How often should you post on social media?

Most studies agree that once per day is optimal, with a maximum of two posts per day.

Hubspot found that pages under 10,000 fans experienced a 50% drop in engagement per post if they posted more than once per day.

At a minimum, you should post to your Facebook Pages 3 times per week.

When your audience is online will determine when you should post. Be sure to check your Facebook Insights.

For engaging, viral content scheduled in a snap, you should try Chimpla (www.chimpla.com). You can edit and add your branding to their creative, pre-made content – or post it as-is!

Chimpla also schedules to Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, but the content is most needed on a platform like Facebook, where users are looking to connect and have fun.

Bare minimum: once a week. Better: 3 times a week. Optimal: once a day.

Avoid: Sharing a bunch of posts in quick succession. Allow at least 3 hours between posts. "Too many updates" is the #1 reason people unfollow Fan Pages.

Action points:

1 | Get some Facebook content ideas and plan a week or month's worth of posts.

2 | Or find ready-made content and schedule it in Chimpla (www.chimpla.com).

This seems to be a big controversy these days! I was recently taken to task for "only" posting about ten times a day on Twitter. The top accounts are posting 100 times a day, I was told.

Can you imagine?

Well, that's not necessary. But the studies I found did vary wildly – anywhere from once per day to 51 times a day!

More helpful is a consensus of 3 to 30 times a day. Tweets do have an incredibly short shelf life, so it's essential to spread your tweets through the day.

Bare minimum: once a day. Better: 2 – 5 tweets a day. Optimal: 10-20 tweets a day.

Avoid: Disappearing from Twitter for weeks or months – you'll lose followers.

Action points:

1 | Learn the right image size for tweets.

The recommended minimum is 3 Pins per day, with a maximum of 30 Pins per day. Posting more than 30 Pins per day does not show any additional benefits.

Pinning often is easy with Chimpla (www.chimpla.com). You tell it how many times you want to pin per day, and it sets up recommended time slots for you.

Save a Pin to Chimpla, and it falls into the next slot (or you can customize the times if you wish).

Bare minimum: once a day. Better: 3 – 5 Pins a day. Optimal: 10-25 Pins a day.

The optimal amount for your account will depend on how much time you have to dedicate to making fresh, quality Pins. 3 "fresh Pins" will perform better than 25 repeated Pins.

Avoid: Repeating Pins frequently or to more than 10 Pinterest boards.

Action points:

1 | Catch up on the current Pinterest best practices.

2 | To schedule your Pins, try Chimpla (www.chimpla.com).

It's recommended to post a minimum of once per day, and no more than three times per day, on Instagram.

Bare minimum: once a week. Better: 3 times a week. Optimal: once or twice a day.

Avoid: Sharing a bunch of posts in quick succession, or disappearing for weeks at a time.

Action points:

1 | Get some Instagram post ideas and plan a week's worth of posts.

2 | Consider the best Instagram image sizes.

3 | Pick a compelling group of Instagram hashtags to increase your posts' exposure.

This is a quick and easy one, at least twice a week, but no more than once each business day.

Once again, consistency is vital.

According to Filmora, you'll grow your channel faster if you:

1. Create a specific YouTube posting schedule.
2. Post your upload schedule on your YouTube account.
3. Don't overcommit! Creating YouTube videos takes time.
4. Bank YouTube videos, so you have them ready to upload on your schedule.

The best times to upload to YouTube are Thursdays and Fridays between 12 and 3 pm in the time zone of the majority of your subscribers.

Monday and Tuesday are the worst days to upload to YouTube.

Some quick thoughts here, since blogging is sometimes lumped in with "social media."

Bare minimum: once a month. Once weekly is ideal, and if you can post two or three times a week – even better.

If you're new to blogging, more content will move you up in the search rankings. Established blogs with plenty of content should focus less on how much new content they can create, and more on updating and optimizing their current content.

Avoid: Posting low-quality content to meet a "quota." Publishing a ton of blog posts when you have time to write, and none when you get busy. Consistency will help the search engines – and your readers! – know what to expect. But be sure it's quality.

Action points:

1 | Choose a comfortable frequency you know you can keep up with.

2 | Learn some SEO basics for beginners; we are always happy to have a chat with you about this.

3 | Start writing, and get a few posts scheduled in advance.

4 | When – and if – you can, increase your posting frequency.

5 | Once you have a library of content, be sure to keep it updated.

Now you've got the latest research on:

• How often to post on Facebook
• How often to tweet on Twitter
• How often to pin on Pinterest
• How often to post on Instagram
• How often to post on LinkedIn
• How often to upload to YouTube

Posting more does not mean your content will be seen more!

Different social networks' algorithms work differently, but engagement and relevance is key to all!

Here's an excellent overview from Brafton, with stats from Social Media Today:

• Facebook ranks meaningful interactions highest.
• Instagram's algorithm orders content by popularity, relevancy and a user's relationship with the account that posted it.
• Tweets are sorted by time posted and relevance to the user.
• LinkedIn content is ranked by engagement and the degree to which you are connected with someone on LinkedIn or have mutual connections.
• Pinterest places content based on previous user interactions.

Don't forget these key points on how often to post on social media:

• Posting consistency is more important than posting frequency.
• Content quality is more important than content quantity.
• Set an objective for social media, so you know if your posts are successful or not.
• And always check your stats to see what works best for your account!

It's not just how often you post, but posting quality content your audience craves.

Stay consistent with your social media posting:

• Don't take on more platforms than you can handle.
• Create and schedule content in bulk to save time.

Does this help you with how often to post on social media? Let me know!