I opened social media for five minutes and came away with a complete content strategy, three new anxieties and the strong feeling that I’m already doing it wrong.
Apparently, I shouldn’t post more than once a day on LinkedIn. Instagram? Three times a week, maximum. Unless you’re trying to grow, in which case you should post more. And if you can create 100 pieces of content in a week, brilliant. Just make sure they’re all original, high quality, useful, entertaining, authentic and filmed in flattering natural light.
Simple!
The advice is often delivered with the confidence of someone announcing a new law of physics. Post at this time. Never post at that time. Use this format. Don’t use that format. The algorithm loves carousels this week. Reels are dead. Reels are back. Your first line must stop the scroll, but don’t use clickbait. Be personal, but keep it professional. Share your life, but not too much of your life.
And then there’s the posting-frequency debate. Some guidance says Instagram’s sweet spot is three to five feed posts a week. Other data suggests posting more can help growth, with diminishing returns and the small matter of needing to actually make all that content.
LinkedIn gets the same treatment. Post several times a week, people say. Post daily, say other guides. Meanwhile, LinkedIn’s own creator advice says to start with an engaging hook, which is useful, but also means I now have to make the first sentence interesting before I’ve even finished my coffee.
Then there’s scheduling. “Don’t schedule your posts. The platform will punish you.” Except Instagram’s head has said scheduling doesn’t hurt reach. So perhaps I can plan a post before the moment I want to publish it. Revolutionary.
And AI? Don’t use it. It’s lazy. It’s soulless. It’s ruining creativity. Also, use AI to brainstorm, research, edit, write, design, plan, make videos, save time and help you create more content. Just don’t let anyone find out you used it.
I do understand the frustration with low-effort content. We’ve all seen something that feels like it was made by typing “make me a viral post” and immediately walking away. But using AI as a tool and letting it do all the thinking are not the same thing. Meta’s own approach is moving towards labelling and transparency around AI-created media, rather than treating every use of AI as identical.
The bit that gets lost in all these rules is that the right approach depends on what you’re trying to do, what you’re making and what you can keep doing without hating your life. A creator with a team producing 100 pieces a week is playing a different game from a founder squeezing a post into the gaps between meetings, invoices and remembering to defrost something for dinner.
So, yes: make the Reel interesting. Give people a reason to keep watching. Have a point. Make it easy to understand. But you don’t need to turn every thought into a hook that sounds like it’s about to reveal who killed your houseplants.
Post consistently, but don’t let a stranger’s posting schedule become your new full-time job. Use AI if it helps you make something better. Schedule posts if that makes your week easier. Try different formats. Notice what people actually respond to. And if you have a great idea, post it even if a social media expert said Tuesday is reserved for carousels.
There is plenty of genuinely useful advice out there. The trouble starts when we turn every suggestion into a rule, then collect all the rules until they contradict each other.
Maybe the best social media strategy is less mystical than that: make something you care about, make it for someone, and give them a reason to stop scrolling. Then try again.
And if it doesn’t get much reach? It may simply be that the internet is busy watching a dog steal a sandwich. That’s the competition.