Quantity vs. Quality

Quantity / how much to post.

WHY?

How often you should post in social media varies depending on platform and is continually changing as the world of social media develops. 

In general, the key is to ensure that you post often enough to add value to social media users, but not too often so as to spam users. Get to know your users, discovering who they are, what content they respond most to and what times of the day they are online. 

THE THREE KEYS FOR QUANTITY ARE:

1. REGULARITY

Post often enough to build audience. A rule of thumb would be to post a minimum of a couple of times per week, and generally not more than three times per day. 

2. TIMING 

Post at the best times to effectively engage the users who are your target audience and strategically promote what is needed. For those who are interested, there are many online social media tools that can assist in assessing which posts are most effective and scheduling posts for key times. i.e. Buffer and Hoot Suite. 

Leave a buffer of at least an hour between posts from a single account to ensure that your posts do not dominate a social media user's feed (which can be annoying and is likely to lead to loss of 'followers'). 

3. ENGAGE FREQUENTLY

Rather than posting too often, engage with users around each post by being social on social media. This is easily done by responding to comments and questions, and liking other users' posts. 

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Quality / what to post.

WHY?

Statistics indicate that the quality of social media content is directly related to its effectiveness. In fact, social media content that is of excellent quality and also relevant to its target audience has the potential to transcend geographical boundaries, community and influence users now and in the years to come. Its impact in incalculable. 

THE KEYS FOR QUALITY ARE: 

The old saying 'a picture speaks a thousand words' has never been truer than now, in our current context of social media where images are easily showcased and language barriers overcome. Of course, the power of an image has the potential to go both ways. 

3 QUESTIONS THAT CAN BE USEFUL TO ASK WHEN POSTING IMAGES ARE: 

1. What do you want this image to say?
2. What does this image say? 
3. If this image was the only message that was being received, would it be communicating everything you want it to say? 

Sometimes the direct message conveyed by an image might be in conflict with its indirect message. 

A photo of a happy young couple advertising a marriage counsellor might have a direct message that says: 'Counselling will help you build a happy marriage.'

However, if the image's quality is poor or obviously dated, the indirect message may conflict with the direct message and say: 'This marriage counselling service is of poor quality/out-dated.' 

For this reason, it is useful to ask ourselves these 3 questions: 

1. What is the direct message of this image? 
2. Does this conflict with the indirect message of this image? 
3. Is this message an effective one for reaching an intended social media audience?