Social Media Posting Cadence: How To Get It Right

How often should you post on social media? I get questions about posting cadence all the time. And the truth is, the answer is never as simple as people hope. It depends on your objectives, your audience, and your capacity to produce quality content.

Finding the right balance can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re managing multiple content streams across various platforms. But through experience, I’ve learned some tried-and-true methods to help you make smart, strategic decisions about how often to post.

Getting the right posting cadence is about a lot more than just asking, ‘How often should I post?’ You need to consider a range of challenges and practicalities to find a solution that works for you.

1. Content Creation Capacity:

Do you have the time, skills, and resources to produce enough original content? Many people feel they don’t have enough of any of these things.

2. Audience Fatigue:

Posting too often risks turning your followers off. They’ll either ignore you completely or, worse, unfollow you. Engagement numbers tend to fall when followers are overwhelmed by seeing your content too frequently.

3. Choosing the Right Stories:

When you’re managing multiple content streams for different purposes, deciding what stories to tell, and when, can feel overwhelming. During particularly busy periods, like over the  holidays, your boss or client may request multiple posts per day across several channels. This requires careful planning, prioritization, and strategic decision-making.

4. Managing Engagement:

With every post comes the responsibility to monitor feedback, respond appropriately, and track performance. More posts equals a lot more ancillary work. This ongoing maintenance can be a major resource drain.

What Are You Trying to Achieve with Your Social Media Posts?

Before you decide how often to post, consider your goals. You’ve probably heard the saying, “Horses for courses.” It means that different situations require different approaches. When it comes to social media posting cadence, the same principle applies. Are you:

• Raising awareness?
• Driving traffic to a website or campaign?
• Educating a target audience?
• Trying to influence an attitude or incite a behaviour?
• Any other goal?

Most organizations have a combination of goals, and it’s important to recognize that each one may require a different posting frequency. For example, a client I’m working with on an advocacy brief has three content streams running simultaneously:

1. Raising awareness of the campaign.
2. Driving traffic to the campaign website.
3. Educating target audiences about the issues.

We’re posting one time each week for each stream plus one ‘engagement’ post designed to promote the social media profiles to attract followers and engagement (which we use in retargeting). Different goals, different types of content, and different established frequencies.

Why Tracking Results is Essential to Finding the Right Posting Frequency

Tracking metrics plays a critical role in determining your ideal posting frequency. It’s an ongoing process of iteration and fine-tuning, where reviewing analytics regularly helps you make smart, strategic adjustments. Keep an eagle eye on the following key indicators:

• Engagement rates
• Impressions
• Click-through rates
• Follower growth
• Qualitative feedback (e.g., how and what people are commenting, sharing, tagging, or reacting to your content)

Some marketers believe that more content is always better. But quality always wins over quantity. It depends on what you are trying to do, who you are trying to reach and how you are trying to reach them, plus other factors. For example, if you’re looking to reach business audiences through LinkedIn, you’ll find posting on a weekend will deliver less impact than a weekday (in most cases). Maybe give it a break on the weekend? Also, one size doesn’t fit all. Using the same post across all channels can be a great way of alienating audiences with imprecise messaging, non-optimal content formats, and reduced relevance. The result? Reduced impact overall. It’s better to have no content than the wrong content in many cases.

Practical Tips for Finding Your Ideal Posting Cadence

Working smarter, not harder, is important in finding your ideal posting frequency. There are a lot of good tools to help you do that. I recently helped a client set up a Hootsuite dashboard and analytics tracking. They now spend a lot less time posting and scheduling content, and have  the insights they needs at their fingertips to make adjustments on the fly. Previously, they only looked at superficial analytics monthly. It’s made a humongous difference in the day-to-day of social media for this mid-sized organization.

• Use Scheduling Tools: Platforms like Meta Business Dashboard, Hootsuite, or Sprout Social can help you plan and schedule content in advance. These tools also provide insights to help you post when your followers are most present and engaged.
• Leverage Analytics: Review analytics daily and look for patterns. Iteration based on insight is the real key here. Review your analytics to understand what’s working and what’s not and make necessary adjustments. 
• Let Strategy Drive Content: Don’t get sidetracked by reacting to trends or internal pressures. Keep your focus on strategic goals and objectives to decide what, where, and when to post.
• Customize for Each Platform: Avoid the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Cross-posting the same content across all channels can alienate audiences. Tailor your messages and formats for each platform. This may mean that not all posts go up on all channels.  

The key to finding your ideal posting frequency is staying adaptable and focused on your goals. Use your analytics as your guide, iterate based on real insights, and tailor your content to fit your audience and objectives.

There’s no magic number when it comes to social media posting frequency. It all depends on your objectives, audience, and capacity to produce quality content. Keep testing, keep iterating, and keep learning.

Listen:

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