Social media is a great way to reach readers, but it’s frustrating to post to social media and not see your followers grow. When cousins and ex-colleagues are the only people liking each of your posts, it’s time to optimize. The magic number of posts per day for each social media channel is different, but the #1 rule for each is the same—you’ve got to post to make connections.
Warning: the numbers aren’t a magic bullet! The content you post is much more important than the number of times you post. Getting your workflow and process down, and creating consistent posts that you’re proud of and that create opportunities for people to get to know you and your writing is a more valuable use of your time.
That said, it’s certainly helpful to have these numbers as a guide for your book launch or a specific promotion!
According to this HubSpot article from June 2020, here are the optimal number of posts for each of the big social media networks to maximize reach and engagements!
Facebook:
Recommended: 2-5 posts per week
LinkedIn:
Recommended: 2-5 posts per week
Analytics company Meltwater weighs into this conversation with some slightly different stats. One thing they also emphasize is that consistency is the key—not necessarily hitting a certain number.
Instagram:
Recommended: 1 post per day
Facebook:
Recommended: 1 post per day (or less)
Twitter:
Recommended: 10 posts per day (Had to share this quote from the Meltwater article: “The average lifetime of a tweet is a mere 18 minutes! It is therefore essential that you post at least 10 or more tweets a day to ensure the highest reach of your content.”)
LinkedIn:
Recommended: 3 posts per week
And, of course, I wanted to include Pinterest, so I found another article that referenced it! This smart piece by social expert Louise Myers also includes YouTube suggestions so definitely take a look if you have video content to share!
Pinterest:
Recommended: 11 posts per day
That’s a lot! Louise suggests Tailwind for scheduling tweets.
To close out, here are three thoughts from Sendible:
Posting consistency is more important than posting frequency.
Content quality is more important than content quantity (and social media networks are letting us know with all the changes).
Without having an objective for social media, you won't know if your posts are successful or not.
That last point is key! You should have a desired outcome for each post—even if it’s just to get people to click the “like” button. It helps you understand how you can improve week to week.
Good luck, and happy posting!
Need a hand planning all these posts? You can download your 2020 Content Calendar or get in touch with me for help with your Book Launch.