Image courtesy of Jason Howie’s photostream
Getting your business set up on social media sites is a free and excellent way to grow your business and gain new customers. But how often should you post to Facebook, Twitter, etc.? Does it change based on which social network site you are using? Is there a magical number? As with many things in life, the answer is – it depends.
Below are some great tips and statistics to help you decide what you should say and how frequently you should post:
Content– If you are having a difficult time coming up with content, remember that not everyone will see every post. Feel free to rephrase a post from earlier and share it again.
Posting Times– Let’s say you publish a new post in the morning on Twitter. The followers that you have that check in the morning will probably see this post, but what about those users who don’t check until the evening? Chances are that your AM post is going to get moved down by newer stories that are published throughout the day. So, it is important to post at least twice a day to make sure you hit both target groups.
The Statistics – A study conducted by Socialbakers uncovered the following about the number of posts and tweets shared daily by recognizable companies:
- Socialbakers studied three months’ worth of Facebook content from major brands and found that top brand names average one post per day.
- Socialbakers also studied Twitter, reviewing a random sample of 11,000 tweets from top brand names and concluded that engagement with customers typically went down after a company shared their third tweet of the day.
With those facts in hand, they seem to confirm the idea that posting around two times a day is reasonable. Additionally, a study conducted by Wisemetrics discussed the life cycle of a tweet or post to also help you understand how often you should generate content:
- In their study of Twitter and Facebook life cycles, Wisemetrics found that the ‘half-life’ of a tweet on Twitter is 24 minutes and 90 minutes for a Facebook post. What this means is that half of the total clicks a link in a tweet or post will receive occur within the first 24 – or 90 – minutes of the content initially being shared on social media. Additionally, a Facebook post reaches 75% of its potential engagement in the first five hours, whereas a tweet gets to 75% in less than three hours. Based on the study done by Wisemetrics, it appears that to successfully engage with your audience, it may be necessary to post or re-post every few hours, or at the very least, a couple of times a day.
Your Own Data – Test to see what kind of content your followers interact with and to help you determine how often you should post to social media networks. Keep in mind that companies that publish content more often have more active followers. With more active followers, posts get a higher reach. And with a higher reach, your post will attract more attention. To help you to measure and study the potential and effectiveness of your Facebook posts, start using free sites such as LikeAlyzer. LikeAlyzer and other sites like it will tell you what content is working best for your page, and what you can do to improve.
So, to sum it up: Post regularly. If you have the content to post, post it at least once per day. Experiment with different types of content to see what your followers like, and make sure that your followers engage with your posts. And don’t forget to post when your followers are more likely to be online checking their news feeds, even if that means posting more frequently throughout the day.