The Lifespan of a Social Media Post

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By: Kiandra Florence

Have you ever wondered how long your social media posts last? With content quickly being pushed on platforms, it is sometimes hard to ensure you reached the maximum effectiveness of your post. Social media is constantly evolving and rapidly growing, so it is important as a marketer to understand the expiration date of a social media post.

Though the type of post you create does play a role in the amount of attention it receives, the average lifespan of a post is the same no matter the type. According to Moz, the average lifespan of a tweet is a mere 18 minutes! It may seem like a short amount of time, however with the rapid amount of tweets being published per second, it is more than likely that your tweets get lost in the crowd of newer tweets, losing its power shortly after.

Instagram is another platform where posts tend to have a short lifespan. With new pictures and videos constantly being uploaded, it is likely that your post will only be seen once through the stream of content. Though the average lifespan of an Instagram post is uncertain, the amount of people your followers are following is a definite factor. Whatever the number, it is important that the photos you post on Instagram are captivating to ensure that your followers are taking the time to stop and look at them.

In other research, Facebook posts garner 75% of their engagement within the first 5 hours. It is imperative that you plan when to post content so that you make sure you’re reaching as many people as possible. Checking your insights allows you to see how many of your followers are on at certain times of day. Other platforms, such as LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+ have lifespans that depend on the amount of followers and connections you have on them.

Even though posts don’t live forever, they still have the opportunity to get your message across in an acute amount of time. It is important to take this research into consideration when creating your next stream of social media content to ensure that you’re putting your best content out there for your followers to engage in.

Do you think the research was insightful? How do you think this knowledge will help improve when and how you post content on social media? Share your comments below!