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Wondering how often to post on social media?

Great question. The short answer is, “As often as you can consistently post quality content.”

Quality and consistency are key to social media success.

This has not changed for 2022, and I don’t expect it to ever change!

But you want more… you want tips and suggestions! A place to start.

We got it.

The longer answer is: Recent studies have shown that there really are optimal posting frequencies for the different social media platforms.

And the good news is, it’s probably not as often as you may have heard!

That Facebook Page posting hourly, or Twitter account posting every 15 minutes? Forgetaboutit.

Maybe it works for accounts with 100,000’s of followers, but it doesn’t work for the average business using social media marketing.

Whew!

We will cover:

• How often to post on Facebook
• How often to post on TikTok
• How often to tweet on Twitter
• How often to pin on Pinterest (updated for 2022)
• How often to post on Instagram
• How often to post on LinkedIn
• How often to upload to YouTube

Pinterest has changed! What you were doing in 2020 may no longer be working. It certainly wasn’t for me!

You’ll find everything summed up on a colorful infographic at the end, PLUS a free content guide to keep your social media posts engaging!

Is how often you post on social media important?

YOU BET! As Neil Patel says,

If you post too infrequently, your audience will forget that you exist and you will quickly fade into the deep dark recesses of their minds. However, if you are posting too often, you will become a complete nuisance and they will dread seeing your posts overcrowding their feed.

So here’s what the research says, to help you get this right.

I share my own posting frequency. Don’t try to max out every platform – unless you have unlimited time or funds. Or use a magical scheduling tool, like Missinglettr, mentioned below (my secret weapon!).

Disclosure: Some links below are affiliate links, which means I’ll get a small commission if you purchase. I only recommend social media management tools I use and love!

How Often to Post on Facebook

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.

As far as when to post to Facebook, I keep seeing studies that tout early afternoon. That’s never worked for me. It may be that more people are online and sharing then, but I think that just means I’m lost in the crowd.

I find it best to post before 6:30am Pacific, or after 8:30pm. I post 2–3 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 PromoRepublic. You can edit and add your branding to their clever, pre-made content – or just post it as-is!

PromoRepublic 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.

• • • Click here to try PromoRepublic free • • •

Disclosure: I’ll get a referral fee if you purchase a plan.

So, how often should you update your Facebook Page?

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 | Discover the best time to post on Facebook 2022.

3 | Schedule your Facebook posts for free. 

4 | Or find ready-made content and schedule it in PromoRepublic.

TikTok is the new kid on the block. I didn’t find any studies – but I did find plenty of TikTokers willing to share what’s working for them.

What’s great is they generally agree!

You should really try to publish at least one quality video per day.

Most users have found that 3 per day is optimal!

While I’ve seen some suggest that more than 4 or 5 would be too much, at least one popular TikToker disagrees.

With 1.3 million followers, Grant Beene says, ““There is no such thing as posting too much on TikTok.”

He says that every time you post, TikTok shows your content to different people. Which may or may not be true, because (let’s face it) the social platforms don’t reveal the intricacies of their algorithms.

It does appear that, unlike Facebook, TikTok doesn’t penalize you for posting a lot.

Still, if you have less that a million followers (like, a lot less lol) and something else to do with your day than hang out on TikTok, there likely is such a thing as posting too much.

But if you’ve got the time, please test it and let us know. 🙂

Here are a bunch of TikTok video ideas to get you started.

So, how often should you post to TikTok?

Optimal: 3 times per day.

Action points:

1 | Not a TikToker yet? Learn how to make your first TikTok video!

2 | To increase your chances of going viral, be sure to add the best hashtags for TikTok and the best TikTok captions.

3 | Learn the best time to post on TikTok 2022.

How Often to Post on Twitter

This seems to be a big controversy these days! I was recently taken to task for “only” posting about 10 times a day on Twitter. The top accounts are posting 100 times a day, I was told.

Can you imagine?

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

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

If you blog, you’ll adore using Missinglettr to automatically create visual content and schedule your blog posts.

Read more about this social media tool for bloggers.

• • • Or jump in and try Missinglettr free here • • •

Disclosure: I’ll get a referral fee if you purchase a plan.

How often should you Tweet?

In addition to HubSpots’s findings, Dan Zarella found that the most-followed Twitter accounts averaged 23 tweets a day, with no decline in followers as tweet counts rose. When I was most active on Twitter, I tweeted links almost every hour, and a quote about every 3 hours.

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

Action points:

1 | Learn the right image size for tweets.

2 | Discover the best time to tweet.

3 | Try Missinglettr to schedule new blog posts to tweet out on different days and times for a whole year. The Twitter feed moves so quickly, you’ll be lucky if your followers see it once, let alone multiple times!

How Often to Post on Pinterest

The recommended minimum is 3 Pins per day, with a maximum of 25 Pins per day – a new recommendation direct from Pinterest.

Pinning often is easy with Tailwind. 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 Tailwind, and it falls into the next slot (or you can customize the times, if you wish).

I started with about 5 Pins per day and worked my way up to about 12 scheduled Pins a day in 2016.

Posting this often did amazing things to grow my followers – I more than tripled my account in 2016, to 14K followers. And…

• Added 5,000 followers in 2017.
• Almost 10,000 more in 2018.
• Close to 20,000 more in 2019.

But I no longer Pin that much!

Why? After encouraging up to repin our own content for years, in 2019 Pinterest decided to give preference to NEW Pins.

Rarely giving exposure to repinned Pins.

Requiring lots of time to create NEW Pins!

I drastically cut back on my repeating Pins in late 2019 and am once again pinning only about 5 Pins per day.

If you can’t keep with the new content creation, cut back on pinning.

I cut from 30+ a day to FIVE with NO loss in engagement, follower growth, or traffic.

This is why you have to keep up with the social platforms’ ever-changing whims!

And especially, your account analytics.

I’m a huge fan of automating everything Pinterest with Tailwind. And their analytics are the best, bar none. So you’ll always know how your account is doing, and what to tweak.

• • • Try Tailwind Forever Free plan now! • • •

Disclosure: I’ll get a referral fee if you purchase a plan.

So, how often should you Pin to Pinterest?

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 | Learn how to make Pinterest Pins that get seen and clicked.

3 | Determine your best times to pin on Pinterest.

4 | Or, make it easy. To schedule your Pins, try Tailwind.

How Often to Post on Instagram

It’s generally recommended to post at least once per day, and no more than 3 times per day, on Instagram.

I’ve found similar times of day to Facebook effective: my stats showed that 8pm was my best time, closely followed by 6am. This was when I lived on the West coast, so that’d be 9am and 11pm Eastern time.

I don’t use any schedulers here, but you can read about approved partners for Instagram scheduling. These can auto-post for you safely!

How often should you update your Instagram?

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 an effective group of Instagram hashtags to increase your posts’ exposure.

4 | Figure out the best time to post to Instagram 2022.

How Often to Post on LinkedIn

This one’s easy. At least twice a week, and no more than once each business day, which is optimal. Post in the mornings.

I share my new or updated blog posts here, and I was only posting once or twice a week, but now I use Missinglettr. This recirculates my blog posts and keeps them in front of my connections – because some may have missed them (or not had time to read) previously.

• • • Click here to try Missingletter free • • •

Disclosure: I’ll get a referral fee if you purchase a plan.

How Often to Post on YouTube

Once again, consistency is key.

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.

I was asked for more specifics, so here you go: Try to upload a new video weekly.

If you create a stash of videos as recommended above, you’ll get an idea of how long your video creation will take, and if that’s a realistic goal.

Don’t abandon YouTube because you can’t post weekly, and don’t post junky videos just to get something uploaded.

I know it sounds like a broken record, but it’s really all about consistency, quality, and what works for your audience.

Here are some fantastic tips on posting frequency from Business Film Booth.

I jumped you right to that part of the video, but the whole thing contains important advice.

How often you should post a video to YouTube depends on a whole heap of things. There is not a set answer. This video will talk you through everything you need to consider before you produce one video a week, day or month.

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

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

How Often Should You Blog?

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

If you’re new to blogging, more content will definitely 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.

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.

Check here for more blogging tips.

Conclusion: How often should business post on social media?

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

Hat tip to CoSchedule, Buffer, and Neil Patel for data.

Here are more considerations from Amy Landino!

I included my own thoughts and frequencies, and suggested scheduling tools.

→ Tailwind for Pinterest and Instagram.

→ Find more options for scheduling to Instagram from desktop.

→ PromoRepublic if you need fast, viral content for Facebook.

→ To automate blog post sharing, Missinglettr.

Disclosure: I’ll get a referral fee if you purchase a plan.

Choose your pace and stick to it, so your followers know what to expect. Consistency is key to attracting and retaining followers! Of course, high quality content is a must.

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 a great 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.

Need ideas for what to post?

• • • CLICK to Get your FREE Social Media Content Guide! • • •

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.
• Keep fresh ideas flowing with the Social Media Content Planner!

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