Ping!

Facebook sounds off to let you know that someone has “liked” your post. It’s been two days and this is the first sign of engagement you’ve seen so far.

“Is this even worth it?”, you ask yourself.

Business owners around the world are asking the exact same question with regards to social media. Marketing your business has become much more dynamic in recent decades, but now with so many options, it’s easy to become completely disillusioned by it.

The simple fact is that social media is less effective in some industries. There may be outliers that have a loyal social following, but you need to do the research for yourself and create a plan that’s custom to your business. Chasing after everything your competitors are doing can be a quick way to become exhausted both mentally and financially.

Know What You’re Working With

The algorithms for social media sites are actually very transparent. With a teeny bit of research and testing, you come to a realization of which posts perform well and why. The engine that runs these platforms is engagement. Call it what you want: likes, shares, retweets, hiccups, hearts, applause, comments, upvotes, etc.

Each time a user does one of these actions, the little robots inside their algo get excited, and begin to show others the content. Until someone decides that the post is relevant and worth interacting with, it remains virtually invisible. It’s interesting to look at companies that have hundreds of posts, but when scrolling through, only a handful of reactions, shares, and comments. Either they have unlimited time and resources on their hands, or they’ve simply not learned to use social media effectively.

My guess is the latter.

Evaluate Your Industry

Is there anyone in your specific industry or niche that is killing it with social media? Everything is public- you can easily go to any company profile and see how many followers they have and the engagement they’re getting. If you can’t find a single one with good results, you may need to re-evaluate your decision to spend time and money on social media. If you decide to go forward, you are in for a challenge, but with some creativity and perseverance, you may just become that company that is killing it with social media.

What’s Your End Goal?

Start with this simple question. Your answer will tell a lot about the efficacy of posting regularly on social media. There are only a few justified reasons to use social media for your business. You have to decide all of this based on your budget and how much time you plan to dedicate.

Share Updates

This might only come up once in awhile, but when companies expand their services, hire new staff, or open a new location, they post about it on social media. This is perfectly acceptable as it will pique the curiosity of current and potential customers.

Sell

Many assume that this is their primary objective when it comes to social media. Remember, I’m not talking about social media ads, I’m strictly referring to organic posts and their reach. Many industries try to shamelessly plug their business over and over until their audience is exhausted, leading to unfollows, unlikes, and disenfranchisement.

There is nothing inherently wrong with promoting your business (that’s the whole point), but social media ethics require a more tactical-based approach. Post “shareable” media from other pages to generate interest. End with a question that should be answered in the comments section. Make posts casual. Be personable. Use media (pictures, graphics, videos). Respond to as many comments as possible, no matter how many there are. By doing these things, you’re “telling, then selling”, and not the other way around.

Interact with Current Customers

This is one of the most valid reasons to attempt the social media “game” in the first place. Almost all of your customers these days are on social media. Therefore, they are often more likely to reach out to you via these methods than with traditional phone calls and emails. Many of the most savvy companies are actively using Facebook and its messenger app to take care of customer service concerns. You should consider it too.

Traffic

Social Media can be a great source of traffic if used correctly. The first principle in gaining traffic is posting things that resonate with an audience so much that they decide to share it with their friends. Sites like Buzzfeed, ViralNova, and Diply sprang up as a direct result of creating titles and content that were extremely shareable. Be careful not to create “clickbait” just to generate a few more page views through, social media users are becoming more aware and turned off by such tactics.

Posting Frequency

So you’ve decided to go for it. The last decision to make is how often you should post. Based on the purpose/end goal of your social media strategy, you’ll be better able to make each post count.

Is Daily Best?

If you decide to create daily posts, make sure it goes live when the maximum number of people are on their devices and will see it. The optimum time changes depending on whether it’s a weekday or not, but typically 6-9 pm works well. Adults are home from their jobs and on their phones and computers to check their social media accounts.

Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are usually best received once or twice per day, maximum. More could be justified if you have an extremely large following.

With Twitter, that number goes up to between 5-15 tweets per day. As long as your audience is engaged, you can increase this to more than 30 per day if you want. This same rule of thumb applies to Pinterest as well.

Daily posts can bring continuity to your marketing, especially as your fan base grows and comes to expect them. One tactic used by dozens of businesses of all sizes is a daily, themed post. On Mondays a dental page could share a “glowing white” testimonial from a happy client. On Tuesday (Tooth-Day) they could share pro tips on oral hygiene. Wednesdays could feature something else, and so on- one for each day of the week.

The Answer You’ve Been Waiting For

The best possible answer for the question “how often should I post on social media?” is this: as often as you possibly can while still getting engagement. It’s important to set a testing period in order to gauge its effectiveness. For example, post once a day for 3 months while trying to build up your social credibility. Try different things and come up with a baseline, then use publishing tools to schedule posts and begin to automate the process. As long as your audience is engaged and growing, keep at it. You’ll benefit from the ability to interact directly with your audience as well as having one more way to spread your business message to as many potential customers as possible.