When I’m doing social media workshops, I get a lot of questions about “how many?” “how much?” and “when?” This is often because when people start out in social media, they are overwhelmed by the idea of having to blog, twitter and post to Facebook on a daily basis. They worry that social media is going to take up their entire day.

My usual answer to questions like that is 3. Post to Facebook three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and post to Twitter 3 times a day, staggered out in the morning, the afternoon and a night.

I didn’t really have any empirical or proven reason for that number. I just thought it was a nice balance between keeping yourself in people’s eye without feeling like you were spending your whole day on Facebook.

Turns out, there is proof that posting every other day is the optimal amount. Dan Zerella, The Social Media Strategist, recently posted that he had done some research, and found that people who posted to thier pages every other day got the most “likes.” In fact, the people who posted a lot got less and less likes.

Makes sense: first of all, if you have more posts, the people who may have liked them are spread thinner. Also, by posting more, you are adding to the “noise” of social media, and that can be a turn-off.

So, post three times a week to your Facebook page for the best results. Stuck for ideas? Check out this list.