Social Media Posting: Are You Publishing Too Much or Not Enough?
Many people ask what is the correct frequency in providing new social media content. In truth, there is no set rule for quantity, as much depends on your business, audience, and even location. However, providing quality content, published on a consistent schedule, is vital to a successful social media campaign.
Each social media platform has its own sweet spot of frequency in posting. Unless you have a tremendous amount of followers, posting four times each hour on Facebook or Twitter is an overkill amount for the typical business.
Social media posting in the business realm is similar to having visitors, or being a visitor, in any social situation, and not limited to a social media feed. A too-frequent visitor wears out the welcome mat, leaving the hosts dreading each excess visit. Adding to the hosts' dismay is when the visitor has no worthwhile conversation to offer. This rambling dialogue causes the hosts to eye the clock while stifling yawns. On the other side of the spectrum, an infrequent visitor will soon take on the adage "out of sight, out of mind" to the visitor's social circle.
So how do you strike a perfect balance?
Some say once per day is enough, while others recommend twice per day. Others say three times each week as the minimum. Other studies suggest posting at one specific time each day. If your target audience is local, perhaps this is useful advice. However, should your target audience span the country, continents, or are global, it would be next to impossible to determine an optimal time for posting. Nevertheless, consulting analytics through Facebook Page Insights and Facebook Audience Insights will give you a gauge of what time of day your page attracts the most visitors.
At the very minimum, one tweet per day. Despite some suggestions for daily posts to be in the 50 to 100 range, a more realistic range is about five tweets per day, spread throughout the day. However, this number can be more or less, depending on the size of your company.
At a minimum, pin three times per day, but no more than 30. Pinterest now favors new Pins over repinned Pins. This favoritism makes it quite time-consuming to produce a vast quantity of new Pins each day to keep on this higher end of the spectrum. So it's best to choose quality Pins over quantity Pins.
At the minimum, one to three times per week, though ideally once per day, with three times daily at the maximum.
Twice each week as a minimum, with once per day every Monday through Friday being the maximum.
YouTube
At a minimum, once per month. Be consistent. The successful YouTube channel will have a dedicated schedule of posting. Uploading new videos at least weekly is preferred, although much depends on your audience. Whether your target schedule is once per month, once per week, or even once per day, avoid overcommitment. Quality has preference over quantity.
Blog
At minimum once per month, although ideally one to three times per week. The more times new content is posted to your blog, the higher elevation in search rankings you will have. However, along with the quality over quantity rule, consistency is most important. Not only will a set schedule help your audience anticipate your next post, but it will also help your search engine rankings.