How often should I post to Instagram?

No doubt if you post to Instagram this question will have popped up very often.

According to Later, who analysed over 81 million posts, the answer might lie in your page size and goals.

They found some interesting results:

• Under 1K followers: 14 times per week brings the highest reach and engagement rates;

• Between 1K-250K followers: 14 or 20 times per week brings the highest reach rate per post, however if you’re looking for maximum engagement once per week is best;

• 250K+ followers: posting only once per week delivers the highest reach rate and engagement rates per post.

Reach rate shows how far your post has travelled, while engagement rate indicates how many of your followers have liked/commented/shared your post.

Instagram’s idea, it seems, is for you to build an audience as quickly as possible with lots of content. 

Then, once you have found an audience, you can be more selective with your posts.

For accounts under 1K’s, 14 posts a week is a lot of content, and let’s be honest, most people would find that level of content creation simply exhausting. 

Our humble advice is to use this as a somewhat loose goal rather than a crippling, anxiety-inducing strategy. 

It might be useful to stockpile content a few weeks in advance so that you have posts to fall back on when life gets in the way.

If you amass enough content you may find yourself reaching that 1K mark relatively quickly. We cover this topic more in detail here.

Most businesses, however, find themselves within the 1K-250K bracket.

If your product takes a long time to create (artist, musician…) then you might benefit more from posting once a week as this will generate more engagement.

However, if you’re keen on staying in the public eye, you may continue at a high pace, potentially sacrificing a few likes and shares from your follower base.

Always bear in mind that this kind of strategy is akin to bigger businesses or those lucky enough to have a social media team. 

It’s also important to remember that, with every post, you are building your portfolio and writing your story!

Overall, quality will always trump quantity, the more consistently you deliver high-quality posts, the better your Instagram will look.

Once you set yourself a time frame, the issue of what to post can loom large.

The question should really be “what do I want to show people?” and this can have some very creative answers.

Follow similar creators, post behind the scenes content, do tutorials. 

Keeping your feed focused is also a great option, i.e. posting only high-quality images of your product so you have a uniform looking grid can be what some followers really love.

Answering this question early can help you tailor your approach and find the followers who are going to stay with you for the long run, a very valuable asset indeed.

If you are still wondering how frequently you should post, definitely give us a shout, we are always happy to help.

Happy posting!