Source: Hubspot.com
In my first gig managing social media, I wanted to know how often I should be posting content on different channels, like Twitter and Facebook. So I turned to Google for the answer. Some articles advocated posting 3-5 times per day, while others warned that posting too often in a short period of time would just aggravate your followers. Of course, learning through Google is not as good as learning through real life. Eventually, I realized that there is no right answer. The only way to figure out the frequency and types of content that work for you and your company is by testing, testing, testing!
One thing I learned is that the frequency of posting can vary depending on where you are located. For example, a company with an international customer base may try posting the same content three times a day to reach several different time zones. In my experience, I’ve seen this tactic succeed in that all three posts drove engagement. Specifically for Twitter, posting often is totally fine given the volume of tweets that occupy one’s newsfeed.
I’m a huge believer in using photos as social media content. On Facebook pages especially, photos make a huge difference in making your company’s page visually appealing. According to a study by HubSpot, photos on Facebook generate 53% more likes than the average post. Something to keep in mind when posting photos is that people are more likely to share photos that are emotionally touching, inspirational, or ridiculously funny. The types of photos, or content in general, that you post ultimately depends on your audience. Which is why you should test different types to see what works. Maybe your followers love how-to videos, but don’t find the photos you’re posting as funny as you do (it always hurts to realize you’re not as funny as you think, but you’ve got to learn the truth sometime).
Finally, the most important part of testing is MEASURING! Otherwise, how do you know if what you’re doing is working? When I measure engagement, I tend to do it manually and weekly (length of time is just personal preference. Some people track bi-weekly or monthly). The easiest way is to make a spreadsheet (I like to use Google Docs for this). For Facebook, I track the number of posts per week, number of comments, shares, and likes, as well as number of fans at the end of each week. Twitter is similar in that I track posts, comments, favorites, retweets, and number of followers. If you want a more in-depth look into content virality and engagement, tools like Radian6 or Sprout Social are great ones to check out.
What are some content posting tips that you’ve learned in your own experience?
I rarely make a blog post without an image in it. Whether my content is good or not, people seem to engage my blog posts better when there are images. I don’t think the number of postings is as important as including images included in posts. Because this is true for blog posts, it is not too surprising that people engage more with photos than status updates for facebook.
thanks for this post. I have recently been put in charge of my company’s Pinterest and Twitter and Google + and it’s a lot of work. I post to Pinterst approx 3-4 times daily and Twiiter 6 times daily. Google + is twice a day.
It is more important that what you post is relevant to your audience than how often you post. For tracking, while a spreadsheet is useful it can become to impractical as you grow. You are better off using some form of marketing automation / social media software that tracks and measures engagement. Congrats on your new gig, media is such an awesome industry to be in!