How often to post on social media platforms – the secret to finding the answer for you

How many times a day should you post organically to your Facebook Page? How many times per week should you post on LinkedIn? How about Twitter? You can find written up answers to these questions ad nauseam on the web. They’ll tell you to limit your Facebook posts to once a day to avoid angering the algorithms, but what is that recommendation based on? Not likely your audience. Generally, the advice in those articles is taken from data from a large number of pages that may be nothing like yours. While this advice can, as a starting point, be helpful it still doesn’t mean it’s the best answer for your page(s) and your audience(s).

The best social media posting cadence

So what is the best social media posting cadence for your social profiles and your audiences? Fortunately for you, that data is in your possession, or it could be. Have you noticed that if you post twice a day on LinkedIn that your posts tend to do well or that if you only post once a week on Facebook your engagement is stellar? Well, that’s probably your answer. Do what is right for your page, your goals and your audience. If you have reams of timely, genuine, high-quality content that is perfectly aligned with what your audience’s needs then maybe it’s ok if you post more often than other pages. If you only have enough relevant content to post once a week, then that’s ok too.

You have permission to go your own direction when it comes to social media. You should feel empowered to experiment. That’s not to say that you should run amok and start posting 50 times a day on Facebook if your content isn’t helpful or engaging. If you see engagement numbers start to go down around the 40th post of the day then test it some more until you find the sweet spot.

Social media posting considerations

There are many other variables to consider when it comes to social media posting cadence – the time of day, the content, even just variations in the image you include. If the question you’re focused on is how many times per day you should post to each social platform, I suggest testing it for yourself. Select what tends to be the best time(s) of day for your audience and post accordingly to see if you get increased engagement posting 1 or 2 times a day.

How do you look at your data and figure out what’s best? I’ll tell you how to do an intensely mathy sounding thing in this blog post and you can whip out your own t test to determine how many times a day you should be posting on your social platforms for your own audience. I promise it’s doable even for someone who claims not to math good.