In our last study, we showed how many posts you should publish on Instagram to keep up with the top performers. But what about stories? The 24-hour format is essential for driving reach on Instagram. We evaluated 120 thousand Instagram profiles and found out the benchmarks of story frequency. You can use them to rank yourself and find out if you are posting more or less stories compared to similarly sized profiles. Afterwards, you’ll know if you should continue doing the same or if you should optimize your content output.
The Larger the Profile, the More Stories are Published
An Instagram story can consist of several frames that can be uploaded one after the other for the users to play. The story frequency indicates how many story frames a profile publishes per day.
The data clearly shows that the number of published stories per day increases with increasing profile size. Profiles with less than a thousand followers publish an average of 0.3 stories per day. Profiles with between a thousand and ten thousand followers publish one story per day. In the next largest category, two stories are published per day. Profiles with up to five hundred thousand followers reach a value of 3.1 stories per day. At this point, the steep rise in the curve flattens out. The largest profiles only just exceed this value with 3.3 stories per day.
Put your own profile to the test and determine and optimize your Instagram strategy.
Top Profiles Publish Eight Stories a Day on Instagram
To be among the best profiles in terms of story frequency, you need to post far more frequently than the average. The top 10 percent post at least 2.5 times as many stories per day as the average, depending on the size category.
Up to a thousand followers, the top value of one story per day is a whopping three times higher than the average. Top profiles with between a thousand and ten thousand followers also post 3 stories a day, 3 times as much as average profiles. Among medium and large profiles, the top 10 percent post 2.7 times more often than average, with 5.3 and 8.3 stories per day, respectively. The largest profiles top out at 8.4 stories per day, which is 2.5 higher than average.
Conclusion
Instagram stories are a rewarding format with which you can quickly engage many users and increase your reach. You shouldn’t let this opportunity go to waste. The benchmarks show you how many stories you need to publish daily to stand out from the crowd. With increasing profile size, more and more stories per day are necessary to perform above average. If you really want to take advantage of stories, you should compare yourself with the relevant benchmarks, find out if you are above or below them and optimize your story output accordingly.
Now it’s your turn!
How to determine the story frequency of your Instagram profiles and optimize your posting strategy? Use the free Performance Test to discover the strengths and weaknesses of your Instagram profiles and follow helpful tips to optimize your content and increase your output. Evaluate your performance now!