Ok, so I’m giving you a caveat, in that this is my advice and may fly in the face of other advice out there. That may seem obvious, but most of the advice out there is just opinions, based on individuals experience, research and experimentation! So here goes…

How often should I post on Instagram?

This post has come about after a conversation with one of my clients about posting on Instagram. It went like this.

Him: ‘I’m struggling to post something on Instagram every day.’

Me: ‘Why do you feel you need to post on Instagram every day?’

Him: ‘I read a blog somewhere about the Instagram algorithm that to get lots of likes and engagement you have to post something every day, otherwise it will affect your results,’

Me: ‘Are you able to think of interesting, engaging content to post every day?’

Him: ‘No, the other day I posted a picture of my computer screen, and I knew it would be rubbish, but I had to post something and no-one liked it.’

Me: ‘Hmmm.’

So, I was inspired to write this, to support all of you out there struggling and trying to keep up with what is perceived as a must do for your business, being on social media every day. In this case Instagram.

So how often should I really post on Instagram every day?

Here’s how the Instagram algorithm works (you could remove the word Instagram here and supplement it for Facebook or even Linkedin),

Your posts will be shown to more people if they get good engagement. So the more likes, share and ‘the holy grail’ of comments you get, the more Instagram will think, ohh this is a good post, let's show it to more people.

So if you create a slightly rubbish post that no-one like Instagram won’t be banding it around its platform. It wants the best of the best!

Quality over Quantity

So it doesn’t make sense to post every day if you cannot create amazing, inspirational, engaging posts every day. What are those ‘shit I have to post something’ posts doing for your brand? Are they really showing how great you are?

Don’t get caught up in the rush

It can be very stressful if you add to all your to do’s – must post on Instagram every day, especially if you’re not feeling it every day.

I post probably on average 3 times a week. https://www.instagram.com/debbiedooodah/ But because my posts (generally!) get good engagement, they each jump around the newsfeed for a good 48 hours, so it seems like I’m there more than I am. People are generally surprised by how little I post on things, they tell me they see me everywhere!

What are other people doing on Instagram?

I wanted to share 2 of my favourite Instagram accounts with you to see what other people are doing to give you some inspiration.

The first is @claireelizabethcakes. Now Claire does post almost every day, but if you check out her feed she has the most amazing content. Fabulous pictures of cakes. Out of this world cakes.

She makes cakes every day, it’s her job! So, she has the most amazing pictures to share. She also has created a fabulous brand identity. When you see one of her posts it unmistakably belongs to her.

Claire has 10.3k followers and her posts average around the 2-300 mark.

@mich.elle.imagery is the other person I wanted to share with you.

Michelle posts around once or twice a week. Her posts are really curated, thought out and photographed beautifully. You definitely know when one of her posts lands in your feed, her brand identity is spot on.

Michelle has 6,422 followers and her posts average around 5-600.

So you can see that it is simply not true that you have to post every day to get a good reach. In fact, it’s kind of bollocks.

Jump yourself off that hamster treadmill. Think about what you’re going to post. Make it relevant for your audience, enjoy the process, think quality over quantity.

And remember stories is the place where you can stick up the less than filtered part of your life!