The answer to how many stories you should post on Instagram daily depends on your goals, preferences, your followers' behaviour, and the content you will share. Some brands might prefer to post multiple Instagram stories throughout the day to keep their followers engaged and informed about their activities, while others post fewer, higher-quality stories that showcase their best moments.
Ultimately, the key is to find the sweet spot that works for you and your followers. To find it, experiment with different frequencies and see how your audience responds to each approach, and if you notice your engagement and viewership metrics are consistently high when you post a certain number of stories per day, then that might be the right frequency for you.
Anyway, let's see what you should consider when finding the perfect frequency of sharing stories to keep your followers engaged and, at the same time, avoid looking spammy.
Things to Consider When Deciding How Many Instagram Stories per Day to Post
For starters, ask yourself why you're posting stories on Instagram in the first place. Are you trying to drive engagement, showcase your products or services, share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your brand, or simply keep your followers up-to-date? Once you have a clear understanding of your goals, you can tailor your posting frequency to achieve them.
Note that the type of content you want to post can impact how many stories you should share. For instance, if you're sharing detailed tutorials or lengthy Q&A sessions, it may be better to break them up into smaller segments and post multiple stories over the course of a day. Conversely, if you're sharing brief, fun snippets, you might be able to get away with posting fewer stories.
Audience demographics and behaviour can also play a role in how many stories to post. Check Instagram Insights to figure out when your followers are most active and adjust your posting schedule accordingly. Test different posting frequencies to see how your audience responds.
💡We've covered Instagram analytics in this definitive guide, so make sure to check it out.
Last but not least are your personal preferences and availability, as they can impact how many stories you can and should post. Posting more stories may require loads of time and resources, so make sure you have the bandwidth to consistently create high-quality content.
Benefits of Posting More Instagram Stories per Day
While there's no one-size-fits-all answer to how many stories to post per day, there are some benefits to posting more of them:
- Increased visibility and engagement: The more frequently you post, the more opportunities you have to show up in your followers' feeds and stay top-of-mind.
- Ability to showcase more content and moments: If you have a lot of content to share, posting lots of stories can help you showcase all of it without overwhelming your audience with a single story.
- Opportunities for creative experimentation: Posting more stories gives you room to experiment with different formats, interactive features, and creative ideas.
Drawbacks of Posting Too Many Stories
On the flip side, there're also some cons to posting too many stories:
- Risk of overwhelming followers: If you share too many stories, your followers may become annoyed, leading to a decrease in engagement instead of the expected boost in one.
- Decreased engagement and viewership if content quality suffers: If you sacrifice quality for quantity, your engagement and viewership metrics may suffer.
- Potential time and resource constraints: Posting more stories requires more time and resources, so it may not be feasible for everyone.
Best Practices for Posting Stories on Instagram
How can you find the right balance of how many stories to post per day? Here are some best practices to consider.
🟣 Find the right frequency based on your goals and audience
Experiment with different posting frequencies to find the sweet spot that works for you and your audience.
To determine how often to post stories, monitor your story analytics within Instagram Insights in real-time, as this is the most reliable way to gauge the appropriate frequency. By analysing your stories, you can track their performance and how long your followers are engaged. If you find that they tend to lose interest after 5-6 slides, it could mean that you've reached their attention span limit.
However, it's also possible that the content in the last few slides wasn't engaging enough, so, it's crucial to focus on both the actual content and the analytics. Trial and error can help you identify what works best when you keep a close eye on the numbers.
🟣 Use a mix of static images, videos, and interactive features
Keep your content varied and engaging by mixing up your formats and including interactive elements like polls, quizzes, stickers, and questions.
To keep your followers interested, you need to make your stories stand out even if you're posting the right type of content.
🟣 Create high-quality, engaging content that aligns with your brand
Ensure that your stories are consistent with your brand voice, values, and aesthetics. For that, use high-quality images and videos, and consider using branded templates or graphics to enhance your brand identity.
The purpose of social media is to connect with others and build personal relationships but solely using it for advertising undermines this goal and creates a disconnect between you and your followers. It goes without saying but it's important to provide value to your followers, such as inspiration, useful information, and entertainment (people use social media mostly for entertainment, always keep that in mind). The same applies to your stories. If every time someone clicks on your profile photo, they see yet another advertisement, they're likely to quickly scroll past and may even unfollow you.
🟣 Utilise Combin Scheduler to optimise posting strategy
Use third-party tools like Combin Scheduler to plan your content in advance.
Combin Scheduler helps you make sure all your Instagram stories are planned ahead and will be published in time. Follow the steps below to schedule posts to your Instagram account:
- Install Combin Scheduler. It’s available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
- Log in to your Instagram account within Combin Scheduler.
- Once you are logged in, click Stories at the upper left corner of the application.
- Click Add New Story at the bottom of the application window to start planning your story.
- Drag and drop images or click Choose Photo to select pictures for your stories.
- Select the posting date and time. Scheduler synchronises with the timezone of your OS.
- Click Post Now. Your stories will be published at the scheduled time.
Keep Combin Scheduler launched until your stories are on Instagram.
Try Combin Scheduler completely free of charge 👇