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How many times should i post on instagram a day


How Often Should You Post on Instagram in 2022?

Hélène Heath

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January 8, 2019

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Last Updated On

October 21, 2022

Do you keep asking yourself how often you should post on Instagram to receive the highest reach per post? Well, we have the answer.

Could possibly potentially perhaps hit a second peak.

How Often Should You Post on Instagram?

The Fort Knox of social conundrums. We bet you've asked yourself that question about a million times but have never been able to figure out the answer.

Since the algorithm's inception, it's been really tough for brands to nail that Instagram posting frequency sweet spot or the best time to post on Instagram. So many factors are now at play when it comes to a content distribution strategy, and a non-chronological feed basically means that no one can predict when their posts will be seen by their followers, even when actively monitoring activity stats.

This can prove to be problematic for a business trying to optimize all visual asset output on such an important channel. Social media has made brand marketing so much more effective, yet so much more complex than it once was. The proximity to consumers offers closeness and insight into a brand's target market that never would have been possible before, but its incessant evolution makes it impossible to keep up with, let alone master.

Is How Often You Post on Instagram Important?

Yes. In terms of how often should you post on Instagram, frequency is everything. By posting at least once a day, you’re showing your followers that you’re dedicated to your account, and also have a lot of interesting things to show them. If you’re posting schedule is less frequent and more sporadic, followers will often lose interest and eventually unfollow if they feel like they can’t expect regular content or brand updates.

How Often You Should Post on Instagram

Where there's data there are facts, and while things change literally every single day on Instagram, the numbers are always right on cue like the prompter whispering from behind the curtain. Post engagement is the holy grail of Instagram success, but attaining the highest reach per post is also an important KPI, especially as audiences become increasingly flooded with new content to consume every second.

To figure out how often to post on Instagram based on reach, we took a sample of 1,400 brands that posted between one and five times a day over the past six months, then analyzed their account reach to see if output frequency was correlated. Here's what we found.

If you post on Instagram once a day, that asset is likely to have a +3.39% individual improvement over your average reach, but it decreases from there. If you post twice a day, both assets risk having -3.12% of the reach that an average post would have gotten. If you post three times a day, it goes down to -6.17% of the average reach, and so on.

So if you'd been wondering whether how much you're posting every day affects the reach of your creative assets, the answer is yes. The more you publish to your Instagram feed, the less reach your individual posts receive. With that said, the more you post, the higher your overall reach will be. While the reach on unique posts statistically tends to be lower when posting more, that's still almost double the impressions you might get if posting less. It's simple math and you gotta find what's right for your brand according to your goals and Instagram strategy.

Remember that these are averages, and some accounts fall way above or below these figures—you do you, always.

Here's a graph to properly illustrate how much reach all of those beautiful Instagram posts would get you.

How an Instagram Scheduler Can Help

Now that you know how often you should be posting, the hard part is out of the way. In order to establish a maintainable Instagram posting schedule, investing in a scheduler tool is a must. Features like Dash Hudson’s multi-channel scheduler give social media managers the ability to schedule posts in advance, meaning it has never been more simple to stay on top of your content strategy and post as often as you see fit.

FAQS

What are the best and worst days to post on Instagram?

While this can vary depending on your content type and audience, there are a couple of days of the week that are historically the best (and worst) to post. Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays are days where brands typically see more engagement on their posts, while Sundays are going to be a low-performing day due to the nature of it being the come down from the weekend.

Does posting on Instagram every day help?

Keeping an active Instagram profile is one of the best things you can do to boost followers and engagement. If you have enough meaningful content that benefits your followers to post every day, do so. Refrain from posting to your feed more than once a day though, as engagement starts to decrease after that one post per day threshold.

How many reels should you post a day?

A good rule of thumb is to treat reels like they are a part of your feed. You don't want to overload your followers' feeds with multiple reels a day, hoping that something lands with them. Create and post thoughtful and entertaining reels, but no more than once a day if you can help it. If you want to get granular on what’s working and what’s not, Instagram Reels by Dash Hudson offers a full suite of tools that give you the ability to not only analyze content performance, but also to compare content through customizable metrics like content type or featured creator, and much more.

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How Often Should You Post on Instagram in 2022?

How often should you post to Instagram each week? Should you post on Instagram every single day?

If you work in social media, you’ve probably asked yourself these exact questions at one point or another.

To discover the answer, Later analyzed over 81 million feed posts (excluding Reels and IGTVs). Here’s what we found:

How Often Should You Post on Instagram Each Week?

Based on our analysis, the more you post on Instagram per week, the greater your overall reach will be. Similarly, posting more typically equals more likes and comments in total.

However, the rate of reach and engagement per individual post varies as more posts are shared — and this changes even more depending on how many followers an account has.

  • For accounts with under 1K followers: posting 14 times per week delivers the highest reach and engagement rates per post.

  • For accounts with 1K-250K followers*: posting 14 or 20 times per week delivers the highest reach rate per post, while posting once per week delivers the highest engagement rate per post.

  • For accounts with 250K+ followers: posting only once per week delivers the highest reach rate and engagement rates per post.

*NOTE: When we analyzed the results in smaller ranges (e.g. 1K-10K followers, 10K-20K followers, 20K-30K followers, etc.), the findings were the same — hence why the 1K-250K range is grouped together.

Reach rate is a valuable indicator for brand exposure, while engagement rate can indicate how well your content is resonating with your community.

In an ideal world, you want your reach and engagement rates to be as high as possible for every post you share, while still posting frequently enough to make an impact.

How Follower Count and Posting Frequency Impacts Feed Post Performance

When we look at the data as a whole, reach and engagement rates per post are optimal when 14 posts are shared per week (or twice per day, on average).

However, when we segment the data by follower count, some seriously interesting trends arise.

For accounts with less than 1K followers, the more feed posts you can share on Instagram per week, the better.

Both reach and engagement rates per post improve as posting frequency increases per week, with the average engagement rate climbing from 3.1% at one post per week, to 4.9% at 20 posts per week.

To put this into perspective, if an account has 500 followers, the number of engagements will grow from 15 (at one post per week) to 500 (at 20 posts per week). That’s quite a significant increase.

This is likely because these micro accounts don’t have a large community of followers as their primary source of engagement — they’re relying on new audiences to comment and like their posts via hashtags — and reach rate grows with each additional post shared.

For accounts with between 1K-250K followers, reach rate per post still improves as more feed posts are shared, but engagement rates see a significant decline.

This could be due to audience fatigue, a drop in content quality as volume increases, or the fact that the Instagram algorithm typically only promotes your most recent post to your followers.

For accounts with over 250K followers, both reach and engagement rates per post decline significantly as more feed posts are shared per week.

This decline in reach rate could be due to the fact that these mega accounts are less likely to rely on hashtags as their primary source of reach.

Instead, they rely on their existing community to engage with their content and drive virality — and for this group, posting more per week results in a major drop in engagement rate per post.

It could also be that accounts of this size are more focused on using Instagram Stories to engage with their community. Stories are informal and engaging, making them perfect for daily interactions and relationship-building. Learn more about how to build a strong community on Instagram here.

ICYMI: With Later, you can plan and schedule a full week’s worth of Instagram posts in less than twenty minutes, so you can increase your posting volume without losing time from your busy schedule.

How Often Should You Post on Instagram A Week to Grow Your Followers?

Based on Later’s analysis of over 917K unique accounts, users that post more times per week typically have more followers.

As you can see, there’s a clear correlation between posting frequency and the average number of followers an account has.

However, it’s worth noting though that this could be due to the type of accounts that are posting more frequently.

For example, a professional influencer or well-known brand is likely to post more per week than an everyday user — it’s much more likely to be a full-time profession, rather than a part-time side hustle.

So, How Often Should I Post on Instagram?

So, what does it all mean? Should you be posting on Instagram every day to grow your following? The answer is that it all depends on your goals.

If your goal is to reach new audiences, posting more frequently on Instagram, paired with an effective hashtag strategy, is always a good idea — especially if you have under 250K followers.

According to our analysis, for the best reach rate per post, you should post:

  • 14 times per week if you have under 1K followers

  • 14 or 20 times per week if you have 1K-250K followers

  • 1 times per week if you have over 250K followers

If your goal is to increase your engagement rate, you should post:

But try not to get too caught up on the numbers — protecting your mental health and creating quality content that drives real value for your audience should always usurp quantity.  

And remember: there is no one-size-fits-all approach for posting frequency on Instagram. Instead, use this data as a starting point to gather insights and experiment with your own account to find what rings true.

With Later’s free social media management platform, you can plan, prep, and schedule your Instagram posts from one easy-to-use dashboard, so you can create a best-in-class content strategy that supports your goals.

Plus, you can visually plan how your posts will look in your Instagram feed before they go live — so your profile looks on point and tells a cohesive story. It’s one of the best ways to convert profile visitors into followers!

Plan and preview your Instagram feed in advance with Later for free! Sign up and start creating an awesome Instagram account today:

Editor's Note: Study based on analysis of 81M Instagram feed posts published via Later between 2019-2021, from 917K unique users. Excludes Reels and IGTV posts. Data by Annie Yao.

Rules for publishing content on social networks - when to post and how much

Today we will analyze a seemingly ordinary question. How much and where? And indeed, it is ordinary only at first glance, because in fact the number of posts must be measured depending on the specifics of the account and its goals.

But there is one important rule for all accounts and for all social networks.

Post when you really have something to say. When Your Content Isn't Sucked Out of Your Finger. nine0010

If you have a brand account

In this case, it is important not to overdo it, but still stay in touch with customers or potential customers. It's cool to catch that balance when subscribers are waiting for your posts. Because you have already established yourself as a useful and beautiful account.

To do this, you need to carefully work out the content. But that's another story. Let's talk about quantity. It is generally accepted that on Instagram* you need to publish once a day. This just allows you to stay in sight and at the same time not really bother network users. But I'll tell you, it's unlikely that anyone will be upset about skipping one day if you don't have great content. And also, no one will be angry if you have accumulated two important newsworthy events in a day that are worth talking about. nine0003

Popsters conducted an audience survey in 2019 and found out that Instagram* accounts with over 100k followers generally publish two posts a day, and one with less than 100k followers. At the same time, the involvement in the post is the same for all types of accounts - the recommendation system of the social network affects.

Posting and engagement on Instagram*

In general, Instagram*: 1-2 posts per day. We skip when there is nothing to say. The main thing is that the photos are beautiful, of high quality, at the professional level. nine0003

VKontakte: Once a day, but you can skip it. The posts are more informative: life hacks, useful data, etc.

Facebook*: A couple of times a week, preferably with reference to the news agenda.

If you plan to seriously engage in promotion in social networks, we recommend reading: "Where to study as an SMM specialist: recommendations and courses."

If you run a business account

For small and medium businesses that run social media accounts, the rules are about the same: post once a day or even less often. On Instagram*, stories are important for business – through them, you can effectively communicate about promotions, discounts, sales, and other promotional activities. The feed is best used for publishing entertaining, engaging or informational content. nine0003 The barbershop uses the Instagram feed* to post pictures of finished work, especially once a week

Anastasia Kravtsova, SMM specialist

How many stories to make per day? No need to chase the quantity and shoot stories "on the knee" if only they were. The best thing is at least 2-3 stories per day. Better - 5-7.

If there is an informational reason, you can do more. But I recommend not posting everything at once. It should not be that you went to Instagram *, uploaded 5 stories at once and forgot. User engagement is better when there is time between stories. This applies to stories with information, the sale of additional or basic services, finished products or works. nine0003

We often open Instagram* and business, in order to be in sight, it is best to constantly flicker in the line above, where the red circles of stories are lit. If you post everything at once, then they can quickly scroll through everything and on the same day, when the user opens Instagram again*, you will not be in sight. Therefore, stories need to be distributed correctly for the day and posted every hour or two. If some event occurs on the territory of the business, then no one forbids you to post often and a lot.

nine0002 Total: we understand the context, we inform our subscribers, but we don’t load it.

Instagram*: once a day or less. We actively use stories.

VKontakte: once a day or less. Posts are better to publish more detailed and on broad topics. Humor and memes are great too.

Facebook*: several times a week. Ideal - only expert materials.

See also: Content Matrix Guide: Effortless Topic Generation.

If you have a media account or city public

If your activities overlap with the news or you take on the role of the media, the rules are different for you. In order to answer what they are, I analyzed dozens of information accounts like CLIQUE.

CLIQUE publishes pop culture posts 24 hours a day

For example, almost every city has a "Typical (insert city name)" account.

We have a "Typical Krasnodar", which can have 10 posts per day

This is due to the fact that information must be submitted according to newsworthy events. And on a day of news, there can be a lot, and it is important for informational publics to work out and talk about everything that the audience lives by (in our case, the city). Therefore, various news publications usually grow quickly and attract subscribers. But, engagement under posts and general interest may fall.

Popsters research confirms this data: the greater the number of followers, the lower the engagement per post, but the higher the total engagement per day. So, on VKontakte, communities with an audience of more than 100,000 people publish up to 22 posts a day, get maximum engagement per day, but less per post. Small communities have the opposite situation: there are few posts, the overall involvement is low, but each post is like a holiday. There is only one conclusion: you can “take” both quantity and quality. nine0003 Popular posts per day for VKontakte

Instagram*, Facebook*, VKontakte: up to 20 posts per day.

Read also: How to adapt to the algorithms of social networks.

If you are developing a personal account

The most subjective approach to personal accounts. I know popular bloggers, one of whom can post 1-2 times a week, but I also know another who posts often, sometimes several times a day.

Let me give you Valery Dolgova as an example. She doesn't post photos very often on Instagram*. And this allows her to maintain a certain image of mystery. nine0003 Instagram* Valeria Dolgova

Her opponent in this regard is Sasha Zharkova. She posts one, sometimes two photos a day, as well as many stories. This amount of content completely immerses subscribers in her life.

Instagram* Sasha Zharkova

Based on the analysis of popular bloggers, you can measure the average "temperature in the hospital":

Instagram*: once a day.

Facebook*, VKontakte: 1 time in several days.

Best time to post content on social media

We answered the question "how much" to post optimally for different types of accounts, now let's figure out - "when" it is better to post.

Top tip: keep track of your publication statistics. For example, in the DataFan service, you can see user engagement by day of the week and time of day for a certain period of time.

Of course, to collect statistics, you need to post regularly - it is difficult to collect reliable data in a week

In the meantime, you can look at someone else's experience. Sprout Social conducted a study and collected data on the best time to post on social networks in 2021. They studied statistics from more than 20,000 of their customers to find out when users interacted with content the most and least often, broken down by platform and industry. nine0003

The service does not work with VKontakte, and accordingly there is no data on the time when it is better to post on VK in the report. But there is Facebook* and Instagram*.

Note that best posting time on any platform is always an average. It all depends on the audience. For example, schoolchildren are not very comfortable using social networks when they are in class.

Best time to post content on Facebook*.

Considering Facebook*'s status as the world's most popular social network, it's no wonder it's active almost around the clock
  • Best time: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:00 to 13:00.
  • Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday.
  • Worst day: Saturday.

Best time to post content on Instagram*.

Instagram* is not far behind Facebook*. No wonder it is being developed as a platform for promoting brands, regularly introducing new business opportunities
  • Best time: Tuesday from 11:00 to 14:00, Monday to Friday from 11:00. nine0120
  • Best day: Tuesday.
  • Worst day: Sunday.

The best time to post content on social networks by industry

Sprout Social also studied how audience engagement on Instagram* and Facebook* changes on the pages of different brands, at different times and days of the week.

Health and beauty

In 2020-21, medical topics have become much more popular on social networks due to quarantine measures. Educating and informing the audience are key priorities for a successful promotion strategy for healthcare companies

Best time to post on Facebook*.

  • Best time: Monday to Friday at 11:00.
  • Best day: Tuesday.
  • Worst day: Sunday.

Best time to post on Instagram*.

  • Best time: Sunday 8 am to 9 am, Tuesday 8 am to noon and 5 pm to 8 pm.
  • Best days: Monday, Tuesday.
  • Worst day: Saturday.

media, brand media

On Facebook*, the audience likes to get the news early in the morning

The best time to post on Facebook*.

  • Best time: Friday 7 am, Tuesday 6-9 am.
  • Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday.
  • Worst day: Saturday.

Best time to post on Instagram*.

  • Best time: Tuesday from 13:00 to 17:00, Wednesday 11:00, Thursday 8-9:00.
  • Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. nine0120
  • Worst day: Sunday.

Education

Many online education companies will need to manage multiple social media accounts to effectively target different audiences at the right time

Best time to post on Facebook*.

  • Best time: Wednesday and Thursday at 10 am.
  • Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday.
  • Worst day: Sunday.

Best time to post on Instagram*. nine0114

  • Best time: Friday 4-5 am, Thursday 2 pm.
  • Best day: Friday.
  • Worst day: Sunday.

Entertainment communities

High activity during regular business hours. It is almost difficult to identify the peak :) This once again speaks about the benefits of different types of content for audience engagement

The best time to post on Facebook*.

  • Best time: Wednesday from 10:00 to 17:00.
  • Best day: Wednesday. nine0120
  • Worst day: Saturday (not much difference).

Best time to post on Instagram*.

  • Best time: Wednesday from 10:00 to 18:00.
  • Best day: Wednesday.
  • Worst day: Sunday.

Restaurants

Instagram* showed a more active audience, and - all week round

The best time to post on Facebook*.

  • Best time: Monday at noon, Friday from 13 to 14 hours. nine0120
  • Best day: Friday.
  • Worst day: Sunday.

Best time to post on Instagram*.

  • Best time: Monday from 9:00 to 13:00.
  • Best day: Monday.
  • Worst day: Saturday.

Technology

On Instagram*, the audience is very interested in technology topics. Most peak periods recorded

Best time to post on Facebook*. nine0114

  • Best time: Thursday 15-16 hours.
  • Best day: Tuesday, Thursday.
  • Worst day: Sunday.

Best time to post on Instagram*.

  • Best time: Monday 10am-11am, 2pm-5pm, 8pm, Tuesday 10am-1pm, Thursday noon, Friday 11am.
  • Best day: Monday.
  • Worst day: Sunday.

Travel and tourism

Travel restrictions and lockdowns in 2020-21 affected travel agency revenues but not user interest in the topic

Best time to post on Facebook*.

  • Best time: Tuesday and Wednesday from 9:00 to 13:00, Friday from 10:00 to 12:00.
  • Best day: Wednesday.
  • Worst day: Sunday.

Best time to post on Instagram*.

  • Best time: Thursday 7:00, Monday 11:00-15:00. nine0120
  • Best day: Thursday.
  • Worst days: Saturday, Sunday.

Hospitality

It is desirable for the hotel business to promote brand pages in different social networks in order to reach different audiences

The best time to post on Facebook*.

  • Best time: Monday at 11:00, Friday 8-11:00, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 16:00.
  • Best day: Friday.
  • Worst day: Sunday.

Best time to post on Instagram*.

  • Best time: Wednesday at noon, Thursday from 15:00 to 16:00, Friday from 08:00 to 12:00.
  • Best day: Friday.
  • Worst day: Sunday.

Read also: Analyzing content: learning from our mistakes.

Summary

The right number of posts and well-chosen posting time is perhaps the smallest component of a successful account. Content is important, its uniqueness, beauty. The mood with which you communicate with subscribers is important. Correct advertising and thoughtful collaborations are important. nine0003

But let me return to the quantity and finally I will advise you to feel. Look at the conversion - do not you post a lot. Look into the comments. When subscribers expect more from you, they usually talk about it. Well, don't hesitate to ask!

If you want to become a master at managing your content strategy, take a look at the free 7 Steps of Content Marketing course. Access can be obtained from the link above.

The article has been updated. First published August 8, 2017

Optimal Instagram Posting Frequency: 20+ Expert Tips

How often do you post on Instagram? Many bloggers, no matter how many followers they have, don't know if they should post new posts once a day, three times a week, or several times a day.

You don't want to bore your audience with too frequent posts, but being forgotten is a so-so prospect. nine0003

What to do?

There may not be a universal answer to this question, but in this article you will find advice from 20+ marketers with years of experience in managing Instagram accounts. You will learn how to develop a strategy that is right for your company and audience.

Article content

How often to post on Instagram: best practices

Daily posts

1. Instagram algorithms may reward you
2. Increasing visibility
3. You keep the attention and interest of the audience

Posting 3-5 times a week

1. Engagement rate can increase
2. Ability to improvise
3. You don’t have to post irrelevant content

Posting 1-2 times a week

Do I need to make a schedule?

Quality over quantity

What's next?

How often to post on Instagram: best practices

If you've been looking for the secret formula to find the exact answer to this question, we're going to have to disappoint you: best practices vary by industry and company type. Much depends on the preferences of your audience.

Only one thing is universal - you need to study your subscribers and find out how often they want to see you in their feed. Below you will find recommendations from marketers, most of whom have been blogging on Instagram for more than three years (>40% of respondents), which means they have had enough time to test different strategies and find out which ones work best. nine0003

How long has your company had an active Instagram account?
Less than a year
1-3 years
Over 3 years
We don't have an account

Read also: How to grow your business by attracting leads from Instagram?

Daily posts

Some companies benefit from publishing new posts every day. This may depend on your goals, or whether you work in B2B or B2C, or what other channels you use to promote your products or services. nine0003

If Instagram is your main social media platform for finding new potential buyers, then according to experts, posting every day can be especially beneficial for your company.

There are three reasons for this:

1. Instagram algorithms might reward you

You may have heard complaints about Instagram's algorithms: if you take a moment to distract yourself, your audience reach shrinks. While it's not true that all activity on an app is tracked by a single algorithm, frequent and regular posts do get more engagement. nine0003

John Frigo of Best Price Nutrition says, "Instagram's algorithms, and indeed most social media, reward frequent posts, so it's best to post daily."

2. Increase visibility

Many companies benefit from publishing one post each day. Marketing experts believe that this frequency of posts is optimal: they do not overload the audience and at the same time do not let you be forgotten.

Only 10% of survey participants have an audience between 25,000 and 50,000 subscribers, the majority (more than 30%) have less than 1,000. In order to attract more, increase visibility and expand your reach, it can be beneficial for you to post every day. nine0003

How many followers does your Instagram account have?
Less than 1,000
1000 - 3000
5000 - 10000
3000 - 5000
25,000 - 50,000
10,000 - 25,000

For Finding Balance's Lily Ugbaia, daily posts are the best fit for her company and audience. This frequency of posting helps to attract the attention of new followers: “Instagram is a very visual platform. Therefore, to get the most out of it, you need visuals that represent your company so that customers and potential buyers can see you all the time.” nine0003

Harriet Chen of CocoFinder also believes that daily posts increase visibility on Instagram. It can be useful to post even a few posts a day: “Experts believe that you need to post new posts every day. But for maximum engagement, you need three posts a day. This frequency increases the visibility of your brand and helps boost sales of your products.”

3. You keep the attention and interest of the audience

Daily posts give engaged audiences exactly what they want. If your followers enjoy interacting with brands, posting daily will help keep them engaged and allow followers to enjoy new content all the time so they don't lose interest. nine0003

“For years, we have been experimenting with post frequency and choosing the best strategies for our business Instagram account,” says Jonathan Ofrey of Growth Hackers Agency. "We've found that daily posts work best because by providing content regularly, we keep engagement without overwhelming our community."

Chloe Sisson of Zen Media agrees that posting more than once a day can overwhelm subscribers unless the posts are related to each other. “If Instagram is your main marketing tool, it is recommended to post once a day. Set a specific time for this so your followers know when to expect your content. We post once a day. We have found that this frequency works best for our audience.” nine0003

Read also: How to build a large audience on Instagram: 7 recommendations

Posting 3-5 times a week

What if you can't post every day? Or, for example, is your audience dissatisfied with an overabundance of content? Do not worry. Some experts recommend posting once or twice a week, as well as posting on weekdays rather than weekends.

Once again, it all depends on your audience. If your target followers commute during the week and spend the weekend with their family without looking at their phones, you'll schedule your schedule so your best posts don't go unnoticed. nine0003

1. Engagement rate may increase

The majority of survey participants (more than 30%) name an engagement rate of 1-3%, and this is good for Instagram. The majority of those surveyed only post a few times a week because such a schedule increases engagement. The audience has more time to explore the content and interact with it.

What is your average Instagram engagement rate?
Less than 0.5%
0.5 - 1%
1 - 3%
Over 3%
Don't know

2. Ability to improvise

Sometimes something unexpected happens that you want to tell subscribers about. If your schedule calls for two or three posts a week, you can always cram in an announcement or post something impulsively without overwhelming your audience.

A strict schedule also robs your profile of authenticity. Authenticity is important because people want to get to know you, feel your energy, and see if you're the right fit for them. People want to talk to people, not robots. nine0003

So always leave space for spontaneous posts, as Stephanie Gutierrez of Online Optimism advises. She thinks it's best to post 3-5 times a week if you want to "maintain an active Instagram account that grabs and keeps attention. It's important to leave room in your content plan to accommodate the new material that's coming out this week and stay on schedule."

3. You don't have to post irrelevant content

What if you post a post a day and have nothing prepared for today? Will you post anything just to stay on schedule? Frequency is important, but not enough to post irrelevant content. nine0003

Dennis Hancock of Mountain Valley MD thinks you shouldn't post just to tick off a plan. The best practice is to “post often enough for your audience to remember your brand, and if your posts are engaging, Instagram will reward you with a wider audience reach. Posting once a day is good if you share something important. No need to post irrelevant or weak content.”

Charlotte Spence of Mattress Nerd says, “Posting 3 times a day is annoying for most users and will quickly lead to unfollowing. Make a schedule and post anywhere from 5 posts per week to 2 posts per day, but only if you're sharing high quality content. Create your posts ahead of time when you have a good idea, and if you don't have a good post ready, don't post anything. Better to remain silent than to post irrelevant content." nine0003

Read also: Lead generation on Instagram: how to create photo captions?

Posting 1-2 times a week

If Instagram is just one of your marketing channels, then you don't need daily posts to maintain your online presence and keep your audience up to date with all the latest news about your brand.

Posting once or twice a week works well if you're consistent. Mitchell Harad of Expert Opportunities says it's important to stick to a schedule, and consistency is "the most valuable quality" for a company looking to win over an audience. nine0003

“If you only post once a week, that's fine. Just make it a habit to do it at the same time so your audience will expect it. The same goes for posting three times a week. This strategy isn't three times better: it's just as valuable if you stick to your schedule. The audience craves consistency, and when the frequency of your posts provides it, that's good."

This is true: people love routine and predictability. If your followers are used to reading your content over their Tuesday morning coffee, don't disappoint them. nine0003

"It's important to set up a schedule and stick to it so your community knows what to expect from you," says Jordin Jewell of Simple Machines Marketing. - If you decide to post twice a week, then twice a week share valuable, engaging content that your audience will want to keep and forward to friends. If you can post content like this five times a week, that's great! But it’s better to share valuable content 1-3 times a week than to post anything every day for show. ” nine0003

Read also: Why Your Instagram Posts Don't Engage: The Scientific Reason

Do You Need to Schedule?

Does every company need a schedule for posting content? Scheduling is useful because people will get used to you posting at certain times and will wait for them.

Tarlia Smedley of Pulse Recruitment says consistency is key. “Instead of requiring a fixed number of posts every day or every week, I believe that success on Instagram depends on the quality and consistency of the posts.” nine0003

“There is no point in posting low quality content, especially if you are not achieving the desired engagement metrics. In that case, I would suggest posting less content overall to focus on the quality of posts with higher engagement rates.”

For those who don't know how often to post, Smedley's advice is: “Determine how much content you can create in a week and stick with that amount of posts. You may only post them three times a week, but if you spread them out by day of the week and stick to a schedule, you'll get better results in the long run. Each company is different, so set achievable goals for yourself and post at least once a week and no more than three times a day.” nine0003

Engagement is important, of course, but sometimes it can be difficult to create engaging content for Instagram, especially if it's not the only platform you use to advertise and find new audiences. Alex Birket of Conversion.AI thinks the key is to create something of value and attention: “Actually, I think you shouldn't be posting as often as you think. Creating interesting content for Instagram is not easy, especially for companies: you are competing with friends and family of your followers. Your ad may not be the most interesting thing they see in a day.” nine0003

Most people don't go to Instagram to shop and watch ads, so your job is to create an interesting and engaging story. Birket says: “I think you should post when you have something interesting for your followers. But don't overdo it. Instagram algorithms are such that the more followers interact with your content, the higher you will appear in their feed, and vice versa. Therefore, quality is more important than quantity. Anyway, it's about posts, but you can post more stories." nine0003

Also read: Stop organic social media activity to increase profits

Quality over quantity

All experts agree on one thing: quality is always more important than quantity.

Over time, your audience will get to know you better and understand which of your posts are authentic and which are posted for show. If you don't have the time or material to create a quality post, it's best not to post anything.

It takes a lot of time to experiment and find out what works for your audience. To get started, try the best practices recommended by the experts. This way, you will probably find your ideal posting frequency faster and develop a schedule that works for you and your audience. nine0003

The main thing is to listen to what your followers want and monitor their reactions to your posts. Then you will be able to strike a balance, delight and engage your audience, and provide them with high-quality content so that your Instagram community will grow and grow.

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