What’s Your Social Media Sweet Spot?

Not sure when or how it happened but I somehow ended up in my parent’s living room charged with the challenge of getting my 75 year old mother social media savvy.

She has a book to promote. And I want to remain a part of the family.  

**Enter selfish plug on behalf of my mama here: PRAYERS FROM THE HEART is available for purchase. 

But of course my mother had questions.

“How often should I post? AND when is the best time to post?”  She asked while continuing to stare at the computer with a look on her face that was a mix of bewilderment and frustration. "This is confusing."

My mom is not alone in her confusion. 

“How often should I Post? AND when is the best time to post?” are the two questions I get most when I am speaking or conducting a workshop on social media.

And they are great questions because bottom line, if you want to gain global visibility through developing your platform then the frequency and timing of your posts are extremely important.

Unfortunately – there is no one answer that will work for everyone. 

Everyone and every brand is different and should therefore have a different audience and strategy.

What I can do is offer are some simple guidelines that will help you structure your content plan and discover your social media sweet spot.

To make it even simpler, we are only going to focus on Twitter, Facebook and Blogging.  Note that all frequencies are DAILY recommendations, for 7 days per week:

TWITTER:

• Frequency:  24 – 40 posts
• 1/2 of these posts should be content posts (very few of these should pitch your projects), ¼ should be personal posts (check-ins, funny comments or pictures) and ¼ should be RT’s or comments.
• The highest percentage of retweets occurs around 5PM EST, while the highest CTR (click through rate) occurs between noon and 6PM EST. You may want to time your most important post in that timeframe.

FACEBOOK FANPAGE:

•  Frequency: 1-2 content posts

FACEBOOK PERSONAL PROFILE:

• Frequency: 4 – 8 posts
• 1/4 should be content (very few of these should pitch your projects), ¼ personal (check-ins, funny comments or pictures) and ½ should be likes or comments on other people’s content.
• Most Facebook shares occur on Saturday. These shares tend to spike around noon, and a little after 7PM.

BLOGGING:

• Frequency: 3-5 times per week.
• The highest percentage of users read blogs in the morning, a higher percentage of men read
• blogs in the evening and at night, the average blog gets the most traffic on Monday around 11am Eastern Time and the average blog gets the most comments on Saturday.

It may seem scary or even undoable. So don’t make it an all or nothing goal. 

Whether you begin with one platform and master that goal before moving on to the next or begin slowly increasing your visibility on all three, the key is getting started. Set your targets you can hit, reward yourself when you do, and then increase your challenge. 

A social accountability partner might be what you need to remind you to stay on track.

Before you know it, posing will become second nature, your fans, friends and followers will increase and they will make YOU a daily part of their social media regiment.  

Sweet.

Now share your thoughts on frequency? Do you feel it's too much? Not enough? How often do you post on a daily basis?