One of the main questions we’re asked at Southern View Media regarding social media strategy is: How often should I post on my social media platforms? There are a lot of different specific answers to this question, but the overall general answer is, “As often as you can keep posting quality content consistently over time.”
Quality and consistency matter more than posting frequency. It is important to keep these factors in mind when developing your social media strategy, no matter the platform. However, as social media companies have grown and differentiated from each other in their purpose and use, so have their algorithms when it comes to filling users’ feeds. So there really are certain numbers of times you should post your consistently high quality content depending on the platform. But it’s not all as complicated as you think. Thankfully, social media pages do not have to post content now as often as you may have heard.
Larger pages, like those for billion-dollar corporations, may be able to get away with more posts because of their larger follower counts. Their quantity of posts gets spread out via the algorithm so that no one user is overloaded with posts from the same mega-corporation, unless that user actively engages with those brands on a consistent basis.
Now, on to the really useful stuff for small, medium and large local businesses, like how often to post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Most studies concur that posting on Facebook once per day is the most successful rate for your business’ main social media page. Studies have also found that if your page has under 10,000 fans or followers on Facebook and you post more than once per day, you will witness a drop in half of your post engagements. The minimum of posts to post on Facebook is generally agreed upon at three posts per week. The best time to post doesn’t matter as much now as it did in the past, as Facebook’s updated algorithm factors the time of posting much less heavily in filling your News Feed. Check your followers time of activity in your Insights and adjust from there.
With 500 million tweets per day in 2019, the lifespan of a tweet might be the shortest in all social media. Usually, the lifespan of a tweet is well under an hour. So with that in mind, Twitter requires an active hand to stay relevant. At a minimum, tweet twice a day, with a preferred goal of 15 tweets per day and a max amount of 30 times a day. We recommend sprinkling tweets throughout the day using a decent post scheduler.
The benefits of posting Pins on this platform start to diminish the closer you get to posting 30 Pins a day. Follower growth has been a little hard to achieve on this platform the past several years, but posting around 11 Pins a day keeps your account active enough that your follower count should continue to see marked growth.
The fastest-growing social media platform actively recommends at a minimum one post per day, with two as a suggestion and three tops. Posting around the three-hour blocks on weekdays usually gives your posts the best chance for the most engagement and larger reach, so pay attention to whether your followers are morning people or night owls.
This is by far the easiest scheduling strategy to remember: at least two posts a week, with no more than one post per day. The morning offers your post its best chance to reach the optimum numbers of users on the business networking platform. Blog posts are excellent opportunities to establish your brand as a longform expert in your field, but don’t overdo it on LinkedIn. It’s used less often throughout the day than all the other social platforms.
YouTube
Your main focus with developing your YouTube channel should be consistency. You should create a specific posting schedule, post that schedule onto your YouTube account, pace yourself and make and save those YouTube videos and have them ready to upload when you need them on your schedule. YouTube’s best times to upload are between Noon and 3pm on Thursdays and Fridays. Avoid Mondays and Tuesdays like the plague. They are YouTube’s worst days to upload for views and engagement.
Well there you have it! A comprehensive posting strategy for the major social media platforms. Remember, every account is different and user patterns change all the time, along with each platform’s algorithms. So stay vigilant, follow Southern View Media on our social platforms or visit SouthernViewMedia.com for more insights, tips and updates. We put you online so you don’t get left behind.
