What’s the best social media posting schedule?
Most people way overthink this part of social media. They finally discover the value of organic social, but become completely paralyzed after that.
“I heard it’s best to post in the morning. Is that true?”
“Should I post every day, once a week, fifteen times a day?”
“What about crossposting?”
Tough questions, but don’t worry - it’ll be okay.
Let’s walk through how to create a great posting schedule.
Consistency > quality
Building an audience is a long game. You can’t expect to go viral with millions of followers overnight. And you shouldn’t want this, either - the audience that follows you off a viral meme might not be the audience who wants to buy what you’re selling.
If you’re super worried about quality, you’re not going to ship as quickly. This is demonstrably true.
Now, it could be that quality drops if you’re posting about 15 different things. To make this easy, focus on 1-2 subjects to post about at first.
If you keep the focus narrow, your quality will stay high because you’re not context switching as much.
Think of it like an MVP - you don’t want your MVP to do 15 shitty things, you want it to do 1-2 things extremely well.
The hierarchy of leverage in social posting
Replying and commenting > reposting with comment > posting on your profile > not posting at all.
I don’t want to overstate this, but I don’t think I could do that if I tried. It is much harder to grow on social media without understanding this.
The highest leverage thing you can be doing, to grow your account the fastest, is engaging with whoever your content ICP is.
If you want to grow leads for your business, engage with your business’ ICP on socials. If you want to grow your account, engage with other popular accounts and get eyes, fast.
The more you engage personally with others, the more they’ll reciprocate. No one wants to talk to a wall. They want human connection.
Pick a schedule that makes sense for you
“Just start posting” is, let’s be honest, terrible advice. On the surface, at least. There’s no direction, just a distant goal.
So let’s make it concrete.
Pick one of these two things, ideally both.
Schedule a week’s worth of posts all at once using a social tool like Buffer.
Spend 20-30 minutes each day (ideally in the morning) engaging with other accounts.
If I had to pick one, I’d do the second one. Yes, it’s more difficult.
That’s the point!
Post when your audience is most active
One of the first things you should decide is when your ICP is most likely to be active. This comes down to time zone almost always - if you’re selling to YC-backed founders, you’ll be targeting the west coast.
This is something your scheduling tool should be able to help with. I generally recommend posting in the 9AM-11AM timeframe, wherever your ICP is most located.
Some scheduling tools find that different days have different active times, like afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These slots are fine too.
Aim for these numbers on each platform
There is no penalty for commenting on LinkedIn posts. You will not get lower reach on your own profile if you comment consistently.
For your own profile’s posts, I would not do more than 2x / day. Space them out as one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and you’ll be fine.
Ideal range is 2x-5x per week.
If you care more about one post, put it in the morning, between 9AM-10AM, in the time zone where your ICP lives.
X/Twitter
Twitter doesn’t penalize post reach, no matter how many times you post.
Retweets / reposts are different - use those sparingly.
A minimum of one post a day is table stakes. Shoot for 2-3, and understand that 5-6 is what you’ll need to really grow.
That’s not just original posts, though. 2-3 of your own posts and engaging on 2-3 other posts if fine, and counts.
Don’t keep the bar super high at the beginning
“This take isn’t interesting”
“I have to be super original”
“No one will read a four-sentence post, I need to make this four paragraphs”
Trust me, you are overthinking this.
Remember how I said consistency beats quality? Your goal is to establish the habit first, and find the content bar second. Spending all your time on quality is great if you’re writing a novel, but terrible for establishing a habit.
And it’s not just me saying this - great writers like Sam Parr stress that your first draft should be terrible. Quantity beats quality at the start, and in creating a habit. So take their advice.
Here’s an example posting schedule
Monday - meme
Tuesday - post about something you’ve been doing at work
Wednesday - engage with others
Thursday - meme
Friday - industry commentary
Saturday - engage with others
Sunday - post about something you’re struggling with lately
You can mix and match these however you’d like.
Notice how engagement with other accounts is totally fine.
Again, you just need to keep getting shots up and getting your name out there.
Reach out to us if you’re still worried.
We’re here to help.
