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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
