UGGh do we really have to post on social media every day though?

The short answer is No!

Often we misinterpret the term "social media consistency" for posting at a specific time, daily. We believe that the moment we break that momentum all hell a guh break loose and mash up the whole plan. When realistically, not even the most experienced among us and the best AI programs can keep up with the requirements of a daily posting schedule that is also optimized and meets key performance objectives.

It is always interesting to see client reactions when I discuss a strategy that did not include daily posting to their main feed. The side-eye stares and pouted lips are not a good look. Only until I explain that the consistency that so many articles on how to grow or make an impact on social media refer to, is the consistency of the quality experience that your audience has when they visit your page; is when they barely start to warm up. This acceptance is short-lived however, as in a moment they will start discussing value for money. I guess businesses interpret value through quantity and not quality?

To test the #StopPostingEveryDay theory, I experimented on my personal Instagram page at the beginning of 2021 to see what makes a good strategy for growing to 10k. Here is how it went:

Posting Strategy-

• For almost 2 weeks I scheduled at least one post for every day.

• For the first week in the experiment, I posted at random times.

• The second week, I reviewed my audience's schedule to see the best time to post and posted minutes before the identified time.

Content-

• My IG profile is specially curated to be a model portfolio for getting commercial and video shoot gigs. This means most of my content is photos of myself and an occasional video here and there to show slight versatility (Still very mild or ordinary content).

• Because I required so many images and I wasn't going anywhere too exciting, I attempted to design content that was not too off-brand for my page but still, just an Iphone camera and a little extra lighting to get the job done.

• I "attempted" to create engaging captions and implement hashtags in my posting regime ( I have to admit, not my favorite thing in the world)

I posted, I waited, and here are the results:

• The more I posted, the less interested I became in creating reasonably good content. I just knew I needed to put out something and if that meant compromising quality, then so be it.

• There is no way to tell, but some of the faces I would normally see interacting with my content seemed to have disappeared. This suggests to me that I was probably muted and unfollowed by many.

• For every new post I made, I received less interaction in all metrics (ie. Lower likes, saves, shares and comments).

• After doing the calculations, engagement with my page did not improve from when I posted once a month.

More than anything, It wasn't fun anymore for anyone involved.

The truth is, people aren't going to forget about you because you missed one day of posting. For goodness sake, if you go 3 days without posting on your main feed, I am positive that they won't miss you. Unless you have a specifically curated content page that requires a daily update (Daily Motivation, News updates, The Lottery) then missing a couple of days will go unnoticeable.

What makes a good social media strategy is posting quality, engaging content that is curated to attract your desired audience, That's it! Unless you have a full marketing team in your back pocket, that can create meaningful content, filled with exciting and relevant copy and is visually on brand; posting daily only waters down the impact of your content and renders your efforts useless.

If you nuh tek talk and you still insist on posting daily, take it to the stories! Your stories do not require nearly as much effort to be perfect or visually on-brand. The key to performing well on social media is engagement. Frequent posts in your stories on any platform that allows it, is most likely to be more beneficial than a watered-down post.

(This does not excuse posting once a month, you're not Beyonce nor Rihanna.)