How often to post on social media for business

Want to know how often to post on social media for business? Whether you are new to using social media to market your business or your experienced and wanting to ensure you are using social media as well as possible this blog post will help you. Keep on reading to find out how often to post on social media for business.

 

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As a marketing strategist I’m often asked about social media and by far the most common question I get asked is “How often should I post on social media for my business?”. Business owners are obsessed with the frequency they need to be posting social media content, as if the frequency is going to solve all their problems.  

 

NEWSFLASH: Simply following the best practices in relation to how often you should post will not mean your social media will perform well. Frequency is just one thing to take into consideration when creating a social media marketing strategy.  

 

However, since it is by far the most frequently asked social media question I get asked I wanted to answer the question.  

 

One thing to note is that this information is aimed for small businesses. I specialise is supporting solo and small businesses owners so for this blog post I’m assuming the team size means that social media is part of someone’s role (that someone could also be the business owner). This situation is very different to in a bigger business where it is more common to have a social media manager and their whole purpose is to look after social media.  

 

HOW OFTEN TO POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS

 

The short answer 

Post as often as you can whilst being able to maintain the consistently maintain the frequency and still create high quality content.  

 

The thorough answer 

The ideal frequency differs across different social media platforms. Therefore, you have to treat each social media platform separately. 

 

According to Hubspot, the ideal posting frequency per social media platform as follows 

 

• On Instagram, post between 3-7 times per week. 
• On Facebook, post between 1 and 2 times a day. 
• On Twitter, post between 1 and 5 Tweets a day. 
• On LinkedIn, post between 1 and 5 times a day. 

 

As you can see Hubspot’s recommendations differ for each platform and even their recommendations have a degree of variance. This is because there are no concrete rules. What works for one business isn’t necessarily the same for all.  

 

STRUGGLING TO CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY THAT YOU ARE CONFIDENT WILL RESULT IN SALES? I offer Strategy Days specifically for content planning. In just one day I’ll review your content pillars, help you identify your subtopics, choose the structure your posting schedule (format and frequency) and ensure you leave with a plan for the next 3+ months. To find out more and book Strategy Days click here.

 

DECIDING HOW OFTEN TO POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUR BUSINESS 

Choose a frequency that you can stick to 

When helping my clients to choose their social media content frequency I will always recommending starting with a lower frequency and then increasing overtime. All social media platforms want active users on their platform, and they want people to stay on there as long as possible. To build an engaged audience of people who want to engage with your content then having a routine will help them.  

 

Maybe if you are starting out with social media marketing you might commit to posting every other day even though the best practice is to post daily. It is far better to post every other day for months on end then post daily for 2 weeks and then disappear for a month.  

 

Set your frequency at a level that is achievable and then build up over time.  

   

Consider the quality of your content 

The other important thing to consider when deciding how often to post on social media for business is not just how often can I post, but how often can I post if I want my posts to be of a certain quality. There comes a point that as the quantity of posts increases there will be a negative impact on the quality. You want to be able to maintain delivering a high level of quality.  

 

How to stick to your chosen social media posting frequency 

By now you should have a better idea about how often you should post on social media for your business. As you increase the amount of content you post on social media it is important to get a process for your social media marketing. To use your time as effectively as possible here a few things you can do.  

 

1. Have a system for capturing your ideas 

Ideas don’t follow rules. Ideas can come at any time and at any place and you want to be able to make sure you are capturing those ideas in a format that you can look at next time you are creating content. You can keep it old school and have a little notepad with you at all or times or you can jot the idea on your phone.  

 

2. Batch create your content 

Set aside specific times of the day, week or month where you batch create your social media. Batch creating your social media content simply means making multiple pieces of content at the same time. For example, you could designate one day a week as being the day you create content for the whole week. On that day you’ll sit down and look at your content strategy, as well as your list of ideas and then make a whole week of content. This content can then be saved to post in real-time or it can be scheduled in a social media scheduler.  

Learn more about batch creating content here.

 

3. Schedule your content in advance

There are numerous social media schedulers, such as Later, Metricool and Hootsuite. These pieces of third-party software enable you to schedule your content and they will post (sometimes automatically and someone you’ll get a notification to post). This means you aren’t having to use headspace to worry about needing to post. This becomes increasingly important as you increase your frequency. 

 

That’s it. You now know how often to post on social media for business. 

Social media offers great marketing opportunities to small businesses, but if you haven’t got a social media manager that is dedicated to social media you should think very carefully about how often you decide to post on any social media platform.  

 

Whilst it is all well and good to find recommendations online about how often you should post on social media remember that those best practices are just best practices. They are based on analysing lots of accounts, including accounts that have people who are focused solely on social media as a whole or even just one platform.  

 

As a small business it is important to choose a frequency that you can stick to week in and week out, and still produce high-quality content.  

 

Let me know in the comments what your posting schedule going forward will be.

 

WANT AN INTEGRATED MARKETING STRATEGY TO HELP YOU GROW A THRIVING ONLINE BUSINESS THAT GIVES YOU THE MONEY AND TIME TO LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE?  Social media marketing should just be one part of your marketing. I’m a Chartered Marketer that specialises in supporting solo coaches, consultants and online service providers to improve their marketing so they can shine online, attract their dream clients and ultimately build a business they love. The key to this is having an integrated marketing strategy that you can manage by yourself alongside all of the other hats you have in your business. Just need a marketing strategy? Check out my Strategy Days Want a marketing strategy AND ongoing training, support and accountability?  Check out my 1:1 business and marketing mentoring programme click here And to discuss your precise needs book a free, no-obligation, introduction call to discuss your business here.