Posting content to Facebook and Twitter – When, What and How

Josh ChilesJosh Chiles, President, Engaged Social Media Firm — I’m always asked about posting content to Facebook and Twitter. I receive questions like: How many times a week should I post content? When should I post content? What kind of content should I post?

These are all valid questions that should be part of your social media strategy. To answer these questions, we have to separate Facebook and Twitter to give you the best answer.

How many times a week should I post content?

Facebook: Short answer: 4-7 times per week.

Content on Facebook will hang around longer then Twitter. When you post content on Facebook, your Facebook community will see your content on their personal Newsfeed and not your actual page. It’s possible for your community to see your post multiple times. A Facebook user has two different Newsfeed views; one is “Most Recent” and the other is “Top News.”

Engaged! A Social Media FirmWhen a Facebook user is viewing their Newsfeed as most recent, they are viewing posts in real-time. This means every time one of their friends or pages they have “liked” posts content, it will be shown in the order of time. When a Facebook user logs-out and logs back in later, they will be shown their top news. Facebook will pull the posts from the users friends and pages that they engage with the most and display that content in their top news feed. You see why engaging your community is important?

Twitter: Short answer: 3+ timers per day.

Twitter is like being at a large event with conversations happening all around you. When a user logs into Twitter, they see a timeline of tweets made by everyone they are following. This means if a user is reading over their timeline in the morning and you post content in the afternoon, they will not see your content.

Posting multiple times a day on Twitter will help ensure that your content will be seen by your community. But that doesn’t mean post the same content multiple times a day. However, if you have an event coming up that you want to build awareness for, you could post content about the event on Monday morning, Wednesday afternoon and again Saturday evening. Just change up the context of the post.

When should I post content?

Facebook: Short answer: Before 10 am or after 4 pm.

Most engagement on Facebook happens before and after normal business hours. When posting content, you should be aware of the time of day when your Facebook community is online. When you log-on to Facebook later today, check and see how many of your friends are online. Then a few hours later, check again. When there is a peak in users logged-in, you have a greater chance of your content being seen.

On your Facebook business page, do this experiment over the next four weeks. Post a picture with information about a used boat in your inventory three times per week. Make sure you pick a different boat each time and pick different times throughout the day (Here’s one example of a post using Facebook note’s feature). After the four weeks are up, go back through and see what day and what time of day you received the most engagement.

Twitter: Short answer: Evenings, but only during “Social Hour.”

Conversations on Twitter are taking place throughout the day, but they peak in the evenings. Twitter also peaks during times of major events, like on Sunday night when the U.S. attacked and killed Osama bin Laden. Sohaib Athar actually live tweeted the event and didn’t realize he was doing so until the next day. You can read his tweets here.

Why are other conversations on Twitter important to you? If you want to post content about a new boat you just received or an upcoming event, you want to make sure that the Twitterverse (the cyberspace area of Twitter) is in a “social hour” mind set. If not, your message will get lost in your followers’ timelines.

What kind of content should I post?

Facebook: Short answer: Pictures and video.

Pictures and video are the most shared, liked and engaged content you can post. While text is important, the headlines are sometimes the only text users read. 250 million users access Facebook through their mobile devices,  which means pictures and video are easier to see on smaller screens.

The old saying “pictures are worth a thousand words” remains true today. With only 140 characters allowed in a Tweet and 420 in a Facebook update, you’re limited to what you can say. Using pictures and video allow you to connect with your community on a deeper level.

Twitter: Short answer: Headlines and links

With 140 million tweets per day, your message can easily get lost. When posting content to Twitter, use powerful headlines and links to the heart of the story. For example, you have an upcoming event that you want to build awareness for. Write a blog post with all the detail. Post the link to your blog post with a headline to grab your followers attention so they click on the link and visit your blog for all the details.

Creating content, monitoring your social profiles and engaging your online community takes a lot of time and effort if you want to be successful. That’s because you’re building actual relationships with actual people. The more they engage with your content, the more they will see your content which will help grow your community and build stronger relationships. Let me know in the comments how often you post content and what time of day seems to increase your chance of engagement.

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2 Comments

  1. I actually created a tool for this and it’s called ContentAide. It shows you the content on Facebook that gets the most engagement so you can use it for your own efforts. Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on it. Free trial.

    Thanks,
    Cody Barbierri
    Founder
    http://www.contentaide.com

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