Social media management platform Buffer has analysed over 2 million posts from Instagram accounts with 100k followers to identify key trends in posting and the relation to engagement.

Insights:

• Posting 3-5 times per week on Instagram is likely the sweet spot for achieving both reach and growth.
• Posting more frequently than this will lead to more reach and followers, but the returns are diminishing.
• Posting between 3 and 5 times weekly can more than double follower growth rate, compared to posting one or two times weekly.
• Posting 3-5 times weekly could boost your reach per post by around 12% compared to your baseline.
• Posting 6-9 times per week could yield nearly 3.7× the increase in follower growth rate (0.44%) of posting 1-2 times per week.
• Posting 10 or more times per week could mean about a 5.5× increase (0.66%).
• The biggest jump in reach per post happens when you move from 1-2 to 3-5 posts per week - about a 12% lift.
• Increasing beyond that still drives gains, but the size of each step up gets smaller: 6–9 posts/week adds another ~6 percentage points, and 10+ posts/week adds ~5 more.
• The minimum amount to post on Instagram is 1-2 times per week. Posting any less than that could result in account stagnation or even a drop in followers.

Recommendations:

• If you just want to stay active or maintain your account: 1-2 posts/week
• Grow your audience in a sustainable way: 3-5 posts/week
• Maximise your growth (treat with caution): 6-9+ posts/week

Findings:

Posting frequency into five different ‘buckets’:

• No posts
• 1-2 posts per week
• 3-5 posts per week
• 6-9 posts per week
• 10+ posts

Weekly posts:

• No posts- -0.08 (decline)
• 1–2 posts - 0.00 (baseline)
• 3–5 posts - 0.07
• 6–9 posts - 0.11
• 10+ posts - 0.14

• Not posting at all could mean a loss of followers
• Consistent posting drives real, measurable growth
• Posting more consistently increases weekly reach
• Posting more means more reach per post

For more information, visit buffer.com.