Making social-media engagement count

“Less is more” can be applied to many things in life, like design choices and makeup. I personally apply this to exercise, but only to make me feel better about how much I (don’t) work out. Another place this phrase applies is in social-media strategy, especially when it comes to Facebook posts. Despite what most people seem to believe, a higher frequency in posting does not equal more engagement. Socialbakers discovered that posting more than once a week was too low, but posting more than twice a day was too much. Their 2011 study found that five to 10 posts per week is the optimal frequency. Any more than that and you risk annoying your fans. In 2012 Track Social found that there’s a drop in engagement when posting more than once daily. “When a brand posts twice a day, those posts only receive 57 percent of the likes and 78 percent of the comments per post [compared with how one post per day performs],” the report found. “The drop-off continues as more posts are made in the day.” It’s better to concentrate on creating fewer, stronger posts than bombarding your fans with the same posts and messages over and over again, just hoping they’ll hit that like, comment or share button. With the new algorithm and drastic decline in organic reach on Facebook, many companies are experimenting with boosting posts. Your marketing budget will go much further if you can divide that money between four really strong posts as opposed to 14. Taco Bell only posts a couple times a week, and its content is very strong.  With 10 million fans, Taco Bell has an average of 5,000 likes per post, whereas McDonald’s, which has 32 million fans and has recently started posting almost daily, gets about 1,500 likes per post. Alexandra Skey of getspokal.com agrees: “Posting one to four times a week produces 71 percent higher engagement than five or more posts in a week.” So remember, when you’re planning your social calendar, one quality post will beat five average posts every time.