If you've worked in social marketing at all during the last ten years (and did't have your head in the ground) you've undoubtedly heard this Facebook recommendation:
“Don’t post more than 2-3 times per day.”
I can't tell you how many articles I've read that make this claim and how many consultants I've worked with who live by this recommendation. And to be honest, most of the social marketing programs I've managed and consulted on have adhered to this informal rule. But the times they are changing.
The Danger of Over-Posting
The idea behind setting a 2-3 daily post threshold is simple: If you share a ton of content that doesn't get any fan engagement, the Facebook algorithm will start to reduce your organic reach. Basically, the lower your engagement-per-post, the lower your organic reach will be for future posts.
This is wrong. And it's great news for businesses that are very active on social.
Algorithm-Defined Content Distribution
Organic reach on Facebook is at an all-time low and brands with more "likes" are being hit the hardest (pages with 500,000+ fans reach about 2% of their followers now, ouch). However, understanding the two primary reasons behind the decline in organic reach can help you better combat the factors that are working against you.
Volume: There is more and more content being created every day (check out this insane infographic).
Relevancy: The News Feed has been redesigned to prioritize content that Facebook believes will be most relevant to the user.
So what does this mean for the average Facebook marketer? Here's where it gets interesting...
“510,000 comments are posted every 60 seconds on Facebook.”
Post as Much as You Want (Literally)
Buried deep within the Facebook Journalism Project is an interesting little bit about frequency: Don't worry about over-posting. The goal of News Feed is to show each person the most relevant story so not all of your posts are guaranteed to show in their Feeds.
Definitely counterintuitive to previous recommendations, but the bottom line is that the algorithm-defined distribution now means there’s no way for all of our followers to see our posts.
So increasing post frequency will actually improve your overall reach. Let me say that again: Post as much as you want to increase your organic reach as much as you can.
I'm already testing for some of my clients and will update with results when I can. Give it a try for yourself and let me know how it works out in the comments.
