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Do you think there’s such a thing as a business posting “too much” on social media?
This is a question I’m wrestling with, and I can definitely argue both sides of the coin no matter what angle I look at it from.
On the one hand, part of me says: Go full-on saturation bombing. Post 10+ times per day, because the more you post, the more people you’ll encounter, the faster you’ll ultimately grow and the more traffic you’ll get.
The other part of me says: People might get annoyed at this and start unfollowing.
But then that previous part of me says: Nah, if people love your content/business/products enough to have followed you in the first place, they won’t “tire” of seeing it. Plus you’re biased in the sense that while YOU may see how often you’re posting, only a small percent of your followers ever end up seeing your posts on their feed due to how the algorithm is set up, so while you may notice your posting frequency, very few of them even will. On top of that you’re assuming that all of these people will be on social media all day long staring at their feed, when in reality a lot of them might just check in a few times per day anyway — so again, even if the algorithm did serve up all your posts, they wouldn’t see them all anyway.
Plus it’s also like, I follow an account because I like their content/products or whatever it may be — but then when I see that they’re posting frequently, I’m like “How dare they do such a thing!!!” Almost sounds like that’s just insecurity and low self-esteem talking. Like if I follow an account, person or company, it’s because I believe following that account would provide me with value in some way — whether entertainment, education, whatever it may be. Yet by them posting frequently, it somehow annoys or insults me? It just seems sort of like an insecure way of thinking about it, like I believe so little in my business, our products, our message, whatever it may be, that I’m scared to be aggressive about it and post very frequently?
I also heard Grant Cardone make a very interesting argument in a lecture where his position was that people unfollowing or complaining that you post too much is a GOOD thing, because THAT’S how you know you’re actually cutting through the noise and getting on their radar enough to make an impact. The LACK of complaints, he argued, is actually a bad thing, because you’re just blending in with everyone else and not standing out. Definitely a different way to think about it, where it’s like: “Love me or hate me, you’re gonna see my fucking posts.”
You’ll read a lot of articles that say things like: “Optimal posting frequency per day is A or B number of posts”, but frankly a lot of these articles seem flawed because they might consider something like engagement rates per post, for example. But the counter to that is: Ok, yes, if I post only once or twice per day, engagement per post might be higher — but if I’m posting 10-15 times per day, even if the engagement PER POST is lower, overall I’m still going to encounter way more people who end up encountering my brand and clicking through to the website. I just don’t feel like a lot of these social media analyses factor this into the equation.
Another part of me is also like: Let’s say some people do unfollow because they see a lot of your posts. Wouldn’t 90% of these same people unfollow anyway eventually, if seeing enough of our posts gets them to unfollow? Maybe we’re just speeding up the inevitable here.
Something else you’ll see in these social media analyses is they’ll say things like “Big Company posts X times per day,” or “Influencer X posts Z times per day.” But again, I think this analysis might be kind of flawed, because these companies or huge influencers with millions of followers don’t NEED to post a bunch, because they’re already so massively successful, there’s not really the need to step on the gas pedal like someone who’s brand is very small and just starting out.
And I also see some of these tips like post just once or twice per day, and that to me seems like a recipe to glow at a hilariously glacial pace, just one post per day? Especially with how low engagement rates are on some platforms like Facebook for example, one post per day I feel like will make virtually no dent at all.
At the end of the day I guess the only way to find out what works best in my particular case is try out different approaches, and very carefully measure the data and results from the different approaches.
Maybe one week, I could post 2 times per day, and compare the total number of likes, comments, and follows for that week.
Next week I could post 5 times per day, and again collect the data.
Next week 10 times per day.
Then just look at the data and see, what actually gets me the best results, and is there a point at which posting too frequently actually does become counter-productive?
Because at the end of the day only the data will ever tell you what works best in your case, and I’m always just super skeptical when I read these articles that may rank high on Google, but then I’m like “How do these people *really know* what works best? Who even is this asshole writing this article? Maybe he’s just a dude that wrote a good article that frankly doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about and is not thinking it through all the way.”
Anyway, like I said, I can and do find myself arguing both sides of this, and really struggle to figure out, what’s best? Should I just go all-in, saturation bombing and say fuck the people who unfollow, because I’m reaching way more people anyway by posting aggressively like this? Should I follow this conventional advice of post just once per day, yet always have that lingering doubt in the back of my mind that I could be doing WAY more than this to get WAY better and faster results?
As you can see it’s something I’m really struggling to figure out as I formulate my social media strategy for my business, and I’m wondering how you guys wrestle with these same questions and think about them in your own experience.
Thanks.
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8 Replies
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All new posts need a flair going forward
byu/JonODonovan insocialmedia -
-It doesn’t matter how much I like the brand, I would be annoyed if I see more than 3 posts per day of that account in my feed.
-Quality over quantity, it’s way better to just think about 1-3 posts and make them great than 15 posts that are not useful.
-You will run out of ideas and content faster. -
Quality > quantity
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Quality over quantity! Also, I don’t think FB will show your 2nd/3rd/4th post to as many people as your 1st.
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It really depends on the quality. If you bombard your followers with ads, they will block you. If it is interesting stuff, they will actually want to see it, such as a travel site posting images of various destinations around the world. Many of the influencers with millions of followers only post once or twice a day
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Quality first. You can’t post that much and maintain the quality for a long time.
”Post 10+ times per day” – No. This will definitely make a lot of people unfollow. People get annoyed and lost interest. It’s kinda spammy in a way. I’d unfollow any business that posts that much all the time.
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3 posts a day max is good for an established account. If you’re just starting out, you can get away with 6 or so.
What is being posted also matters. Businesses need to be really careful about not just posting ads. Go by the 80/20 rule – 80% helpful, valuable content that is of interest to the audience and 20% or lower can be ads.
I think it’s annoying when people/businesses just constantly post crap for the sake of posting. TikTokers do this too. They got TikTok famous for doing a certain type of video, then they get famous and paid for it and just start posting crap most of the time.
More important than posting is engagement. It’s better to spend more time engaging with more people in the audience in the comments than spending the time making more posts.
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There isn’t a single person or company that posts 10 x/day and succeeds in social media. I think you may want to consider educating yourself on social media best practices instead of arguing with yourself.
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