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The posting benchmark

IOL on Facebook, beside its peers

How IOL's Facebook Page posted from 29 June 2026 to 20 September 2026, and how readers responded, beside its 13 peers: news publishers and digital-native newsrooms in Africa with 500k to 5m followers.

Country
South Africa
Region
Africa
Kind
Publisher, digital-native or agency
Followers
1m to 10m

Within South Africa

IOL: 74.1 a day

Median in South Africa: 18.3 a day

That is 55.9 more a day than the median in South Africa.

Place the dots by

Posts a day5th/14Photos and video1st/14Evening posts9th/14Weekend day12th/14
Engagement per post3rd/14Engagement a day2nd/14Per 1,000 followers3rd/14Comments per post1st/14Comments a day2nd/14

IOL, South Africa

5thof 14

Rank among its peers, highest first, posts a day

IOL posted 74.1 times a day to Facebook. The median of its 13 peers: 27.9.

Its first gap: a weekend day

28 more posts a weekend would reach its peers' median. What it would take

Peers: 13 news publishers and digital-native newsrooms in Africa with 500k to 5m followers, 12 weeks to 20 September 2026.

See all nine measures

IOL's 13 peers, lifted out of the 950 news brands in the comparison, placed by posts a day. The scale is logarithmic, so 1 to 10 takes the same width as 10 to 100.

Public Facebook posts, 29 June 2026 to 20 September 2026. Dataset peers-2026-09-v4.

At a glance

IOL beside 13 peers

IOL and its peers, measure by measure. Public Facebook posts, 29 June 2026 to 20 September 2026. Dataset peers-2026-09-v4.
MeasureFigureRank among its peers, highest firstMedian of its peers
Posts a day74.15th of 1427.9
Photos and video99%1st of 1439%
Evening posts16%9th of 1418%
Weekend day37.1%12th of 1452%
Engagement per post883rd of 1429
Engagement a day43,0202nd of 147,027
Engagement per 1,000 followers0.0713rd of 140.011
Comments per post1131st of 1435
Comments a day8,3462nd of 14920

What it would take

What would reaching the median of its peers take?

IOL's posts a day are at or above the median of its peers, so this starts with a weekend day, where it sits furthest below them.

28more posts a weekend

8 on Saturday and 20 on Sunday, to bring each to the median of its peers

On a weekend day, IOL posts 37.1% of a weekday's posts. The median of its peers: 52.1%.

Arithmetic on the figures above, rounded up. It isn't a forecast.

Posts on each day of the week, local time, and the posts that would bring Saturday and Sunday to the median of its peers

  • IOL
  • The rest of the way to the median
  • A weekend day at its peers' median share of its own weekdays
  • Auto-pilot's starting hours
Show as a table
Posts on each day of the week, local time, and the posts that would bring Saturday and Sunday to the median of its peers
IOLA weekend day at its peers' median share of its own weekdaysThe rest of the way to the median
Monday75.30
Tuesday94.90
Wednesday1020
Thursday95.40
Friday84.60
Saturday39.647.18
Sunday27.447.120

The other measures, in posts

  • Evening posts

    18:00 to midnight: 16% of its posts; the median of its peers 18%

    9 more of its 519 posts a week between 18:00 and midnight: 85 now, 94 at the median
  • At or above the median of its peers on posts a day and photos and video.

Posts a day and the weekend add posts; photos and video and the evening move posts it already publishes. Each rounds up. It isn't a forecast.

Posting

Posts from your own stories, in the hours you choose

Each story you tick in the RSS feed gets a poster from your template, and each channel's queue spreads the posts across its own slots, so posting more of your stories doesn't mean making more cards by hand. A story needs a photo unless the template uses a solid background.

Auto-pilot starts with Friday 15:00–21:00 and Saturday and Sunday 07:00–21:00, every 15 minutes, and an organisation admin can change the days, hours and interval.

Auto-pilot's Saturday run on The Port Arden Post's Facebook queue.

Publishing · The Port Arden Post

FICTIONAL NEWSROOM

Sat 10 Oct

  1. 07:15Breaking: Crash closes the Arden Pass roadNext · in 15 min
  2. 07:30Semifinal tickets: what Gulls fans need to know
  3. 07:45Greyport Gulls name unchanged side for Saturday's semifinal
FIG. 1 · Auto-pilot's Saturday run on The Port Arden Post's Facebook queue. All mastheads, people, handles and comments shown are fictional. Illustrative figures. Labels as they appear in Sence, September 2026.

Comments

The comments that come with them

IOL's Facebook posts drew 8,346 comments a day, 9.1 times the median of 13 news publishers and digital-native newsrooms in Africa with 500k to 5m followers, 29 June to 20 September 2026.

Posts you publish through Sence go out to a comment section Sence is already watching.

When a comment matches a rule you've switched on, Sence typically hides it within seconds and alerts whoever you choose. Replies are always sent by a person. Comments on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and your own site are read the moment they arrive. YouTube is checked every few minutes.

Sence builds a poster from your template for each story you tick, queues up to 30 stories at a time from your RSS feed, and lets auto-pilot fill the evening and weekend slots you choose. Auto-pilot's posts go out without review.

Contact us

Sence doesn't forecast what posting more will do for your reach, engagement or revenue. If you switch on link tagging, your own analytics can see the visits each platform sends.

Head to head

Put it beside up to three news brands

Add a news brand from anywhere in the comparison, or one of its peers, and every figure lines up beside IOL's.

Type its name, then choose it.

Or one of its peers in its own country

Day by day

How IOL posted, beside its peers

Its own posts beside its 13 peers, 29 June 2026 to 20 September 2026. Days are UTC days; hours and weekdays are local time.

Posts each day

  • IOL
  • Median of its peers
  • Middle half of its peers' posts a day
Show the figures as a table
Posts each day by IOL, 29 June 2026 to 20 September 2026, beside the median of its peers each day and the middle half of their posts a day.
DayIOLMedian of its peers
Monday 29 June7041
Tuesday 30 June9149
Wednesday 1 July9225
Thursday 2 July8531
Friday 3 July8425
Saturday 4 July5516
Sunday 5 July189
Monday 6 July5525
Tuesday 7 July9024
Wednesday 8 July10017
Thursday 9 July9925
Friday 10 July8930
Saturday 11 July3214
Sunday 12 July2110
Monday 13 July9524
Tuesday 14 July8217
Wednesday 15 July9429
Thursday 16 July9619
Friday 17 July8230
Saturday 18 July4015
Sunday 19 July3319
Monday 20 July8929
Tuesday 21 July9331
Wednesday 22 July8735
Thursday 23 July9823
Friday 24 July6525
Saturday 25 July6215
Sunday 26 July3111
Monday 27 July10029
Tuesday 28 July10139
Wednesday 29 July11829
Thursday 30 July9335
Friday 31 July8629
Saturday 1 August3020
Sunday 2 August2619
Monday 3 August6531
Tuesday 4 August9941
Wednesday 5 August10930
Thursday 6 August11532
Friday 7 August7439
Saturday 8 August3121
Sunday 9 August2322
Monday 10 August3433
Tuesday 11 August9540
Wednesday 12 August12328
Thursday 13 August11037
Friday 14 August9635
Saturday 15 August4622
Sunday 16 August4124
Monday 17 August10542
Tuesday 18 August10952
Wednesday 19 August11243
Thursday 20 August10942
Friday 21 August9239
Saturday 22 August2715
Sunday 23 August2123
Monday 24 August6646
Tuesday 25 August8441
Wednesday 26 August9237
Thursday 27 August9046
Friday 28 August9432
Saturday 29 August3223
Sunday 30 August2920
Monday 31 August10036
Tuesday 1 September11940
Wednesday 2 September11139
Thursday 3 September7532
Friday 4 September5031
Saturday 5 September3615
Sunday 6 September3218
Monday 7 September6146
Tuesday 8 September7739
Wednesday 9 September8536
Thursday 10 September7333
Friday 11 September7228
Saturday 12 September3016
Sunday 13 September2017
Monday 14 September6940
Tuesday 15 September10840
Wednesday 16 September9537
Thursday 17 September9643
Friday 18 September12343
Saturday 19 September5017
Sunday 20 September3724

Share of posts by local hour

Show the figures as a table
Share of posts by IOL in each local hour, beside the median of its peers.
Local hourIOLMedian of its peers
00:000.9%0.2%
01:000.6%0%
02:000.5%0%
03:000.6%0.1%
04:000.5%0.1%
05:000.4%0.4%
06:002.3%1.6%
07:005.4%3.8%
08:004.5%4.7%
09:006.3%6.9%
10:008.2%7.8%
11:009.1%8.2%
12:008.1%8.5%
13:009.8%8.2%
14:008.3%8.1%
15:006.9%8.3%
16:005.8%7.7%
17:005.3%6.5%
18:004.1%5.1%
19:003.5%4.3%
20:002.7%4.1%
21:002.6%2.3%
22:002.1%2%
23:001.5%1.1%

Posts a day by weekday

Show the figures as a table
Posts a day by IOL on each local weekday, beside the median of its peers.
WeekdayIOLMedian of its peers
Monday75.335.5
Tuesday94.936.3
Wednesday10234.2
Thursday95.434.2
Friday84.630.9
Saturday39.615.9
Sunday27.416.2

What it posted

Show the figures as a table
Share of each format among posts by IOL, and the median across its peers.
FormatIOLIts peers, median
Photo66%26%
Video or reel26%8%
Album7%3%
Link1%64%
Text only0%0%
Other0%0%

The detail

When it posts, and who it's compared with

When it posts, day by day and hour by hourEvery day of the 12 weeks, every hour of the day and what it posts, beside the median of its peers.
  • IOL, 18:00 to midnight: 16%
  • Median of its peers, 18:00 to midnight: 18%
  • On a weekend day, IOL posted 37.1% of a weekday's posts. The median of its peers: 52%.

Public Facebook posts, 29 June 2026 to 20 September 2026. Dataset peers-2026-09-v4.

Who is it compared with?Where each of its peers is based, and every one of them by name.

IOL's peers are 13 news publishers and digital-native newsrooms in Africa with 500k to 5m followers: the same kind of title with a similar number of followers, from the nearest place that has enough of them. Its 13 peers, A to Z.

The peers

Its 13 peers, A to Z

Each has a page of its own, beside its own peers. Each news brand's rank is among its own peers only. Being counted says nothing about which tools a newsroom uses.

Compare another news brand

Type its name, then choose it to open its page.

Every news brand, A to Z

Talk to us

Tell us how many stories you publish and where they go today. We'll show you what your queues and auto-pilot could carry.

Contact us