Why Science Supports Posting Every Day on Social Media
Frequency is Crucial to Building Relationships, According to Psychological Research
The Importance of Showing Up
Social media is inherently “social,” a fact that many professionals seem to forget. That means that social rules still apply. Giving more than taking. And showing up when you’re needed.
So when it comes to creating a successful social media strategy, posting every single day makes a ton of sense. Not only are you being present for your audience, and thus staying top of mind – you’re also building a healthy relationship.
“But every day is too much!” I can hear some of you say. And, yes, that might be too much for your audience.
But I doubt it.
I’ve worked with over 200 clients in industries like rollercoasters, real estate title insurance, and restaurants. And I’ve found that if you’re posting engaging, interesting content, your audience will love you – no matter the industry.
(Plus, unless you’re “boosting” every single post, only a small segment of your audience will see your messages on any given day.)
The problem comes when you’re pushing out your sales message – rather than asking questions and listening to what your audience wants.
There’s a quick and easy solution for that, but first we’ll get into the research. The reason why this works.
Relationships Require Reliability and Frequency
Frequency plays a role in relationships, from off-line friendships to that colleague you only see on Zoom. If you want to go down a social psychology rabbit-hole, Google the “Friendship Formula” (Friendship = Proximity x (Frequency + Duration) x Intensity).
Thus, showing up frequently on social is an important factor in building a relationship with your audience.
For many channels, this means daily social media posting: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram certainly. 3 or 4 times a week works well with LinkedIn.
BIG DISCLAIMER: Posting crappy content is never worth it. If you have to choose between posting something crappy for the sake of posting or posting nothing, choose nothing. I’ll go into how to ensure your content is high-quality.
Posting Daily Cuts Ad Costs By 20% to 30%
Getting away from the theory for a bit, let’s look at what daily posting means on Facebook for example. In April, I told one of my clients to post daily on Facebook as a test, based on some initial data I was seeing in the industry. (Previously, I had been saying post 2 - 3 times per week on FB.)
Lo and behold, their Facebook Ad costs dropped by 30%, specifically their costs-per-click or CPCs. (I was managing their ads before and during the test.)
Weird, but okay. The data doesn’t lie.
So I tried it for 3 other clients. Their CPCs dropped by 20 - 25% each.
A spark of an idea was born in my little ol’ head, but I wanted more data. More, more, more!
So, does other industry research agree? Yup!
I checked out the following research, linked here in case you’re looking for a deeper dive. (Almost all of them support my conclusions, but I want you to be able to make up your own mind.)
HubSpot, 2020 DowSocial, 2018 CoSchedule, 2017 Adobe, 2016 Spokal, 2014 SocialBakers, 2011
Sending Out the Social Bat Signal
Since then, I’ve been recommending daily posting on most social channels. So, how do you make sure this works for your profiles?
Run your numbers from the last 2 to 3 weeks
Post daily content for the next 2 to 3 weeks
Run your new numbers
Compare and contrast
It’s ridiculously simple to test.
And if daily posting somehow doesn’t work for your audience, you won’t annoy them too much with just a few weeks of extra content.
But showing up every day can be hard. What do you post if it’s not constant product promos?
How do create solid social posts without wasting hours and hours on scouring the internet for content?
Or writing a bajillion tweets that end up on the virtual cutting room floor?
The Shortcut to Creating Daily Content in 5 Minutes (or Less)
For maybe 6 months, I managed content creation for 32 clients at one time. It was a terrible agency experience, but it taught me something valuable.
I developed a way to generate posts within 5 minutes.
I mean, I had to. Otherwise, I’d have worked way more than 60 hours a week.
The super secret magic sauce?
The key was having a ready-made list of content ideas for any industry close at hand. But as I said above, you have to make sure that the content you’re posting is valuable.
So how do you post great content?
Well, no one wants to hear this….but practice is crucial (which daily posting helps you with).
Analyzing your audience’s reaction is also critical – that’s why you should test daily posting and then run your numbers.
Following a plan also helps.
So I created a calendar of over a year’s worth of ideas that I can pull up whenever I’m feeling blocked.
(And you can have it too, for less than the cost of a New York pizza pie.)
Time for a Shameless Plug!
Check out the Time Saver’s Social System Only $37 for a limited time
To get you started, I created a calendar of 365 social media ideas, video-training, and the social media strategy template I still use for small businesses and Fortune 500s alike.
For your convenience, the calendar is available in both a spreadsheet and a list.
Plus, if you buy today, I’m offering:
31 days of blog post topics
31 days of email newsletter topics
and a FREE strategy call with yours truly to get everything set up.
That’s 427 ideas for posts – less than $0.09 per post.
Check it out, and let me know what you think!