Post 3–4 Reels per week on Instagram and 5–7 TikTok Shorts per week, and use 3–5 platform‑specific hashtags plus 2–3 cross‑platform trend tags per video.
1. Audit baseline – Pull the last 30 days of Insights via the Instagram Graph API (/v15.0/{ig-media-id}/insights?metric=impressions,reach,engagement) and TikTok Business API (/open_api/v1.3/video/list/). Compute average view‑through rate (VTR) and engagement per post.
2. Set frequency target – If VTR ≥ 15 % on IG, schedule 4 posts/week; if 10‑15 % schedule 3. For TikTok, VTR ≥ 20 % → 7 posts/week, 12‑20 % → 5‑6, else 4.
3. Select hashtags – Use the platform’s “Discover” endpoint (/v15.0/hashtag_search) to fetch the top 50 tags for your niche, then filter:
- Tier 1: ≤ 1 M posts, relevance ≥ 0.8 → 2‑3 tags.
- Tier 2: 1‑10 M posts, relevance ≥ 0.6 → 1‑2 tags.
- Trend tags – Pull current trending tags via TikTok /trend/list and Instagram /trending_hashtags; add 2‑3 that match your content theme.
4. Publish timing – Use the “best_time_to_post” field from Sprout Social API or the internal “optimal_publish_time” algorithm (hour = ⌊(engagement_score * 24) mod 24⌋).
5. Iterate weekly – Re‑run the audit every Monday, adjust frequency by ±1 post if VTR shifts > 2 percentage points.
| Platform | Posts/week | #Platform tags | #Trend tags |
|----------|------------|----------------|------------|
| Instagram Reels | 3‑4 | 3‑5 | 2‑3 |
| TikTok Shorts | 5‑7 | 3‑5 | 2‑3 |
import pandas as pd
def optimal_posts(vtr, platform):
if platform == 'ig':
return 4 if vtr >= 0.15 else 3
else:
if vtr >= 0.20: return 7
if vtr >= 0.12: return 5
return 4Gotcha: Posting on a holiday calendar without adjusting for regional peak times can nullify the VTR boost; always offset schedule by the audience’s local timezone.