To grow your social media following, it’s vital that you post content consistently.

You might test to find how often you should post for your audience, and also monitor competitors to see how often they post and how well it’s working for them.

But here’s the key: How often you post is NOT as important as WHAT you post.

As Jay Baer notes, you need two things: A plan for making and distributing your posts and making sure those posts are genuinely compelling. There are no “neutral” reactions, so if your post isn’t excellent, don’t post it.

Yes, that puts a bit of pressure on you, doesn’t it? But that’s a good thing, because it will make you better at social media.

Spend some time looking at other marketer’s posts to get a feel for what is working and what isn’t. Don’t be afraid to experiment, monitor reactions, and notice what types of posts really resonate with your audience.

Once you have this information, you can save time and get a much better response by only posting things that get read, shared and acted upon.

Useful tools for scheduling posts are Buffer and Hootsuite. You can integrate these with your browser and dozens of other apps and schedule posts to your social networks. Using these apps help you cut down on time spent executing your social marketing strategies, so you can focus on creating great content your audience loves.