How Often Should You Post on Instagram
What’s the biggest question you have about leveraging Instagram to market your business?
Sure, maybe you’re trying to figure out how to take better photos. Or, perhaps you’re wondering what hashtags you should be using. Heck, maybe you’re still trying to wrap your arms around what hashtags even are.
Those are all great questions. But, if you’re like most people, this particular inquiry has probably popped into your brain a time or two: How many times per day should you post on Instagram?
We get it—knowing how often to post on Instagram can be tough, especially when there’s so much (often contradictory!) advice out there.
Here’s the deal: There’s not one blanket answer that works across the board. How frequently you should be posting can vary based on things like:
- Your business
- Your audience
- Your goals
- And so, so much more
But, let’s face it—you came here for an answer. So, let’s roll up our sleeves, dig into some research and some examples of successful accounts, and see if we can widdle things down to a more concrete, helpful resolution to this oh-so-common Instagram Inquiry.
How Many Times to Post on Instagram: What the Experts Say
If you’ve researched this question before, you’ve likely come across some advice and statistics from various experts that provide a very clear answer to exactly how often you should be posting.
An infographic from Adobe Spark asserts that you should be posting at least one (and all the way up to 10!) photos each day. A post for the SumAll blog says that two photos per day is the magic number.
And then there are other experts, like Neil Patel in an article for Forbes, who state that, “Unlike Facebook and Twitter, posting frequency is not all that important for your Instagram marketing.”
Are you scratching your head? We certainly can’t blame you. All of these different digits and pieces of advice are enough to make you cross-eyed.
Even after wading your way through all of those tips and best practices, you’re still left wondering: Exactly how many times a day should I post on Instagram?
Instagram Posting Frequency: There’s Not One Right Answer
Like we said earlier, there’s not one magic bullet answer that is guaranteed to work for everybody. A posting frequency that works well for you might be totally different from the posting frequency that the business around the corner relies on—and that’s OK.
There are brands who have been successful posting once every couple of days, and there are others who have experienced great engagement posting 12 times per day. It all depends.
So, now what?
The first thing you need to do when determining how often you should be posting to Instagram is to return to your goals. Why did you start using Instagram as a marketing channel to begin with?
Was your main goal to grow your following and increase your brand awareness? Well, then it’s probably smarter to stick to the higher end of the recommended posting frequency. After all, the more content you put out there, the better your chances of getting even more eyeballs.
But, if your objective was to really strategically promote a specific product? That might not require that same avalanche of posts—you’d be better posting one or two highly strategic photos per week instead.
Are you seeing how much your goals play a role in exactly what you do on Instagram? That’s the touchpoint you should always be returning to before making any changes to your strategy.
There’s another important point that we couldn’t go without mentioning: consistency, consistency, consistency.
Like marketing expert, Neil Patel, mentioned in that article for Forbes that we linked above, it might not be posting frequency that carries a lot of weight on Instagram. In contrast, your success might be closely tied to your consistency.
“If you make a habit of posting several times a day and then transition to only a few times a week, you will start to lose followers and generate less engagement per post,” explains Patel in that Forbes article.
The opposite is true as well. If you’ve gotten your followers into the habit of only seeing your content a couple of times each week, they can easily feel spammed when you start overwhelming their feeds. That could also cause you to lose followers.
So, while posting frequency is important, don’t become so wrapped up with that single number that it’s all you focus on. As Patel explains, “This means that the best posting frequency for Instagram is the posting frequency that you can consistently maintain for the rest of your natural life.”
Your own bandwidth and capabilities are something you need to seriously consider when figuring out your strategy moving forward.
How Often to Post: A Look at 8 Different Brands and Businesses
Alright, now that we’ve laid the groundwork, let’s dig into some specific examples, shall we?
As we mentioned previously, the best posting frequency can vary depending on a lot of factors.
Below, we’ve broken down Instagram accounts in various industries to share their follower count, estimated posting frequency, and why we think what they’re doing works so well.
Example #1: Local Business
Account: Tempest Coffee Collective
Follower Count: 2,322
Posting Frequency: 2-3 times per week
What They Do Well: Compared to many accounts out there, Tempest’s posting frequency is on the lower end. It makes sense—they’re a small, local coffee shop who probably doesn’t have the same resources and dedicated social media team as a large brand.
However, they still do a stellar job with their Instagram account. They’ve done a great job cultivating a cohesive aesthetic (featuring many drool-worthy photos of coffee and pastries) and using witty captions to engage followers. Despite their follower count not being huge, they have great engagement—with numerous likes and comments on nearly every post.
Example #2: Retail
Account: Staples
Follower Count: 55,300
Posting Frequency: 1 post every two weeks
What They Do Well: For such a large brand, you’d assume that Staples would be posting to Instagram numerous times per day. However, the company actually keeps things pretty spread out—only posting once every couple of weeks.
There are some stretches where they’ll post a related series of three videos or images all within the same day. But, after doing so, they seem to return to their more spaced out posting schedule. Despite being on the lower end of the spectrum, it works well for them.
You wouldn’t necessarily think that office supplies would make for exciting Instagram content. But, Staples knocks things out of the park by using fun and colorful animations and leaning on quirky holidays (like National Paperclip Day, for example) to generate excitement around their brand.
Example #3: Software
Account: Evernote
Follower Count: 46,600
Posting Frequency: 1-2 times per week
What They Do Well: Evernote is a brand that many people know and love. Surprisingly, they don’t have a super consistent posting schedule. But, despite that, they still see awesome engagement with each of their posts.
Much of this is likely credited to their leveraging of user-generated content. Within their bio, they ask users to tag their own photos with Evernote’s hashtag (#EvernoteCommunity). Many of the content that Evernote shares on their own grid is from their users and followers—a great way to consistently share fresh content while also engaging and involving their users.
Example #4: Service
Account: WeWork
Follower Count: 287,000
Posting Frequency: 2-3 times per day
What They Do Well: WeWork is a pretty dominant player in the Instagram landscape—as evidenced by their sizable follower count and frequent posting schedule.
WeWork does a great job of engaging their followers with a consistent amount of posts that keep the brand ever-present and top of mind, without cluttering up their followers feeds.
Most of their content features gorgeous photos of their workspaces across the globe, which makes for posts that are equal parts engaging, appealing, and promotional. That’s a tough line to walk, but WeWork makes it look easy.
Example #5: Entertainment and Travel
Account: Walt Disney World
Follower Count: 6.7 million
Posting Frequency: 2-3 times per week
What They Do Well: When it comes to gorgeous imagery, we all expect a lot from one of the most magical places on earth. And, Disney World definitely doesn’t disappoint.
You might be slightly surprised that the theme park doesn’t post even more frequently on Instagram (considering it’s probably one of the most photographed places on the planet, it’s easy to expect an abundance of photos on the daily).
But, rather than bombarding followers, it’s clear that Walt Disney World takes a much more strategic approach to Instagram posting.
Each and every image is vivid, young at heart, and captures the essence of the brand. And, despite not posting numerous times each day, it’s clear that Walt Disney World is monitoring their own engagement closely. Just take a look—they almost always post on a Friday, which must be a day of high engagement for their own brand.
Example #6: Education
Account: HubSpot
Follower Count: 104,000
Posting Frequency: 1 time per day
What They Do Well: HubSpot is looked to as one of the leading experts on all things marketing, so it only makes sense that their own Instagram account would be top notch.
There are so many things that HubSpot does well, it’s hard to zone in on just a few. Their almost daily posting schedule is predictable for followers and undoubtedly adds to their engagement rates.
HubSpot is also great at encouraging followers to take action. Whether it’s clicking the link in their bio, checking out a recent Instagram story they posted, or even commenting with an answer to a question, HubSpot uses their Instagram captions to quite literally pull engagement out of their followers—rather than crossing their fingers and hoping it happens.
Example #7: Health and Fitness
Account: Fitbit
Follower Count: 560,000
Posting Frequency: 1 time per day
What They Do Well: While occasionally things become a little more spread out, Fitbit is generally good at sticking to a once-per-day posting schedule—which makes things easy and predictable for their followers.
Another thing Fitbit does exceedingly well? It’s obvious that they have a very strategic approach to utilizing Instagram. Much of their recent content promotes their Fitbit Versa specifically (as opposed to any of their other trackers), proving that Instagram is just a piece of the puzzle in the overall marketing strategy for each of their products.
Example #8: Food
Account: Halo Top Creamery
Follower Count: 707,000
Posting Frequency: 6 times per week
What They Do Well: Halo Top is another brand that sticks to an almost daily Instagram posting schedule (something that appears to work well for many different accounts).
Having fostered almost a cult following in recent years, Halo Top does a great job of capturing their bright, airy, and trendy vibe on their Instagram page.
With plenty of witty captions and Instagram giveaways, Halo Top is also skilled at encouraging engagement from its thousands of already-dedicated followers.
Creating Your Own Instagram Posting Schedule
It’s clear that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all digit that answers the age-old, “How often to post on Instagram?” question. It can vary pretty greatly.
In looking at the different examples we touched on above, we think aiming to post about three photos per week is a great place to start—provided that’s something you can handle consistently. Remember, consistency is key on Instagram.
From there, make sure to keep a close eye on your metrics to determine how that number is working out for you and adjust if necessary. That’s another great thing about Instagram—nothing is set in stone.
Read more: Review on Instagram