by Fronetics | Mar 14, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
Keep these best practices in mind when determining how often to post to social media.
Creating valuable, relevant content in a strategic and consistent manner creates demand for your products and services and drives profitable customer action. But as BuzzFeed’s Jonathan Perelman said, “Content is king, but distribution is queen and she wears the pants.”
It’s not enough to just create interesting and pertinent content; you have to put it out there to reach your target audience. Moreover, the content needs to be delivered consistently over time, at the right time, and in the right place.
With social media networks changing daily, it’s hard to keep up with where to distribute content, much less how often. Countless studies have attempted to solve the social-media-frequency equation. And while audiences vary across industries, best practices give us some general guidelines.
Here’s our assessment of social media posting frequency.
Twitter: 40 per day*
*Big caveat here: 40 tweets per day is what we’ve found works for us and most of our clients. Let me explain.
Socialbakers suggests that posting to Twitter three times per day is the ideal frequency for brands. Buffer posts to Twitter 14 times per day. Fronetics happens to tweet 40 times per day. So last spring, after seeing the Socialbakers and Buffer stats, we conducted a month-long experiment to see how dropping our posting frequency closer to their benchmarks would affect our engagement.
As we’ve written about before, it wasn’t pretty. We confirmed that our engagement, web traffic, lead generation, and other key performance indicators are at optimal levels when we tweet 40 times per day.
Your company, or your marketing partner, should conduct due diligence and determine what the right frequency is for your business. Yes, you may realize a significant decline in engagement in ROI during your experiment. On the other hand, you may realize an increase in engagement and ROI — captured with lower output in terms of time and resources.
Facebook: 1 per day
Most companies find that posting 1 time per day is their sweet spot for most social media networks. Facebook is no exception: The network’s algorithm values quality over quantity, so the more engaged your followers are with your content, the more likely they are to see your posts. This also means that posting content that does not facilitate engagement can actually decrease the likelihood that followers will see your posts.
One sure way to encourage disengagement is by overwhelming your audience. We all have that friend or company we follow that posts too much — don’t be like that person.
Remember that the lifespan of a Facebook post (about 5 hours) is significantly longer than that of a tweet. So you don’t need to provide a constant stream of content to get your audience’s attention. Your focus should be distributing the most relevant, interesting content you can, at a time when most of your audience will be on Facebook.
Instagram: 1-2 per day
There’s an unwritten rule among Instagramers that a user shouldn’t post more than once per day. We generally agree for the same reason we don’t think brands should post more than once a day to Facebook: Don’t overwhelm your audience because the lifespan of your posts is pretty long. In fact, a Union Metrics study found that many Instagram posts continue to receive engagement for days — even weeks — after posting.
Most brands end up posting 11-20 posts per month. If you focus on compelling images with strategic messages, that’s probably a good benchmark to stick with. It’s important to note, however, that another Union Metrics study suggests posting consistency is more important than frequency. Again, taking the time to test the Instagram posting frequency that works best for your business is a worthwhile endeavor.
LinkedIn: 1 per day
A more formal and technical social media network, consider LinkedIn a platform for business-related content. Don’t post here more than once per day — and consider posting only during the workweek. Many professionals don’t check LinkedIn on the weekends, and your content could easily be missed.
Buffer reports that posting 20 times per month (once a workday) allows companies to reach 60% of their audience. To provide the most value for your LinkedIn followers, content should be less promotional and more heavily focused on industry-wide trends and insights.
At the end of the day, optimal posting frequency for your company rests heavily on the audience you want to reach. Experimenting with different social media networks and posting frequencies will give you greater insight into your ideal distribution approach. With these best practices as a guide, let your own analysis be your guide. Maintaining a dynamic and fluid posting strategy will ensure that your social efforts drive followers to action, rather than drive them away.
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by Fronetics | Jul 8, 2015 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
By creating and distributing valuable and relevant content in a strategic and consistent manner you create demand for your products and services and drive profitable customer action. That being said, while content is king, content doesn’t go far (actually it goes nowhere) without distribution. For content to be successful for your business you need to do more than create content – you need to distribute content. Moreover, the content needs to be delivered consistently over time, at the right time, and in the right place.
Wise words by BuzzFeed’s Jonathan Perelman: “Content is king, but distribution is queen and she wears the pants.”
So how often should you distribute content via social media? While it is important to find the balance that is right for your business, here is what we have found to be effective and what we recommend:
12 to18 per day
Twitter
Business users should aim to tweet 12 to 18 times per day, not including replies and retweets. Twitter is likely the only social media network where it’s acceptable to push content out to followers with heavy frequency, but Twitter doesn’t filter users news feeds in the same way that Facebook does, so the lifespan of a tweet is only around 15 minutes. To get the most out of your content, try repurposing or repackaging it and publishing it multiple times a day. This strategy ensures your content goes farther and gains more exposure. Use social tools like HubSpot or Sprout Social to schedule posts at different times throughout the day as publishing content ahead of time frees up your time to respond and engage with users in real time.
1 time per day
Facebook
Companies generally find that posting 1 time per day is their sweet spot for most social media networks. Facebook’s algorithm determines what content is shown to each user, so it’s likely that your followers won’t see everything your business posts. Ensuring that your Facebook posts offer high quality content will work heavily in your favor as users who engage with your content are likely to see your posts with greater frequency. And your content lasts longer on Facebook; according to wisemetrics, a Facebook post reaches 75% of its potential engagement in 5 hours. A median tweet reaches this 75% mark in less than 3hrs. Be cognizant though of posting too frequently on this network; Social Bakers reviewed the Facebook posting habits of several large brands and found a correlation between increased posts (defined as more than 3 per day) and the loss of page likes.
Instagram
As with Facebook, businesses posting to Instagram should aim to publish content once per day. The caveat with Instagram is that posts shouldn’t exceed more than one per day. Unlike other wordy social networks like Facebook and Twitter, Instagram is the place for your company to convey its brand with images. A recent study by Forrester found that Instagram users were 58 times more likely to like, comment, or share a brand’s post than Facebook users and 120 times more likely than Twitter users. With more than 300 million active users, businesses that have found a way to leverage Instagram are boosting brand engagement and growing its customer base at an incredible rate, most with only one post per day.
LinkedIn
Because office workers not only take a break from their offices on weekends, but also from LinkedIn, companies should aim to post content once per day during the workweek. In fact, in a guide published by the social network itself, ideal posting frequency for businesses is 20 times per month. Beyond posts published by your company once per day, individual users from your business should be encouraged to engage frequently with peers in activities such as asking and answering questions with LinkedIn’s Group feature. To provide the most value for your LinkedIn followers, content should be less promotional, and more heavily focused on industry-wide trends and insight.
Google+
Companies tend to find that for Google+, once per day postings generate the most value. With the social network’s obvious search engine connection, user engagement on Google+ might not be as high as say, Twitter or LinkedIn, but there are anecdotal reports that maintaining active company profiles allows content to be indexed quicker on Google. Research shows five times as many people read a Google+ headline rather than the actual content, so spend some time crafting great headlines that succulently convey your company’s message.
At the end of the day, optimal posting frequency for your company rests heavily on the type of audience it wants to reach; experiment with different posting frequencies and let your own analysis be your guide. There’s a fine line between annoying your social followers and providing value. Maintaining a dynamic and fluid posting strategy will ensure that your social efforts drive followers to action, rather than drive them away.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
Whether it is a wholesale food distributor seeking guidance on how to define and execute corporate strategy; a telematics firm needing high quality content on a consistent basis; a real estate firm looking for a marketing partner; or a supply chain firm in need of interim management, our clients rely on Fronetics to help them navigate through critical junctures, meet their toughest challenges, and take advantage of opportunities. We deliver high-impact results.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
