How Often Should Your Nonprofit Post on Social Media?

“I know our organization needs to be on social media, but how often do we need to post?”

Over 70% of American adults are using social media. And as social media marketing continues to increase in popularity and effectiveness, this is probably a question you’ve asked yourself at some point.

And it may come as no surprise that the answer varies from nonprofit to nonprofit. More importantly, there is no magic number.

However, there are some indicators of what might work best. First thing’s first: Establish your goals and objectives. Then ask yourself these questions to find out your organization’s optimal posting schedule:

1. What is your content creation capacity?

If you don’t have anything useful to share, don’t share anything at all.

Your capacity should be a determining factor in your social media goals. (Learn about strategic goal-setting for your nonprofit’s social media here.) Content creation can be time consuming. It isn’t easy to craft a meaningful story or offer week after week.

Avoid setting yourself up for failure by setting realistic, yet rewarding, goals for your planned giving program’s social media efforts.

Consistency is key. Make your goal attainable and stick to it. A steady flow of engaging posts allows your organization to stay top of mind, as well as be seen as reliable.

Bonus: Social media algorithms prefer pages with a stable output of well-performing posts.

2. What networks are you using?

Not all social media is created equal. 

While it may acceptable to post about the same thing on Twitter 3x per day, the same doesn’t hold true for LinkedIn. Sometimes less is more.

Your organization doesn’t need to be on every network. Select the networks your target audience uses most often. Again, think quality over quantity. It’s better to be consistent on a few social media channels than spread too thin across them all.

How do you know which networks your target audience is on? To see who’s on what, check out some social media stats that matter from Social Media Today, or try Sprout Social’s 2019 social media demographics.

Remember: Too much of a good thing is never a good thing. According to Hubspot, Facebook pages with more than 10,000 followers are the only ones for whom posting more often increases the number of clicks per post. For organizations with less than 10,000 followers, the more often they post to Facebook, the fewer clicks per post they receive.

3. What do your analytics show?

Test, test, test.

Not seeing the results you want? Don’t be afraid to try something different.

There’s no shortage of advice out there on how often and when to post (some even nonprofit-specific). These are generally a great place to start. Dig even deeper by regularly checking your page’s analytics. This will give you a better insight to your audience specifically, opposed to social media users as a whole.

On Instagram: Use the Insights tab of your Instagram business account to gain access to:

• Accounts Reached: “When you tap on this metric, you can see more details on your account’s reach and impressions. You’ll also see insights on your account activity, such as profile visits and website visits.”
• Content Interactions: “When you tap on this metric, you can see a detailed breakdown of your post, story and IGTV video content interactions.”
• Total Followers: “When you tap on this metric, you can learn more about trends across your followers when you have at least 100 followers. These insights include growth (how many followers you’ve gained or lost), top locations of your followers, age range and times they’re most active on Instagram”

On Facebook: Find the similar information (like post reach, clicks, reactions, comments and shares) in the Posts section of your Facebook Insights. This will also show you when the majority of your fans are online—which is a perfect time to post. Try publishing right before peak times so your post is available when your followers are ready to scroll.

On Twitter: In your Twitter Analytics account, navigate to your Tweets tab to find out which tweets are working best. Find the common theme. Is there a certain day (Wednesday) or type of post (photo of a beneficiary) that receive the most engagement?

Take this info and run with it. If your audience is using Facebook the most on Sundays, be sure to share an update on that day. If your Twitter followers seem to love dog pics, try to incorporate more K9s into your feed. And if your Instagram fans are most active at 9 PM, try posting later in the evening.

Let’s socialize. What works for your organization—and what doesn’t?

Thirsty for more social knowledge? Check out our Simple Guide to Improve Your Social Media. Curious about how your planned giving marketing program can best utilize social? Your Digital Marketing Handbook has got you covered.