How frequently should you post on social media?

"Posting more frequently, like multiple times a day, is going to help you reach more people overall. But it could (not necessarily, but it could!) decrease your reach per post. Maybe you're going to be tiring out people who follow you because they're seeing too much stuff from you. So it depends on what you're optimising for. If you really care just about how many views or likes or how many people see each individual post, then I'd be careful. I would experiment and see if posting too much ends up in some sort of decline. But in general, that's different than if you're just trying to maximise the number of people you reach in a month where high frequency can really help - and I've seen some creators be very successful when doing so. But it is also a lot of work, so you got to know what you're signing up for." - Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram.

Wow! There are so many important points made in just 30 seconds there - let's talk about it all in a bit more detail!

The danger of posting too much

As Adam Mosseri rightly says, when you post a lot, there is the danger that your followers will feel like you're spamming them. I think this is especially true for small businesses, and even more so if you're a B2C! Your audience is choosing to add your posts to the space they turn to to unwind, relax or kill time. They're not opening their Instagram app to be sold to. The key here is to focus on why your target audience chose to follow you. What did you promise to add to their feed? What benefit do they get from following you? Staying true to that mission is more important than posting every day.

You want your followers to quickly recognise a post as being from you and therefore know that it's worth their time to stop scrolling.

Experimentation is key

Adam Mosseri often talks about experimentation and I love that! There is no "one size fits all" when it comes to a social media strategy. Your goals are unique, your audience is unique, your abilities are unique, you are unique. But it's important to align these challenges with your goals!

If you're feeling like your posts are only ever being shown to the same people and like you really aren't growing, challenge yourself to increase the number of posts you share and see if you start reaching new people. If you're feeling like you're talking into the void, reduce the number of posts you're sharing and see if your engagement picks up.

What works for you today, might not work forever

On social media, your goals are going to change all the time. It might be that 3 posts a week works for you now, but that's not necessarily going to be true forever. As your page/profile grows, your audience changes and their preferences will evolve over time. As your business grows, your target audience will evolve and your goals will change.

Changing the number of posts you share is just one example of a self-set challenge. In my workbook, Ace Your Media, we talk about self-set challenges every month or so!

Keep experimenting!

Don't set yourself up to fail

Not every experiment will be successful - and that's OK. The whole point of an experiment is to test whether or not your theory is true. Your experiment won't fail, at worst it will teach you something about your audience. So what do I mean by "Don't set yourself up to fail"?

You've got to know your own limitations. If you're currently struggling to post three times a week, don't challenge yourself to post every day. If you're currently struggling to record a single video, don't challenge yourself to only post video content.

If you want to test something out, but you don't have the time or the knowledge to do so, ask for help. I offer short-term support for this exact reason!

Thanks for reading! I share a blog like this one every other Tuesday, and if you feel like they help your social media presence, and more importantly, your business - then please consider leaving a tip.

Every time this tip jar reaches ￡15, I'll run a giveaway on social media so a small business can access my membership group for two months.

Tesni xx