How often should a small business in the U.S post on social media?
2021-07-16
75% of fist-time online consumers in the U.S plan to continue to use digital post-COVIDPhoto: Magnet.me
I don’t think that, in the past five years, one single week has gone by without someone asking me the age-old social media question: How often should a small business post on social media? I even get this same question on the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve or just before offices break for long bank holiday weekends such as July 4th and Thanksgiving – which I always found to be a bit odd because, if your holiday calendar isn’t ready to go live during a festive season, something is terribly wrong with your content strategy – or lack of it.
There is also a mistake being made if you think that you can find an optimal content frequency for your business by randomly asking how everyone else is doing it.
I know that you might be trying to find a pattern, a parameter. However, let’s be honest here, there is no magic formula nor cakelike recipe because your business, big or small, is unique. The area you are based, within the country, is unique, too. Therefore, how often you should be dropping new or re-purposed content on your digital platforms shouldn’t be based on a simple equation. Additionally, there are a few factors you will have to consider before even considering consistently posting about the latest developments in your business, no matter if you are in rough-and-tumble New York, or pacific Whiteville, North Carolina.
One of the fundamental questions which are frequently overlooked when establishing a content strategy is: am I going to be able to keep up with this flow of posting, this many times per week, on that many social media platforms? This question should be immediately followed by a second very important question that is often neglected: ‘will I be able to engage back, within a reasonable time, to those asking questions as comments under my posts? – because, no matter how much effort and money you put into your strategy and the creation of your content, if you post and then forget about it the subsequent one-way conversation will get you nowhere. Equally, taking weeks or months to reply to comments is unlikely to keep your followers engaged with the brand you are attempting to establish.
Don’t be discouraged, though.
The absence of a magical answer to one of the most asked questions, when it comes to posting content as a small business, doesn’t mean that you can’t use tried and tested steps to help you find the optimal approach for your business. Doing so will help you establish the amount of content required for your own business, will save you valuable time, and will steer you in the right direction towards making the most of your digital channels.
Consider SEO performance
“Local and small business owners are wearing many hats, including CEO, COO, and of course CMO. When it comes to how often a company should be posting on social media, we have to remember that the name of the game for social media marketing is attention. Find your best performing platform and create content with a thorough SEO strategy. The platform your business has an SEO advantage on should be the first one you consider when posting new content. From there, you can re-purpose content to help extend the life of your content.”
Jennifer Sargeant – Digital Marketing Professional at www.digitalsargeant.com
Put more effort into fewer platforms
“As a small startup with limited resources we try to focus on fewer platforms, but then put more time and effort into them. And, as each social media platform have algorithms in place which focus on engagement, messages that engage an audience to have a higher chance of getting seen than messages that most people ignore. So, focusing on crafting more engaging posts will make a difference.”
Focus on the social channel you have higher interactions with
“For small businesses posting on social media can be quite daunting, as it can often spiral into feeling like you have to spend every hour of the day updating it. My advice is to keep focused on one channel, particularly the one where you have the most interaction, and emphasize conversion to sales/website visits – use a programming tool like hootsuite.com where you can schedule some posts weekly. As your business grows, constantly check back to see where demand is, and you can decide whether opening up extra accounts on different platforms will be beneficial for you. At the start, though, show your growing audience that you are interactive on one platform, as opposed to ignoring them because you have too many different channels to manage.”
Digital acceleration: 75% of fist-time online consumers in the U.S plan to continue to use digital post-COVID
Source:Mckinsey & Company Covid-19 Digital sentiments insights: Survey results for the U.S market April 25-28, 2020.
Planning your weekly content will help your consistency
“It is always better to set aside an hour and schedule posts for a week, rather than being distracted by content every day. Small businesses should post at least 2-3 posts per week and also make 5-6 stories; you can schedule them using tools like Later, Preview, or Planoly. That consistency of posting content will play a hugely important role within your social media strategy.”
“If you are a small business and only have limited time available to dedicate to social media, then I recommend posting at least once a week on each platform. It will be enough to, at least, let your customers know you are an active business and available to talk to. Plus, this will let the Google crawlers know you update your socials regularly.”
Louis Watton – Marketing Executive at www.shiply.com
Smarter content creation helps you to post more
“Building a presence on social media develops credibility for your business. If you don’t have a lot of time or resources to create content, focus your efforts on a piece of content that will give you multiple options of usage across different platforms. We, as a company, look at YouTube as a content hub, as we can use the scripts from our videos as a copy and paste blog article. We also embed YouTube videos into our website to drive traffic and complement our SEO strategy.”
Shawn Breyer – Founder Atlanta House Buyers
Work in blocks
“The best way to maximize your time is to work in blocks. Hire a photographer to take a lot of pictures and save them so that you can create personalized content, on your own schedule, using an app that allows you to add text and your logo. Make sure that you are on-target with your brand personality and messaging while posting the recommended 3-5 times a week on Instagram and Twitter. Other platforms may differ in frequency. However, across all platforms you use for your business, avoid being overly salesy, and have your call to action in mind before creating the content”.
“Prior to Covid, we posted a bit more frequently on social media platforms like Twitter — three or more times a day. Now, we keep the posts to two a day and on topics that pertain to small businesses as they deal with the impact of coronavirus and work to rebuild their companies. I don’t think there are a right or wrong amount of posts a small business should share on social media. However, at the present time, I think it’s perfectly fine to scale back a bit and stick to sharing relevant content.”
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