Early on my experience with social media I would start out my day by browsing through all my usual subscribed websites. If I found something I liked I’d post it to my accounts and continue my browsing. I went on like this for several days before my brother messaged me to give me a bit of advice.
I recommended I space out my posts more, because clumping so many together was overwhelming for people following me. It made my posts seem like spam and made it less likely that anyone would read them. I thought he was overreacting a bit, but I took his advice and tried to space out my posts more, through various means.
The other day I noticed that there was one of my Facebook friends who did exactly what I was doing. He would post a bunch of posts within minutes of each other. On my friends feed it would show up as a clump of posts from this person. And, I realized, I wouldn’t even read them. If I did I still wouldn’t click on any of his links. My brother was right. What’s more, I found that even when that person posted individual posts later in the day I was still less inclined to read them.
So let me pass on my brother’s advice. Space out your posts. Now and then it may be okay to post in quick succession, but as a general rule, wait long enough to allow at least a few other people’s posts to come between yours on other people’s friend list. Allow some time to go by and you’ll find people pay more attention to you.
Comments and responses are different! If someone comments on your post feel free to respond as quickly as you like. If a conversation starts, go with it. Don’t worry about spacing if you don’t want to. Comments are usually handled differently and don’t look as “spammy” to people.
If you do find yourself tempted to post frequently, like when you first browse your regular websites each morning, then use a tool to schedule your posts over a longer period. If you don’t have a tool you use, write your posts in a text pad so you won’t forget them, and then copy and paste them throughout the day.
What do you think? Do you pay as much attention to frequent posts, or do you prefer that people space them out more? Weigh in with a comment!