How Often Should You Post on Social Media?

jasonboyett

How Often Should You Post on Social Media?

Our guest blogger, Jason Boyett, is an author, speaker, and professional writer whose career as a social media consultant has run the gamut from ghostwriting Facebook content for celebrity accounts he’s forbidden to disclose…to handling the Twitter feeds of Amarillo businesses and ministries. You can find him on Twitter @jasonboyettFacebookInstagramLinkedIn and at jasonboyett.com. Jason is also a panelist for the Social Media/Sales Panel Discussion happening Tuesday, November 12th during Entrepreneur Week! 

 

When should we post? How often should we post? That’s a question I get asked pretty frequently by my social media clients. Talk to a social media expert—someone who casually throws around ridiculous phrases like “branding strategy” and “cross-platform synergy”—and you’ll get any number of answers:

• Post once a day, but no more, to keep from annoying your followers.

• Post twice a day in order to stay “top of mind.”

• Post multiple times a day to cut through the noise and keep followers engaged.

There is no right answer, so I usually suggest starting with a middle ground: post twice a day every weekday, but vary the timing of your posts.

The best times to post on Facebook are after 9 am but before 4 pm, with 1–4 pm being the best time for links and click-throughs. (Wednesdays at 3 pm are supposed to be the peak.)

The best time to post on Twitter is after 11 am on weekdays, with 1–3 pm being the peak period. Twitter traffic starts to fade after 3 pm and drops mid-afternoon on Fridays until the weekend’s over.

But these are only general ideas across the board. When is the primary time to reach your audience? The answer to that totally depends on who your audience is. Stay-at-home moms who go online when the kids are napping? Businessmen returning to the office after a lunch break? Students up late on a school night? You have to know your audience, because different audiences respond to different peak times.

BMW posts to its Facebook page three times a day. Bud Light posts to its page once a day. They have different audiences and different goals.

Which means, my answer to the when-and-how often question is often: let’s see what works with your audience and content. Let’s start with a rule of thumb—see my twice-a-day recommendation above—and keep our eyes on which kinds of posts get the most engagement, and during which times of day.

Not every business shares the same social media sweet spot. Find yours, though, and that’s when your social media feed starts to reach your audience…and become effective.

 

 For more on this topic and to speak to Steve Brown about this blog, RSVP to the Happy Hour & Social Media/Sales Panel Discussion happening Tuesday, November 12th from 4 to 6pm at the WT Enterprise Center! RSVP to Entrepreneur Week!  

 

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