Watching or listening to ads can be entertaining, but when you start seeing them more often than you should, they start to get on your nerves. This is the same with social media. It may be a great tool to advertise and build your networks, but there is a fine line between being informative and being annoying. Although social is free for the most part, brands must still find the optimal frequency when posting online.
The ideal number of posts per day vary across different social media platforms because each has unique features and a specific culture. Social media analysts have conducted research and have found the optimal posting frequency for the major social platforms.
- Twitter – At least 3x a day (Social Bakers, 2012)
- Facebook – At most 2x a day (Social Bakers, 2011; Track Social, 2012)
- Google+ – At least 3x a day (Mark Traphagen, 2013; Daniel Sharkov, 2013)
- LinkedIn – 20 posts per month, or 1 post per weekday (LinkedIn Small Business Guide)
These are good statistics, but they are based on what various brands are already posting online. It’s a good frequency plan to follow, especially when you’re starting off, but the truth is that there isn’t a perfect formula to knowing how often brands should post on social media. It still depends on many things. Therefore it is important to find out what works best for your business.
Assess Your Business’ Need for Social Media
In general, brand awareness is a good way to figure out how often to post. Bigger companies should schedule less posts since many already know the brand. Smaller brands can schedule posts more often since they are still in the process of building awareness. Remember, each brand is unique. What works for other companies might not work for yours. As in traditional marketing, ask the important questions.
- What are your objectives for using social media?
- What kind of social media effort would work for your industry?
- What is your budget for social media efforts?
These are just some of the important questions, but knowing the answers to these will help you plan your content for social posts better.
Know When and How Your Audience Are Online
You wouldn’t want to waste time coming up with content only to have it not seen by your market. Posting content when most of your audience is online helps improve your posts’ visibility, especially if your content is really compelling. It is important to remember that people have a bunch of different devices that they use to check social media. You need to make sure your posts are easy to access or else your content will just drown in the sea of information online and your time and effort creating the posts will be wasted.
Find a Balance Between Automation and Conversation
Scheduling your curated content through a social media scheduling software ensures your audience is being served branded content throughout the day at times when they are online. But don’t rely on automation and never hop on your social platforms throughout the day. Take the time to engage with your network. Removing the human side of your social media profile is a big turn-off for customers and can result in a reputation disaster.
Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment and Improve
As Dan Wilkerson of Lunametrics put it, it’s all about predicting, measuring, and repeating. You have to keep testing and improving different strategies to know which one gives you the best results. Always look for opportunities to improve your brand so your digital footprint is always on the cutting edge.
The line between being informative and being annoying might be hard to find, as it can vary for different brands. Results from previous research can give companies a good head start, but knowing your brand and what works is the key to yielding the best results from your social media efforts.