How Often to Post on Instagram?

One question that is roaming around in the Social Media Marketing and Digital Marketing Platforms is; How often to post on Instagram?

This question may be asked whether the account holder has a personal, an influencer, or a business account, significantly because your frequency in posting on Instagram will directly impact your following, engagement, and social media marketing return of investment.

Though it may seem a trivial question in the age of 2020 were some think;
The End of The World is Upon Us!

It is one of the most critical questions that you would need to get RIGHT. Henceforth, here we are with a glimmer of hope!
In this article, we have created a comprehensive guide to growing your Instagram. By unlocking the secrets to “How frequently you ought to post your Instagram content,” we have enabled the opportunity for significant marketing success.
Across this material, you can plan and create the right strategy and posting repetition for your account. So here we go with the most intensive encyclopedia of all you need to know.

Planned Instagram Strategy and COVID-19

Today we are amidst the most historical crisis our world could have phased. The COVID-19 disease has overrun the world, and no country is immune from this pandemic. It has triggered the worst job calamity since the Great Depression, which has become incomprehensible to the world.

Changes on Instagram

Today with the global circumstances of the Pandemic and with many people unemployed or on long-term leaves. Making money at home is pivotal to people’s finances and survival.

Moreover, with closed businesses and a drastic decrease in shoppers worldwide, generating money from your Instagram account both as an Influencer or a Business has become ever more detrimental. Mainly because of the new fierce competition among all Instagram users who are stepping into the Social Media Platform.

If you are on Instagram for a purpose, whether you have a digital marketer or managing your own account, you would need to strategize your every action and output on Instagram. You can not create traffic, engagement, and return on your time and investment just by posting content without a planned Instagram strategy, at the wrong times, and unnecessary intervals.

Instagram Strategy

As mentioned, because of Covid-19 and the Pandemic the Social Media Networks and Platforms have become ever more competitive. So if you want an upper hand on the competition, you would have to strategize for your marketing tactic on Instagram or other social media platforms.

As apparent in the table above among the first five main steps are:

• 1. Posting Regularly and
• 2. Staying Consistent With Posting,

At the fourth and fifth rank. These two steps are two critical steps that are precisely related to how often you are posting on Instagram.

This article’s input is created for businesses, influencers, and those who want to jump into these platforms because of their current Finances in this Pandemic.

Posting on Instagram

To post on Instagram, you would first have to Identify your Motive and Goal behind publishing your content.

Why Am I Posting On Instagram?

Technically speaking, there are three types of Instagram profiles; Personal, Creator, and Business. Knowing which one you are aiming to have will establish your Instagram Strategy and what it will entail. You can only understand why you are posting on Instagram if you know your strategy and purpose of being on Instagram.

It’s essential to identify your account first to determine which Instagram profile you should have and which strategies you should initiate to build your account and marketing process.

Henceforth, look into the different accounts and their advantages, disadvantages, targets, aims, and goals to identify your strategy. By knowing your Instagram account type, you have set the foundation for understanding your goals and objectives, along with your Marketing Strategy.

Is Posting Frequency on Social Media Important?

UNQUESTIONABLY!!! YES, YES, YES!!! I couldn’t concur more.

If you don’t post often, your followers will forget you and your existence (e.g., Once per week). On the other hand, if you post too often, you would be a nuisance, and you would overcrowd their feed so much that they would most probably resign to unfollowing you altogether. (e.g., ten times per day).

This Instagram Algorithm applies to all Instagram users, whether a personal account, influencer, or a business, and it has direct relevance to your frequency of posting. Your presence may be too little or too overbearing, so posting frequency for posts on Instagram are incredibly important.

How often do I post on Instagram?

There are numerous articles about how often you should post on Instagram, but e can say that they are all imprecise after going through most of them. Fundamentally, there is no blueprint to how often you should post on Instagram; this doesn’t only apply to Instagram but also every other social media platform.

The frequency of posts and what works for one brand or influencer might not be sufficient for another. Even though you can analyze other competitions to identify a solution, you certainly can’t assume their answer is the right one for you too. But there are some strategies that you could apply to obtain a plan of action;

• Maintaining consistency in posting is more important than your posting frequency.
• Post quality is more crucial than the Post Quantity.
• Without an objective, your posts won’t be successful.

Thus, if you want to get the right number of publications of posts for your account, you would need to consider a few guidelines;

Consistency NOT Just Frequency

To understand this, we first need to understand the difference between Consistency and Frequency.
Frequency – This is how often you are posting based on a schedule—for example, two times per day or one video per week.

Consistency- This means you stick to your strategy and keep up the momentum for the next two months.
In frequency, you need to consider your audience, location, local time, and industry; but this is not rooted. Since you choose to post at 1 pm New York Time, believing all your competitors in your area are doing the same, you will risk not being seen because you are posting at high traffic allotted time.

Moreover, the algorithm may work against you and push your post down the news feed because other contents are more recent. Additionally, it’s essential to realize that at times “posts” maybe too many times per day or week.
Alternatively, aiming for consistency is more effective in social media platforms. If you create a routine plan and stick to it, you will have more success in how often you should post. Your audience will know what and when to expect your posts and will also look forward to them.

Just do not neglect that consistency requires precise time management. To acquire results, you would need to maintain the same uniformity of publications for at least one or two months. You could analyze your engagement and traffic rate on your posts and decide the frequency and type of your published content.

You would just have to ensure that your posts are attractive and valuable, so your fans stay interested and on the rise, subsequently why the next point is critical.

Quality Vs. Quantity

Posting an irrelevant post is far worse than not posting at all or going MIA. There is no point posting if your post is just a slot filler and not applicable because an unrelated post with no quality will result in an account to lose followers rather than gaining followings.

Is Posting during the COVID-19 Pandemic Different?

Yes! Since the COVID-19 Pandemic has awarded everyone more time due to unemployment and work from home situations. Today individuals are over-particular about what they choose to see in each account and how relevant and valuable attributed their posts are to the profiles they joined.

So, you need to focus on helpfulness, authenticity, engagement, QUALITY, and objective. The more subject-related, high quality, and timely your posts, the higher its value in the eyes of your viewers, ad the involvement of your followers.

Furthermore, since people spend more time on their social media, a higher chance that a lack of quality could gain you a removal from the accounts they follow. Thus, quality versus quantity is ever more critical and essential to your account because its effects could be immediate, and lack or decrease of engagement could be tenfold.

Goals and Objectives

As mentioned, a quality post is one which is subject related. Even though consistency is fundamental to; how often you post on Instagram. Knowing your Social Media Strategy and continually evaluating how often to post is essential too.

Suppose you are an influencer marketing a brand or an agency. In that case, the brand and company need to be involved in the Goals and Objective phase because this is the building block to the organization’s Return of Investment.

Things you may want to ask yourself when evaluating your Goals and Objectives include:

• Are we increasing brand awareness?
• Are we engaging followers to drive traffic towards the main website?
• Are we selling a product or service?
• Are we doing a review to increase sales?

By knowing these answers, you can set your Social Media Strategy and the plan of action, to how often you are posting and what you are choosing to publish.

Do’s and Don’ts of Posting on Instagram

Instagram is a visual platform, so the best way to attract followers is by making your account visually appealing and exciting. To figure out the right frequency for your Instagram account, you would first need to apply the Dos and Don’ts of Posting to strategize your frequency in publications.

• • Post-high-quality photos and videos – Make sure the images are not blurred or grainy and sound quality is on point. Maintain a professional outlook for your product or brand. Keep in mind to use hashtags and mentions in your messages too. Posting one quality photo once per week is much more valuable than posting three poor quality photos a day. Since quality is essential, your frequency in posting could work against you if it’s lacking.

 

• • Behind the Scenes – Allow your audience to have a connection with you. If you are a company, allow them to see the hallways where your employees’ work or the factory or kitchen you produce. Give them an authenticity and real-life experiences. You can use Lives, Instagram Stories, and your pictures to show your authenticity. Try to do this once, after every four posts, to create diversity in the type of content published.

 

• • Instagram Stories – Add a new post every day, as often as once per day. Since it disappears after 24 hours, it won’t be overwhelming. Most viewers cross through Instagram Stories since it plays one after another, and stories are often not as annoying as posts. Moreover, Instagram Stories are a great tactic to create engagement and like an advertisement.

 

• Analyze Performance at Intervals – Analyse your performance compared to your goals and objectives as often as possible if it has been effective, then right on you. If it has been ineffective, you need to change your strategy and so the post types and contents. It is advised to analyze your performance after one or two months. You would need to give your content enough time to generate engagement and traffic before fixing your frequency rate. Remember that you would need to maintain your consistency to find the status of your frequency.

Statistically, How Frequently Should You Post?

The best way to know How often you should post your content would be specifically to analyze your industry. Consider your competitors in your industry, international examples and their accounts, and your followers’ reception of your posts. Then adopt the best strategy and the most effective interval in posting for your brand or account.

How many times a day or in a week should I post?

Based on studies done on Creator / Influencer accounts, you should at least post once per day to gain a better following and a consistent follower base. The following image shows this impact on your views and likes per post and your followers’ take on per post. Ensure consistency is applied.

When should I post on Instagram?

Try going live on Instagram so you can pop on the front of the Stories Feed. But if you are not an influencer going live may not be relevant. So, ensure you at least post three stories a day in the form of images or one or two short videos, so you pop on their stories feed. This action will act as a free advertisement platform. Moreover, you can take advantage of the swipe up feature to guide your followers and audiences to your other social media platforms or working links and websites.

57 Percent of brands and companies believe that stories have been massively influentially compelling in their social media strategy. Especially those who post on Instagram twice per day and at least 4 to 5 times per week.

The above image shows how effective stories were in social media strategies in 2019. You can even obtain the same statistics for your account using third-party apps or Instagram Insights provided in creator and business accounts.

What Times are there “The Most Viewers”?

As previously mentioned, there is no universal time to post on Instagram. It depends on your viewers, location, and brand. But you can use Instagram analytical tools like; Iconosquare or Buffer for Business to find your best time to post using Instagram Data. But you can also use Instagram Insights if you already have an account.

Through Instagram Insights, you can see your top posts by profile visits. You can also change your filters. Here is what it looks like:

How Many Posts a Day?

Being on Instagram every day is not bad, especially if you are commenting on posts or answering; messages and queries; You would be creating a relationship and long-lasting engagement with your followers, and that in itself is essential.

But you must ensure that you are not posting so often that you leave your followers overwhelmed. This will give you a negative reputation instead of a positive one.

So how many times a day?
According to investigations and analysis, the median company and brand should publish a post 1.5 times daily. If you are a smaller business, one post or 2 per day is the maximum you should post on Instagram.

Remember that consistency is critical, so if you have been posting four photos every day, do not change the intervals. Nevertheless, if you are just starting, start with one or a maximum of two times a day and only go up if your followers and objectives demand more. But remember not to overwhelm your followers.

What times and What Intervals Should I Frequently Post?

Now that you know the days to post, you should also consider the time of day you are frequently posting. The Instagram Algorithm considers the times you post your content too. To exemplify, if you are publishing two images and videos per day, don’t post both of them simultaneously. Preferably choose two high engagement and peak times for your industry, niche, or interest.

The best times to post for every industry are different, but it is wise to consider other posting times for two or more content a day. Don’t post content simultaneously because it would turn into a nuisance rather than an engagement opportunity.

In the USA, the general best time to post on Instagram would be as follows:

Photo credit: onlypult.com

So to choose the right time and interval for the frequency of posts. You could choose two times, based on the graph above 10 am and 2 pm would be great, then you could manage your frequency and consistency based on those two times every four days a week or five days a week, depending on your Industry.

All in all, whatever time you choose, we can’t insist that consistency is just as important as frequency. So your uniformity in posting content at those time intervals is essential.

To Wrap Up!

In conclusion, we can ask you to bear in mind; there is no fixed algorithm. What works for one influencer or company may go wrong for your company and brand. So just remember to: Research, Analyse, Summarise and Apply

Do this to find the perfect answer, and make sure you repeat this so you are up to date with your strategy. Keep track of your objectives and results obtained, start small with one post a day or two posts per day, and add on if necessary.

Remember Consistency and Quality win over everything when knowing How Often to Post on Instagram.

About the author

Lina Stewart

Lina is a content writer at Social Tradia who turns social media data into stories worth reading. Off the clock, she's reading a novel, sipping cold coffee, or losing the couch to her cat.

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