Heard it through the Grapevine Series: How Often Should a Business Post on Social?
Social media is one of those things no one seems to agree on. If you’re just starting a business, it can be incredibly hard to pick which social networks you want to use and determine exactly how you should use them. Different strokes for different folks can lead to a lot of confusion. No need to worry! GetAssist is here to help clear the air and show you how you should divvy up your time to get the most engagement.
There are 4 main suggestions when starting out:
- You don’t have to use every social network. Pick one or two networks your audience uses and become comfortable with those before moving on.
- It’s OK to repost other people’s quality content. Just make sure you’re giving credit where credit is due and always say something about what you’re sharing as it relates to your audience.
- No one ever gets their social media strategy right immediately. Tweaking and testing is the only way to tell if you’re hitting your target.
- How often you post is directly related to how often you want to be found by your customers (or unfollowed by them). That means if you want to be found more, you need to know the life of each network and post often enough to keep your name alive. The key to this is posting quality content—if you don’t have enough quality content, always cut back your frequency.
Twitter: 3 times per day
Twitter is the fastest moving social network out there. There’s not a lot of time to connect meaningfully on this platform, but it still can present value for specific industries. One hour after you post a tweet, it will have lived it’s life and gathered 100 percent of its engagement. This means you better make every character count. Twitter is one place where it’s acceptable to repost your exact same tweet every few days if it is still relevant. Using a scheduling tool like Buffer or an automated marketing program with built-in social media management tools is incredibly valuable on this platform.
Pinterest: 5 times per day
Pinning at least five images a day gives you the highest chance of reaching your entire audience. The algorithm Pinterest uses to deliver content to those who are following you is much different than most other social media sites. Instead of showing users the content of those they are following in chronological order, Pinterest uses interests to deliver content to followers. This allows for you to post as often as you like without overwhelming your following. Pinterest users also don’t log in as often as other social media sites, but they tend to spend more time on it than any other which makes it even more important to stay active.
Facebook: 1-2 times per day
Facebook can be a helpful business resource, but only if you use it wisely. Facebook posts have longer lives than Twitter, but their effectiveness begins to dwindle within a mere few hours. For Facebook, it’s important to ensure the content you’re posting varies. You may also want to strongly consider boosting your best posts, as Facebook hides almost all business content that is not paid to promote.
Instagram: 1-2 times per day
Posting to Instagram once or twice a day will keep your audience interested without overloading their feed with the same type of content. After your second post of the day, your audience will begin to slowly become annoyed if you continue filling up their feed.
Linkedin: Once per day
The content on Linkedin is much longer and tends to be much more useful for your readers. Posting too frequently on this site can be detrimental to any attempt at social media marketing. Keep in mind exactly who you’re trying to reach on this platform and make sure you are only sharing content that those people would really love to see.
YouTube: Regularly
With YouTube the key is to set a schedule. This might be every other week, every day, or even once per month. YouTube follows the same trends you see in TV viewership; people will adjust their schedules to be able to watch a new video. It is important to try to stick to this schedule to avoid crushing your viewer’s expectations.
GetAssist: The more the merrier
GetAssist is the perfect example of our first rule. Posts on GetAssist don’t have a life; they become the foundation of a community built around your priorities and interests. The ability to test your social posts on a small community-based network of your peers is invaluable and that is what GetAssist offers. There’s no need to pay per post, just come with the mindset of connecting with purpose. Isn’t that what it’s all about, anyway? GetAssist’s calendar integration feature also allows you to manage your entire social media calendar while connecting with those in your communities. Sign up for GetAssist and take the first step to making purposeful connections with your social media following.
For more from our Heard it through the Grapevine Series, click here!
