s social media marketing strategy.
Consistency Trumps Frequency
As a general rule, your posting consistency is more important than your posting frequency. In other words, it’s more important to post on a regular basis — even if that means only posting a few times per week — than it is to have one week when you post three times per day and then two weeks in a row when you don’t post at all.
If you post consistently, your audience will be more likely to see your content in their feeds. They’ll also pick up on your posting schedule and will develop a greater sense of confidence in you and your dependability.
Your audience will also likely be more inclined to share your content when you post regularly. This, in turn, helps you to expand your reach and get in front of new potential followers. As your audience grows, your engagement and revenues increase, too.
Tips for Posting More Consistently
If you’re struggling with consistency, here are some tips that will help you to make social media posting a regular part of your marketing strategy:
- Set a realistic goal: Don’t try to go from posting once a week to posting seven days per week overnight. Set a goal that you are confident you can reach, then increase from there if you want to try posting more
- Plan content ahead of time: When you plan ahead, you won’t be posting just for the sake of posting, and you’ll feel confident that you’re sharing content that is actually valuable to your audience
- Create content in batches: Sit down and create several posts at once; that way, you’ll have everything ready to go and will know exactly what to post and when
- Automate your posts: Consider using a social media posting tool; this automates your posting schedule so you can publish posts on several platforms all at once, without having to dedicate a ton of time to it
Quality Is Better Than Quantity
The quality of your content matters more than the quantity of posts you publish each week.
You can follow every arbitrary posting rule out there (such as, “post every Tuesday at 1 pm for maximum results”). However, if you’re posting low-quality content that isn’t relevant to your audience, you’re not going to see the kind of engagement and outcomes you’re hoping for.
It’s especially important to note that for brands with smaller followings, in particular, posting more often will not necessarily result in more clicks and engagement.
Research from Hubspot shows that Facebook pages that have over 10,000 followers are the only ones that notice an increase in clicks when they post more often (between 31 and 60 times per month). The same research also revealed that smaller pages (fewer than 10,000 followers) received fewer clicks when they increased their post frequency.
Basically, overwhelming your followers with low-quality posts will not help you build your brand. You’re better off focusing on creating high-quality, relevant, and highly targeted posts instead.
How to Improve Post Quality
How do you make sure you’re publishing high-quality posts on social media? Here are some tips that can help:
- Get to know your audience: Who are you trying to reach with your post? What interests them? What kind of language or images will appeal most to them?
- Make your posts personal: Your followers want to know who’s behind the brand. If you’re overly formal with your post, it might be harder to create strong audience connections
- Don’t be too salesy: Avoid overly salesy language, too; people don’t want to feel as though they’re always having something pushed on them
- Improve your design skills: You’ll see better results if your posts feature high-quality, attractive images, clear videos, and colors that align with your brand
Let Your Goals Fuel Your Strategy
If you want to take your social media marketing strategy to the next level, you need to set clear goals and objectives.
Before you start posting more often online, take some time to figure out what you want to see after you increase your posting frequency. Then, let your goals and objectives fuel your strategy.
What kinds of goals might you set for your social media strategy? The following are some of the most common goals brands tend to set for themselves:
- Increase brand awareness
- Generate more leads
- Increase social media engagement
- Increase website traffic
- Sell more products or services
When you set clear goals, it’s easier for you to tell if your strategy is working. For example, let’s say you’re interested in increasing website traffic.
If you increase your posting frequency but don’t see an increase in web traffic, you haven’t met your goal, which means you’ll need to go back to the drawing board and figure out what’s stopping people from clicking on your links and navigating back to your website.
Tips for Setting Social Media Goals
Not sure what kinds of goals to set for your social media platforms? These tips can help:
- Conduct a social media audit: An audit from a professional helps you figure out what’s working with your social media platforms and what isn’t. After an audit, you might find that your post frequency isn’t the problem at all
- Decide what matters: What will benefit your business most? More website traffic? A better online reputation? More conversions?
- Make your goals measurable: If you want to create a strategy that helps you to accomplish your goals, start by fine-tuning your goals so they are realistic and provide you with measurable data (clicks, shares, page views, etc.)
Investment is Essential
Finally, keep in mind that some kind of investment is essential if you want to see results from your social media strategy.
These days, with so many brands using social media for marketing purposes, organic reach is practically non-existent. You could be posting all day, every day. However, if you’re not investing in paid social ads, you’re going to have a hard time seeing measurable improvements.
When you invest in paid social media ads, it’s easier to target specific people with your posts. This allows you to fine-tune your ads and posts so that you reach the people who are most likely to check out your website and buy what you’re selling.
Best Types of Paid Social Media Ads
If you’re not sure which kinds of paid social media ads to invest in, here are some ideas to help you get started:
- Facebook Ads: These ads are great for building brand awareness (Facebook is the most popular social media platform, after all), generating leads, and increasing conversions
- Instagram Ads: Since Facebook owns Instagram, advertising on this platform can also help you to build awareness, generate leads, and increase conversions
- Twitter Ads: Twitter ads are also effective for building brand awareness; they can increase website views and overall engagement, too
- LinkedIn Ads: LinkedIn ads are very effective for B2B companies looking to build awareness among professionals in their industry and related industries
Bonus Tips for Better Social Media Results
It’s definitely not easy to figure out how frequently you need to post on social media. Consider all the factors listed above when you’re making plans for your brand. Don’t forget these bonus tips, too:
Look at Your Analytics
Assess your post analytics for different social media platforms. This will help you get a better sense of when your audience is paying the most attention to your posts.
Are there certain days when people are more likely to click on links or engage with your posts? If so, keep that information in mind so you can tailor your posting schedule accordingly.
Work with an Agency
A social media agency can help with the heavy lifting when it comes to fine-tuning your social media posts and figuring out the best days and times to post. If you’re feeling lost and don’t know where to start when it comes to changing up your strategy, investing in an agency’s assistance is a great option.
Be Patient
Finally, be patient. It will take time before you see results from making changes to your strategy. If you’re consistent and patient, though, you’ll start to achieve your social media goals.
Improve Your Social Media Strategy Today
As you can see, the answer to the question “how often should you post on social media?” isn’t exactly a simple one. If you keep these tips in mind, though, you’ll have an easier time figuring out a posting schedule that works for you and helps you see results.
Do you need additional help managing your brand’s social media profiles? If so, we’ve got the tools to help at Socialistics.
Contact us to learn more about our services or to get started today.
