How Often Should You Post on Instagram in 2024?

How Many Times a Day Should You Post on Instagram

If you have a goal to post twice a day on Instagram, for instance, and you do it once or twice a week but fail the other days, you aren’t setting yourself up for success.

If you want to get more traction on Instagram, stick to your schedule. 

There are a couple different ideas about when and how often you should post on Instagram for best results, so we’re going to examine those topics in our article here to give you some clarity on those points. 

Is there a magic number? Not necessarily, and it may be different for everyone.

There are a couple studies out there that can help us understand how posting frequency affects our engagements and followers and what some best practices should be. 

Let’s take a look! 

Why Posting Often on Instagram Matters 

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So how often should you be posting on Instagram?

Well, when you post more frequently, your content will get more likes and it will begin to be shown at the top of your followers’ news feeds and even has the potential to make it into the hashtag feed “top” section if it has enough engagement and popularity. 

When you post more frequently, your posts will get seen more, and you will then have higher levels of engagement.

You want to always give your Instagram followers posts so that they see you’re serious and reliable. 

If your followers know you typically post new content every day, they’re going to be looking for it.

If you don’t deliver, they’ll get disappointed, and if it’s a continuous thing, they’re likely to unfollow you altogether. 

The Instagram algorithm is based on engagement, so the more people you get to interact with your comments through likes, comments, shares, etc.

The more frequently your content will be shared and suggested to others, helping you gain more real followers. 

How Often Should You Post on Instagram? 

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If you’re not posting at least once a day, your account seems like it’s not very active, so it’s recommended that you post at the bare minimum one time per day.

That way you’re always getting new content out to your followers and new viewers and you have an established content base that people can enjoy. 

In addition to that, the Instagram algorithm doesn’t show posts in chronological fashion, meaning that posts can pop up whenever from within the span of 72 hours, but most typically 48 hours. 

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When you post around the same time and your followers are online when it posts, you are going to get more initial engagement because as soon as they refresh that feed it’s going to send it to them so they can check it out.

The more you can get this to happen, the better your Instagram performance will be and the more natural followers you’ll gain over time. 

Here are some things to consider when thinking about how frequently to post. 

Quality over Quantity 

It’s true that posting more frequently can help your performance, but that doesn’t mean that you should post just anything in order to get something up.

You’ve got to make sure your posts are valuable and interesting to your followers, or you’re going to lose them. 

Give yourself time to create valuable content and have realistic goals. If you want to post 3 times a day, that’s 21 pieces of content minimum that you’re going to need per week just for posts.

If you don’t think that’s doable for you while still providing high quality, set something more realistic for yourself. 

Know and Ask Your Followers 

There is no better way to know how frequently to post than to understand your target audience and even ask them directly! Instagram stories is a great way to post a poll and see what your followers have to say about it. 

It’s great because not only are you giving them what they’re specifically asking for, but they feel like part of the community and they are being recognized. 

Higher Frequency = Higher Engagement? 

Follower-Likes

Some people post even more than the normal 1-2 times per day, getting anywhere up to 6 times, and even 30 times! 

What does that mean? 

Well, it means that there isn’t necessarily one right answer as to what works.

Ask your followers so that you know exactly what they want and you can better meet their needs. That way they’re ready to engage and happy to be a part of it. 

Just because you post 30 times doesn’t mean you’ll get more engagement.

In fact, it might jam your algorithm performance and you’ll end up getting hardly any visibility. It all depends on your specific account and your followers’ needs. 

Daily Average Instagram Posts 

When considering business accounts, the standard number of daily Instagram posts comes out to 1.5; not one per day, but not quite two. So that means maybe one day you post only one, and one day you post only two. 

For businesses, two is the magic number, as one is considered low and three is considered high.

That doesn’t mean you can’t change it up every now and again, but keep in mind that two times a day is probably enough. 

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The goal is to make your content irresistible and very engaging so that your followers always find value in the content you upload.

You don’t want to be caught spamming your followers with so  many posts they don’t know what to do with. 

There can actually be negative results when you do this, and we’re going to see what exactly those damages might be. 

Can I Post Too Much on Instagram?

Instagram-Posts

Yes, you can actually post too much on Instagram. If you do, you may have some posts hidden by the algorithm which can cause confusion if a user goes to your account and feels like they’re  missed out on a bunch of content. 

Ultimately, it’s up to you how many times you want to post a day, but keep in mind that if your followers start to see their news feed filling up with what feels like 300 posts from you on a daily basis, they may be inclined to follow you, especially if every single post isn’t awesome. 

Make sure you choose a number that’s reasonable and desirable for your followers so that you can meet their needs and stay at a healthy, consistent number. 

Posting for Special Events 

When you have a special event coming, however, you can bend the posting numbers a bit and give your followers a little more information.

Even though you’re posting a bit more frequently than the norm, you can make sure followers remain happy by keeping them informed about what’s upcoming as well as providing interesting content that’s still valuable to them. 

If the launch or event is particularly exciting, you may even consider running some kind of giveaway to keep the hype going and get yourself even more traction. 

Wrap Up: Posting Frequency on Instagram 

While there’s not one sole answer for how often you should post on Instagram, the general consensus is that 1.5-2 times per day is a good amount, and you can add in a bit more when something special is going on. 

What you really want to do is find out when your audience is most active on Instagram and adhere to those posting times.

That way you’ll not only get your content out to new people via hashtags, but you’ll also get likes right when your posts come out from your followers, which boosts your engagement and content success. 

If you’re still not sure, do a few tests and record the results (likes, shares, new followers gained after posting, etc) so that you know which was the most valuable. 

Charlie has been building WordPress themes, reviewing web hosts and utilizing social media since their respective inceptions.

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