Whether we like it or not, social media algorithms reward frequent, consistent posting – usually with more reach and higher engagement. But what’s that like for Instagram Stories, a short-lived type of content that’s just there for 24 hours? Let’s find out.
- Why posting frequency is important on social media
- How often to post Stories on Instagram
- So, how do you know when and how much to actually post on Instagram Stories?
- How many Instagram Stories should you post per day?
- How to schedule your Instagram Stories in advance
- What to do AFTER you schedule Instagram Stories
- Manage more things with fewer tools
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Why posting frequency is important on social media
Frequency is, of course, one of the few factors that affect your social media success. But it’s one you shouldn’t underestimate.
We’re probably all aware of how social media platforms work in general – they’re fuelled by attention. And this means that the algorithms need our attention as creators to create content that grabs the attention of the viewers. And it’s a neverending loop.
Add in the fact that the attention span of an average human using the Internet and social media keeps shrinking – and the whole thing becomes all the more exhausting.
What this means for you as a creator or brand on social media is that you need to keep creating content so that the people it’s intended for can actually see it. The more you post (that’s a generalization, but we’ll get into the details later) and the more consistently you do it, the more audience attention you can get.
And it’s no different with Instagram and Instagram Stories. Of course, Instagram Stories are primarily meant for your followers – they don’t usually reach many people outside of your following (unless you’re using hashtags or people share Stories from your Instagram account.)
But even within your following, many people might not see your Instagram Stories if they land at the very end of the Instagram Story queue. And that might happen:
- If they usually don’t engage with your content
- If you don’t post consistently (which sometimes means people might even forget they’re following you. AND they stop engaging.)
Plus, Stories do disappear after 24 hours, which makes them – quite obviously – more elusive. And which makes it even more important to post frequently and consistently if you want to keep your content and brand in front of your followers.
So, let’s take a look at how often to post Stories on Instagram in light of all of the above.
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How often to post Stories on Instagram
The short answer is every day. Yes, you read that right.
The longer answer is multiple times per day, varying in number based on your Instagram Analytics, including your views and engagement.
I know, if you’re a busy social media manager or a business owner, that might not be exactly what you wanted to hear. But I didn’t make the rules.
In fact, that’s what the Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, suggests, saying you should post:
– several feed posts per week
– and several Instagram Stories per day.
Now, it’s not as complicated as it sounds when it comes to Instagram Story posting. (That’s good news, right?)
First of all, you usually post Stories in series – so that already counts as posting multiple Stories, right?
And second of all, with their more immediate and lighter nature, Stories can sometimes take less time to prepare. Plus, you can divide longer videos into a set of shorter Stories to give you more Stories with the same amount of content.
(The longest video you can put up as a Story is 60 seconds, but you might as well post four 15-second Stories instead.)
Now, that doesn’t really mean all days will get you the same engagement. They most likely won’t, actually. You might, for example, see less engagement on the weekends and more engagement in the middle of the week.
So, how do you know when and how much to actually post on Instagram Stories?
To determine that and narrow down your focus when it comes to your Story posting frequency and also the best time to post on Instagram Stories, you’ll need to keep a close eye on your Instagram analytics.
And if you use an analytics platform like NapoleonCat, you’ll be able to see things like:
- The number of times people watched your Story
- The number of unique accounts that have watched your Story
- The number of replies (if you have those turned on)
- The number of taps forward (which usually indicated people didn’t watch the Story until the end)
- The number of taps back (maybe because they wanted to rewatch)
- The number of times someone exited a Story altogether
Of course, you’ll need to interpret those numbers in context – as they’re not just the result of your posting frequency but also things like:
- Content relevance (engaging content needs to be relevant to your audience)
- Content quality
- The right timing
- And even what others are posting at a given moment (we’re all fighting for attention, remember?)
But how often you post Stories on Instagram will definitely be – at least in some way – related to your views, so factor that in when interpreting your numbers.
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How many Instagram Stories should you post per day?
Now that’s a slightly different (Instagram) Story. Different sources will say something slightly different about the number of Stories you should post in a day. But it’s definitely more than one Story per day (as per what the Head of Instagram says himself) – apparently, up to seven. Some say even more, but watch out for posting too much – Instagram algorithm might not like it (and neither will your audience – remember attention spans?)
And how do you do that?
Well, there are at least several ways you can post multiple Stories daily without spending your entire day doing it. Here are a few ideas:
- Split longer videos into several shorter Instagram Stories to immediately gain more pieces of content with the least effort.
- Repurpose videos used for different channels, for example, your TikToks or tiny bits from your YouTube videos.
- Record behind-the-scenes content, for example, in your office, and spread it over several Stories.
- Share an Instagram feed post or Reel in your Instagram Stories. (You can also do the reverse and let people know in your feed posts to look in your Stories for additional content.)
- Ask questions, do polls and quizzes – and then share the answers in your Stories.
- Encourage your followers to ask questions and then answer them in new Stories.
Also, a super smart thing to do, if you can’t picture yourself glued to your phone every day to keep posting those Instagram Stories, is to create content in batches and then schedule it for the entire week. Imagine the time saved!
Here’s how to do it.
How to schedule your Instagram Stories in advance
If you don’t want to miss out on the engagement for your content, you’ll just need to come to terms with posting every day or most days (because, it might turn out, Sundays, for example, are not a day when your followers are super active – so keep an eye on those numbers.)
Luckily, there are ways you can make it much simpler and easier for you and your social media team (if you’re lucky enough to have one.)
One is a tool that will make a major difference in how you spend your working time is using an Instagram Story scheduler like NapoleonCat’s Publisher to create and maintain a consistent posting schedule. Here’s how it can help.
You create your Instagram Stories in bulk and then schedule them over different days in a week in a clear content calendar. And all it takes is the following steps:
- Go to NapoleonCat’s Publisher and pick a date on the content calendar.
- Then select your Instagram account (or accounts if you want to post on several accounts at the same time.) Click on Stories.
- Upload your content and pick a time to schedule it. And you’re done – the Story will get published while you tend to some other things that are waiting on your to-do list. (Which we all know has some things on it.)
We also made a quick video tutorial to show you how it works in action:
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What to do AFTER you schedule Instagram Stories
Once you schedule your Stories (and, while you’re at it, some Reels and Instagram content for the feed, and maybe also some TikToks and Facebook content), you can do some more things like:
- Assign the Stories to other people. That could be your client who has to approve the content, your team members who are supposed to record them (you can create drafts for other people to complete,) or your manager to give you their thoughts and feedback.
- Exchange comments with your team to have a discussion around a selected piece of content. Maybe you need to consult something with someone on the product or customer service teams?
- Add an internal name and a color label so that when you – and anyone else on the team – look at the calendar, they know what’s planned across different social media channels and what campaigns are currently running (and when).
This is a game changer when it comes to how you plan and post Instagram Stories, adding more structure and order to the process that we both know can be pretty chaotic, to say the least.
And you then have more space for establishing more routines like periodically checking your analytics or even scheduling automated reports (all of which you can do in NapoleonCat, so there’s another bonus of not having to pay for and log into several different software tools.)
And speaking of doing more things.
Manage more things with fewer tools
Aside from scheduling your Instagram Stories, Reels, and feed posts (including carousels), NapoleonCat will also let you:
- Schedule Facebook posts and Reels, TikToks, LinkedIn posts, and even Google Business updates
- Schedule Instagram performance reports and automatically send them to your client or boss
- Analyze your competitors on Instagram, how the content they post performs, and how their audience responds. That’s even more data that will help you create an efficient posting plan for Instagram and other social media platforms.
And much more. Now, the smarter you get with automating what you can – and that includes the number of Stories you’re posting per day – the more time you have to analyze and strategize to move the needle on your Instagram results. And that’s always a smart thing to do.
Simplify Instagram Business
Management with One Tool
- Manage & reply to comments and DMs in one place.
- Monitor ad comments from multiple accounts.
- Automate answers to repetitive questions.
- Schedule posts to multiple accounts, on desktop.
- Analyze performance and monitor hashtags.
- Keep track of your competition.
- Create or schedule in-depth reports in seconds.
You may also like:
- Top Instagram Story Hacks – For Marketers and Creators
- Here’s How to Get More Instagram Story Views
- How to Save Instagram Stories: Your Ultimate Guide
- How to Mute Instagram Stories (and why do it)
- 4 Quick Ways To View Instagram Stories Anonymously
- How to Repost a Story on Instagram: A Quick Guide
- All You Need to Know About Instagram Story Size
- Does Instagram Notify Screenshots of Stories, DMs, & more?
- What is the Difference Between Instagram Reels and Stories?
- How to Get Paid for Reels on Instagram
- How To Turn Off Sound On Instagram Stories
- How to Go Viral on Instagram (or at least increase your chances)
