How Often Should I Post on Social Media?

Q: how often should I post

What number can I hold on my worst week? Not your best week, when you're caught up and feeling good and could bang out five posts on a Sunday. But rather the week the job runs long, somebody's sick, or your busiest client needs everything by Thursday. That number is your cadence. If your worst week can hold two posts, post two. Two posts every week for a year is 104 posts and a business that clearly still exists. Daily posts for three weeks is 21 posts and an account that looks abandoned by June.

Sadie Patton
2 days ago
4 min read

The internet currently recommends posting on Instagram 3-5 times on the feed per week, and every day on stories. And 1-2 times on Facebook, 1-3 times on TikTok, 2-5 times on LinkedIn, 4-5 pins on Pinterest, and 1 YouTube video per week.

Run the total and you're somewhere north of 40 pieces of content a week. That's a part-time job with no salary attached, on top of the many jobs you already have as a business owner. So here's a more useful answer to how often you should post on social media.

The number that actually matters

Buffer looked at 1.2 million posts and found something worth sitting with. Accounts posting 2 to 3 times a week with high engagement grew 2.4 times faster than accounts posting daily with low engagement.

That's from a company that sells scheduling software. They make money when you post more, and their own data says the number is lower than the sum of everybody's recommendations.

The other half of their finding says that posting more does increase your reach, and the biggest jump comes from moving from 1 to 2 posts a week up to 3 to 5. So, if you're currently posting once a month, more post will genuinely help you.

The best range for a small business is 3 to 5 posts a week on your main platform, done well.

Why the maximum is the wrong target

Two things go wrong when you chase the big number.

You go silent. You commit to daily, you hold it for two or three weeks, then a busy season hits or one project eats a month, and your account goes quiet until spring. Starting again is harder than starting was, because now there's guilt attached to the app. The people writing "post daily" have a content team. You have a business to run and an evening to squeeze content into, and that isn't what will help your business grow.

Algorithms also reward consistent behavior over time, which means the daily-then-silent cycle is worse than a steady three a week would have been.

Your posts compete with each other. Posting more than once a day can cannibalize your own reach, because your posts end up fighting for the same feed slots. Meanwhile the average Facebook business page reaches about 5.2% of its own followers per post. Volume is not a reliable lever here.

The right question

Here's what I'd ask instead of "how often should I post."

What number can I hold on my worst week?

Not your best week, when you're caught up and feeling good and could bang out five posts on a Sunday. But rather the week the job runs long, somebody's sick, or your busiest client needs everything by Thursday.

That number is your cadence. If your worst week can hold two posts, post two. Two posts every week for a year is 104 posts and a business that clearly still exists. Daily posts for three weeks is 21 posts and an account that looks abandoned by June.

The part underneath the question

I know it feels counterintuitive, and that's because how many times you post is something you can control (because you can't control the results).

But you're usually asking this question because the posting hasn't produced customers, and volume is the first fix that comes to mind.

If ten posts didn't work, thirty feels like the answer.

When I worked with Mary's Herb Garden, their engagement rate went up 252% after 12 posts. Posts that know what they're for do work that posts filling a calendar cannot do, no matter how many of them there are.

Decide what you're saying first. Then the frequency question gets easy.

Who should post more than 3 to 5 times a week

Being fair about it, some of you should.

If you're a product business with real inventory turnover, or you're in a category where people follow along for the entertainment of it, or social media IS your storefront, the higher numbers apply and you probably know it already

If you're a service business getting most of your work from referrals, 3 to 5 a week on one platform is plenty, and going to seven will not double anything.

What I do

Social media management at The Brand Barn runs on a cadence that works for your business, because I'd rather make you three posts a week that know what they're for than seven that are just filling a calendar. I research, strategize, plan, edit, post, and manage your socials so they work for you, and you can wok on growing your business. And stop feeling guilty about not posting on Sunday night.

Click here to learn more about my Social Media Management package.

Recap

The internet reccomeds 40+ posts per week across all platforms.
2 to 3 posts a week with high engagement grew 2.4x faster than daily posts with low engagement (Buffer, 1.2 million posts).
3 to 5 a week on ONE platform is the honest range for most small businesses.
Posting more than once a day can cannibalize your own reach.
The right number is the one you can hold on your worst week.
Volume can't fix a message nobody chose intentionanlly.