You've probably seen the "post on Tuesdays at 11am EST" charts. They're averages across millions of unrelated accounts. Your followers might all be in Seoul, or all be insomniacs, or all be moms with the same nap-time window. Generic timing advice is averaged into uselessness.
What actually matters, in order
- You publish consistently. 3 posts/week forever beats 7 posts in week 1 and 0 after.
- You post when your specific audience is awake.Use this app's Insights data (after a month or two of posting) — it shows when your followers are actually online.
- You post when you can engage for the first hour.The algorithm uses the first hour's engagement rate to decide how far to push the post. If you publish and immediately go offline, you're wasting it.
Realistic cadence by account size
- Under 1k followers: 3-5 posts/week. Mix of 1-2 Reels and 2-3 feed/carousel. Posting more dilutes quality and your reach won't recover proportionally.
- 1k-10k: 5 posts/week + daily Stories. Reels at least 2x weekly.
- 10k+: Daily is fine if you can keep quality up. Reels 3-5x weekly.
Twitter / X cadence
Totally different rhythm. 3-10 tweets per day is normal for an active account. Replies to other people's tweets count more than your own posts for reach — aim for at least as many replies as original posts. The platform rewards being present in conversations, not broadcasting.
The honest workflow
Batch-create content on Saturday or Sunday: 4 IG posts and 20 tweets. Schedule them across the week via this app. Spend your weekday time engaging in DMs, comments, and replies — that's where reach is actually earned.