Post two or three times a week instead of daily, and spend the time saved answering every comment and message within a day. A question from a customer is worth more than another post.

A post every morning, a question from Tuesday

The account posts every morning without fail: a photograph, a line of caption, a few hashtags. Somebody spends the best part of an hour on it, most days of the week.

Under Tuesday's post, a customer asked whether the item comes in a larger size. Under Sunday's, someone asked about weekend hours. In the inbox, three people are waiting for a price.

None of them has had a reply. The posting is somebody's job; the answering is nobody's.

That is the balance many business accounts settle into, and it is the wrong way round.

Where the questions are waiting

Questions reach a business account by more routes than most owners realise, and several are easy to miss.

The second is the folder many businesses have never opened. Instagram files messages from accounts you do not follow as requests, and a new customer asking a price is exactly that kind of account.

Why an answer is worth more than a post

A post goes out to whoever happens to be scrolling, and most of them are not thinking about buying anything that day.

A question comes from someone who is. They found you, looked, and need one fact before deciding.

The silence is public, too. A question left under a post for a week is read by everyone who sees the post later, and they learn that nobody replies here.

Facebook goes further and shows visitors a page's typical reply time, so a slow inbox is on display before anyone writes.

What daily posting costs

A good post takes longer than it looks: the photograph, the caption, the tags, the retake when the first shot comes out dark. Daily, that is several hours a week, usually from the person who could be answering people.

The daily habit also lowers the standard. By the fourth post of the week the ideas run thin, and the account fills with pictures that say nothing new.

And since January, Facebook has shown page posts to fewer people, with posts that draw no reaction shown least of all. Filler costs time and earns almost nothing.

Two or three posts a week

A lighter schedule suits most small businesses better: two or three posts weekly, and every one with something to say.

Plan them on Monday: one about something new, one about the work or the people behind it, one asking customers something they want to answer.

Anything that is simply information, such as holiday hours, belongs in the profile, the Google listing and the website, which is where people go looking for it.

The hours that come free go to the inbox.

A worked example

A family taqueria on a busy corner of a suburban shopping street posted a photograph of the day's tacos every morning at eleven.

A part-time employee spent most of an hour on each one, styling the plate, shooting it twice and choosing the hashtags.

Underneath, questions sat for days: whether the corn tortillas were gluten-free, whether the patio stayed open in winter, whether the kitchen did office lunches.

The worst find was in the Instagram requests folder: an enquiry about catering a party for forty, three weeks old, from someone who did not follow the account.

The cause was simple. Posting was a task with a time attached, answering belonged to nobody, and every notification went to a phone in the owner's jacket.

The taqueria now posts three times a week. Whoever is on the till checks comments, messages and requests at eleven and again after close, with a short list of standard answers kept beside the menu.

Within a day, every day

The habit that works is a time, not an intention. Two fixed checks a day, at hours when somebody is reliably free, catch almost everything.

Give each check to one named person, with a stand-in for days off and weekends. A shared login and a general sense that someone will look is how a question waits a week.

Give those people their own access, too. Facebook page roles let staff answer comments and messages without the owner's password or control of the page's settings.

Within a day is the standard to hold. A reply the next morning still helps; one the following week mostly records the delay in public.

If the answer needs finding out, say so at once and give a time: we are checking stock and will reply by four.

Answer in public, finish in private

Answer a general question where it was asked. The next reader probably wonders the same thing, and the reply serves them too.

Move anything personal into private messages or a phone call: order details, addresses, a complaint that needs a conversation. Say in the public reply that you have done so.

Keep public replies short and plain, and sign them with a first name where the platform allows. Readers notice when a person is behind the account.

Questions that belong on the website

Read a month of questions together and the same five or six turn up repeatedly: prices, sizes, parking, hours, whether you deliver.

Each repeat is a sign the website does not answer it clearly, or not where people look. Fix the page, then link to it in replies.

Over time the inbox gets lighter, and the questions left are the ones only a person can answer.

The counter-case

Some accounts do need to post daily. A food truck announcing where it parks today, or a shop whose stock changes every morning, posts because the post is the information.

An account that receives two questions a month can answer them as they arrive, without any routine.

And posting less is not posting never. A page silent for months looks closed, whatever the inbox says.

For most businesses, though, the trade is straightforward: fewer posts, and every question answered within a day.

This week

  1. Open the message requests folder on Instagram.
  2. Answer everything waiting, oldest first.
  3. Cut posting to three planned posts a week.
  4. Set two fixed times each day for checking.
  5. Name one person for each check, plus a stand-in.
  6. Give staff their own access where the platform allows.
  7. Move repeated questions onto the website.

Step four turns intentions into a habit. Resolutions about replying fade within a fortnight; a time on the schedule with a name beside it lasts through a busy month.

What to post on the days you do post is the subject of costumes, pumpkins and the business page.

Frequently asked questions

How often should a business account post?

For most small businesses, two or three planned posts a week, each with something to say. Accounts whose posts carry daily information, such as a food truck's location, are the exception.

How quickly should we answer comments and messages?

Within a day. A reply the next morning still helps; one a week later mostly shows every reader that nobody was watching the account.

Where do unanswered questions usually hide?

In comments on older posts, Instagram's message requests, after-hours Facebook messages, replies to Stories, and questions on the Google listing that anyone can answer.

Should we reply in public or in private?

Answer general questions where they were asked, since others share them. Move order details, addresses and complaints into private messages or a call, and say so publicly.

Who should do the answering?

One named person for each daily check, with a stand-in for days off, using their own access where the platform allows rather than the owner's password.

What should we do with repeated questions?

Answer them properly on the website, then link to that page in replies. Questions that keep returning show exactly where the site is unclear.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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