Small businesses post far less often than most posting advice tells them to. In the measured data we found, small businesses and local business locations posted about twice a week on Facebook: a median of 10 posts a month in Databox's January 2023 small-business data, and an average of 9 a month for the local pages of 276 multi-location brands in SOCi's 2021 report. In our own Phoenix study, 69 of 113 sampled local business Facebook pages had posted in the 30 days before September 21, 2026, and 32 had not posted in 90 days. The advice says more: of 49 advice pages we read on November 2, 2026, 32 gave a Facebook number, and 21 of those 32 started at one post a day or more. Only 16 of the 49 tied any posting figure to data with a stated sample size, and only one of those data sources measured local business locations.
We found no public dataset that counts the weekly posts of a defined sample of independent local businesses, so this page sets the closest measurements beside the advice and shows where each number comes from. Every figure has a source address and a read date in the dataset.
Disclosure: this study is published by boomp.net, which sells social media software and service plans, and boomp.net's own pages were left out of the advice sample.
What small and local businesses post
Each row is one published measurement. They count different businesses in different years and ways, so they sit side by side and are never combined.
| Source | Who was counted | Sample | When | What it found |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| boomp.net Phoenix study | Phoenix-area small businesses in 12 industries whose website links a Facebook page | 113 Facebook pages, read by a person | September 21, 2026 | 69 had posted in the last 30 days, 32 had not posted in 90 days and 22 had not posted in a year |
| Databox | Small businesses in Databox's benchmark groups | 574 sources for Facebook and 389 small businesses for Instagram | January 2023 | Medians of 10 Facebook posts and 11 Instagram posts a month, about 2.3 and 2.5 a week |
| SOCi | Local pages of multi-location brands | 276 brands | 2021 report | An average of 9 Facebook posts and 1 Google Business Profile post a month per location; an average of 49% of locations posted on Facebook and 17% on Google Business Profile |
| Adobe Express | Business owners, in their own words | 433 owners | June 2025 | 44% post once a week and 18% post daily; owners called seven posts a week ideal |
The Phoenix figures record how recent each page's newest post was, not how many posts it published, and they cover Facebook only. Databox's page does not say how its benchmark groups were formed, and it notes that companies posted less in January 2023 than in other months. SOCi counts the locations of multi-location brands, and both sources are from 2023 or earlier. Adobe Express reports what owners said, and its page does not say how they were recruited. Taken together, they describe a market where once or twice a week is common, daily posting is the exception, and many pages are not posting at all.
What brands and software users post
| Source | Who was counted | Sample | When | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rival IQ | Companies with 25,000 to 1 million Facebook fans, 150 from each of 14 industries | 2,100 companies | 2024 | 4.19 a week (median) | 4.5 a week (median) |
| Buffer | Accounts connected to Buffer | 52 million Facebook posts from 213,000 accounts; 27 million Instagram posts from 273,000 accounts | Not stated | 35 a month, about 8 a week (median) | 17 a month, about 4 a week |
| Hootsuite | Businesses, not described further | Not stated | First quarter of 2025 | 14.2 a week | 9.3 a week |
| Sprout Social | Public profiles analyzed by Sprout Social | Nearly 3 billion messages from 1 million profiles | February 2024 to January 2025 | 5 a day (average) | 1 to 2 a day (average) |
Every company in Rival IQ's sample has at least 25,000 Facebook fans, and Sprout Social's page notes that enterprise brands post 54% more on Instagram than mid-size companies. On Facebook these four sources run from about 4 posts a week to 35, so the brand figures do not settle what a small business should do either.
What 49 advice pages recommend
We ran eight searches a business owner might type, such as "how often should a small business post on social media" and "how often should a local business post on social media", and tried to read every page they returned. After setting aside duplicate addresses, boomp.net's own pages and pages we could not read, 49 pages gave posting advice in English. Of those, 43 recommended a number of posts in their own voice.
| Platform | Pages giving a number | Most common advice | Middle of the advice | Pages starting at one a day or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 | 1 to 2 posts a day (13 pages) | 7 to 14 a week | 21 of 32 | |
| 32 | 3 to 5 posts a week (14 pages) | 3 to 5 a week | 11 of 32 | |
| 25 | 2 to 5 posts a week (6 pages) | 2 to 5 a week | 7 of 25 | |
| TikTok | 17 | 3 to 5 posts a week (6 pages) | 3 to 5 a week | 6 of 17 |
| X | 23 | 2 to 3 posts a day (4 pages) | 14 to 28 a week | 23 of 23 |
The middle of the advice is the median low end and the median high end of the pages' ranges. Facebook advice ran from one or two posts a week to five a day. Eight pages pair one to two Facebook posts a day with three to five Instagram posts a week, and part of that agreement is repetition, as the trails below show.
Where the advice gets its numbers
| What the page gives for its numbers | Pages | Share of 49 |
|---|---|---|
| Measured data with a stated sample size, its own or another publisher's | 14 | 29% |
| Its own survey with a stated sample size | 2 | 4% |
| A named source, but no sample size | 17 | 35% |
| The author's own experience | 2 | 4% |
| No source | 14 | 29% |
HubSpot was the source named most often, by 13 pages, followed by Buffer (6 pages) and Adam Mosseri of Instagram (5 pages). Of the data sources with a stated sample, only one measured local business locations: SOCi's 2021 report on multi-location brands. Only 7 of the 47 pages we could check use the words "local business" or "local businesses" anywhere. Of the 49 pages, 31 (63%) come from companies that sell social media software (16) or marketing services (15). Eight were first published between 2013 and 2017, and the two of them that show 2026 updates still give posting advice for Google+.
Where the most repeated numbers came from
A number that appears on many pages is not more reliable for it. Each trail below was checked against saved copies of the pages read on November 2, 2026.
- "44% post once a week, 18% daily." Adobe Express found this in a June 2025 survey of 433 business owners. The Small Business Expo's March 2026 guide gives the same figures with no source, and Picmim's July 2026 guide credits them to "a 2026 survey by The Small Business Expo".
- "One to two Facebook posts a day." Buffer's January 2026 guide says that, according to a HubSpot study of over 13,500 Facebook users, "the ideal frequency for Facebook posts is one to two posts a day", and Picmim's guide repeats it. HubSpot's April 2015 study of its 13,500+ customers found that Facebook Pages with fewer than 10,000 followers got fewer clicks per post the more often they posted, and its advice was "Don't overwhelm your customers with content on Facebook". The study's old address now opens a different HubSpot article, so a reader who follows Buffer's link cannot check the claim.
- "Buffer's analysis of 52 million posts." Buffer's benchmarks page describes those 52 million posts as Facebook posts from 213,000 accounts. BusySeed cites them for three to five posts a week for small businesses, and Picmim cites them for Instagram frequency findings that come from Buffer's separate study of 2.1 million Instagram posts.
- The platform list. Hootsuite's guide has given these numbers since at least its April 11, 2023 version, including one to two Facebook posts a day and three to five Instagram posts a week, and its current version says the list comes from "a theoretical approach: We researched best practices, listened to what social platform executives had to say, and chatted with our network of social media managers." Zibster's and Engage Web's 2024 pages give the same numbers without crediting Hootsuite for them. Hootsuite's own measured figures for early 2025 appear on Mallary's 2026 page as "HubSpot's Q1 2025 benchmark".
Before you plan around a number, find the original source, its sample and its date.
What frequency studies found about results
These four studies relate how often accounts posted to what their posts earned. They describe software users and HubSpot customers, not local businesses, and none of them shows that posting more brings in more customers.
| Study | Who and how many | What it found |
|---|---|---|
| Buffer, Instagram, August 13, 2025 | 2.1 million posts from 102,000 accounts | Compared with 1 to 2 posts a week, 3 to 5 posts earned about 12% more reach per post and 10 or more about 24% more; follower growth can more than double at 3 to 5 |
| Buffer, LinkedIn, August 28, 2025 | Over 2 million posts from 94,000+ accounts | 2 to 5 posts a week earned 1,182 more impressions per post than 1 post a week |
| Buffer, consistency, January 29, 2025 | More than 100,000 Buffer users over 26 weeks | Users who posted in 20 or more of the 26 weeks earned 450% more engagement per post than users who posted in 4 or fewer |
| HubSpot, Facebook, April 20, 2015 | Facebook Pages of 13,500+ HubSpot customers | Pages under 10,000 followers got fewer clicks per post the more they posted: over 60 posts a month earned 60% fewer clicks per post than 5 or fewer |
The Buffer studies favor posting more often, and the HubSpot study found the opposite for smaller Pages, but they measure different platforms, years and results. If your Facebook Page has fewer than 10,000 followers, the HubSpot result is the closest match in this list, and it is from 2015. Buffer's consistency study counted weeks with at least one post, not posts a week: users who posted in most weeks earned far more engagement per post than users who posted in only a few.
Citation-friendly findings
Each finding names its own sample, so keep the sample and the date when you cite it.
- About 2 Facebook posts a week: the median for small businesses in Databox's January 2023 data (10 posts a month, 574 sources) and the average for the local pages of 276 multi-location brands in SOCi's 2021 report (9 a month).
- 32 of 113: sampled Phoenix-area local business Facebook pages with no post in the 90 days before September 21, 2026; 69 of the 113 had posted in the last 30 days.
- 44% weekly and 18% daily: how often 433 business owners said they post, in Adobe Express's June 2025 survey.
- 21 of 32: advice pages giving a Facebook number that start at one post a day or more, in a November 2, 2026 sample of 49 advice pages.
- 3 to 5 posts a week: the most common Instagram advice, given by 14 of the 32 pages with an Instagram number.
- 16 of 49: advice pages that tie any posting figure to data with a stated sample size.
- 1 data source: of the data sources with a stated sample that the 49 pages use, only SOCi's 2021 report on multi-location brands measured local business locations.
- 31 of 49: advice pages published by companies that sell social media software or marketing services.
- 7 of 47: advice pages that use the words "local business" or "local businesses" at all.
- 4.19 and 4.5 posts a week: the median Facebook and Instagram frequency across 14 industries in 2024, in Rival IQ's 2025 report on 2,100 companies with 25,000 to 1 million Facebook fans.
- 60% fewer clicks per post: HubSpot's 2015 result for Facebook Pages under 10,000 followers that posted more than 60 times a month, compared with 5 or fewer; two pages in our sample cite the same study for one to two posts a day.
Suggested citation sentence: "In a November 2, 2026 review of 49 posting-frequency advice pages by boomp.net, 21 of the 32 pages that gave a Facebook number advised at least one post a day, and only 16 of the 49 tied any figure to data with a stated sample size." Link to this page and keep the sample size and the date.
Our recommendation
This is boomp.net's advice, not a finding of the study. There is no universal best posting frequency for a small business, and none of the data above measures what posting more does for a local business's customers.
- Start with one complete, useful post per channel each week for four weeks, as our guide to how often a small business should post explains.
- Add posts only when you have real material and the time to review it; the small-business figures above suggest that about two a week is already a common level.
- Before adding volume, open the social links on your website and make sure each page looks current, because in our Phoenix sample 32 of 113 linked Facebook pages had not posted in 90 days.
- Count the hours each post takes before you commit to a number; how much time social media marketing takes shows how to count them.
Methodology
- Searches. Eight searches on November 2, 2026, with US results: how often a small business should post on social media, how often a local business should post, how many times a week, how often on Facebook, how often on Instagram, posting frequency for small businesses, how often in 2026, and posting frequency benchmarks. We recorded every link they returned, 142 links to 97 addresses.
- Reading. We checked robots.txt first, requested each allowed address from other publishers once and identified ourselves as boomp.net research. When a site refused, we tried once more as an ordinary browser, and two pages were read with an AI fetch tool after both reads were refused. We did not sign in, submit forms, contact anyone or use other tools to get past a refusal.
- Pages. Addresses that open the same page count once, and boomp.net's own pages (7 addresses) are not in the sample. The other 90 addresses pointed to 63 different pages; we could not read 9 of them (blocked by robots.txt, removed, refused or malformed) and set aside 5 with no posting advice of their own in English, leaving 49.
- Coding. A number counts only when the page recommends it in its own voice. We recorded feed posts a week, converting daily numbers at 7 days a week and monthly numbers at 52/12 weeks a month, and we kept each page's low and high ends. For the source, we recorded the strongest basis the page gives for any posting figure, and we saved a quote from each page.
- Measured figures. Copied from each publisher's own page or report, read on November 2, 2026. HubSpot's 2015 study and Hootsuite's 2023 guide were read from archived copies, and the Phoenix figures come from our published Phoenix dataset.
- Statistics. A script computed every count, share and median, and nothing is weighted.
Limitations
- The advice sample is what eight searches returned on one day from one search tool. It is not random, and it is not Google's ranking.
- Coding is judgment, so the dataset gives each page's quote and coded numbers, and the rules are under Methodology above.
- The measured figures count different businesses, platforms and years, and some are medians while others are averages, so they are not combined.
- No source we found counts the weekly posts of a defined sample of independent local businesses. The Phoenix figures record the date of each Facebook page's newest post, not a count of its posts.
- The small-business figures are from 2021 and January 2023, and neither sample is a defined group of independent local businesses.
- Adobe Express's figures are self-reported.
- Two pages were read with an AI fetch tool, so their quotes may not match the page word for word.
- Copied lists make the advice look more agreed than it is.
- Pages change after they are read, and every row records the November 2, 2026 read.
Changes from the earlier version
Until July 28, 2026, this page, dated May 26, 2026, said that 78% of active businesses used a three-day-a-week posting schedule, 11% two days and 11% daily. That split described schedule settings in our own software, not posts businesses published, and it first appeared in an April 2026 report under our former name, Glow Social. We withdrew it on July 28, 2026, so do not cite it. From July 28 to November 2, 2026, this page reported the schedule settings of Boomp's customers, most of them on Boomp's default days. Those counts are settings, not posts, and our 2026 statistics report gives them with their method. The monthly posting targets, the "best fit" column and the statement that three days a week is the baseline for most local businesses were recommendations without data, and this version removes them.
Get the data
Download the dataset as a CSV file. It has one row for each of the 63 pages the searches returned from other publishers, including the pages we could not read or set aside, with the posts a week each recommends by platform, the source it gives, the publisher type and a short quote, and one row for boomp.net's own addresses. It also has 36 measured or surveyed figures, including every one this page uses, each with its sample, period, source address and read date. You may reuse this data under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). Please credit boomp.net and link to this page.
Related pages
- Phoenix small business staleness study: how many local business pages had gone quiet in September 2026.
- 2026 statistics report: Boomp's own customer statistics, with their method.
- Google Business Profile posting benchmarks: what is and is not known about posts on Google Business Profile.
- Social media hook benchmarks: research on how the first line of a post performs.
- The minimum viable social media presence for a local business: why there is no universal posting minimum.
Where Boomp fits
Boomp is software that reads a business's public website and writes social media posts about it, so we have a stake in this question.
- Packs, $9 a month: ten finished posts made from your website arrive each month by email link, enough for a little over two a week, and you publish them; nothing is connected.
- Core, $39 a month: 20 posts, one carousel and one short video a month, published to your connected channels after you approve each one in the app, unless you turn on auto approval.
- Service plans with Kathleen Celmins, Boomp's founder: Social, handled is $275 a month, and Kathleen reviews every post before it is scheduled. Local marketing, $900 a month, adds Google Business Profile updates, a review-request process, one new or improved search page and up to two small website updates a month. Marketing partner, $1,800 a month, adds a second search page, a customer email, an offer page or promotion, and a monthly planning and progress call. Both start with a 15-minute call, and the work is agreed before payment.
No plan includes ads, replies to comments or reviews, or photo and video shoots, and no plan has a contract. Every paid plan charges from day one, and all the plans and prices are on one page. To see what Boomp would write for your business first, enter your website and email for ten free finished posts with images, a carousel and a short video; the link arrives by email, with no account or card.