PostlyResearchOctober 2026 · Original edition
Social Media Publishing Report 2026
Your monthly source of social media findings, comparisons and practical advice. Download the full edition or any report separately.
Source: Postly Research. Anonymized retained publishing data: 72,883 documents inspected; 47,388 posts with verified publications; 165,158 deduplicated destination deliveries; 3,645 destination accounts. Observation cutoff: 2026-10-04 22:35:49 UTC.
Download complete edition · 7 reports ↓Fresh findings every month. Bookmark this page and come back on the 1st for the next report, covering the previous completed month (UTC). Latest monthly report · Browse previous editions.
Report 01 · Platform distribution
Platform use: where publishing effort goes
Facebook leads delivery volume, while Instagram reaches more destination accounts. Those are different planning signals.
Retained eligible publications up to October 4, 2026; October is partial.
The finding
Facebook represents 62% of recorded deliveries (102,320), compared with 13.7% for Instagram (22,709). Yet Instagram appears across 983 destination accounts versus 893 for Facebook. The largest publishing workload and the widest account participation do not identify the same platform.
Deduplicated successful destination deliveries. Percentages use all eligible deliveries, including withheld categories.
| Observed group | deliveries | Accounts |
|---|---|---|
| 102,320 | 893 | |
| 22,709 | 983 | |
| 9,897 | 383 | |
| Google Business Profile | 9,195 | 481 |
| TikTok | 7,485 | 456 |
| Telegram | 3,715 | 59 |
| YouTube | 3,594 | 162 |
| Threads | 3,405 | 73 |
| 1,596 | 108 | |
| Bluesky | 1,180 | 34 |
At least 30 accounts and 100 observations per displayed group. Account counts overlap. Small groups are withheld; absence from this table does not mean zero usage.
Compare performance fairly
Reach asks how many people encountered the content. Interaction measures a response. A qualified action asks whether the right person progressed toward the business objective. These are different outcomes, and native view definitions can differ. This edition measures publishing activity on each platform; it does not contain a compatible cross-platform engagement or conversion panel. No platform is declared the performance winner. For your own comparison, record the same business action and cost window across channels, while keeping native engagement measures separate.
What this means for marketers
A volume-led channel plan would overweight frequent and recurring publishers. Account participation gives a second perspective, but neither measure establishes qualified reach, sales or suitability for a particular product. Treat these results as a map of observed distribution work. They show why a channel decision needs both an audience hypothesis and a realistic servicing budget.
Recommended actions
Choose one primary channel for the buying question you need to answer and one complementary channel for distribution. Set a destination-specific objective, such as qualified product-page visits or completed enquiries. Budget separately for asset adaptation, publication checks and responses. Review outcomes at the same post age before moving resources to the channel with the largest visible posting volume.
The decision this report supports
Prioritize workflow capacity using delivery volume; evaluate channel fit with your own qualified outcomes. This dataset does not contain validated industry and product categories linked to conversions, so it cannot rank the best platform for a software product, restaurant, retailer or service business. Publishing share is not audience share or platform market share.
Facebook: Community updates and repeat customer communication
Test useful explanations, demonstrations and customer questions. Separate feed, Reel and Story briefs. Compare qualified conversations and destination visits with the time spent producing and responding; a large delivery count is not proof of incremental demand. Strategy guidance; the observed Postly publishing counts are shown in the evidence table above.
Instagram: Visual explanation and product demonstration
Use a clear visual promise, show the product in context and give the viewer one next step. Distinguish saved placement choices from native publications. Compare the same campaign objective across placements, with reach, interactions and qualified actions kept separate. Strategy guidance; the observed Postly publishing counts are shown in the evidence table above.
TikTok: Short video ideas and creative discovery
Start with a recognizable problem and demonstrate the answer quickly. Test different openings for the same idea before changing the offer. Compare retention and qualified actions at a consistent post age; do not select only the best-performing videos for a benchmark. Strategy guidance; the observed Postly publishing counts are shown in the evidence table above.
YouTube: Searchable explanations and deeper demonstrations
Build videos around a specific audience question. Use an accurate title and thumbnail, then evaluate whether viewers stay for the promised answer. YouTube describes recommendations in terms of relevance and viewer response. Tags alone are not a sound growth strategy. Strategy guidance; the observed Postly publishing counts are shown in the evidence table above.
LinkedIn: Professional expertise and buying questions
Explain a business problem, the reasoning behind a decision and the evidence for the result. A useful case study can be a starting format. Assess relevant conversations and qualified enquiries alongside impressions; a large generic audience is not necessarily a useful buying audience. Strategy guidance; the observed Postly publishing counts are shown in the evidence table above.
Google Business Profile: Local business discovery and action
Keep the business information and customer action accurate. Match the action destination to the offer: a booking should reach a booking path. Google distinguishes profile interactions such as calls and website clicks; these should not be treated as equivalent to post reactions. Strategy guidance; the observed Postly publishing counts are shown in the evidence table above.
Pinterest: Visual ideas linked to products and resources
Publish a clear idea with an accurate destination. Pinterest product Pins can display product information such as price and availability. Compare outbound visits and downstream product actions, and check that the landing page fulfils the promise made by the image. Strategy guidance; the observed Postly publishing counts are shown in the evidence table above.
Threads: Public conversation and topical explanations
Treat the post as the opening of a conversation. Test a specific question or useful observation and reserve time to respond. Measure substantive replies and relevant visits separately from publishing activity. Review reply and quote settings as deliberate distribution choices. Strategy guidance; the observed Postly publishing counts are shown in the evidence table above.
Telegram: Ongoing communication with an existing community
Plan useful updates for people who have chosen to follow the channel. Review notification, preview and content-protection settings. Evaluate retention, response and destination actions; repeated delivery alone cannot establish discovery or acquisition. Strategy guidance; the observed Postly publishing counts are shown in the evidence table above.
Bluesky: Conversation and specialist communities
Start with topics that overlap with the community you want to serve. Use clear context and language choices, participate in replies and track useful conversations. The eligible delivery sample provides no reliable performance ranking for this network. Strategy guidance; the observed Postly publishing counts are shown in the evidence table above.
X, Reddit and Discord: Conversation channels requiring community context
Use these only when you can contribute to the relevant conversation and maintain the response workload. In this edition, their publishing groups do not meet the public threshold or lack eligible records. That is an evidence gap, not a conclusion that these channels do not work. Strategy guidance; the observed Postly publishing counts are shown in the evidence table above.
WhatsApp and publishing platforms: Direct communication and longer-lived publishing
WhatsApp, WordPress, Ghost, Hashnode, DEV and Blogger have distinct publishing workflows and audiences. Review templates, visibility, metadata and destination actions where relevant. No comparable performance result is published for them in this edition because eligible evidence is insufficient. Strategy guidance; the observed Postly publishing counts are shown in the evidence table above.
Early stage: establish audience and message fit
Choose one primary channel where you can reach and speak with the intended audience. For a local appointment business, evaluate the local discovery and booking path first; for a professional service, test useful explanations of the buying problem; for a demonstrable product, test visual proof. These are strategy hypotheses, not Postly performance rankings. Your immediate output is evidence that the right people understand the offer and take a useful next step. Do not expand merely because another platform has higher publishing volume.
Mid stage: make one useful result repeatable
When one topic and offer consistently produce relevant conversations or qualified actions, document the brief and publishing checks. Add one complementary distribution channel while retaining a common business outcome. Record the incremental production and response time. Continue only if the additional channel reaches useful people or supports a distinct buying question; duplicated impressions are not evidence of incremental demand.
Late stage: allocate resources by contribution
With repeatable acquisition or customer communication in place, compare channel contribution over a consistent window. Keep paid and organic activity separate and account for production cost. Invest in the combination of channels that serves discovery, evaluation and customer retention, rather than maximizing every platform. Use first-party conversion records to assess business outcomes; publishing receipts cannot supply this attribution.
Advanced stage: test incrementality and resilience
Use planned holdouts or staggered changes where feasible to distinguish extra activity from extra results. Compare matched account or campaign cohorts, record uncertainty and check whether a few large accounts dominate the result. Maintain a deliberate experiment budget and avoid changing several presets, creative formats and schedules at once. Stage labels here describe operating maturity, not follower thresholds, and were not inferred from customer identities or content.
Sources for the teaching sections
- YouTube performance and discovery
- LinkedIn: thought leadership
- Google Business Profile performance definitions
- Pinterest product Pins and shopping
Platform sources support the explanations. Postly data supports the observed counts. Strategic recommendations are editorial judgments.
Report 02 · Content formats
Content formats: images carry the production load
Images dominate stored source media. Video remains a substantial workload; format popularity does not establish a performance winner.
Retained eligible publications up to October 4, 2026; October is partial.
The finding
Image-only source records account for 116,400 deliveries (70.5% of the total), while video-only records account for 35,534 (21.5%). Another 12,846 deliveries have no source attachment. One source asset can contribute multiple deliveries. The chart measures distribution workload, not the number of original assets created.
Current source attachments associated with verified destination deliveries; not native placement or unique creative assets.
| Observed group | deliveries | Accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Image | 116,400 | 2,311 |
| Video | 35,534 | 1,713 |
| No attached media | 12,846 | 641 |
At least 30 accounts and 100 observations per displayed group. Account counts overlap. Small groups are withheld; absence from this table does not mean zero usage.
What this means for content planning
A video-only production plan would overlook most recorded delivery work in this sample. Image preparation, accessibility descriptions, crop checks and destination adaptation deserve an explicit place in the workflow. Equally, the video volume is large enough to justify a separate production checklist. Text or link-based publishing should remain a distinct workflow rather than being treated as a failed media upload.
Recommended actions
Build reusable image and video briefs for the same customer question. Record the production time for each format and evaluate comparable outcomes after a fixed interval. For a product demonstration, compare a short demonstration with a step-by-step image explanation using the same offer. Keep accessibility checks in both workflows. Choose the format that produces useful audience response at a sustainable production cost.
Reading formats correctly
A stored video does not prove that a destination publication was a Reel, Short or Story; an image does not prove a carousel. Media overrides and later edits may differ from the stored source attachments. These results cannot establish which content format earns more views or engagement. That requires native placement and comparable outcome observations for the same publications.
Report 03 · Publishing presets
Publishing presets: the settings behind the posts
A platform-by-platform audit of saved publishing choices, with accessibility, distribution, interaction and conversion checks.
Retained eligible publications up to October 4, 2026; October is partial.
The findings across platforms
The audit reviewed 100 preset dimensions across 19 platform settings groups and published 59 qualifying setting-state rows. For example, YouTube tags were configured on 1,449 eligible post/destination records and empty on 2,126; Pinterest destination URLs were configured on 950 records and empty on 171. Google Business Profile recorded 4,630 Call choices, 1,352 Learn More choices and 159 Book choices. These comparisons reveal different publishing intentions and workflow checks. They do not establish which choice produces more engagement or sales.
ALT rows count source posts once. Other rows count source-post/destination pairs with a verified delivery and an explicitly stored setting. Defaults are not inferred. Settings may overlap.
| Observed group | records | Accounts |
|---|---|---|
| No image ALT text recorded | 18,799 | 2,049 |
| All images have ALT text | 2,096 | 430 |
| Facebook / Facebook Linked Carousel (image cards with links) / Off | 33,837 | 866 |
| Facebook / Facebook Feed Post (including multi-image posts) / On | 32,595 | 841 |
| Facebook / Share as Reel / Off | 32,264 | 847 |
| Facebook / Share to Story / Off | 30,920 | 805 |
| Facebook / Generate first comment / Off | 29,275 | 737 |
| Facebook / Allow Comments / On | 28,950 | 728 |
| Instagram / Default collaborators / Empty | 18,687 | 977 |
| Instagram / Share as Reel / Off | 15,529 | 947 |
| Instagram / Share to Story / Off | 15,009 | 942 |
| Instagram / Share to Feed / On | 14,784 | 958 |
| Instagram / Generate first comment / Off | 14,403 | 738 |
| Instagram / Allow Comments / On | 13,940 | 727 |
| TikTok / Share to Feed / On | 7,326 | 456 |
| TikTok / Disable Comments / Off | 7,325 | 456 |
| TikTok / Privacy / Public | 7,320 | 454 |
| TikTok / Branded-content disclosure / Off | 7,245 | 454 |
| TikTok / Disable Duet / Off | 7,239 | 454 |
| TikTok / Disable Stitch / Off | 7,239 | 455 |
| LinkedIn / Visibility / Public | 6,332 | 379 |
| LinkedIn / Feed Distribution / Main feed | 6,331 | 378 |
| LinkedIn / Enable Resharing / On | 6,296 | 377 |
| TikTok / Own-brand disclosure / Off | 6,229 | 445 |
| Google Business Profile / Publication type / Update | 6,216 | 476 |
| TikTok / AI-generated content disclosure / Off | 5,995 | 422 |
| LinkedIn / Generate first comment / Off | 5,370 | 334 |
| Google Business Profile / Call to action / Call | 4,630 | 345 |
| Instagram / Share to Feed / Off | 4,067 | 158 |
| Instagram / Share to Story / On | 3,842 | 175 |
| YouTube / Embeddable / On | 3,574 | 162 |
| YouTube / Made for Kids / Off | 3,571 | 162 |
| YouTube / Notify Subscribers / On | 3,560 | 161 |
| Telegram / Send as Message / On | 3,365 | 59 |
| Telegram / Silent Message / Off | 3,363 | 59 |
| Telegram / Protect Content / Off | 3,363 | 59 |
| Telegram / Pin Message / Off | 3,362 | 59 |
| YouTube / Privacy / Public | 3,344 | 159 |
| Instagram / Share as Reel / On | 3,322 | 168 |
| Threads / Reply Control / Everyone | 3,270 | 73 |
| Threads / Allow Quotes / On | 3,270 | 73 |
| Telegram / Mark Media as Spoiler / Off | 3,153 | 59 |
| Telegram / Disable Web Page Preview / Off | 3,128 | 59 |
| Facebook / Share to Story / On | 2,929 | 162 |
| YouTube / Generate first comment / Off | 2,707 | 146 |
| YouTube / Default tags / Empty | 2,126 | 134 |
| Google Business Profile / Action destination URL / Configured | 1,686 | 208 |
| Facebook / Share as Reel / On | 1,585 | 85 |
| YouTube / Default tags / Configured | 1,449 | 65 |
| Google Business Profile / Call to action / Learn More | 1,352 | 174 |
| TikTok / AI-generated content disclosure / On | 1,331 | 59 |
| Facebook / Facebook Feed Post (including multi-image posts) / Off | 1,254 | 113 |
| Pinterest / Default tracking code / Empty | 1,121 | 108 |
| Pinterest / Enable Tracking / Off | 1,112 | 108 |
| TikTok / Own-brand disclosure / On | 1,097 | 82 |
| Pinterest / Allow Try On / Off | 1,058 | 96 |
| Pinterest / Default destination URL / Configured | 950 | 92 |
| Pinterest / Allow comments / Off | 714 | 83 |
| Pinterest / Allow comments / On | 407 | 42 |
| Pinterest / Default destination URL / Empty | 171 | 37 |
| Google Business Profile / Call to action / Book | 159 | 42 |
At least 30 accounts and 100 observations per displayed group. Account counts overlap. Small groups are withheld; absence from this table does not mean zero usage.
What the preset audit means
A successful delivery is only one part of a publishing checklist. The saved settings determine such choices as placement, reply permissions, visibility, notifications and action destinations. Counts describe explicitly stored choices, including serialized defaults; they do not prove that someone deliberately selected a preset or that the provider executed every setting. A missing setting is not treated as Off.
Configured versus empty: what to prioritize
On Pinterest, 950 of the 1,121 records in the published destination-URL comparison had a configured URL (84.7%). Check the destination and campaign tracking when the objective requires an outbound action. YouTube tags were configured in 40.5% of its 3,575 published comparison records, but filling every tag field is not a meaningful success measure: YouTube says tags mainly help with spelling variants. Prioritize the title, thumbnail and whether the video fulfils its promise. These are workflow recommendations informed by measured configuration counts and official guidance, not measured outcome lifts.
Accessibility within the wider preset
ALT text is one element of the production checklist. The audit found 2,096 eligible source posts with descriptions on all source images and 18,799 with none recorded. These counts use source posts, not destination deliveries, and small partial-description groups are withheld. Review accessibility on every asset; do not wait for proof of a reach increase before providing a useful description. The current records do not establish an engagement difference between the groups.
Recommended actions
Organize each platform preset around four decisions: where the content appears, who can see or respond, what action the audience should take, and what accessibility or disclosure checks are needed. Review ALT text for every image. Check destination links and tracking before saving a conversion-oriented preset. Review comments, sharing and notification choices deliberately. Recheck audience and content disclosures for each post instead of optimizing them for reach.
What can be concluded about growth
The completed audit does not yield a complete, comparable outcome cohort linking historical preset values to views, interactions or conversions at the same post age. It therefore cannot estimate an ALT-text lift, a first-comment lift, or a growth advantage from enabling any setting. Use these findings to identify workflow omissions and the comparison to measure next. Absence of a measurable effect here is not evidence that a setting has no effect.
Facebook: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Facebook Feed Post (including multi-image posts); Facebook Linked Carousel (image cards with links); Share to Story; Share as Reel; Allow Comments; Generate first comment. 9 setting-state groups met the public sample thresholds and appear in the results table. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Instagram: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Share to Feed; Share to Story; Share as Reel; Allow Comments; Generate first comment; Default collaborators. 9 setting-state groups met the public sample thresholds and appear in the results table. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Threads: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Reply Control; Allow Quotes. 2 setting-state groups met the public sample thresholds and appear in the results table. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
X: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Sensitive content; Community only; Posting mode; Limit replies to mentioned accounts only; Auto like; Auto retweet; Retweet after; Minimum views; Auto delete; Delete after; Maximum views. No setting-state group met the public sample thresholds in this edition. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
TikTok: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Share to Feed; Privacy; Disable Duet; Disable Stitch; Disable Comments; Own-brand disclosure; Branded-content disclosure; AI-generated content disclosure. 10 setting-state groups met the public sample thresholds and appear in the results table. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
YouTube: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Default tags; Generate first comment; Privacy; Embeddable; Made for Kids; Notify Subscribers. 7 setting-state groups met the public sample thresholds and appear in the results table. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
LinkedIn: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Generate first comment; Visibility; Feed Distribution; Enable Resharing; Call to action; Action destination URL. 4 setting-state groups met the public sample thresholds and appear in the results table. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Pinterest: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Default tracking code; Default destination URL; Allow comments; Allow Try On; Enable Tracking. 7 setting-state groups met the public sample thresholds and appear in the results table. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Telegram: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Send as Message; Pin Message; Disable Web Page Preview; Silent Message; Mark Media as Spoiler; Protect Content. 6 setting-state groups met the public sample thresholds and appear in the results table. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Discord: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Hide link previews; Silent message; Publish to announcement followers; Default button text; Default button URL. No setting-state group met the public sample thresholds in this edition. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Bluesky: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Languages; Content labels. No setting-state group met the public sample thresholds in this edition. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Whatsapp: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Default approved template name; Default template language code; Default body variables; Default campaign name. No setting-state group met the public sample thresholds in this edition. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Wordpress: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Publishing status; Post format; Default tags; Publish as Gutenberg blocks. No setting-state group met the public sample thresholds in this edition. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Ghost: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Publishing status; Visibility; Default tags; Feature new posts; Custom template filename. No setting-state group met the public sample thresholds in this edition. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Hashnode: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Unlisted post; Publishing status; Default tags; Disable comments; Show table of contents. No setting-state group met the public sample thresholds in this edition. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
DEV: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Publishing status; Default tags (maximum 4); Default series name. No setting-state group met the public sample thresholds in this edition. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Blogger: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Publishing status; Default labels. No setting-state group met the public sample thresholds in this edition. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Google Business Profile: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Call to action; Action destination URL; Publication type; Event Start Date; Event End Date; Offer Start Date; Offer End Date; Coupon Code; Coupon Redeem Url; Terms Conditions; Product Url. 5 setting-state groups met the public sample thresholds and appear in the results table. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Reddit: preset coverage
Reviewed dimensions: Post title; Subreddit flair; First comments. No setting-state group met the public sample thresholds in this edition. Only explicitly stored settings on source-post/destination pairs with verified publications are counted. Missing values are not inferred from app defaults. Content, recipients, URLs, tags and other customer-provided values are never published; text and list fields are classified only as configured or empty.
Sources for the teaching sections
Platform sources support the explanations. Postly data supports the observed counts. Strategic recommendations are editorial judgments.
Report 04 · Placement choices
Reels, Stories and feed: separate the placements
The recorded Instagram and Facebook placement choices show why video, feed and Story should be tracked separately.
Retained eligible publications up to October 4, 2026; October is partial.
The finding
Instagram has 3,322 qualifying saved Reel selections and 3,842 Story selections. Facebook has 1,585 Reel selections and 2,929 Story selections. A source post may select more than one placement, so adding the choices does not produce a unique-post total.
Source-post/destination pairs with a verified delivery and an explicit saved placement flag; not counts of confirmed native Reels or Stories.
| Observed group | records | Accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram / Share to Feed / On | 14,784 | 958 |
| Instagram / Share to Story / Off | 15,009 | 942 |
| Instagram / Share as Reel / Off | 15,529 | 947 |
| TikTok / Share to Feed / On | 7,326 | 456 |
| Facebook / Facebook Feed Post (including multi-image posts) / On | 32,595 | 841 |
| Facebook / Facebook Linked Carousel (image cards with links) / Off | 33,837 | 866 |
| Facebook / Share to Story / Off | 30,920 | 805 |
| Facebook / Share as Reel / Off | 32,264 | 847 |
| Instagram / Share to Feed / Off | 4,067 | 158 |
| Instagram / Share as Reel / On | 3,322 | 168 |
| Instagram / Share to Story / On | 3,842 | 175 |
| Facebook / Facebook Feed Post (including multi-image posts) / Off | 1,254 | 113 |
| Facebook / Share to Story / On | 2,929 | 162 |
| Facebook / Share as Reel / On | 1,585 | 85 |
At least 30 accounts and 100 observations per displayed group. Account counts overlap. Small groups are withheld; absence from this table does not mean zero usage.
What this means for creative briefs
A generic video label conceals different publishing intentions. Separate feed, Story and Reel in the brief, delivery verification and reporting sheet. When one creative is reused, retain the relationship between the source asset and each destination publication. This makes it possible to distinguish a successful distribution workflow from a successful audience response.
Recommended actions
Create separate placement variants of the same campaign brief. Preview framing and text for the intended placement, verify the actual native publication, and record its provider identifier. Compare views with views and interactions with interactions at the same post age and on the same platform. Keep audience size, promotion and topic as comparable as possible. Use a consistent business action to decide which placement earns more investment.
The performance conclusion
Stored placement choices do not reconstruct immutable publication-time settings. The available records cannot support a like-for-like Reel-versus-Story performance estimate or reveal an algorithm preference. The measured result is that publishers use distinct placement choices; the practical implication is to stop combining them into an undifferentiated video benchmark. No causal growth claim is made.
Algorithms: what the evidence can teach
A placement toggle is an instruction to the publishing workflow, not an algorithm signal observed by this study. YouTube explains that recommendations consider relevance and viewer response; its performance guidance does not support replacing audience understanding with an upload-frequency rule. The practical lesson is to define the intended audience response, verify the actual placement and compare compatible outcomes. The Postly receipt database cannot reveal proprietary ranking weights.
Sources for the teaching sections
Platform sources support the explanations. Postly data supports the observed counts. Strategic recommendations are editorial judgments.
Report 05 · Distribution workload
Cross-platform publishing: budget beyond the source post
Nearly a quarter of eligible source posts reached multiple platforms, and delivery work exceeds the source-post count.
Retained eligible publications up to October 4, 2026; October is partial.
The finding
11,186 of 47,388 eligible source posts reached multiple platforms (23.6%). The remaining 36,202 reached one platform. Across the complete sample there were 3.5 deliveries per eligible source post on average. Recurrence and multiple destination accounts also contribute to that ratio, so it is not the average number of platforms.
Each eligible source document counted once, classified by distinct platforms with accepted receipts. Multiple accounts on one platform remain one platform.
| Observed group | source posts | Accounts |
|---|---|---|
| One platform | 36,202 | 2,309 |
| Multiple platforms | 11,186 | 1,922 |
At least 30 accounts and 100 observations per displayed group. Account counts overlap. Small groups are withheld; absence from this table does not mean zero usage.
What this means for teams
A calendar measured only in source posts understates the delivery workload. Every additional destination creates adaptation, verification and response tasks even when the creative is reused. The observed multi-platform group is large enough to make a destination checklist useful, while the larger single-platform group shows that cross-posting should not be assumed to be universal.
Recommended actions
Give each campaign a source brief and a destination matrix. For each destination, record the audience question, placement, adapted opening, link, owner and success measure. Reuse the core idea but check the audience action separately. Before adding another platform, estimate the time to prepare, verify and respond there, then compare incremental qualified outcomes with that time cost.
What this cannot establish
More destinations do not demonstrate more growth, incremental reach or better return on effort. The same people may see several versions, and recurring publications can increase delivery counts without increasing creative variety. Product-specific channel rankings require validated product categories and linked outcomes, neither of which is established by the source-post distribution.
Report 06 · Publishing frequency
Posting frequency: the typical account differs from the busiest
September account-level medians reveal a much more modest cadence than headline delivery totals suggest.
September 1-30, 2026 (UTC).
The finding
In September, the median active account recorded 10 Instagram deliveries, 9 Facebook deliveries, 8 LinkedIn deliveries and 7 TikTok deliveries. Facebook recorded 76,934 September deliveries across 685 active accounts, or 112.3 per account on average, despite a median of 9. This large mean-median difference shows how heavily pooled publishing volume can be influenced by the most active accounts.
Median September 2026 verified deliveries per active destination account, calculated separately by platform. Accounts with no retained September deliveries are excluded.
| Observed group | median deliveries / active account | Accounts | Observations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 587 | 10,645 | |
| 9 | 685 | 76,934 | |
| 8 | 299 | 6,018 | |
| TikTok | 7 | 257 | 3,607 |
| Google Business Profile | 7 | 371 | 4,925 |
| YouTube | 7 | 98 | 1,296 |
| Threads | 6 | 61 | 2,371 |
| 6 | 81 | 1,246 |
At least 30 accounts and 100 observations per displayed group. Account counts overlap. Small groups are withheld; absence from this table does not mean zero usage.
What this means for a growth plan
Copying a pooled average would set a very different production target from the typical active account in this sample. A delivery can also be a recurring publication, so neither the mean nor the median is a count of new creative ideas. Use the median as descriptive context for workload, not as a universal posting target or an algorithm requirement.
Recommended actions
Start with a cadence that leaves time for original content and audience responses. Track your account-level weekly output, production hours and qualified outcomes together. If testing a higher cadence, increase one platform at a time while keeping topic quality and campaign objective stable. Review whether the additional publications produce enough incremental benefit to justify the extra work.
Scope and exclusions
The period is September 1 through September 30, 2026, in UTC. Only active accounts with retained verified deliveries enter each platform median. Missing or deleted records can lower observed activity. The table reports account counts and delivery observations separately. It does not connect posting frequency with follower growth, engagement or sales, and should not be advertised as an optimal frequency study.
Report 07 · Publishing times
Publishing times: the busiest hour is not a growth prescription
A complete September UTC distribution provides operational context for scheduling and a clearer basis for audience-local timing tests.
September 1-30, 2026 (UTC).
The finding
The largest published hourly bucket is 13:00 UTC, with 6,191 deliveries; the smallest is 10:00 UTC, with 2,876. Activity is distributed across every UTC hour in the published table. This describes a global publishing workflow; it does not measure when audiences were online or most responsive.
Deduplicated September 2026 publications by UTC hour, across platforms. Account counts overlap between hours.
| Observed group | September deliveries | Accounts |
|---|---|---|
| 13:00 UTC | 6,191 | 568 |
| 14:00 UTC | 5,891 | 594 |
| 12:00 UTC | 5,658 | 463 |
| 17:00 UTC | 5,607 | 459 |
| 15:00 UTC | 5,415 | 558 |
| 18:00 UTC | 5,237 | 499 |
| 16:00 UTC | 4,976 | 517 |
| 11:00 UTC | 4,974 | 419 |
| 09:00 UTC | 4,563 | 467 |
| 02:00 UTC | 4,546 | 358 |
| 05:00 UTC | 4,542 | 493 |
| 23:00 UTC | 4,432 | 336 |
| 19:00 UTC | 4,420 | 435 |
| 03:00 UTC | 4,321 | 309 |
| 06:00 UTC | 4,117 | 567 |
| 08:00 UTC | 4,078 | 677 |
| 00:00 UTC | 4,030 | 358 |
| 22:00 UTC | 3,990 | 357 |
| 04:00 UTC | 3,871 | 407 |
| 20:00 UTC | 3,827 | 357 |
| 01:00 UTC | 3,741 | 311 |
| 07:00 UTC | 3,653 | 547 |
| 21:00 UTC | 3,557 | 312 |
| 10:00 UTC | 2,876 | 406 |
At least 30 accounts and 100 observations per displayed group. Account counts overlap. Small groups are withheld; absence from this table does not mean zero usage.
What this means for scheduling
A universal best-time recommendation would confuse publisher behaviour with audience response. The same UTC hour corresponds to different local hours across regions, and the aggregate also mixes platforms and content. Use the observed spread to plan operational coverage and verification. Audience-local experiments need a narrower comparison than this global distribution.
Recommended actions
Record the audience timezone alongside every timing test. Compare two practical local-time windows on the same platform with similar content and a fixed observation age. Include a response or conversion measure rather than only publication success. Keep enough time after publishing to monitor responses, and revisit the schedule when audience geography or daylight-saving time changes.
How to use the full table
Each row is an observed publication hour, not a recommended time slot. September is a completed month, avoiding the partial October window in the retained census. There is no hourly engagement or conversion denominator in this study, so a high-volume hour cannot be called more effective and a low-volume hour cannot be called an opportunity without an outcome test.
Source and methodology
The census reads retained Postly production records in bounded batches from a database secondary. Receipts require platform, destination account, publication identifier and timestamp. TikTok also requires confirmed success. Repeated provider identifiers are counted once per destination. This is a live retained-data census, not a random sample or an atomic snapshot. Deleted records and publishing outside Postly are absent. Small groups are withheld: every displayed row requires at least 30 destination accounts and 100 observations. Accounts are not necessarily independent businesses; their counts overlap between rows.
Completed 2026-10-04. Citation: Postly Research, Social Media Publishing Report 2026, October 2026 · Original edition.
Full methodology