Having worked with many businesses over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to manage social media alone and with a team. While it’s always nice to have control, in larger organizations where there are many pieces it’s good to have a team contributing so nothing is missed. When working with a team, problems can occur when everyone isn’t on the same page with what is being posted and when. Naturally using a third party app can help with this, because you can see at a glance what has been posted and what will be posted. Also if your business has a plan for content there will be less confusion, because posts will be planned in advance. However there are some situations where you want to share a post from another page, or find something in your daily browsing you want to share immediately. On some platforms it could be a problem if something has been posted 5 or 10 minutes prior. Posting too many times in a day on any platform can turn off followers and have a negative reaction. Here are some tips for team-posting on social media on a few different platforms.
Facebook: I’m starting with the platform a team should be most aware of, because posting too many times in a small time frame can have the algorithm work against you. Think about what you see personally when you scroll through your timeline. At times do you see “Page X made 2 posts”, but you don’t see what either of those posts are? That is the problem. Posting more than one time within an hour or two will cause Facebook to group the posts. No one cares enough to actually go and SEE what those two posts were, they will just keep scrolling down.
If you’re not using a scheduling app such as Hootsuite, or Creator Studio on Facebook (you should be using a scheduling app) the easiest way to keep posts from being too close together is to look at the Page before you post. Was something just posted, or has it been an hour or so? If it’s been within an hour, wait. Either schedule the post to go out at a later time, or save the link to post about it later. Keep in mind on Facebook it is good to keep total posts for each day under 5, and that is on the high end. Three is a good number across the board. The radio station I work with tends to hit 5 or 6 a day, but that’s expected with many hosts using it for their daily shows. That would be too much for your insurance business.
Twitter: There’s a little more leeway with Twitter, because it’s common practice to post many times over the course of a day, sometimes 2 or 3 times within an hour (depending on your business). While you should still refrain from back-to-back posts*, continue to look at the Twitter page and see when posts were made, and decide accordingly if you should post your item at the same time, or wait until another time of day.
*An exception would be if there is a Twitter-chat or an event happening, these are times when heavy-posting is more accepted. I would suggest ending tweets with your initials so followers can see that multiple people are posting. Plus it adds something personal to the mix!
Instagram: This platform is smack in-between Facebook and Twitter. You can post more often than Facebook, and if you’re at an event it’s ok to post more often than normal. On an average day you really don’t want to hit more than one or two posts in an hour, and top out at 7 or 8 posts in a day. Also keep in mind that the algorithm has changed so you won’t see real time posting as often, usually they come through the next day. Stories are another option for real-time posting. Users don’t want to see their feeds clogged up by one account, and if you’re too heavy on the posting they are going to stop following. Again see what has already been posted and when before your post. This is especially important now that you can add multiple accounts to Instagram and easily toggle between them.
With all of these platforms, the main things to know are your business and your audience. Different businesses can get away with different rates of posting. Look at user trends on all platforms, then compare it to when those users are looking at your social media (if you’re not sure how to do this, get in touch!). Reaching out to your audience should be casual, social, and in-real-time, but not overwhelming. Find that balance, and you’ve got it made.
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