Did you know that seven out of ten Americans use some kind of social media site? Platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have exploded into the daily lives of people across the country and the world in the last decade or so.
For this reason, social media marketing is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. However, posting too much or too little on these platforms can actually do more harm than good. If you post too much, you can annoy your audience, while too little can leave them forgetting about you.
Are you wondering how to time your social media posts on different platforms?
Let’s take a look at what you need to know.
Why Should You Schedule Social Media Posts?
If you’ve been sitting down on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to come up with your social media posts on the fly, you’re missing out on a major efficiency and productivity hack. If you value being able to make off-the-cuff social media posts in real-time, don’t worry. Creating a social media schedule can still leave room for updates that haven’t been scheduled ahead of time.
There are a lot of good reasons to create a schedule when Instagram posting or posting on any platform. These include:
- Helping you keep a consistent flow and cadence
- Allowing you to map out time-sensitive content way in advance
- Serving as a system of record
- Allowing a team to create posts
- Enforcing the 411 rule
Let’s talk about each of these reasons to help drive the point home.
First of all, when it comes to social media, consistency is key. It helps keep your audience engaged because they know when to expect new posts from you.
Secondly, things like holidays, contests, events, and product launches can be planned ahead of time. When they’re on the calendar and all set to go, it means you don’t have to deal with a time crunch at the last minute.
Next, having a schedule gives you a calendar that you can look back on later. This can be helpful to track the updates you’ve posted and to review your posting rhythm.
You also benefit because it means more brains can be behind the operation. When you create posts in real-time, it might just be one or two people coming up with an idea for a post.
Lastly, the 411 rule means that you should have 4 education and entertaining posts for every one hard promotion and every one soft promotion post. When you have a schedule, you can be organized about this rather than haphazard.
Posting Schedule: How Often Should You Post to Social Media?
Depending on your business, service, or site, the answer to this question is going to differ. Ultimately, though, the most important thing is maintaining consistency and quality rather than just focusing on quantity.
If you don’t post frequently enough, your audience will slowly forget about you and move on to other things. On the flipside, though, you can annoy your audience by posting too frequently in a way that drives them to stop following you.
How Often Should You Post to Facebook?
It is generally agreed upon that once per day is best for a Facebook page. In general, you shouldn’t make more than two posts per day. You should be posting to your Facebook page at least three times per week.
It’s important to avoid sharing a bunch of posts all at once, as this will lead people to stop following your page.
How Often Should You Post on Instagram?
Once a week is the minimum when it comes to posting on Instagram. Three times a week is even better, and once or twice a day is considered the best. However, stay away from posting any more than three times a day.
How Often Should You Post on TikTok?
TikTok is fairly new so there aren’t many studies on the optimal posting schedule. However, many users find that posting three times a day is best.
How Often Should You Tweet?
Opinions on this one vary widely. Some say that once a day is best while others say it’s best to tweet as much as fifty times a day! The general consensus, though, is somewhere between 3 and 30 times a day.
How Often Should You Post to Pinterest?
It’s recommended to make at least 3 pins per day but no more than 30. There aren’t any additional benefits if you pin more than 30.
How Often Should You Post on LinkedIn?
You shouldn’t post on LinkedIn more than once each business day. At minimum, post twice a week. The best time of day for LinkedIn posts are in the morning.
How Often Should You Post on YouTube?
For YouTube, consistency is more important than the schedule you choose. You want to commit to creating high-quality content on a regular schedule, so less might be better to start with so you don’t get in over your head.
Should You Use a Scheduling Tool?
Signing up for a scheduling tool can make a big difference when it comes to your social media pages. You might not even realize just how much time it will save you to bulk create your posts all at one time. Not only that, but you will have so much more headspace to focus on other things when you know that your social media is essentially taking care of itself.
Check out the best social media scheduler here.
Timing Social Media Posts: Consistency Is Key
Ultimately, you want to post consistently across different platforms. As you can see, though, the optimum number of times to post can vary wildly depending on which platform you are using. You don’t necessarily have to use every social media platform as a part of your marketing strategy, but you should focus on the ones where your audience mainly spends time.
Did you find this article about social media posts useful? If so, be sure to check out the rest of our blog!