Less is more, more is more… We’ve heard them both before, but which approach is best when it comes to creating a digital marketing strategy? The ‘quality vs quantity’ debate has divided marketers for some time now, with many brands still struggling to find the perfect balance. Is it worth compromising quality to post more frequently, or is it best to slowly post higher quality content?
Every brand is unique, each bringing its own products, nuances and needs to the digital table, so there is no one-size-fits-all posting frequency. As a rule, quality should always prevail over quantity. Rather than stressing how often you share content, prioritise creating campaigns that are genuinely interesting to your audience—increasing frequency is something you can work on over time.
We get it. If you’re failing to build an audience online, it’s easy to fall into the trap of creating a flurry of monotonous content, posting desperately to increase engagement. However, whilst high-volume content has great potential to drive traffic to your social pages, embarking on a mass-posting spree is unlikely to have long-lasting results.
As this approach does not afford you the time to plan and nurture your posts, you risk saturating your audience’s newsfeeds with low quality, uninteresting content. Not only could this potentially damage your credibility online, but exhaust and annoy your audience. Posting chaotically could also result in your key messages being lost in a stream of mediocre posts, diluting their impact.
To stand out from your competitors online, your content should be insightful, imaginative and authentic to your brand. In short, it’s important to retain posting consistency, but what you post is more important than how often you share it! Here’s some steps you can take to help you get the right balance…
Create a posting schedule
Plan campaigns in advance to consistently keep the quality of your content at a high standard. This gives you the opportunity to polish and perfect what you share, thinking strategically about optimal posting times and key events in your business calendar. It’s a great way to keep track of your content and ensure you’re hitting your posting frequency goals.
Create with intent, rather than to tick a box. Think carefully about what interests your audience during particular time periods and how you can use social media to achieve your wider business goals. For example, you could plan an exciting campaign that runs alongside product launches to generate sales, or your could organise competitions in line with national events to encourage likes and new followers.
Introduce platform-specific guidelines
Just because you’re posting every day on Facebook doesn’t mean you should hold every social media platform to the same rule. Every platform has its own features and user base, so it makes sense to tailor your posting schedule to each one you’re actively using.
For example, if you’re sharing visual content on Instagram and TikTok, 3 posts per week could help your brand maintain a strong online presence. By contrast, on X, where information flows much faster and trends have shorter longevity, you’d need to increase your posting frequency to stand out—ideally, that’s at least one post per day.
You can be the most flexible on Facebook as you have the ability to share a more diverse range of content; at least one daily post would help your brand build a large audience at a steady pace. Be careful not to go overboard; consistently posting more than three times per day can be excessive and overwhelming.
When it comes to sharing company news, messages and achievements on LinkedIn, between 3-5 posts per week is ideal.
Don’t forget you can tweak and repurpose content for different platforms too. Say you’ve captured the perfect image for Instagram, if it’s relevant, edit the accompanying message and CTA for other platforms. Not only will this save you a little time when planning content, but it will also establish coherency across your socials.
Start by mapping out a realistic posting target for each platform and track your results to explore what is working best for your audience.
Don’t be afraid to reshuffle
We live in a world of constant change, we can’t always predict what’s around the corner. In order to establish an authentic voice in both the digital sphere and your industry, it’s important to stay up to date with current affairs and news.
Once you’ve got a few posts slotted into your schedule, you’ll be in a great position to prioritise time-sensitive content. So, when super interesting industry news breaks, don’t panic! You’ll have the flexibility to reshuffle content in line with your posting schedule, sharing important information at a time that is going to have the greatest impact.
Furthermore, if you’re monitoring your engagement levels and aren’t achieving the results you anticipated, switch up your strategy—try posting on different days, revise your posting times and rethink your content. By having posts scheduled in advance, you have the time to refine your strategy and see what type of content resonates most with your audience.
Our final verdict
Ultimately, quality is more important than quantity, but both are required for your business to flourish on social media. The trick is to share high-quality content at a pace that continues to excite, engage and compel your audience.