How often should I post on social networks?
As you’d expect with anything to do with marketing, there’s no one answer, but there will be an answer in this article that may work for you.
Let’s go!
There is no one number of posts that works for everyone.
Yep, I said it. And it’s probably what you were expecting.
What you didn’t expect was for me to tell you who WILL give you the right numbers.
That’s your followers.
In April this year, my social efforts hit a wall.
I didn’t lose any followers. But I didn’t gain any either. And the number of reactions and comments I got on LinkedIn and Facebook dropped nearly 70%.
What happened? I don’t know.
But I can tell you where I needed to look to find out why it happened. That’s my insights and analytics across my social media properties.
I had ignored the signs from early March that my followers were getting bored of what I was doing.
When I finally noticed it, I had lost 70% of my engagement.
I looked back at what I had been doing in early March.
- I had one big written post per day
- I had one video post per day
- I then added in another shared post or two each day
This is when the numbers started dropping.
So in mid-April, I changed things up.
- One shorter written post in the morning
- One longer written post in the afternoon
Almost immediately things picked up again. A few posts even reached up to 6 times the number of followers I had. I was back on track.
And then it happened.
By crash, I mean a loss of 85% of my reach in one week.
From April to July everything was growing fast. I was getting more momentum.
But at the end of July, this all stopped.
Some other people noticed that this had happened to them too. I looked around their content and noticed that they had fewer reactions and comments than they used to.
So a lot of us looked at what we were doing.
For some, they had become too “clickbaity” and needed to ease up on the bait-and-switch writing style.
For others, they were too predictable about when they were posting. Always 9 am, then noon, then 3 pm. They had exhausted their audience at those times.
For me, I had become a little too opinionated and was manufacturing a little too much controversy.
LinkedIn has a “sentiment analysis” that scans a post for “mood” before deciding what to do with it. Facebook does the same thing. I had dropped dramatically on both networks.
So it wasn’t that I was posting too often; I was posting negative stuff too often.
When we post too often, our content is usually of poor quality.
This is the problem with rolling out tonnes of content to social media. The quality drops.
Ideas aren’t always easy. Unless you have a framework that helps you generate them quickly. You can learn about this in my free mini-course.
Even if the ideas flow, it doesn’t mean your posts are good.
And despite doubling your content, you may find your engagement drops.
In my case, I produced three times the content for half the reach and engagement I was getting before.
There are patterns I’ve noticed, though
While no two businesses or creators will experience the same results, there are some things I’m seeing in common
TikTok
Some creators make it look easy, but they’re also pumping out a lot of stuff before their first post goes viral.
I don’t focus on TikTok much yet. But I am commonly seeing that it takes around 10 posts a day for a while until something you post takes off and you get enough people suddenly following you to keep the momentum going.
Frequency will hurt you on Facebook if you are getting no more than 30 views and 2 likes on all your content. So, stop. Take a break for a week or two.
I’m serious. If you continue posting with your same routine and get the same results, you are just conforming to Facebook that your content sucks.
Most creators seem to have found their sweet spot with two daily posts.
It’s what I usually do, though some weeks I like to add a third post in the evening.
This worked for a couple of days this week for me, so I may do it again next week.
That is a lot of posting for a small business.
You’re right. It is.
You can take baby steps towards doing it yourself. Start small and work your way up as you get better at it.
You can also bundle it all up and hand it over to someone who does this for a living. Just be aware that it won’t come cheap.
What I suggest is that you do what you can for yourself. If you enjoy it, keep going. Maybe do a little more. A bit of success is a great motivator.
But if it isn’t for you, then this social media game probably isn’t for you.
You can ignore social media too.
At best you’ll stay where you are. At worst, you’ll be heading backwards.
That’s all for this weekend. Just one short read about how many posts you should be doing and how I’ve handled the rollercoaster ride so far this year.
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See you again next week.
Cheers,
Dante
P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are a few ways I can help you out:
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Dante St James is the founder of Clickstarter, a Meta Certified Lead Trainer, a Community Trainer with Meta Australia, a digital advisor with Business Station, an accredited Digital Solutions advisor and presenter, and the editor at The Small Marketer. You can watch free 1-hour webinars and grow your digital skills at Dante’s YouTube Channel.
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