Social media posting frequency: Is there a secret to success?
Sometimes Internet and Social Media Rumors are True
Starting about a month ago, I saw a ton of social media posts going around that said, “this is the ‘secret’ formula to posting on Instagram.”
Shortly after, I saw a bunch of discussion going around within one of the groups of women entrepreneurs that I am a part of. This article from the NY Times was getting a ton of notice, discussion, and even consternation.
In the article, the NY Times interviews a woman named Rachel Reichenbach, an artist who shares her art and cartoons with her 78,000 followers on her successful Instagram account. She tells the NY Times that that one day, she got an email from someone at Instagram HQ, offering to get lunch and discuss how she can continue to grow her account.
At lunch, the person (who is not named in the article) gave her guidelines for posting – frequency and type of posts. The list is here (see image below).
Ideal Instagram posting frequency (per NYTimes article 1/28/21)
There’s a lot to unpack here.
We’re not going to lie. We read this article and had a mini-moment of panic. Our initial thoughts:
This is a lot of content for anyone to create – even someone who is a full-time “Content Creator” who doesn’t have a full-time business with clients, customers and employees to serve every day
Creating Reels and IGTV content can be really time-consuming. Even though a Reel is only :30 long max, each Reel can take anywhere from 15 minutes to HOURS to create. An IGTV video can be anywhere from 15 seconds to 60 minutes long, so you can see how all of this time can really add up each week.
Most businesses have presences on Instagram, yes, but also Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and/or Tik Tok too. If you’re trying to upload content natively to each platform, this is getting plain out of hand.
So what’s a content marketer to do?
In addition, I follow Adam Mosseri, the Head of Instagram (@mosseri). He recently posted a video about content creation on Instagram and said, in no uncertain terms, that Instagram will not promote content that features another social media platform’s logo in their algorithm. AKA, if you post content that shows the Tik Tok logo, it will not get shown to new audiences, be featured within Reels, or be featured on the Explore page.
Reading between the lines, what Instagram is saying is that they want their creators to focus on them, and will punish content that bears another platform’s logo. (Ahem, Tik Tok.)
“Instagram is publicly and unapologetically acting like that friend from your childhood who doesn’t want you to play with your other friends, Tik Tok, LinkedIn and Twitter.”
So what’s a content creator to do?
Most of us business owners use multiple social media platforms. If we create content for multiple platforms that is unique or exclusive to each platform, there would be little time to do much else.
As someone who truly enjoys writing the Kafen8 weekly blog – should I throw the blog out the window and just focus on Instagram content creation?
The answer is no. I will play with all of my friends – LinkedIn, Tik Tok, and of course Instagram.
At Kafen8, we have found some ways to make it work – see below.
How to feed the insatiable media beast while retaining some sanity
Create video mindfully and plan ahead. Which platform is your priority platform? Plan for that platform. What can you repurpose or cut into smaller cuts? What day of the week tends to be slowest for your business? Can you carve out a couple of hours a week to “batch” your content on that day?
Upload video natively to each platform. For example, if you do a quick tips video that you plan to post across multiple platforms, be sure to download it and then upload it to each platform you use. For example, create a video. Add subtitles, (we love Zubtitle at Kafen8) and then upload to each platform. Note: Things change, and it used to be that if you have a YouTube video, you could share the link on your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. This is no longer true. Now, you’ll get better traction by uploading the video natively to each social media account. PS - If you want to try out Zubtitle - you can get it at a discounted rate if you use our referral code. Type in code OAO891 at checkout - and we get a month at half price too.
If you’re a Tik Tok creator, create content as usual inside Tik Tok. When you download your video to post on other platforms like Instagram, use an app like Video Eraser to remove the watermark so that the Tik Tok logo is no longer visible in your content.
If you’re looking to grow within Instagram, pay attention as they launch new features and use them! Use all the “surfaces” of Instagram (IGTV, Reels, Feed and Stories).
Try to stay consistent – the algorithms all reward creators for consistently creating and sharing new content.
Don’t sweat the numbers too much. Meaning, don’t take the frequency guidelines too seriously. However, do sweat the consistency.
Use scheduling software to pre-schedule content. At Kafen8, we love Cloud Campaign, for many reasons we won’t go into detail here because we have in other places on the blog. Hootsuite, Later, and Buffer are great tools too. You can even use Facebook Creator Studio to pre-schedule your Instagram and Facebook posts – for free.
Keep Calm and Create On
Content creation is supposed to be fun. Remember that, and you can’t go too wrong.
If it feels too much like a job, you can always outsource it. Give us a shout if you need a hand.
