A common question that the majority of Instagram users continue to ask is how often should they be posting on Instagram. Later recently analyzed over 81 million feed posts and shared the data via their blog on this topic. Keep reading for our key takeaways.
How often should you post on Instagram in 2021?
The general answer is – the more you post on Instagram every week, the higher your overall reach will end up. And to no surprise, the more you post, the more overall likes and comments you will get. However, according to Later’s blog post, the analytics revealed that reach and engagement rates per feed post are different depending on the number of followers an account has.
Accounts with under 1K followers
Small accounts with fewer than 1,000 followers are typically relying on new audiences to engage with their content through the use of hashtags. This is why both the reach and engagement rate grows the more posts are published. So for this group, the more feed posts published each week, the better the engagement and reach rates will be. The data showed that posting 14 times a week resulted in the highest reach and engagement for this group.
Accounts with 1K-250K followers
While the reach rate for each feed post will increase, the rate of engagement will decline significantly the more you post for accounts with 1K-250K followers. (Note: Later found that the results were the same when they analyzed the numbers in smaller ranges such as 1-10k followers and 10-20k followers, which is why 1-250k is grouped together.) For this group, the data revealed that posting 14-20 times a week will result in the highest reach while posting once a week will result in the highest engagement rate per post.
Accounts with over 250K followers
Mega accounts with over 250K+ followers are most likely relying on their current community to engage with the content they post, which is why posting more on these accounts will result in a significant decrease in engagement. For these accounts, posting once per week will result in the highest reach and engagement per post.
Summary
- If your account has fewer than 1K followers – post 2 times a day (or 14 times a week) for maximum reach and engagement.
- If your account has between 1K-250K followers – posting 14-20 times a week will result in the highest reach while posting only once a week will give you the highest engagement.
- If you run a large account with over 250K followers – post once per week for the highest reach and engagement.
While the data has recommended these posting frequencies, the number of times you post each week should align with the overall social media marketing strategy and the goals of your business or profile. Quality is always better than quantity, and the data shown here should only be a point of reference for how often you should be posting.
Check out our other blog posts on posting frequency:
