Social Media Marketing: Finding the Right Frequency

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If you are interested in putting more energy into social media marketing, setting up your social media pages is a step in the right direction. But that’s not all it takes.

Sooner or later you have to start posting. You have to decide what to post, when to post, and how to post.

But social media is a living, breathing thing. It moves and changes with time. And you have to continue to post in order to remain relevant.

So how do you know how often you should post?

Finding the right posting frequency is something many companies are still struggling with today. But there are things that you can do in order to help determine the right frequency:

  • Frequency depends on the platform. Twitter is not the same as Facebook, and you should treat each network independently of all the others.
  • Frequency depends on your audience. It’s more about what your followers expect from you than what you want.
  • Frequency is as much an art as a science. There is no one size fits all approach.

In general, the more frequently you post, the better. Until it’s not.

And it’s not better when:

  • You’re posting for the sake of posting. You have nothing new or interesting to say so the quality of your posts goes down.
  • You’re posting so much that those following you feel overwhelmed, to the point that they stop following you.

So how do you decide the right frequency?

Here’s a nice all-inclusive guide to read. Use their suggestions as a baseline. Then begin to test more or less, depending on your capacity.

Then measure engagement. If you post more, do you get more followers, more traffic, more comments, etc.? If so, you’re doing something right. If not, scale it back.

Marketing Jobs of the Future

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Maybe you’re just starting out in the marketing field. Perhaps you’re going back to school and you’d like to study marketing. Or maybe you’re young enough that you don’t know what it is you want to do yet, but you’d like to study business.

In general, there is a movement towards specialization in new areas, where companies are looking for experts in very specific types of marketing.

Here are some of the marketing positions that will be in the highest demand in the coming years.

1. Marketing/Data Analyst

    The amount of data on customers and potential customers is growing. Companies find themselves in need of someone on the marketing team that can parse through this data, find important trends, and develop ways to use these trends to improve marketing performance. Skills required include technological know-how, reporting skills, statistics, presentation, and marketing strategy.

    2. Social Media Marketing/Community Manager

      Companies are still figuring out how to get the most out of social media. Many companies for the first time in 2012 had positions with social media in the title. What they are looking for is someone who can get involved at the ground level and build a social media program that gets people excited about and interacting with the brand in new ways, generating strong word of mouth and press. Skills required are a deep understanding of social media, written communication, and creative thinking.

      3. Marketing Development

        More and more marketing teams are looking to hire marketers with design and development experience. In time, this will be a requirement for many marketing positions. This is a cross-over role between IT and marketing, someone who can build tools, apps, and websites with a marketing-first strategy. Skills include graphic design, web development, and marketing strategy.

        4. Conversion Specialist

          Companies are relying more and more on online sales to grow and succeed. At the most granular level, this means converting more website visitors into paying customers. A conversion specialist is someone who can take ownership of this one task and continually analyze and test new ways to increasing the conversion rate online or employing better follow up, such as email or call center services. Skills required are reporting, strategy, ecommerce, and analytics.

          5. Marketing Research

            The need for companies to communicate with consumers is at an all time high. Lucky for them, it’s easier to get feedback from customers than ever before. A marketing researcher is someone who can organize focus groups, conduct surveys, and solicit feedback in many other ways in order to help improve the efficiency of the company’s marketing plan. Skills include communication, reporting and analytics, and marketing strategy.