Consistency means 5x more engagement

Hey there 👋

We're loading up on our commitment to your social media growth at Buffer this year with a couple exciting updates.

See, we've been thinking a lot about habit formation and consistency over the past year and are working on a product that matches our vision to make posting and growing a social media platform easier than ever.

If you've read any recent issue of this newsletter, you've seen this with our 30-day posting challenge, Creator Camp, in the Buffer community.

And now, we have a couple more updates to back up this focus: a data study showing the power of consistency (which you can read all about in the deep dive) and streaks!

Streaks is a new feature within Buffer that helps you track your posting frequency.

With streaks, you get a motivation boost seeing the number go up each week and milestone celebrations and reminders when you're at risk of losing an epic posting run.

We're already working on updates to make it even more valuable, so keep a close eye on your Buffer account.

Let's get into it.

Have a lovely weekend, and we'll see you next Friday!

Warmly,

Tami & the Buffer team

P.S. Sign up or sign in to Buffer to start tracking your streak →

💌 What's in this issue – 6 minute read

💻 The latest content on the blog
📰 Social media news and features to note
📅 7 content prompts to inspire your next post
🪂 Dive into 8 tips for becoming a creator in 2025
🎬 Our latest YouTube video

👇 The latest from the blog

Get your 2025 social media checklist to kickstart the year
How to find trending audio on Instagram in 2025
Learn the best time to post on LinkedIn

🪂 Deep dive

Our latest data shows the shocking impact of regular posting on social media

Our dream team, Kirsti and Julian, put together some mind-blowing data about what really moves the needle when it comes to growth on social media.

While we often focus on optimization tactics and perfect timing, our latest research reveals something far more fundamental: consistency is the real game-changer.

Our data scientist Julian analyzed over 100,000 Buffer users across all major platforms over six months, and the results are honestly stunning:

Highly consistent posters saw 5x more engagement per post
Even moderately consistent posters achieved 4x more engagement
We found a clear "sweet spot" at 21 weeks of posting

The benefits of posting frequently are even more obvious when you place any level of consistency against inconsistency:

Highly consistent posters saw 450% more engagement than inconsistent posters.
Consistent posters saw 340% more engagement than inconsistent posters

Even small improvements in consistency showed significant gains:

Week 3: 58% increase from Week 2
Week 4: 27% increase from Week 3
Week 5: 17% increase from Week 4
Week 7: 16% increase from Week 6

Here's the encouraging part: you don't need to post every single day to see results. Even posting once a week consistently can dramatically improve your engagement rates. The key is sustainability, not perfection.

Some action steps to get you started

Choose 1-2 primary platforms to focus on
Set a realistic weekly posting goal
Build a content bank for busy weeks
Use scheduling tools (Buffer!) to maintain consistency
Remember: progress over perfection

Even if you can't hit that "highly consistent" mark right away, any move toward more regular posting will boost your engagement. Start where you are, and build from there!

Dive deeper

🤳 What's happening in social?

Meta is offering to pay creators to post on Instagram
Substack is launching a "creator accelerator fund"
Instagram adds new Views insights to analytics and shares notes on how it ranks Stories
Threads rolls out in-app post scheduling and image tagging

📱Social tip of the week

The fastest way to build consistency is to just start. Join Buffer's Creator Camp for a structured 30-day challenge to build your posting habit, complete with community support and expert guidance. For now, here are 7 days of content prompts for you to start with:

"The quickest fix for [a common problem in your niche]": Share one super-simple tip or hack that your audience can try right away to solve a recurring problem in your field.
"Three big shifts I'm watching in [your niche]": Highlight three trends, changes, or ideas shaping your industry and why they excite or challenge you.
"The biggest myth about [your niche]—busted": Challenge a widespread misconception about your niche by breaking it down with facts, examples, or personal experience.
"My favorite time-saving hack for [a key process]": Share a streamlined workflow, tool, or strategy that saves time and energy in your field.
"Here's how I overcame [a specific challenge]": Reflect on a difficult situation you faced in your niche and share the steps you took to overcome it, along with lessons learned.
"The advice I wish I'd known when I started": Share wisdom you've gained over the years that would've saved you time, effort, or frustration when you first started.
"A game-changer tool I swear by": Highlight a tool, app, or resource that's been incredibly helpful for you, and explain why others in your niche should check it out.

⌛ "I save 2 hours per week with Buffer"

We pride ourselves on being an excellent tool for creators and business owners to grow on social media — and our users are more than happy to back us up.

Michael Piperno says: "What used to take me hours now takes me minutes. Easily 2 hours saved per week."

Want to skyrocket your growth? Get started with Buffer today!

Try out Buffer for free today

📹 Buffer on YouTube

The Best Time to Post on LinkedIn in 2025: 1 Million Posts Analyzed

Does timing matter on LinkedIn? We analyzed 1 million posts to find out!