There was a time when the number of social media networks could be counted on the very fingers of your hand. But as of today, there are numerous social media networks and publishing platforms available all thanks to the modern-day digital era. And this has given rise to plenty of content publishing.
But therein lies a conundrum. A pretty big one. The piece of content that you publish on social media networks have a relatively shorter span space. The shelf life for content varies with the different types of networks. So we thought of looking at the different types of social media networks and find out which one has the longest shelf life for a piece of content. Come, let’s find out.
Different Types of Social Media Network and Their Content Life Span
- Facebook generally has an active life span of five hours for the content. Although the content stays there for the long term, most of the impressions (around 75%) are those that are garnered within the first 4-5 hours. You can easily find the old messages on Facebook but when it comes to content, they have a different algorithm. Facebook’s algorithm usually archives and records the posts and they tend to become non-chronological in the newsfeed. It is why when you try to find content, you may have to dig deep.
- Instagram has a much longer lifespan than Facebook when it comes to content. Typically, the life span for content is around 48 hours and this is where around 75% of the traction is built. Normally the stories and content tend to fade away after 6-8 hours but the traction keeps on building for over 48 hours. Potentially, posts could last longer if the user goes to buy IG likes, however, comments and engagement are stronger metrics to how long a post will last.
- Twitter is known to push new content now and then. The content turnaround for Twitter is much quicker than any other social media platform. This is why it also has the lowest life span for content among any social media networks. The average time for a piece of content on Twitter is merely 18 minutes.
Snapchat
- Snapchat is designed to have snaps of only around 10 seconds and this is their main USP. And these snaps can get easily lost in the myriad of snaps on the app. But the Snapchat posts do have a longer life span with an average period of 24 hours for a post.
- Pinterest single-handedly beats every social media network when it comes to content lifespan. The pins can appear for weeks and months on the feed and helps to build traction over a long period. Typically, the life span of pins is around three and a half months. But there’s another catch that makes it an irresistible choice. The Pinterest algorithm is designed in such a way that their pins are timeless and the superior pins tend to hover for over a year or even longer on the feed. That makes it the network with the longest life for a piece of content.
There are plenty of social media networks and each allows you to post content on them. But it’s Pinterest that takes the throne hands-down due to their algorithm of timeless affordability to pins.