Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2022

BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com

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2022 Update

Social media marketing is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing. It involves creating and sharing content on social media networks in order to advance business objectives such as marketing and branding goals. When well-executed, it delivers several benefits: improved brand and marketplace awareness, engagement with a worldwide audience, increased traffic, enhanced search engine optimization (SEO) rankings, and more.

The lifespan of posts is of interest, and a helpful metric is half-life. It’s the amount of time it takes for a post to receive half of its total engagement (such as likes, shares, and comments). The data can help inform the scheduling of posts.

This article reveals the lifespan (half-life) for posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, and Snapchat.
Findings are based on an analysis of data from 21 sources: Adobe, Bit.ly, Business Insider, Espirian, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, Fanbooster (Traject), Google, Klout, Later, Moz, New York Times, Pinterest, Simply Measured, Snapchat, Social Media University—Global, TechniqueHow, The Online Advertising Guide, TikTok, University of Akron, WebFX, and Wiselytics. In cases where data sources for a platform reported different values, the average was applied. As detailed next, the half-life of posts varies by platform.

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Twitter

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The average half-life duration for tweets is 24 minutes. That's longer than the 21 minutes shown in the earlier analysis which was conducted in 2021.

Facebook

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The average half-life duration for Facebook posts is 50 minutes. That's longer than the 30 minutes shown in the earlier analysis which was conducted in 2021.

Instagram

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The average half-life duration for Instagram posts is
1,140 minutes (= 19 hours). That's unchanged from what was shown in the earlier analysis which was conducted in 2021.

LinkedIn

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The average half-life duration for LinkedIn posts is
1,440 minutes (= 24 hours). That's unchanged from what was shown in the earlier analysis which was conducted in 2021.

YouTube

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The average half-life duration for YouTube posts is 8,640 minutes (= 6 days). That's unchanged from what was shown in the earlier analysis which was conducted in 2021.

Pinterest

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The average half-life duration for Pinterest posts is 164,270 minutes (= 3.75 months). That's longer than the 3.50 months shown in the earlier analysis which was conducted in 2021.

TikTok

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The average half-life duration for TikTok posts is 0 minutes. Exceptions apply: TikTok posts instantly decay—except for viral content. That's unchanged from what was shown in the earlier analysis which was conducted in 2021.

Snapchat

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The average half-life duration for Snapchat posts is
0 minutes. Exceptions apply: Snapchat messages may disappear instantly or live up to 24 hours. That's unchanged from what was shown in the earlier analysis which was conducted in 2021.

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As shown, half-life values vary by platform. The data can help inform the scheduling of posts.

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Permission Requests and Downloadable High-Resolution Versions of 'Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2022' Infographic-Visual

To request permission to use the 'Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts' visual shown at the top of this article, contact Scott M. Graffius.

High resolution versions of the image appearing at the top of this article are available at the following links: here for the JPG file and here for the PNG file.

How to cite: Graffius, Scott M. (2022). Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts. Version 2022. Available at ScottGraffius.com.



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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, multi award-winning author, and international speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. Graffius is the founder, CEO, and principal consultant at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. His expertise spans project, program, portfolio, and PMO leadership inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches. Content from his books, workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities including Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, Project Management Institute, IEEE, SANS Institute, U.S. Soccer Federation, English Institute of Sport, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Wrike, Bayer, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, United States Army, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and others. Graffius has spoken at 59 conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. Thinkers360 named Graffius a global top thought leader and influencer in four domains: Agile, Change Management, Digital Transformation, and GovTech.

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