Let’s face it: over the past year, we’ve all had a lot more time on our hands to be scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. And while social media has been fantastic at keeping us all connected during these times when we can’t physically be together, if you’re a brand looking to make a connection with your followers, how often you post on social media in 2021 is key.
The thing is, you need to keep your brand visible on social media. That’s a given. But equally, you don’t want to be the brand equivalent of that annoying person that posts 5,897 photos of their adorable child in 4,783 different poses / outfits / locations* (*delete as applicable…and, erm, author of this post, take note for your own personal social media, please).
So exactly how often should you post on social media in 2021? Here’s how to tread that fine line of both quantity and quality in your social media posting this year:
Ok, we bang on about this a lot here at 24 fingers. But as with everything that keeps your brand out there, consistency really is key. With this in mind, there is no definite right or wrong answer as to how often you should post on social media in 2021. We’d love to give you a magic formula – that you should be posting X amount of times per day – but the long and the short of it is, posting consistently and at a frequency realistic for you and your business, is what you should be aiming for.
What do we mean by this? Well, you need high-quality content, and you need to be posting as regularly as you can keep up with creating that high-quality content. It’s no good posting every day for a week, and then not posting for three weeks; the algorithm will simply not be your friend if you do that, particularly on Instagram and Facebook. Therefore, if you know that you can keep up with creating and posting three good quality posts a week, stick with that, and post them consistently, every week. Be like water, not fire…
Quality really does trump quantity when it comes to how often to post. You could post consistently, every day, for years, but if your posts are poor quality or not relevant to your audience, then you simply won’t build your follower base or engagement. This is especially true during a global pandemic when the world and her husband are shouting for your attention on the digital platforms.
When creating your content therefore, keep your audience in mind. This could be through the use of infographics, your social media tone of voice, and, of course, by using high-quality, relevant images. Perhaps help that engagement along a little bit with the use of polls and by asking questions, or by encouraging your followers to share your content. Even if you only post a few times a week, these actions will help to increase your followers and will keep your followers engaged with what you are posting.
Just when we’ve told you that you’re better off posting consistently and well rather than frequently and poorly, we’re about to introduce you to Stories. Particularly popular on Instagram, but increasingly important on LinkedIn and Twitter too, Stories (or Fleets if we’re talking Twitter) really do break the rule book when it comes to how often to post.
The great thing about Stories is that because they only remain visible for 24 hours (unless you add them to your highlights) you can afford to be a little more free and easy with them. They’re perfect for those times when you want to share something in real-time; you could share what goes on behind the scenes in a typical day, for example, or, in the days when we could go to events, share updates from the happenings at said event.
Alternatively, you could use your Stories to share your best tips for your something within your industry, for example. And don’t forget that if your followers tag you, you may be allowed to reshare their posts, too, which is a great way of building engagement.
And when it comes to Stories, more really is more: the more frequently you post to your stories, the more likely you will be to appear at the top of your followers’ feeds, as new content is ‘pushed’ towards the front of feeds, thus increasing your chances that your followers will click on your story to see what you’re up to. So with this in mind, save your wow content for your main posts, but to a certain extent, feel free to share the lesser quality content on your stories.
Of course, it’s all very well us saying that you need to post consistently, but we appreciate that this is easier said than done. If you could do with an extra hour (or a hundred) in the day get in touch: our 24 fingers will happily go to work making sure your social media channels are posted to consistently to keep your brand at the forefront of your followers’ feeds. Boom.
We’re 24 fingers, a digital marketing agency and a proud member of the 42 Club, Brentwood Chamber of Commerce, Excel Business Networking Group, the Trusted Business Community, the Organisation for Responsible Businesses and the Rotary Club of Brentwood à Becket. We help companies who are all fingers and thumbs with their social media grow their business and brand. Book your free strategy call here
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