How often should businesses post on social media?
Modern businesses develop within a new digital communication environment, and social media plays a significant role in promoting them efficiently. Nowadays, no one can imagine a brand without its digital presence. To succeed, businesses need to consider all the requirements of social media. These include quality visual content creation, active communication with the audience, consistent brand style and voice, promotion strategy planning and regular optimisation, content efficiency analysis, and, of course, on-time content publishing.
Picking the proper time to publish your posts — and their frequency — influences almost all meaningful aspects of your brand’s growth, including reach, visibility, and the efficiency of interaction with the audience.
Why is the optimal time for posting so meaningful?
Picking the optimal time for content publishing is one of the secrets behind successful and stable brand promotion on any major social media platform.
First of all, optimal time helps to prevent the risk of “lost” publications. The majority of businesses make one common mistake: they publish content when it’s convenient for them, but not for subscribers. As a result, the post sinks within the feed and goes unnoticed by many users. Proper timing lowers the risk of losing the post among hundreds of other publications.
Besides, the optimal time for posts helps improve reach without additional expenses. Social media algorithms prioritise new and active posts across the feed. So if you publish when your audience is active, your content gets more chances to appear in more users’ feeds.
The right time to post also helps grow engagement. Reposts, likes, and comments are the most evident signals for algorithms. Publishing at the right time helps gather initial reactions more quickly and promote the content more effectively.
Additionally, publishing content at the right time saves content resources and maximises its effect. This nuance is especially important for small and medium businesses.
Posting on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn: frequency and timing
Each platform has its own algorithm nuances, preferred content type, and audience behaviour. That’s why the ideal time and frequency of publications can vary.
This platform is known for fast content consumption. What about optimal posting frequency?
- Feed posts: 3–5 times a week
- Reels: 4–5 times a week
- Stories: daily
Due to Instagram’s rapid pace of content consumption, posts usually live a short, though bright, life. You should update content regularly to achieve top results.
Evenings and weekends are peak engagement hours on Instagram. This is the best time to relax and slow-scroll through the feed. If your brand is focused on an audience aged 25–45, the ideal time to post is in the afternoon or after 6:00 PM.
To promote initial reactions, Instagram values short, engaging text, attractive covers, and relevant hashtags.
Facebook is a prominent social media platform for business interactions, communication, and discussion. It is optimal to post content here 3–4 times a week. When promoting a brand on Facebook, you should avoid posting overload. Facebook’s algorithms may treat it as spam, and your reach will fall.
The most audience-friendly time for sharing content here is on workdays, especially Tuesday and Thursday. Peak engagement hours are:
- 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
- 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Facebook usually works best with posts that raise discussion, include analytics, use longer texts, and feature expert opinions. Every brand should stimulate comments, because Facebook mainly strives for mindful interactions.
LinkedIn is another platform intended mainly for a business audience (companies, experts, the B2B segment, and HR). Publishing posts here can help you create a professional brand image.
What’s the optimal frequency for posts on LinkedIn? Experts say 2 or 3 publications a week is enough. The quality of your posts here is more valuable than quantity.
Considering that this platform is business-oriented, mornings on workdays are optimal for publication time (especially on Tuesday and Thursday). The peak activity period covers 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM.
When picking what to publish on LinkedIn, focus on expert advice, articles, real cases, corporate storytelling, and team achievement posts.
Local LinkedIn algorithms promote beneficial content that keeps users’ attention for more than 7 seconds.
How to identify optimal post frequency for your business
To determine the most suitable post frequency for your brand, analyse your audience. Answer several meaningful questions about their time zone, most active time periods, and the post types that usually get more reactions. Use analytical tools integrated within each social media platform to get precise data.
Besides, you need to evaluate your resources. If you can’t post daily, focus on quality. In most cases, you can benefit even from publishing two valuable and useful posts per week.
Do not stop testing different schedules. Experiments will show which schedule is better for your brand. Publish at various times and with different frequencies, and compare the results.
Consider your business niche. Recommendations on the frequency of posting will depend on the specific niche. For example:
- E-commerce businesses can benefit from posting in the morning, in the evening, and on weekends.
- B2B companies often perform better with content published strictly on workdays.
Conclusion
The frequency and timing of publication are crucial indicators of efficient promotion on modern social media. Remember that there is no single solution that works well for all businesses. You should build an individual posting strategy, deciding on the optimal content publishing frequency based on your business specifics, audience expectations, and platform requirements.
