As a company, using social media can sometimes feel like running across a minefield with your eyes closed. Things are constantly changing, sometimes faster than you can blink, and if you don’t stay on top of this ever-evolving environment you will soon be lost in amongst the other hundreds of companies and individuals all trying to do the same.
But, along with trying to judge the type of content you should be posting on social media, you are also hit with the question: How often should we post? How often is too much? Are we posting enough to stay noticed?
So, you’re reading this blog hoping we can give you the answer?
Well, it’s simple really. You just take the number of followers you have, multiply it by the number of hours in a day, and divide it by 365 (that’s very important – you must not divide by any other number!) This will give you the perfect number of times to post every day. So for example, if you have 300 followers, you would need to post roughly 19.73 times a day. Easy.
Right?
…
Wrong!
Most of you will have worked out that what we have just said is complete and utter nonsense (I mean what even is 0.73 of a post?) Unfortunately, as with many things in life, there is no set formula for these things! But there are a few things you should bare in mind when asking yourself how often you should be posting on social media. Here are our tips for the perfect posting percentage:
What Social Platform are you posting on?
Are you posting on Twitter? LinkedIn? Facebook? Instagram? The social platform you post on makes a big impact on the number of times you should post – this is before you even start to consider what time of day, or what day of the week is optimum social time.
For Twitter, posting once or twice, sometimes even three times a day depending on your marketing campaign is an acceptable amount as long as they are spaced out throughout the day. Remember, that not everyone will have necessarily seen your last Tweet – things move fast in the world of Twitter! Posting regularly keeps your followers up-to-date with everything going on in your company and industry, keeping your name noticed and current, without bombarding your followers to the point that they do the unthinkable and Unfollow you!
However, on the flip side, posting that often on Facebook or Instagram, for example, would be social suicide. Cramming your follower’s news feeds with repetitive content is one sure-fire way to get you noticed for all the wrong reasons.
Therefore, bare in mind which social platform you are using before determining how often you post.
What is your Call to Action?
As mentioned above, the amount you post also depends on what you are trying to achieve with your marketing campaign. Therefore, if you have a limited time only offer, you may wish to post more often to gain maximum exposure in a small amount of time. Similarly, if you are trying to increase brand awareness quickly and gain followers at an exponential rate, you may wish to post more regularly with engaging content to ensure people click that golden button (the follow button of course!).
However, if your aim is to simply stay current and get noticed on social media, producing a platform that people go to, to find out more about your company and the services you provide, we would recommend one post a day on Twitter, two or three posts a week on Facebook and LinkedIn – Then this should be all you need.
Finally, who is your audience?
The type of people you are trying to engage with makes a big difference to the number of times you should post. For example, if you are selling a product to people who are in work – for instance, a brand new laptop – you may want to post twice a day on Twitter (once in the morning and once in the evening, catching them on their way to and from work).
However, if you are simply trying to get people engaging with your company for some lighthearted and easy reading, you might wish to only post once a day around midday, catching them as they sit down for lunch. There are some great tools out there to help you find out when your audience is online, such as Tweriod and the insights tool within Facebook, which give you some data on when best to catch your audience.
So, as you can see, there are a number of factors that you need to think about when asking how often you should post on social media. However, what might be the right amount for you may be too much or too little for another company. Therefore, a system of trial and error is the only real option you have.
But then, that’s why marketing companies such as us exist. We work all the fun stuff out for you so that you can simply sit back and reap the return on your investment.
To find out more about Creative Pod, and how we can help you with all your marketing and design needs, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or contact us on: hello@creativepod.net
