Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update 2 for 2022
16 July 2022
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com
🔥 Scott M. Graffius periodically refreshes his research. The newest (2024) edition is here.
Click here to download this article as a PDF.
Update 2 for 2022
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 multiple benefits: improved brand and marketplace awareness, engagement with a worldwide audience, increased traffic, enhanced search engine optimization (SEO) rankings, and more.
When content is published online, relevance and engagement have a limited lifespan. The duration is of interest, and a helpful objective 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 strategic and tactical decisions, such as the frequency/scheduling of posts.
Based on an analysis of data from 25 diverse sources, this article reveals the average lifespan (half-life) for posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat, and blogs. Here are the sources: Adobe, Bit.ly, Business Insider, Emeritus, Espirian, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, Fanbooster (Traject), Forbes, Google, Ignite Social Media, Klout, Later, Moz, New York Times, Pinterest, Science.org, Sculpt - B2B Social Media Agency, Simply Measured, Snapchat, Social Media University—Global, TechniqueHow, The Online Advertising Guide, 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.
As shown, half-life values vary by platform. The data can help inform the scheduling of posts.
Permission Requests and Downloadable High-Resolution Versions of 'Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update 2 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: JPG file and PNG file.
How to cite: Graffius, Scott M. (2022, July). Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts. Update 2 for 2022. Available at ScottGraffius.com.
About Scott M. Graffius
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™. Content from his books (Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions and Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change), workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities including Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, EY, 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, United States National Park Service, 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 delivers dynamic and engaging talks and workshops at public and private/corporate events. His engagements total 78 in-person and online conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. Graffius delights audiences with sessions on technology leadership and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches. He uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
The short URL for this article is: https://bit.ly/4-social
#Branding #Blogs #ContentMarketing #Digital #DigitalContent #DigitalMarketing #DigitalMedia #DigitalStrategy #DigitalTactics #Facebook #Halflife #HalflifeForPosts #Instagram #InternetMarketing #LifespanOfSocialMediaPosts #LinkedIn #Marketing #Pinterest #Posts #SEO #ShelfLifeOfPosts #Snapchat #Social #SocialMarketing #SocialMedia #SocialMediaMarketing #SocialMediaPlatforms #TikTok #Twitter #YouTube
© Copyright 2022 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
🔥 Scott M. Graffius periodically refreshes his research. The newest (2024) edition is here.
Click here to download this article as a PDF.
Update 2 for 2022
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 multiple benefits: improved brand and marketplace awareness, engagement with a worldwide audience, increased traffic, enhanced search engine optimization (SEO) rankings, and more.
When content is published online, relevance and engagement have a limited lifespan. The duration is of interest, and a helpful objective 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 strategic and tactical decisions, such as the frequency/scheduling of posts.
Based on an analysis of data from 25 diverse sources, this article reveals the average lifespan (half-life) for posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat, and blogs. Here are the sources: Adobe, Bit.ly, Business Insider, Emeritus, Espirian, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, Fanbooster (Traject), Forbes, Google, Ignite Social Media, Klout, Later, Moz, New York Times, Pinterest, Science.org, Sculpt - B2B Social Media Agency, Simply Measured, Snapchat, Social Media University—Global, TechniqueHow, The Online Advertising Guide, 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.
- Twitter: The average half-life duration for tweets is 23 minutes. That's 1 minute shorter than the 24 minutes shown in the earlier analysis which was conducted in January 2022.
- Facebook: The average half-life duration for Facebook posts is 60 minutes. That's 10 minutes longer than the 50 minutes shown in the earlier analysis which was conducted in January 2022.
- Instagram: The average half-life duration for Instagram posts is 1,170 minutes (= 19.50 hours). That's 30 minutes longer than the 1,140 minutes shown in the earlier analysis which was conducted in January 2022.
- LinkedIn: 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 January 2022.
- YouTube: 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 January 2022.
- Pinterest: The average half-life duration for Pinterest posts is 164,270 minutes (= 3.75 months). That's unchanged from what was shown in the earlier analysis which was conducted in January 2022.
- Snapchat: 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 January 2022.
- Blogs: The average half-life duration for blog posts is 1,051,200 minutes (= 2 years). This is the first time blogs are included in the analysis.
As shown, half-life values vary by platform. The data can help inform the scheduling of posts.
Permission Requests and Downloadable High-Resolution Versions of 'Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update 2 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: JPG file and PNG file.
How to cite: Graffius, Scott M. (2022, July). Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts. Update 2 for 2022. Available at ScottGraffius.com.
About Scott M. Graffius
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™. Content from his books (Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions and Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change), workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities including Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, EY, 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, United States National Park Service, 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 delivers dynamic and engaging talks and workshops at public and private/corporate events. His engagements total 78 in-person and online conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. Graffius delights audiences with sessions on technology leadership and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches. He uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
The short URL for this article is: https://bit.ly/4-social
#Branding #Blogs #ContentMarketing #Digital #DigitalContent #DigitalMarketing #DigitalMedia #DigitalStrategy #DigitalTactics #Facebook #Halflife #HalflifeForPosts #Instagram #InternetMarketing #LifespanOfSocialMediaPosts #LinkedIn #Marketing #Pinterest #Posts #SEO #ShelfLifeOfPosts #Snapchat #Social #SocialMarketing #SocialMedia #SocialMediaMarketing #SocialMediaPlatforms #TikTok #Twitter #YouTube
© Copyright 2022 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2023
01 January 2023
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com
🔥 Scott M. Graffius periodically refreshes his research. The newest (2024) edition is here.
Click here to download this article as a PDF.
Update for 2023
In 2018, Scott M. Graffius first published data on the lifespan (half-life) of social media posts. As algorithms and other factors on platforms change over time¹, Graffius periodically updates the analysis. This is the update for 2023.
Digital marketing involves utilizing tools, processes, content, and techniques to advance goals such as traffic, visibility, and sales for individuals, brands, and businesses. An increasingly important form of digital marketing is social media marketing. It involves creating and sharing content on social media networks. When well-executed, it delivers multiple benefits, including:
When content is published online, relevance and engagement have a limited lifespan. An advantageous objective 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 strategic and tactical decisions, such as the frequency/scheduling of posts.
Based on an analysis of data from 32 diverse sources listed below³, this article reveals the average lifespan (half-life) for posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat, and blogs. In cases where data sources reported different values for a platform, the average was applied.
As detailed next, the half-life of posts varies by platform.
⋯⋯⋯
Snapchat is a multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc. A distinguishing feature of the platform is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. Snapchat has 557,000,000 (557 million) active users.⁴
The average half-life duration for Snapchat posts is 0 minutes.³ Exceptions apply: Snapchat messages may disappear instantly or live up to 24 hours. That's unchanged from what was shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
Twitter is a microblogging and social networking service owned by X Holdings II, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of X Holdings I, Inc., wholly owned by Elon Musk), on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Twitter has 436,000,000 (436 million) active users.⁴
The average half-life duration for tweets is 24 minutes.³ That's 1 minute longer than the 23 minutes shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It's the third most visited website. Facebook has 2,910,000,000 (2.91 billion) active users.⁴
The average half-life duration for Facebook posts is 105 minutes (= 1.75 hours).³ That's 45 minutes longer than the 60 minutes shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
Instagram is a photo and video sharing service owned by Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Users can browse other users' content by tag and location, view trending content, like photos, and follow other users to add their content to a personal feed. Instagram has 1,478,000,000 (1.478 billion) active users.⁴
The average half-life duration for Instagram posts is 1,200 minutes (= 20 hours).³ That's 30 minutes longer than the 1,170 minutes shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
LinkedIn is a business and employment-oriented online service. It's a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. LinkedIn claims to have 830,000,000+ (830 million) users.⁵ However, it does not report how many of those users are active users. Active users may be significantly less than the total number of users.
The average half-life duration for LinkedIn posts is 1,440 minutes (= 24 hours).³ That's unchanged from what was shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
YouTube is an online video sharing and social media platform. It's owned by Google, and it's the second most visited website, after Google Search. YouTube has 2,562,000,000 (2.562 billion) active users.⁴
The average half-life duration for YouTube posts is 12,672 minutes (= 8.8 days).³ That's 4,032 minutes longer than the 8,640 minutes shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
Pinterest is an image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images — and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos — in the form of pinboards. The service is operated by Pinterest, Inc. It has 444,000,000 (444 million) active users.⁴
The average half-life duration for Pinterest posts is 164,270 minutes (= 3.75 months).³ That's unchanged from what was shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
Blogs (a truncation of "weblogs") are discussion or informational websites consisting of discrete, often diary-style entries. Up until 2009, blogs were usually the work of an individual and each typically covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, multi-author blogs (MABs) from media outlets and others emerged. In addition to featuring the writings of multiple authors, MABs often span a range of topics. It is estimated that there are over 572,000,000 (572 million) blogs.⁶
The average half-life duration for blog posts is 1,051,200 minutes (= 2 years).³ That's unchanged from what was shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
As shown, half-life values vary by platform. The data can help inform strategic and tactical decisions, such as the frequency/scheduling of posts.
References / Sources:
How to cite this article:
Graffius, Scott M. (2023, January 1). The Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2023. Available at https://www.ScottGraffius.com.
To request permission to use the 'Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts' visual shown at the top of this article (or any other content in this article), contact Scott M. Graffius. If approved, high resolution JPG and PNG versions of the image, if applicable, will be provided along with terms and conditions.
About Scott M. Graffius
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 highly sought-after international keynote speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. Graffius is the CEO and Principal Consultant at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. Content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities. Select examples include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, U.S. Soccer Federation, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Park Service, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Yale University, Warsaw University of Technology, and others. Graffius has delighted audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile, project management, and technology leadership at 82 conferences and other events across 24 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
© Copyright 2023 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
🔥 Scott M. Graffius periodically refreshes his research. The newest (2024) edition is here.
Click here to download this article as a PDF.
Update for 2023
In 2018, Scott M. Graffius first published data on the lifespan (half-life) of social media posts. As algorithms and other factors on platforms change over time¹, Graffius periodically updates the analysis. This is the update for 2023.
Digital marketing involves utilizing tools, processes, content, and techniques to advance goals such as traffic, visibility, and sales for individuals, brands, and businesses. An increasingly important form of digital marketing is social media marketing. It involves creating and sharing content on social media networks. When well-executed, it delivers multiple benefits, including:
- Improved brand and marketplace awareness,
- Engagement with a global audience — there are 4,700,000,000 (4.7 billion) active social media users worldwide²,
- Increased traffic,
- Enhanced search engine optimization (SEO) rankings,
- And more.
When content is published online, relevance and engagement have a limited lifespan. An advantageous objective 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 strategic and tactical decisions, such as the frequency/scheduling of posts.
Based on an analysis of data from 32 diverse sources listed below³, this article reveals the average lifespan (half-life) for posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat, and blogs. In cases where data sources reported different values for a platform, the average was applied.
As detailed next, the half-life of posts varies by platform.
⋯⋯⋯
Snapchat is a multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc. A distinguishing feature of the platform is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. Snapchat has 557,000,000 (557 million) active users.⁴
The average half-life duration for Snapchat posts is 0 minutes.³ Exceptions apply: Snapchat messages may disappear instantly or live up to 24 hours. That's unchanged from what was shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
Twitter is a microblogging and social networking service owned by X Holdings II, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of X Holdings I, Inc., wholly owned by Elon Musk), on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Twitter has 436,000,000 (436 million) active users.⁴
The average half-life duration for tweets is 24 minutes.³ That's 1 minute longer than the 23 minutes shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It's the third most visited website. Facebook has 2,910,000,000 (2.91 billion) active users.⁴
The average half-life duration for Facebook posts is 105 minutes (= 1.75 hours).³ That's 45 minutes longer than the 60 minutes shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
Instagram is a photo and video sharing service owned by Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Users can browse other users' content by tag and location, view trending content, like photos, and follow other users to add their content to a personal feed. Instagram has 1,478,000,000 (1.478 billion) active users.⁴
The average half-life duration for Instagram posts is 1,200 minutes (= 20 hours).³ That's 30 minutes longer than the 1,170 minutes shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
LinkedIn is a business and employment-oriented online service. It's a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. LinkedIn claims to have 830,000,000+ (830 million) users.⁵ However, it does not report how many of those users are active users. Active users may be significantly less than the total number of users.
The average half-life duration for LinkedIn posts is 1,440 minutes (= 24 hours).³ That's unchanged from what was shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
YouTube is an online video sharing and social media platform. It's owned by Google, and it's the second most visited website, after Google Search. YouTube has 2,562,000,000 (2.562 billion) active users.⁴
The average half-life duration for YouTube posts is 12,672 minutes (= 8.8 days).³ That's 4,032 minutes longer than the 8,640 minutes shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
Pinterest is an image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images — and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos — in the form of pinboards. The service is operated by Pinterest, Inc. It has 444,000,000 (444 million) active users.⁴
The average half-life duration for Pinterest posts is 164,270 minutes (= 3.75 months).³ That's unchanged from what was shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
⋯⋯⋯
Blogs (a truncation of "weblogs") are discussion or informational websites consisting of discrete, often diary-style entries. Up until 2009, blogs were usually the work of an individual and each typically covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, multi-author blogs (MABs) from media outlets and others emerged. In addition to featuring the writings of multiple authors, MABs often span a range of topics. It is estimated that there are over 572,000,000 (572 million) blogs.⁶
The average half-life duration for blog posts is 1,051,200 minutes (= 2 years).³ That's unchanged from what was shown in the prior analysis which was conducted and published at ScottGraffius.com in July 2022.
As shown, half-life values vary by platform. The data can help inform strategic and tactical decisions, such as the frequency/scheduling of posts.
References / Sources:
- Forbes's report, "A Guide to Social Media Algorithms and SEO."
- Statista's report, "Social Media - Statistics and Facts."
- We analyzed data from 32 diverse sources, including: Adobe, Bit.ly, Business Insider, Business Standard, Emeritus, Espirian, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, Fanbooster (Traject), Fast Company, Forbes, Google, IEEE, Ignite Social Media, Klout, Later, Moz, New York Times, Pinterest, Royal Town Planning Institute, Science.org, Sculpt - B2B Social Media Agency, Simply Measured, Snapchat, Social Media Marketing, Social Media University—Global, TechniqueHow, The Online Advertising Guide, Université de Genève (University of Geneva), University of Akron, Washington Post, WebFX, and Wiselytics.
- Statista’s report, "Most Popular Social Networks Worldwide."
- LinkedIn.
- First Site Guide’s report, "Blogging Statistics 2022."
How to cite this article:
Graffius, Scott M. (2023, January 1). The Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2023. Available at https://www.ScottGraffius.com.
To request permission to use the 'Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts' visual shown at the top of this article (or any other content in this article), contact Scott M. Graffius. If approved, high resolution JPG and PNG versions of the image, if applicable, will be provided along with terms and conditions.
About Scott M. Graffius
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 highly sought-after international keynote speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. Graffius is the CEO and Principal Consultant at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. Content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities. Select examples include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, U.S. Soccer Federation, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Park Service, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Yale University, Warsaw University of Technology, and others. Graffius has delighted audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile, project management, and technology leadership at 82 conferences and other events across 24 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
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© Copyright 2023 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
AI is a Team Sport: A Confluence of Diverse Technical and Soft Skills are Crucial for Success
01 May 2023
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com
Select here to download this article as a PDF.
This article covers the significance of well-rounded AI teams, including how both soft and technical skills are critical and fuel success. It’s informed by Graffius' work on AI projects as well as research and coverage from DARPA, Exceptional Agility, IBM, IEEE, Intel, MIT, Microsoft, Nvidia, Samsung, Software Engineering Institute, Stanford University, United States Artificial Intelligence Institute, and others (all listed in the bibliography section of this article).
Introduction
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force across a growing number of industries, revolutionizing how we live, work, and interact. From autonomous vehicles and virtual assistants to personalized recommendations and medical diagnoses, AI systems have become integral to our daily lives. Behind these cutting-edge, life-changing solutions are AI teams that possess a combination of soft skills—also known as core skills, interpersonal skills, people skills, power skills, transferable skills, or transversal skills—and technical expertise.
This article highlights the synergy between soft skills and technical skills in the world of AI. While technical skills provide the general foundation for AI development, it’s the soft skills that elevate AI projects to new heights. From effective communication and critical thinking to leadership and teamwork, soft skills play a pivotal role in translating technical knowledge and capabilities into real-world applications.
The thesis of this article is that the successful development and application of AI requires a combination of soft skills and technical expertise. Technical competencies alone are not enough. Rather, it’s the combination and integration of soft and technical skills that truly unlocks the power of AI.
Next, this article focuses on the importance of soft skills in the AI landscape, highlighting how they complement and enhance technical abilities. The collaboration between these skill sets drives AI innovation.
Understanding Soft Skills in AI Teams
In the realm of AI, technical expertise often takes center stage. However, soft skills advance the successful outcomes of AI projects, as they facilitate effective communication, foster collaboration, and promote critical thinking. Soft skills are powerful facilitators of success.
Soft skills encompass a range of interpersonal and cognitive abilities that enable teams to work harmoniously, adapt to evolving challenges, and solve complex problems. In the AI landscape, where multidisciplinary teams come together to create innovative solutions, these soft skills are essential.
Effective communication stands at the forefront of soft skills in AI. AI teams must articulate complex technical concepts in a manner that is understandable to diverse stakeholders, including non-technical staff and internal or external customers/users. Clear communication promotes collaboration and ensures alignment of purpose and objectives throughout the AI development lifecycle.
Soft skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking are vital as well. AI teams frequently encounter multifaceted challenges, and it is through these soft skills that teams can identify potential bottlenecks, navigate complexities, and devise innovative solutions. By leveraging critical thinking, AI team members can evaluate different approaches, consider ethical implications, and make informed decisions that shape the development and application of AI systems.
Leadership and teamwork skills are also paramount. AI projects involve team members from diverse backgrounds, including data scientists, engineers, domain experts, designers, and others. Effective leadership enables the coordination of efforts and guides the project towards success. Similarly, teamwork skills foster an environment of trust and respect, promoting synergy among team members and enhancing overall productivity.
Recognizing the importance of soft skills in AI is crucial for fostering a balanced and effective team dynamic. It ensures that AI teams possess the interpersonal and cognitive abilities necessary to bring AI projects to fruition. The integration of soft skills alongside technical expertise sets the stage for a cohesive team capable of tackling complex AI challenges with agility and innovation.
The role of technical skills—including how they intersect with soft skills to create a powerful combination that drives success—are covered next.
The Role of Technical Skills in AI Teams
Technical skills provide the tools and knowledge required to design, build, and implement AI systems. This section explores the role that technical skills play in AI and their specific applications in various stages of AI projects.
Technical skills are essential for AI projects. They enable team members to translate concepts, theories, and algorithms into practical applications. However, technical skills alone are not sufficient for success. The collaborative nature of AI development and the need for a well-rounded AI team—including the synergy between technical skills and soft skills—is covered next.
The Power of Synergy: Soft Skills and Technical Skills in AI Teams
The convergence of soft skills and technical skills is where true innovation and breakthroughs occur. The successful development and application of AI systems rely not only on technical expertise but also on the harmonious integration of soft skills. Here’s some examples of the power of synergy between these skill sets, including how they work together to drive AI advancement:
The synergy between soft skills and technical skills is the catalyst that drives AI projects towards success. It enables AI teams to go beyond technical expertise and develop AI systems that address real-world problems effectively. By embracing a holistic approach that values both soft skills and technical skills, organizations can foster an environment where AI thrives, resulting in innovative solutions that have a positive impact on society.
Strategies for developing and nurturing soft skills are covered next.
Developing and Advancing Soft Skills in AI Teams
AI teams need soft skills to be successful. Organizations and teams should prioritize the development and advancement of these skills. Here are some strategies to enhance soft skills and foster a well-rounded AI workforce:
By implementing these strategies, organizations can cultivate a workforce that excels not only in technical skills but also in the essential soft skills required for AI success. Nurturing well-rounded AI professionals creates a collaborative and adaptive environment, where AI teams can effectively address complex challenges, drive innovation, and deliver impactful solutions.
The next section wraps up this exploration.
Conclusion
The successful development and application of AI systems rely on the synergy between soft skills and technical skills. While technical expertise forms the foundation, it's the integration of soft skills that elevates AI projects to new heights. Effective communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and leadership are among the key soft skills that enable AI teams to excel.
This article explored the significance of soft skills in AI, emphasizing their role in fostering effective teamwork, problem-solving, and innovation. It also acknowledged the indispensable role of technical skills in AI development, including programming languages, algorithms, data analysis, domain knowledge, and more.
Organizations can create well-rounded AI teams with a holistic set of abilities by embracing the power of synergy between soft skills and technical skills. AI team members with strong soft skills can effectively communicate their ideas, collaborate seamlessly, think critically, and provide leadership that empowers their teams.
To advance soft skills among AI professionals, organizations should invest in training programs, promote interdisciplinary collaboration, encourage continuous learning, and foster mentorship and coaching relationships. These efforts will help AI professionals develop the interpersonal and cognitive abilities necessary to thrive in the dynamic and collaborative AI landscape.
AI is a team sport that thrives on the confluence of soft skills and technical skills. By recognizing and embracing this synergy, organizations can unlock the full potential of AI, delivering innovative solutions that address real-world challenges and have a positive impact on the world.
References/Sources
All of the supplied links were functional when this article was published.
How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2023, May 1). AI is a Team Sport: A Confluence of Diverse Technical and Soft Skills are Crucial for Success. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/successful-ai-teams.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.20321.79200.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, multi-award-winning author, and international keynote speaker. He is the Founder of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. He has generated over $1.9 billion of business value in aggregate for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he has served. Graffius and content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities. Examples include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Yale University, Tufts University, and others. He has delighted audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile, project management, and technology leadership at 85 conferences and other events across 25 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow instructions, the multi award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
The short URL for this article is: https://bit.ly/ai-teams
© Copyright 2023 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Select here to download this article as a PDF.
This article covers the significance of well-rounded AI teams, including how both soft and technical skills are critical and fuel success. It’s informed by Graffius' work on AI projects as well as research and coverage from DARPA, Exceptional Agility, IBM, IEEE, Intel, MIT, Microsoft, Nvidia, Samsung, Software Engineering Institute, Stanford University, United States Artificial Intelligence Institute, and others (all listed in the bibliography section of this article).
Introduction
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force across a growing number of industries, revolutionizing how we live, work, and interact. From autonomous vehicles and virtual assistants to personalized recommendations and medical diagnoses, AI systems have become integral to our daily lives. Behind these cutting-edge, life-changing solutions are AI teams that possess a combination of soft skills—also known as core skills, interpersonal skills, people skills, power skills, transferable skills, or transversal skills—and technical expertise.
This article highlights the synergy between soft skills and technical skills in the world of AI. While technical skills provide the general foundation for AI development, it’s the soft skills that elevate AI projects to new heights. From effective communication and critical thinking to leadership and teamwork, soft skills play a pivotal role in translating technical knowledge and capabilities into real-world applications.
The thesis of this article is that the successful development and application of AI requires a combination of soft skills and technical expertise. Technical competencies alone are not enough. Rather, it’s the combination and integration of soft and technical skills that truly unlocks the power of AI.
Next, this article focuses on the importance of soft skills in the AI landscape, highlighting how they complement and enhance technical abilities. The collaboration between these skill sets drives AI innovation.
Understanding Soft Skills in AI Teams
In the realm of AI, technical expertise often takes center stage. However, soft skills advance the successful outcomes of AI projects, as they facilitate effective communication, foster collaboration, and promote critical thinking. Soft skills are powerful facilitators of success.
Soft skills encompass a range of interpersonal and cognitive abilities that enable teams to work harmoniously, adapt to evolving challenges, and solve complex problems. In the AI landscape, where multidisciplinary teams come together to create innovative solutions, these soft skills are essential.
Effective communication stands at the forefront of soft skills in AI. AI teams must articulate complex technical concepts in a manner that is understandable to diverse stakeholders, including non-technical staff and internal or external customers/users. Clear communication promotes collaboration and ensures alignment of purpose and objectives throughout the AI development lifecycle.
Soft skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking are vital as well. AI teams frequently encounter multifaceted challenges, and it is through these soft skills that teams can identify potential bottlenecks, navigate complexities, and devise innovative solutions. By leveraging critical thinking, AI team members can evaluate different approaches, consider ethical implications, and make informed decisions that shape the development and application of AI systems.
Leadership and teamwork skills are also paramount. AI projects involve team members from diverse backgrounds, including data scientists, engineers, domain experts, designers, and others. Effective leadership enables the coordination of efforts and guides the project towards success. Similarly, teamwork skills foster an environment of trust and respect, promoting synergy among team members and enhancing overall productivity.
Recognizing the importance of soft skills in AI is crucial for fostering a balanced and effective team dynamic. It ensures that AI teams possess the interpersonal and cognitive abilities necessary to bring AI projects to fruition. The integration of soft skills alongside technical expertise sets the stage for a cohesive team capable of tackling complex AI challenges with agility and innovation.
The role of technical skills—including how they intersect with soft skills to create a powerful combination that drives success—are covered next.
The Role of Technical Skills in AI Teams
Technical skills provide the tools and knowledge required to design, build, and implement AI systems. This section explores the role that technical skills play in AI and their specific applications in various stages of AI projects.
- Programming Languages and Algorithms: Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Java, or R is essential. These languages enable team members to write efficient code, manipulate and analyze data, and implement machine learning algorithms. Understanding algorithms, from classic ones like linear regression to cutting-edge deep learning models, empowers AI professionals to leverage mathematical principles and statistical techniques to train and optimize AI systems.
- Data Analysis and Management: AI relies on data, making data analysis and management skills crucial. AI team members need to be adept at collecting, cleaning, and preprocessing data, ensuring its quality and relevance. They must possess the knowledge of statistical methods, data visualization techniques, and data engineering practices to extract insights from complex datasets and prepare them for AI model training.
- Machine Learning and Neural Networks: Technical skills in machine learning are at the heart of AI systems. Understanding machine learning algorithms, such as decision trees, support vector machines, or convolutional neural networks, enables AI team members to create models that can learn from data and make intelligent predictions or decisions. Expertise in neural networks and deep learning architectures equips professionals with the ability to develop complex models capable of handling tasks like image recognition, natural language processing, and reinforcement learning.
- AI Frameworks and Tools: Proficiency in AI frameworks and tools (such as TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch, Caffe, Scikit-learn, and others) are essential for building AI systems efficiently. These frameworks provide pre-built modules, libraries, and APIs that simplify the implementation of AI algorithms and models. Technical skills in utilizing these tools effectively enable AI team members to accelerate the development process, streamline model training, and optimize system performance.
- Domain Knowledge and Application-Specific Skills: Technical skills also encompass domain knowledge and application-specific expertise. Understanding the nuances of the industry or problem domain in which AI is being applied allows professionals to tailor AI solutions to meet specific requirements. For example, healthcare-focused AI projects may require knowledge of medical terminologies and regulatory considerations, while AI solutions for financial services may demand expertise in risk assessment and fraud detection.
Technical skills are essential for AI projects. They enable team members to translate concepts, theories, and algorithms into practical applications. However, technical skills alone are not sufficient for success. The collaborative nature of AI development and the need for a well-rounded AI team—including the synergy between technical skills and soft skills—is covered next.
The Power of Synergy: Soft Skills and Technical Skills in AI Teams
The convergence of soft skills and technical skills is where true innovation and breakthroughs occur. The successful development and application of AI systems rely not only on technical expertise but also on the harmonious integration of soft skills. Here’s some examples of the power of synergy between these skill sets, including how they work together to drive AI advancement:
- Effective Communication and Technical Expertise: Communication bridges the gap between AI professionals and others who may not possess technical backgrounds. AI experts with strong communication skills can articulate complex technical concepts in plain English, ensuring that everyone involved understands the goals, challenges, and progress of the project. By effectively conveying ideas, AI professionals foster collaboration, gather valuable insights, and create a shared vision for AI initiatives.
- Collaboration and Problem-Solving: Collaboration is at the core of AI development, and soft skills such as teamwork, empathy, and active listening facilitate effective collaboration among diverse team members. AI teams with strong collaboration skills can effectively pool their technical expertise, brainstorm ideas, and solve complex problems together. By leveraging their collective intelligence and diverse perspectives, AI teams can overcome challenges, refine AI models, and optimize the performance of AI solutions.
- Critical Thinking and Technical Innovation: Critical thinking, coupled with technical expertise, leads to innovative AI solutions. AI professionals with strong critical thinking skills can evaluate different approaches, challenge assumptions, and identify potential shortcomings or biases in AI models. They can think creatively to address issues such as data biases or fairness concerns, ensuring that AI systems are developed responsibly and ethically.
- Leadership and Team Empowerment: Effective leadership in AI projects involves establishing and maintaining a collaborative and inclusive environment, empowering team members, and harnessing their full potential. AI leaders with exceptional interpersonal abilities can inspire and motivate their team, foster a culture of continuous learning, and provide guidance in navigating complex technical challenges. They encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, respect diverse perspectives, and drive the team towards achieving AI objectives.
The synergy between soft skills and technical skills is the catalyst that drives AI projects towards success. It enables AI teams to go beyond technical expertise and develop AI systems that address real-world problems effectively. By embracing a holistic approach that values both soft skills and technical skills, organizations can foster an environment where AI thrives, resulting in innovative solutions that have a positive impact on society.
Strategies for developing and nurturing soft skills are covered next.
Developing and Advancing Soft Skills in AI Teams
AI teams need soft skills to be successful. Organizations and teams should prioritize the development and advancement of these skills. Here are some strategies to enhance soft skills and foster a well-rounded AI workforce:
- Training Programs and Workshops: Implement specialized training programs and workshops focused on enhancing soft skills. Offer courses in effective communication, leadership (including how to navigate the phases of team development), problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration. These programs can provide AI professionals with the necessary tools and techniques to effectively apply soft skills in their work.
- Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing: Encourage interdisciplinary collaboration by creating opportunities for AI team members to work alongside experts from diverse fields such as psychology, design, ethics, and business. This collaboration allows for cross-pollination of ideas, encourages different perspectives, and broadens the skill set of AI teams. Foster a culture of knowledge sharing, where professionals can learn from each other and leverage their collective experiences and expertise.
- Real-World Project Engagement: Provide AI team members with opportunities to work on (other) real-world projects, allowing them to apply their soft skills in practical scenarios. Engaging in projects that involve interaction with clients, end-users, and stakeholders helps AI team members develop effective communication, problem-solving, and teamwork skills.
- Continuous Learning and Professional Development: Encourage AI team members to engage in continuous learning and professional development activities. This can include attending conferences, participating in webinars, reading industry publications, and pursuing certifications in relevant areas. Promote a growth mindset among AI team members, emphasizing the importance of lifelong learning and staying current with the latest developments in both technical and soft skills domains.
- Mentorship and Coaching: Establish mentorship and coaching programs where experienced AI professionals guide and support individuals with less experience. Mentors can provide valuable insights, share their experiences, and offer guidance on developing skills. Regular feedback and coaching sessions help AI professionals identify areas for improvement and provide targeted development opportunities.
By implementing these strategies, organizations can cultivate a workforce that excels not only in technical skills but also in the essential soft skills required for AI success. Nurturing well-rounded AI professionals creates a collaborative and adaptive environment, where AI teams can effectively address complex challenges, drive innovation, and deliver impactful solutions.
The next section wraps up this exploration.
Conclusion
The successful development and application of AI systems rely on the synergy between soft skills and technical skills. While technical expertise forms the foundation, it's the integration of soft skills that elevates AI projects to new heights. Effective communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and leadership are among the key soft skills that enable AI teams to excel.
This article explored the significance of soft skills in AI, emphasizing their role in fostering effective teamwork, problem-solving, and innovation. It also acknowledged the indispensable role of technical skills in AI development, including programming languages, algorithms, data analysis, domain knowledge, and more.
Organizations can create well-rounded AI teams with a holistic set of abilities by embracing the power of synergy between soft skills and technical skills. AI team members with strong soft skills can effectively communicate their ideas, collaborate seamlessly, think critically, and provide leadership that empowers their teams.
To advance soft skills among AI professionals, organizations should invest in training programs, promote interdisciplinary collaboration, encourage continuous learning, and foster mentorship and coaching relationships. These efforts will help AI professionals develop the interpersonal and cognitive abilities necessary to thrive in the dynamic and collaborative AI landscape.
AI is a team sport that thrives on the confluence of soft skills and technical skills. By recognizing and embracing this synergy, organizations can unlock the full potential of AI, delivering innovative solutions that address real-world challenges and have a positive impact on the world.
References/Sources
All of the supplied links were functional when this article was published.
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- Microsoft (2019, June 15). Is the Latest Technology the Key to Your Team’s Success, or is There Something Else? Available at: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/premier-developer/is-the-latest-technology-the-key-to-your-teams-success-or-is-there-something-else.
- New South Wales Technical and Further Education Commission (TAFE NSW) (2019). Soft vs. Hard Skills: Why Successful Australian Businesses Need Both. Ultimo, New South Wales: TAFE NSW.
- Nvidia (n.d.). Partner Innovation. Available at: https://www.nvidia.com/en-ph/self-driving-cars/partners/.
- O’Dea, Blathnaid (2023, February 17). These are the Top Skills AI and Analytics Professionals Need. Silicon Republic. Available at: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/advice/top-skills-ai-data-analytics-professionals-need.
- Olmstead, Brett (2023, February 15). Driving AI Success by Engaging a Cross-Functional Team. Available at: https://www.datarobot.com/blog/driving-ai-success-by-engaging-a-cross-functional-team/.
- Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (n.d.). OECD Programme on AI in Work, Innovation, Productivity and Skills. Available at: https://oecd.ai/en/work-innovation-productivity-skills/key-themes/skills.
- Oswald, Andrew. J., Proto, Eugenio, & Sgroi, Daniel (2015). Happiness and Productivity. Journal of Labor Economics, 33 (4): 789-822.
- Project Management Institute (2020, March 10). Tomorrow's Teams Today: The Future of Teaming: Creative, Collaborative and Agile. Pulse of the Profession. Available at: https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/pulse-indepth-tomorrows-teams-today-11941.
- PwC (2017). Sizing the Prize: What’s the Real Value of AI for Your Business and How Can You Capitalise? PwC’s Global Artificial Intelligence Study: Exploiting the AI Revolution. Available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/data-and-analytics/publications/artificial-intelligence-study.html.
- Rayside, Derek (Ed.) (2023, March 29). Software Engineering Capstone Design Project Handbook (2023 Edition). Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: University of Waterloo.
- Romsey, Joseph (2020, November 30). 5 Tips to Help Workers Upskill and Adapt to Artificial Intelligence. Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Available at: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/technology/pages/how-hr-can-help-workers-upskill-and-adapt-to-artificial-intelligence-5-tips.aspx.
- Samsung (2017, May 4). Artificial Intelligence and the Role of Workers. Available at: https://insights.samsung.com/2017/05/04/artificial-intelligence-and-the-role-of-workers/.
- Stanford University (2019, September). Gathering Strength, Gathering Storms. Stanford, CA: Stanford University.
- Tredinnick, Luke (2017). Artificial Intelligence and Professional Roles. Business Information Review, 34 (1): 37–41.
- Ungerleider, Neal (2023, January 1). AI and Jobs: The Human Angle. Available at: https://www.sap.com/denmark/insights/viewpoints/ai-jobs-human-angle.html.
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2021, July 2). AI Ethics: Another Step Closer to the Adoption of UNESCO’s Recommendation. Available at: https://en.unesco.org/news/ai-ethics-another-step-closer-adoption-unescos-recommendation-0.
- United States Artificial Intelligence Institute (USAII) (2022). Factsheet: Fast-Track Your Artificial Intelligence Career in 2023. Stamford, CT: USAII.
- United States Congress Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (2019, September 24). Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work. Report for the One Hundred Sixteenth Congress. Available at: https://www.congress.gov/116/chrg/CHRG-116hhrg37740/CHRG-116hhrg37740.pdf.
- University of Leeds (2023, March 2). The Top 5 AI Skills You Need to Land a Job in Artificial Intelligence. Available at: https://pg-online.leeds.ac.uk/blogs/5-skills-needed-for-ai.
- World Manufacturing Foundation (2020). 2020 World Manufacturing Report: Manufacturing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Available at: https://worldmanufacturing.org/wp-content/uploads/WorldManufacturingForum2020_Report.pdf.
How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2023, May 1). AI is a Team Sport: A Confluence of Diverse Technical and Soft Skills are Crucial for Success. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/successful-ai-teams.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.20321.79200.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, multi-award-winning author, and international keynote speaker. He is the Founder of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. He has generated over $1.9 billion of business value in aggregate for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he has served. Graffius and content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities. Examples include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Yale University, Tufts University, and others. He has delighted audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile, project management, and technology leadership at 85 conferences and other events across 25 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow instructions, the multi award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
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- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
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About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
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The short URL for this article is: https://bit.ly/ai-teams
© Copyright 2023 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2024
01 January 2024
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com
A PDF of this article is here.
Introduction
Individuals and businesses use the Internet and other forms of digital communication to reach and engage target audiences and promote content. That’s digital marketing. It includes email, social media, web-based advertising, and text and multimedia messages.
A rapidly expanding component of digital marketing is social media marketing. It involves posting content on social media platforms such as Snapchat, X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and blogs. The platforms enable people to connect with family and friends, share information and ideas, and access news and entertainment. The platforms also play a vital role in business by providing companies with direct channels to reach and engage with their target audiences. When well-executed, social media marketing delivers multiple benefits, including:
When content is published online, relevance and engagement have a limited lifespan. An advantageous objective metric is half-life. It’s the time it takes for a post to receive half of its total engagement (such as likes, shares, and comments). Data can help inform strategic and tactical decisions, such as the frequency and scheduling of posts.
In 2018, Scott M. Graffius first published data on the lifespan (half-life) of social media posts. Algorithms and other factors on platforms change over time.B2 For that reason, Graffius periodically updates the analysis. This article provides the update for 2024.
Reports by others on the shelf life of social media are often based on the experience of one person, one organization, or one limited set of data. With any of those common limitations, findings are at risk of being non-representative, inaccurate, or unreliable.
It’s important to have a broad set of data from multiple sources. In addition to generating results that are more likely to be appropriately representative, accurate, and reliable, this approach provides a more complete picture and helps identify trends. Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2024” — this research report — is built on data from 37 sources.A
Based on an analysis of data from 37 diverse sources,A this report reveals the average lifespan (half-life) for posts on Snapchat, X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and blogs.
Main Section of Article
As detailed next, the half-life of posts varies by social media platform.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. A distinguishing feature of the platform is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. Snapchat has 750,000,000 (750 million) active users.B3
The average half-life duration for Snapchat posts is 0 minutes.A Exceptions apply. Snapchat messages may disappear instantly or live up to 24 hours (even longer in certain cases) depending on the type of message, user settings, and other details.
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on Snapchat for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
X
X (formerly known as Twitter) is a microblogging and social networking service owned by X Holdings II, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of X Holdings I, Inc., wholly owned by Elon Musk), on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". X has 666,000,000 (666 million) active users.B3 (Note: The data source is held in high regard. Some other organizations report a lower value.)
The average half-life duration for tweets is 43 minutes.A
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on Twitter for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It's the third most visited website in the world. Facebook has 3,030,000,000 (3.03 billion) active users.B3
The average half-life duration for Facebook posts is 76 minutes (= 1.27 hours).A
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on Facebook for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video-sharing service owned by Meta Platforms. The service allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Users can browse other users’ content by tag and location, view trending content, like photos, and follow other users to add their content to a personal feed. Instagram has 2,000,000,000 (2.00 billion) active users.B3
The average half-life duration for Instagram posts is 1,185 minutes (= 19.75 hours).A
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on Instagram for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a business and employment-oriented online service. It's a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft. LinkedIn claims to have 875,000,000+ (875 million) users.B6 However, it does not report how many of those users are active users. It’s estimated that 424,000,000 (424 million) are active users.B7
The average half-life duration for LinkedIn posts is 1,458 minutes (= 24.30 hours).A
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on LinkedIn for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
YouTube
YouTube is an online video-sharing platform. It's owned by Google, and it's the second most visited website, after Google Search. YouTube has 2,490,000,000 (2.49 billion) active users.B3
The average half-life duration for YouTube posts is 12,717 minutes (= 8.83 days).A
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on YouTube for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
Pinterest
Pinterest is an image-sharing service designed to enable the saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images — and on a smaller scale, videos — in the form of pinboards. The platform is operated by Pinterest, Inc. It has 465,000,000 (465 million) active users.B3
The average half-life duration for Pinterest posts is 164,518 minutes (= 3.76 months).A
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on Pinterest for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
Blogs
Blogs (a truncation of "weblogs") are discussion or informational websites consisting of discrete, often diary-style entries. Up until 2009, blogs were usually the work of individuals and each typically covered a single topic. In the 2010s, multi-author blogs (MABs) from media outlets and others emerged. In addition to featuring the writings of multiple authors, MABs often span a range of topics. It is estimated that there are over 600,000,000 (600 million) blogs.B8
The average half-life duration for blog posts is 1,022,997 minutes (= 1.95 years).A
The functionality of blogs and other factors can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on blogs for 2024 along with the prior annual edition of this report (note: this research started reporting on blogs in 2023):
Conclusion
Social media platforms — such as Snapchat, X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and blogs — enable people to connect with family and friends, share information and ideas, and access news and entertainment. The platforms also provide organizations with direct channels to reach and engage with their target audiences.
The relevance and engagement of posts on social media platforms have a limited lifespan. An advantageous objective metric is half-life. It’s the time it takes for a post to receive half of its total engagement (such as likes, shares, and comments). In 2018, Scott M. Graffius first published data on the lifespan (half-life) of social media posts. Algorithms and other factors on platforms change over time. For that reason, Graffius periodically updates the analysis. This report, which is based on half-life data from 37 sources, provides an update for 2024.
Social media analytics provide valuable insights that can support efforts to level-up engagement and results.B9,B10,B11,B12,B13,B14,B15 Data on the average lifespan (half-life) of posts, for example, can help inform strategic and tactical decisions such as the frequency and scheduling of posts.
Graffius’ Research is Widely Cited
Scientists, researchers, journalists, academics, YouTubers, podcasters, SEO experts, analysts, businesses, and others have featured and used prior — 2023 and earlier — editions of Scott M. Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” research. Here are a few examples:
Graffius appreciates the coverage of his research.
References/Sources
References/sources are organized into two sections - A and B.
A. Here are the sources related to the lifespan (half-life) of social media posts:
B. Here are the references for additional information (such as the number of active users on platforms, etc.; see section A for sources related to the half-life of posts):
How to Cite this Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, January 1). Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2024. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/social-24.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21043.60965.
Permission Request Information
To request permission to use the “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2024” visual shown at the top of this article or any other material from this publication, contact Scott M. Graffius. If your request is approved, Graffius will give you an authorization/license and, if applicable, high-resolution files of the visual.
Post-Publication Notes
At the time of publication, a graphic on the average lifespan (half-life) of posts on X indicated “7.71667” under hours. That typo was corrected to read “0.71667.” The change was implemented in this article on March 25, 2024.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, thinker, creator, multi-award-winning author, and international public speaker. Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™, he has generated over $1.9 billion for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he has served. Graffius and content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, Yale University, Tufts University, and others. He delights audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile project management, AI, Tech leadership, video game development, strategic alignment, the science of high performance teams, and more. To date, he's presented sessions at 89 conferences and other events across 25 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow instructions, the multi award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/life-2024
(Coming soon) Posts related to this article are on ResearchGate, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other platforms.
Visuals JPG1 and JPG2 and PNG
© Copyright 2024 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
A PDF of this article is here.
Introduction
Individuals and businesses use the Internet and other forms of digital communication to reach and engage target audiences and promote content. That’s digital marketing. It includes email, social media, web-based advertising, and text and multimedia messages.
A rapidly expanding component of digital marketing is social media marketing. It involves posting content on social media platforms such as Snapchat, X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and blogs. The platforms enable people to connect with family and friends, share information and ideas, and access news and entertainment. The platforms also play a vital role in business by providing companies with direct channels to reach and engage with their target audiences. When well-executed, social media marketing delivers multiple benefits, including:
- Engagement with a global audience — there are 4,950,000,000 (4.95 billion) active social media users worldwide.B1
- Improved brand and marketplace awareness and reach.
- Enhanced customer engagement.
- Increased website traffic.
- Improved search engine rankings.
- And more.
When content is published online, relevance and engagement have a limited lifespan. An advantageous objective metric is half-life. It’s the time it takes for a post to receive half of its total engagement (such as likes, shares, and comments). Data can help inform strategic and tactical decisions, such as the frequency and scheduling of posts.
In 2018, Scott M. Graffius first published data on the lifespan (half-life) of social media posts. Algorithms and other factors on platforms change over time.B2 For that reason, Graffius periodically updates the analysis. This article provides the update for 2024.
Reports by others on the shelf life of social media are often based on the experience of one person, one organization, or one limited set of data. With any of those common limitations, findings are at risk of being non-representative, inaccurate, or unreliable.
It’s important to have a broad set of data from multiple sources. In addition to generating results that are more likely to be appropriately representative, accurate, and reliable, this approach provides a more complete picture and helps identify trends. Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2024” — this research report — is built on data from 37 sources.A
Based on an analysis of data from 37 diverse sources,A this report reveals the average lifespan (half-life) for posts on Snapchat, X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and blogs.
Main Section of Article
As detailed next, the half-life of posts varies by social media platform.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. A distinguishing feature of the platform is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. Snapchat has 750,000,000 (750 million) active users.B3
The average half-life duration for Snapchat posts is 0 minutes.A Exceptions apply. Snapchat messages may disappear instantly or live up to 24 hours (even longer in certain cases) depending on the type of message, user settings, and other details.
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on Snapchat for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
- 2024: 0 minutes (exceptions apply).A
- 2023: 0 minutes (exceptions apply).B4
- 2022: 0 minutes (exceptions apply).B5
X
X (formerly known as Twitter) is a microblogging and social networking service owned by X Holdings II, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of X Holdings I, Inc., wholly owned by Elon Musk), on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". X has 666,000,000 (666 million) active users.B3 (Note: The data source is held in high regard. Some other organizations report a lower value.)
The average half-life duration for tweets is 43 minutes.A
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on Twitter for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
- 2024: 43 minutes.A
- 2023: 24 minutes.B4
- 2022: 23 minutes.B5
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It's the third most visited website in the world. Facebook has 3,030,000,000 (3.03 billion) active users.B3
The average half-life duration for Facebook posts is 76 minutes (= 1.27 hours).A
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on Facebook for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
- 2024: 76 minutes.A
- 2023: 105 minutes.B4
- 2022: 60 minutes.B5
Instagram is a photo and video-sharing service owned by Meta Platforms. The service allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Users can browse other users’ content by tag and location, view trending content, like photos, and follow other users to add their content to a personal feed. Instagram has 2,000,000,000 (2.00 billion) active users.B3
The average half-life duration for Instagram posts is 1,185 minutes (= 19.75 hours).A
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on Instagram for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
- 2024: 1,185 minutes (= 19.75 hours).A
- 2023: 1,200 minutes (= 20.00 hours).B4
- 2022: 1,170 minutes (= 19.50 hours).B5
LinkedIn is a business and employment-oriented online service. It's a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft. LinkedIn claims to have 875,000,000+ (875 million) users.B6 However, it does not report how many of those users are active users. It’s estimated that 424,000,000 (424 million) are active users.B7
The average half-life duration for LinkedIn posts is 1,458 minutes (= 24.30 hours).A
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on LinkedIn for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
- 2024: 1,458 minutes (= 24.30 hours).A
- 2023: 1,440 minutes (= 24.00 hours).B4
- 2022: 1,440 minutes (= 24.00 hours).B5
YouTube
YouTube is an online video-sharing platform. It's owned by Google, and it's the second most visited website, after Google Search. YouTube has 2,490,000,000 (2.49 billion) active users.B3
The average half-life duration for YouTube posts is 12,717 minutes (= 8.83 days).A
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on YouTube for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
- 2024: 12,717 minutes (= 211.95 hours = 8.83 days).A
- 2023: 12,672 minutes (= 211.20 hours = 8.80 days).B4
- 2022: 8,640 minutes (= 144.00 hours = 6.00 days).B5
Pinterest is an image-sharing service designed to enable the saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images — and on a smaller scale, videos — in the form of pinboards. The platform is operated by Pinterest, Inc. It has 465,000,000 (465 million) active users.B3
The average half-life duration for Pinterest posts is 164,518 minutes (= 3.76 months).A
Algorithms and other factors on platforms can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on Pinterest for 2024 along with the last two annual editions of this report:
- 2024: 164,518 minutes (= 2,741.97 hours = 114.25 days = 16.32 weeks = 3.76 months).A
- 2023: 164,270 minutes (= 2,737.83 hours = 114.08 days = 16.30 weeks = 3.76 months).B4
- 2022: 164,270 minutes (= 2,737.83 hours = 114.08 days = 16.30 weeks = 3.76 months).B5
Blogs
Blogs (a truncation of "weblogs") are discussion or informational websites consisting of discrete, often diary-style entries. Up until 2009, blogs were usually the work of individuals and each typically covered a single topic. In the 2010s, multi-author blogs (MABs) from media outlets and others emerged. In addition to featuring the writings of multiple authors, MABs often span a range of topics. It is estimated that there are over 600,000,000 (600 million) blogs.B8
The average half-life duration for blog posts is 1,022,997 minutes (= 1.95 years).A
The functionality of blogs and other factors can change over time, potentially impacting the average half-life duration for posts. For comparison, here’s data on blogs for 2024 along with the prior annual edition of this report (note: this research started reporting on blogs in 2023):
- 2024: 1,022,997 minutes (1.95 years).A
- 2023: 1,051,200 minutes (2.00 years).B4
Conclusion
Social media platforms — such as Snapchat, X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and blogs — enable people to connect with family and friends, share information and ideas, and access news and entertainment. The platforms also provide organizations with direct channels to reach and engage with their target audiences.
The relevance and engagement of posts on social media platforms have a limited lifespan. An advantageous objective metric is half-life. It’s the time it takes for a post to receive half of its total engagement (such as likes, shares, and comments). In 2018, Scott M. Graffius first published data on the lifespan (half-life) of social media posts. Algorithms and other factors on platforms change over time. For that reason, Graffius periodically updates the analysis. This report, which is based on half-life data from 37 sources, provides an update for 2024.
Social media analytics provide valuable insights that can support efforts to level-up engagement and results.B9,B10,B11,B12,B13,B14,B15 Data on the average lifespan (half-life) of posts, for example, can help inform strategic and tactical decisions such as the frequency and scheduling of posts.
Graffius’ Research is Widely Cited
Scientists, researchers, journalists, academics, YouTubers, podcasters, SEO experts, analysts, businesses, and others have featured and used prior — 2023 and earlier — editions of Scott M. Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” research. Here are a few examples:
- Bensley, Robert J., & Brookins-Fisher, Jodi (2023, December 14). Community and Public Health Education Methods: A Practical Guide—Fifth Edition. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. [The authors cover Graffius’ work in Chapter 10 (Using Social Media) and list Graffius’ work as reference number 84 on page 256. A link to the publication at Google Books is here: https://bit.ly/cphem-5.]
- Berkessel, Juergen (2021, October 27). How Evergreen Posting on Social Media for Podcasters Creates Growth. Season 1, Episode 9 of the Podcasting Strategy Show. Available at: https://polymash.com/evergreen-posting. [The podcast references Graffius’ research. Show notes include Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” visual as well as a hyperlink to Graffius’ full report.]
- Burton, Taylor (2022, November 2). Social Media Marketing: Leveraging LinkedIn. Pennsylvania Bar Institute. Available at: https://go.pbi.org/blog/social-media-marketing-leveraging-linkedin. [In the article, “LinkedIn posts are shown to have a longer lifespan” is hyperlinked to Graffius’ research.]
- Center for Direct Marketing (2022, September 27). What Is the Average Lifespan of a Blog or Social Media Post? Available at: https://dmcenter.com/lifespan-of-a-post. [The article include data from Graffius and a hyperlink to his research.]
- Chowdhary, Tanish (2023, March 21). 13 Best Twitter Thread Tools to Go Viral in 2023. Geekflare. Available at: https://geekflare.com/best-twitter-thread-tools. [The article includes Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” visual and a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants (CEWEP) (2023, June 15). The Power of Social Media and How to Use It. 10th CEWEP Waste-to-Energy Congress, 14th - 16th June 2023, Berlin. Available at: https://www.cewep.eu/congress2023presentations/ and https://www.cewep.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/4.1-Monika-Michalska.pdf. [CEWEP Congress presentation slide 9 featured Graffius’ visual, representing a summary of his research findings.]
- Degraux, Xavier (2022, November 5). Quelle est la Durée d’un Post sur Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.xavierdegraux.be/quelle-est-la-duree-dun-post-sur-twitter-instagram-linkedin. [In his article, Xavier Degraux — a social networks and content marketing consultant based in Belgium — discussed Graffius' work and provided a hyperlink to the research. Here's the title in English: How Long is a Post on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn.]
- Encompass Online Marketing (2023, March 15). How Often Should You Publish New Content? Available at: https://encompassonline.ca/blog/how-often-should-you-publish-new-content. [Among other points, the article references the lifespan of tweets and has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Fallah, Georges (2023, December 18). The Best Times to Post on Social Media. Available at: https://www.vbout.com/blog/the-best-times-to-post-on-social-media. [The article has hyperlinks to Graffius’ research.]
- Gebauer, Susanna (2022, October 25). Twitter Scheduling: How to Schedule Tweets for More Impact. Available at: https://susannagebauer.com/blog/twitter-scheduling/. [The article includes a link to Graffius' research.]
- Geyser, Werner (2023, September 20). 34 Mind-blowing Pinterest Stats for 2023. Influencer Marketing Hub. Available at: https://influencermarketinghub.com/pinterest-stats. [The article references the durations of “three months” and provides a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- GoDaddy (2023, February 20). How to Do Social Media: A Guide for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs. Available at: https://www.godaddy.com/resources/skills/how-to-do-social-media. [In discussing the lifespan of tweets, the article provides a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Gotch, Nathan (2023, December 4). How to Start an SEO Business (2024 Update). Available at: https://www.gotchseo.com/start-seo-company/. [The article includes Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” visual and a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Hawes, C. W. (2023, January 24). Social Media Half-Life. Available at: https://www.cwhawes.com/social-media-half-life. [The article identifies Graffius’ research and has a hyperlink to it.]
- Lin, Yunduan, & Wang, Mengxin, & Zhang, Heng, & Zhang, Renyu, & Shen, Zuo-Jun Max (2021, June 9; revised 2023, June 28). Content Promotion for Online Content Platforms with the Diffusion Effect. SSRN. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3863104 and https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3863104. [The scientific paper mentions Graffius’ work, and it delineates his research in the References section.]
- McErlain-Naylor, Stuart (2022, March 24). Social Media for Academia - All You Need to Know [Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka88MxZbU8o. [At timestamp 13:59 in the video, Dr. Stuart McErlain-Naylor displays a visual which summarizes the 2022 edition of Graffius’ research.]
- MeetEdgar (2023, April 2). Everything You Need to Know About Repeating Social Media Content. Available at: https://meetedgar.com/blog/repeating-social-media-content. [This article from social media management tool company MeetEdgar discusses the lifespan of posts and it has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Memom, Alafiya (2023, June 14). Master the Art of Using Pinterest for Blogging in 2023. ContentStudio. Available at: https://blog.contentstudio.io/pinterest-for-blogging. [The article rounds up the half-life of Pinterest pins as “4 months” and it includes a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Metricool (2023, October 31). YouTube Marketing in 2023. Available at: https://metricool.com/youtube-marketing. [The article includes “According to Scott Graffius’s data ...” and a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Patel, Neil (2023, May 23). 18 Powerful Twitter Marketing Tips [That Actually Work]. Neil Patel. Available at: https://neilpatel.com/blog/twitter-marketing-tips. [In the article, “The average lifespan of one tweet” has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Pitzalis, Josh (2022, November 21). Finding Social Media Calendar Ideas for Twitter. Chirr App. Available at: https://getchirrapp.com/how-to/find. [The article references the half-life of a tweet and has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Pugalia, Akash, & Lalani, Farah (2023, September 29). Digital Safety: How a Multi-Faceted Approach Can Help Tackle Real-World Harm. World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/09/digital-safety-multi-faceted-approach-tackle-real-world-harm. [The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) included data by Graffius on the half-life of social media. The World Economic Forum covered that PNAS study in their article.]
- Rainey, Clint (2023, August 15). Social Media’s Toxic Impact Can Last Up to 8 Days. This Behavioral Scientist’s Solution Might Surprise You. Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/90939081/social-media-toxic-impact-content-moderation-solution-behavior-science. [The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) included Graffius’ research data on the half-life of social media. Fast Company covered that PNAS publication — and summarized Graffius’ data from it — in their article.]
- Rynek Pro (2023, June 26). Długość Życia Postów (Half-Life) w Mediach Społecznościowych w 2023 Roku. Available at: https://rynek.pro/half-life-dlugosc-zycia-postow/#pll_switcher. [Rynek Pro, a Poland-based advertising agency, featured Graffius’ research in their article. Here’s the title in English: Life Expectancy of Posts (Half-Life) in Social Media in 2023.]
- Schneider, Philipp J., & Rizoiu, Marian-Andrei (2023, August 22). The Effectiveness of Moderating Harmful Online Content. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120 (34): e2307360120. Available at: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2307360120. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2307360120. [The scientific paper references Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” research and uses his data.]
- Strozyk, Kaylee (2023, November 3). 11 Tips on How to Use Pinterest for Real Estate. Fit Small Business. Available at: https://fitsmallbusiness.com/how-to-use-pinterest-for-real-estate-agents. [The article references that the half-life of Pinterest pins is “about 3.75 months.” Selecting the respective hyperlink brings up Graffius’ research.]
- Thailand TV News (2022, August 16). Half-Life of Each Social Media Post. Available at: https://thailandtv.news/half-life-of-each-social-media-post-thumbsup. [The article incorporates data from Graffius’ work and it has a hyperlink to his research.]
- The Tech Reps (2023, January 23). SEO or Social Media Marketing, Which is Better for Sales? [video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVmQdHDXCrw. [The Tech Reps used Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” visual as the background image in their video.]
- Two Rivers Marketing (2020, December 9). 8 Social Media Channels and Tactics to Consider Adding to Your Marketing Mix. Available at: https://www.tworiversmarketing.com/blog/8-social-media-channels-and-tactics-to-consider-adding-to-your-marketing-mix. [The article references the lifespan of posts and has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Walters, Christy (2023, May 4). How To Curate Content for LinkedIn: Handpick Your Next Post. CopyPress. Available at: https://www.copypress.com/kb/social-media-promotion/curate-content-for-linkedin. [The article discusses the lifespan of a LinkedIn post and has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- And many more.
Graffius appreciates the coverage of his research.
References/Sources
References/sources are organized into two sections - A and B.
A. Here are the sources related to the lifespan (half-life) of social media posts:
- A1. Adobe
- A2. Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
- A3. Bit(dot)ly
- A4. Business Insider
- A5. Business Standard
- A6. Cornell University
- A7. Emeritus
- A8. Espirian
- A9. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions
- A10. Fanbooster (Traject)
- A11. Fast Company
- A12. Forbes
- A13. Google
- A14. Halverson Group
- A15. IEEE
- A16. Ignite Social Media
- A17. Kinsta
- A18. Klout
- A19. Later
- A20. Moz
- A21. New York Times
- A22. Pinterest
- A23. Royal Town Planning Institute
- A24. Science(dot)org
- A25. Sculpt - B2B Social Media Agency
- A26. Simply Measured
- A27. Snapchat
- A28. Social Media Marketing
- A29. Social Media University—Global
- A30. Tapp Network
- A31. TechniqueHow
- A32. The Online Advertising Guide
- A33. Université de Genève
- A34. University of Akron
- A35. Washington Post
- A36. WebFX
- A37. Wiselytics
B. Here are the references for additional information (such as the number of active users on platforms, etc.; see section A for sources related to the half-life of posts):
- B1. Statista (2023, August 31). Social Media - Statistics and Facts.
- B2. Trivette, Hannah (2022, October 14). A Guide to Social Media Algorithms and SEO. Forbes.
- B3. Statista (2023, October). Most Popular Social Networks Worldwide as of October 2023.
- B4. Graffius, Scott M. (2023, January 1). Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2023. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/social-2023.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19783.98722.
- B5. Graffius, Scott M. (2022, January 5). Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2022. Available at: https://www.scottgraffius.com/blog/files/social-2022.html.
- B6. LinkedIn.
- B7. Macready, Hannah (2023, February 22). 47 LinkedIn Statistics You Need to Know in 2023. Hootsuite.
- B8. Ong, Si Quan (2023, January 27). 59 Blogging Statistics for 2023.
- B9. Colicev, Anatoli, & Malshe, Ashwin, & Pauwels, Koen, & O'Connor, Peter (2018). Improving Consumer Mindset Metrics and Shareholder Value Through Social Media: The Different Roles of Owned and Earned Media. Journal of Marketing, 82 (1): 37-56.
- B10. Collier, Azure (2017, April 28). How to Create a Social Media Posting Schedule. Constant Contact.
- B11. IBM (n.d.). What is Social Media Analytics. Available at: https://www.ibm.com/topics/social-media-analytics.
- B12. Kanuri, V. K., & Chen, Y., & Sridhar, S. (2018). Scheduling Content on Social Media: Theory, Evidence, and Application. Journal of Marketing, 82 (6): 89-108.
- B13. Liadeli, G., & Sotgiu, F., & Verlegh, P. W. J. (2023). A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Brands' Owned Social Media on Social Media Engagement and Sales. Journal of Marketing, 87 (3): 406-427.
- B14. Perreault, Marie-Catherine, & Mosconi, Elaine (2018). Social Media Engagement: Content Strategy and Metrics Research Opportunities. Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences: 3568-3577.
- B15. Trunfio, Mariapina, & Rossi, Simona (2021). Conceptualising and Measuring Social Media Engagement: A Systematic Literature Review. Italian Journal of Marketing, 2021 (3):267-292.
How to Cite this Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, January 1). Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2024. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/social-24.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21043.60965.
Permission Request Information
To request permission to use the “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2024” visual shown at the top of this article or any other material from this publication, contact Scott M. Graffius. If your request is approved, Graffius will give you an authorization/license and, if applicable, high-resolution files of the visual.
Post-Publication Notes
At the time of publication, a graphic on the average lifespan (half-life) of posts on X indicated “7.71667” under hours. That typo was corrected to read “0.71667.” The change was implemented in this article on March 25, 2024.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, thinker, creator, multi-award-winning author, and international public speaker. Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™, he has generated over $1.9 billion for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he has served. Graffius and content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, Yale University, Tufts University, and others. He delights audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile project management, AI, Tech leadership, video game development, strategic alignment, the science of high performance teams, and more. To date, he's presented sessions at 89 conferences and other events across 25 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow instructions, the multi award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
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About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
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- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
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The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/life-2024
(Coming soon) Posts related to this article are on ResearchGate, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other platforms.
Visuals JPG1 and JPG2 and PNG
© Copyright 2024 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Pinterest Inc. References Scott M. Graffius’ Research
10 October 2024
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com
Pinterest Inc. References Graffius’ Research!
When content is published on social media platforms, relevance and engagement have a limited lifespan. Most posts receive half of their total engagement (such as likes, shares, and comments) relatively soon, with the remainder spread out over a comparatively longer period. Said differently, plotting engagement against time typically reveals a distribution where the peak engagement occurs early, with a long tail of diminishing interaction, resembling a positively skewed unimodal distribution.
Given the above, an advantageous, objective metric for social media posts is half-life. It’s the time it takes for a post to receive half of its total engagement. Data can help inform strategic and tactical decisions, such as the frequency and scheduling of posts.
Reports by others on the longevity of social media are often outdated or based on the experience of one person, one organization, or one limited set of data. With any of those common limitations, findings are at risk of being non-representative, inaccurate, or unreliable.
It’s vital to have a large dataset from multiple sources. In addition to generating results that are more likely to be appropriately representative, accurate, and reliable, this approach provides a clearer picture and helps identify trends.
In 2018, Scott M. Graffius first published data on the average lifespan (half-life) of posts on Snapchat, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and blogs based on a large dataset of multiple, diverse sources. Algorithms and other factors on platforms change over time. For that reason, Graffius periodically updates his analysis.
A visual from the current (2024) edition of his ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ is shown below and the details are here.
Scientists, researchers, journalists, academics, YouTubers, podcasters, digital marketing experts, businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and others around the world have featured and used Scott M. Graffius’ ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ research, indicating a broad spectrum of influence and application. Examples are listed in the Coverage of Graffius' Research section of the article.
Pinterest Inc. is now also on the list! It referenced Graffius’ research in an article on the Pinterest Inc. Business Blog.
Details follow.
On 26 September 2024, Pinterest Inc. requested permission to use Graffius' research in an article on the Pinterest Inc. Business Blog. Graffius agreed.
Email 1 of 3 is shown below.
Here's email 2 of 3.
And here's email 3 of 3.
On 2 October 2024, Pinterest Inc. published ‘Unlock the Full Potential of Pinterest with Marketing Mix Modeling’ on their Pinterest Business Blog at https://business.pinterest.com/blog/unlock-potential-pinterest-marketing-mix-modelling/. The top of the article is shown in the visual below.
As shown below, the article includes: ‘Content on Pinterest lasts, on average, over 100 times longer than on other platforms.³‘
That ‘³’ footnote is a reference to Graffius’ ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ research.
The Footnotes section is located at the end of the article. Selecting the "+" symbol reveals the footnotes content.
Footnote 3 references Graffius' work: "Graffius, Scott M. (2024, January 1). Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2024. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/social-24.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21043.60965."
Pinterest's business blog article is available here and Graffius' research is here.
About Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual search and discovery platform where people find inspiration, curate ideas, and shop products—all in a positive place online. Headquartered in San Francisco, Pinterest launched in 2010 and has over half a billion monthly active users worldwide.
Coverage of Graffius' Research
Graffius' ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ has captured the attention of a diverse global audience of businesses, digital marketing experts, scientists, journalists, podcasters, YouTubers, government agencies, and others. Here are select examples:
And many more.
References
If there's an update after this article is published, the information will appear in the Post-Publication Notes section.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, an expert on teamwork tradecraft, an authority on temporal dynamics on social media platforms, a creator, a consultant, a trainer, an award-winning author, and an international public speaker.
See his bio to learn more.
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, October 10). Pinterest Inc. References Scott M. Graffius’ Research. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/pinterest_inc_business_blog_features_graffius.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31296.55041.
Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.
Content Acknowledgements
This article uses limited excerpts from Pinterest Inc., attributed to Pinterest and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis. Pinterest name, mark, and content are the property of Pinterest. Graffius’ ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ is copyright © Scott M. Graffius.
Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
A PDF of this article is here
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/pinterest_biz
Pinterest Inc. References Graffius’ Research!
When content is published on social media platforms, relevance and engagement have a limited lifespan. Most posts receive half of their total engagement (such as likes, shares, and comments) relatively soon, with the remainder spread out over a comparatively longer period. Said differently, plotting engagement against time typically reveals a distribution where the peak engagement occurs early, with a long tail of diminishing interaction, resembling a positively skewed unimodal distribution.
Given the above, an advantageous, objective metric for social media posts is half-life. It’s the time it takes for a post to receive half of its total engagement. Data can help inform strategic and tactical decisions, such as the frequency and scheduling of posts.
Reports by others on the longevity of social media are often outdated or based on the experience of one person, one organization, or one limited set of data. With any of those common limitations, findings are at risk of being non-representative, inaccurate, or unreliable.
It’s vital to have a large dataset from multiple sources. In addition to generating results that are more likely to be appropriately representative, accurate, and reliable, this approach provides a clearer picture and helps identify trends.
In 2018, Scott M. Graffius first published data on the average lifespan (half-life) of posts on Snapchat, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and blogs based on a large dataset of multiple, diverse sources. Algorithms and other factors on platforms change over time. For that reason, Graffius periodically updates his analysis.
A visual from the current (2024) edition of his ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ is shown below and the details are here.
Scientists, researchers, journalists, academics, YouTubers, podcasters, digital marketing experts, businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and others around the world have featured and used Scott M. Graffius’ ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ research, indicating a broad spectrum of influence and application. Examples are listed in the Coverage of Graffius' Research section of the article.
Pinterest Inc. is now also on the list! It referenced Graffius’ research in an article on the Pinterest Inc. Business Blog.
Details follow.
On 26 September 2024, Pinterest Inc. requested permission to use Graffius' research in an article on the Pinterest Inc. Business Blog. Graffius agreed.
Email 1 of 3 is shown below.
Here's email 2 of 3.
And here's email 3 of 3.
On 2 October 2024, Pinterest Inc. published ‘Unlock the Full Potential of Pinterest with Marketing Mix Modeling’ on their Pinterest Business Blog at https://business.pinterest.com/blog/unlock-potential-pinterest-marketing-mix-modelling/. The top of the article is shown in the visual below.
As shown below, the article includes: ‘Content on Pinterest lasts, on average, over 100 times longer than on other platforms.³‘
That ‘³’ footnote is a reference to Graffius’ ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ research.
The Footnotes section is located at the end of the article. Selecting the "+" symbol reveals the footnotes content.
Footnote 3 references Graffius' work: "Graffius, Scott M. (2024, January 1). Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2024. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/social-24.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21043.60965."
Pinterest's business blog article is available here and Graffius' research is here.
About Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual search and discovery platform where people find inspiration, curate ideas, and shop products—all in a positive place online. Headquartered in San Francisco, Pinterest launched in 2010 and has over half a billion monthly active users worldwide.
Coverage of Graffius' Research
Graffius' ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ has captured the attention of a diverse global audience of businesses, digital marketing experts, scientists, journalists, podcasters, YouTubers, government agencies, and others. Here are select examples:
- Bensley, Robert J., & Brookins-Fisher, Jodi (2023, December 14). Community and Public Health Education Methods: A Practical Guide—Fifth Edition. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. [The authors cover Graffius’ work in Chapter 10 (Using Social Media) and list Graffius’ work as reference number 84 on page 256. A link to the publication at Google Books is here: https://bit.ly/cphem-5.]
- Berkessel, Juergen (2021, October 27). How Evergreen Posting on Social Media for Podcasters Creates Growth. Season 1, Episode 9 of the Podcasting Strategy Show. Available at: https://polymash.com/evergreen-posting. [The podcast references Graffius’ research. Show notes include Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” visual as well as a hyperlink to Graffius’ full report.]
- Buffer (2024, February 7). 9 Ways to Grow Your Following on X/Twitter. Available at: https://buffer.com/resources/get-more-followers-on-twitter-x/. [It has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Burton, Taylor (2022, November 2). Social Media Marketing: Leveraging LinkedIn. Pennsylvania Bar Institute. Available at: https://go.pbi.org/blog/social-media-marketing-leveraging-linkedin. [In the article, “LinkedIn posts are shown to have a longer lifespan” is hyperlinked to Graffius’ research.]
- Center for Direct Marketing (2024, March 25). Best Marketing Podcasts, Lifespan of Social Media and Blog Posts. Available at: https://dmcenter.com/march-2024/. [The article references, and has a link to, Graffius’ research.]
- Center for Direct Marketing (2022, September 27). What Is the Average Lifespan of a Blog or Social Media Post? Available at: https://dmcenter.com/lifespan-of-a-post. [The article includes data from Graffius and a hyperlink to his research.]
- Chaturvedi, Saurabh (2024, September 27). How Often to Post on Social Media. Available at: https://recurpost.com/blog/how-often-to-post-on-social-media/.
- Chowdhary, Tanish (2023, March 21). 13 Best Twitter Thread Tools to Go Viral in 2023. Geekflare. Available at: https://geekflare.com/best-twitter-thread-tools. [The article includes Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” visual and a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants (CEWEP) (2023, June 15). The Power of Social Media and How to Use It. 10th CEWEP Waste-to-Energy Congress, 14th - 16th June 2023, Berlin. Available at: https://www.cewep.eu/congress2023presentations/ and https://www.cewep.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/4.1-Monika-Michalska.pdf. [CEWEP Congress presentation slide 9 featured Graffius’ visual, representing a summary of his research findings.]
- Degraux, Xavier (2022, November 5). Quelle est la Durée d’un Post sur Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.xavierdegraux.be/quelle-est-la-duree-dun-post-sur-twitter-instagram-linkedin. [In his article, Xavier Degraux — a social networks and content marketing consultant based in Belgium — discussed Graffius' work and provided a hyperlink to the research. Here's the title in English: How Long is a Post on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn.]
- Encompass Online Marketing (2023, March 15). How Often Should You Publish New Content? Available at: https://encompassonline.ca/blog/how-often-should-you-publish-new-content. [Among other points, the article references the lifespan of tweets and has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Fallah, Georges (2023, December 18). The Best Times to Post on Social Media. Available at: https://www.vbout.com/blog/the-best-times-to-post-on-social-media. [The article has hyperlinks to Graffius’ research.]
- Gebauer, Susanna (2022, October 25). Twitter Scheduling: How to Schedule Tweets for More Impact. Available at: https://susannagebauer.com/blog/twitter-scheduling/. [The article includes a link to Graffius' research.]
- Geyser, Werner (2023, September 20). 34 Mind-blowing Pinterest Stats for 2023. Influencer Marketing Hub. Available at: https://influencermarketinghub.com/pinterest-stats. [The article references the durations of “three months” and provides a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- GoDaddy (2023, February 20). How to Do Social Media: A Guide for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs. Available at: https://www.godaddy.com/resources/skills/how-to-do-social-media. [In discussing the lifespan of tweets, the article provides a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Gotch, Nathan (2023, December 4). How to Start an SEO Business (2024 Update). Available at: https://www.gotchseo.com/start-seo-company/. [The article includes Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” visual and a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Hawes, C. W. (2023, January 24). Social Media Half-Life. Available at: https://www.cwhawes.com/social-media-half-life. [The article identifies Graffius’ research and has a hyperlink to it.]
- John, Vanessa (2024, September 5). Website vs. Social Media - Do You Still Need a Site in 2024? Madgicx. Available at: https://madgicx.com/blog/website-and-social-media.
- Karr, Douglas (2024, February 18). The Half-Life of Social Media Posts in 2024: Navigating Lifespan for Strategic Impact. Available at: https://martech.zone/half-life-of-a-social-media-post/.
- Lin, Yunduan, & Wang, Mengxin, & Zhang, Heng, & Zhang, Renyu, & Shen, Zuo-Jun Max (2021, June 9; revised 2023, June 28). Content Promotion for Online Content Platforms with the Diffusion Effect. SSRN. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3863104 and https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3863104. [The scientific paper mentions Graffius’ work, and it delineates his research in the References section.]
- McErlain-Naylor, Stuart (2022, March 24). Social Media for Academia - All You Need to Know [Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka88MxZbU8o. [At timestamp 13:59 in the video, Dr. Stuart McErlain-Naylor displays a visual which summarizes the 2022 edition of Graffius’ research.]
- MeetEdgar (2023, April 2). Everything You Need to Know About Repeating Social Media Content. Available at: https://meetedgar.com/blog/repeating-social-media-content. [This article from social media management tool company MeetEdgar discusses the lifespan of posts and it has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Memom, Alafiya (2023, June 14). Master the Art of Using Pinterest for Blogging in 2023. ContentStudio. Available at: https://blog.contentstudio.io/pinterest-for-blogging. [The article rounds up the half-life of Pinterest pins as “4 months” and it includes a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Metricool (2023, October 31). YouTube Marketing in 2023. Available at: https://metricool.com/youtube-marketing. [The article includes “According to Scott Graffius’s data ...” and a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Midvalley Coach / Evercoach (2023, March 10). Proven Strategies To Enroll Coaching Clients [A Detailed Guide]. Available at: https://www.evercoach.com/coaching-guides/enroll-coaching-clients/. [Where the article addresses the life span of social media, “24 minutes (Twitter) to 24 hours (LinkedIn)” links to Graffius’ research.]
- Patel, Neil (2023, May 23). 18 Powerful Twitter Marketing Tips [That Actually Work]. Neil Patel. Available at: https://neilpatel.com/blog/twitter-marketing-tips. [In the article, “The average lifespan of one tweet” has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Pitzalis, Josh (2022, November 21). Finding Social Media Calendar Ideas for Twitter. Chirr App. Available at: https://getchirrapp.com/how-to/find. [The article references the half-life of a tweet and has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Pugalia, Akash, & Lalani, Farah (2023, September 29). Digital Safety: How a Multi-Faceted Approach Can Help Tackle Real-World Harm. World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/09/digital-safety-multi-faceted-approach-tackle-real-world-harm. [The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) included data by Graffius on the half-life of social media. The World Economic Forum covered that PNAS study in their article.]
- Rainey, Clint (2023, August 15). Social Media’s Toxic Impact Can Last Up to 8 Days. This Behavioral Scientist’s Solution Might Surprise You. Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/90939081/social-media-toxic-impact-content-moderation-solution-behavior-science. [The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) included Graffius’ research data on the half-life of social media. Fast Company covered that PNAS publication — and summarized Graffius’ data from it — in their article.]
- Rynek Pro (2023, June 26). Długość Życia Postów (Half-Life) w Mediach Społecznościowych w 2023 Roku. Available at: https://rynek.pro/half-life-dlugosc-zycia-postow/#pll_switcher. [Rynek Pro, a Poland-based advertising agency, featured Graffius’ research in their article. Here’s the title in English: Life Expectancy of Posts (Half-Life) in Social Media in 2023.]
- Sallaway Paul (2024, June 1). Using Social Media The Right Way! Available at: https://mivision.com.au/2024/06/using-social-media-the-right-way/.
- Schaffer, Neal (2024, September 17). Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: A Practical Guide to Building Your Brand and Driving Results. Irvine, California. PDCA Social.
- Schneider, Philipp J., & Rizoiu, Marian-Andrei (2023, August 22). The Effectiveness of Moderating Harmful Online Content. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120 (34): e2307360120. Available at: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2307360120. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2307360120. [The scientific paper references Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” research and uses his data.]
- Small Business Development Center (2024, September 30). 10 Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Small Business [Video]. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WelVAmXuxPU&t=1181s.
- Social Selling CRM (2024). Demi-vie de Vos Publications: Stratégies d’Optimisation 2024.’ (In English: Half-life of Your Publications: 2024 Optimization Strategies). Available at: https://www.socialsellingcrm.com/demi-vie-de-vos-publications-strategies-doptimisation-2024/.
- Statler, Jacob (2024, September 12). How to Schedule Social Media Posts: Best Tools and Tips. Post Planner. Available at: https://www.postplanner.com/blog/how-to-schedule-social-media-posts/. ["The lifespan of a social media post" — in green text, located towards the end of the article — links to Graffius’ research.]
- Strozyk, Kaylee (2023, November 3). 11 Tips on How to Use Pinterest for Real Estate. Fit Small Business. Available at: https://fitsmallbusiness.com/how-to-use-pinterest-for-real-estate-agents. [The article references that the half-life of Pinterest pins is “about 3.75 months.” Selecting the respective hyperlink brings up Graffius’ research.]
- Thailand TV News (2022, August 16). Half-Life of Each Social Media Post. Available at: https://thailandtv.news/half-life-of-each-social-media-post-thumbsup. [The article incorporates data from Graffius’ work, and it has a hyperlink to his research.]
- The Tech Reps (2023, January 23). SEO or Social Media Marketing, Which is Better for Sales? [video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVmQdHDXCrw. [The Tech Reps used Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” visual as the background image in their video.]
- Two Rivers Marketing (2020, December 9). 8 Social Media Channels and Tactics to Consider Adding to Your Marketing Mix. Available at: https://www.tworiversmarketing.com/blog/8-social-media-channels-and-tactics-to-consider-adding-to-your-marketing-mix. [The article references the lifespan of posts and has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Walters, Christy (2023, May 4). How To Curate Content for LinkedIn: Handpick Your Next Post. CopyPress. Available at: https://www.copypress.com/kb/social-media-promotion/curate-content-for-linkedin. [The article discusses the lifespan of a LinkedIn post and has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- What What SEO (2024, September 5). 5 bonnes raisons de créer un compte Pinterest si tu es entrepreneuse. (In English: 5 good reasons to create a Pinterest account if you are an entrepreneur.) Available at: https://whatwhatseo.fr/creer-compte-pinterest-entreprise-avantages/. [The article incorporates Graffius’ research; to see the details, select 'Sources' located towards the end of the article.]
And many more.
References
- Graffius, Scott M. (2024, January 1). Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2024. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/social-24.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21043.60965.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2024, September 30). Supplement to Graffius' 'Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts' Research: Typical Engagement Distribution Pattern for Social Media Posts. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/distribution-pattern-for-social-media-posts.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15820.22402.
- Pinterest Inc. (2024, October 2). Unlock The Full Potential of Pinterest with Marketing Mix Modelling. The Pinterest Inc. Business Blog. Available at: https://business.pinterest.com/blog/unlock-potential-pinterest-marketing-mix-modelling/ and other locations. [Navigate to the Footnotes section at the end of the article, and then select the corresponding "+" symbol to see the footnotes which includes Graffius' work.]
If there's an update after this article is published, the information will appear in the Post-Publication Notes section.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, an expert on teamwork tradecraft, an authority on temporal dynamics on social media platforms, a creator, a consultant, a trainer, an award-winning author, and an international public speaker.
See his bio to learn more.
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
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- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
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About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
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- 🇦🇹 Austria
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- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
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How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, October 10). Pinterest Inc. References Scott M. Graffius’ Research. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/pinterest_inc_business_blog_features_graffius.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31296.55041.
Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.
Content Acknowledgements
This article uses limited excerpts from Pinterest Inc., attributed to Pinterest and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis. Pinterest name, mark, and content are the property of Pinterest. Graffius’ ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ is copyright © Scott M. Graffius.
Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
A PDF of this article is here
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/pinterest_biz
What Are Your Chances of Project Success? [From the Archives - First Published on 12 December 2012]
02 January 2016
This article was first published on 12 July 2003.
The Standish Group provides research reports valued by those in technology management. In their Chaos Report and the follow-up Compass Report, Standish reported the top 10 criteria for project success.
This unique self-assessment is based on Scott M. Graffius' professional experience and Standish's findings. You're invited to take it to identify your project's success potential.
Note: This tool is tailored for projects utilizing a waterfall or hybrid approach and is not applicable to agile projects.
User Involvement
- Are the right users involved?
- Additionally, are the right users involved early and often?
- Are there good relationships with the users?
- Is involvement easy (frictionless)?
- Are the users’ needs uncovered?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 3.8 = ___.
Executive Management Support
- Is the right key executive(s) involved?
- Does the key executive(s) have a stake in the outcome?
- Does the project team have a stake as well?
- Is there a well-defined project plan?
- Is it understood that failure is a possibility?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 3.2 = ___.
Clear Statement of Requirements
- Is there a concise vision?
- Is there a business case?
- Is there a functional analysis?
- Is there a risk assessment?
- Have metrics been identified for tracking and reporting?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 3.0 = ___.
Proper Planning
- Is there a problem/pain/opportunity statement?
- Is there a solution statement?
- Have the right team members been assigned to the project?
- Is there a firm specification/requirements?
- Are there attainable milestones?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 2.2 = ___.
Realistic Expectations
- Are the specifications/requirements clear?
- Prioritization of needs? (While the default plan is to fulfill all requirements, the importance/value of each one should be quantified or qualified so that the most important items are prioritized.)
- Are there small/manageable milestones?
- Is change manageable (through a change management process or otherwise)?
- Can the project be prototyped or delivered in phases or incrementally?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 2.0 = ___.
Small Milestones
- Is the 80/20 rule observed (focus on the 20% of features that result in 80% of the benefit)?
- Is top-down design used?
- Are time limits set?
- Is a prototype tool used?
- Can progress be objectively measured?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 1.8 = ___.
Competent Staff
- Has a gap analysis on skills been done (and needed skills identified, if applicable)?
- Are the right people on the team?
- Is there a training program or otherwise an opportunity for team members to level up their skills?
- Are there appropriate incentives?
- Is the team appropriately skilled/equipped/available to see the project to completion?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 1.6 = ___.
Project Ownership
- Are roles for team members defined?
- Are roles for those involved with the project but not a member of the team (such as sponsors or executives) also defined?
- Does everyone have a good understanding of they will collaborate and contribute on the project?
- Are incentives tied to success?
- Is everyone involved committed?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 1.2 = ___.
Clear Vision and Objectives
- Is the vision shared?
- Is the vision aligned with the organization’s goals?
- Are objectives achievable?
- Are objectives measurable?
- Are sanity checks/gates in place?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 0.6 = ___.
Focused Staff
- Are there incentives?
- Is there a focus on the deliverables?
- Does each team member have part ownership?
- Is everyone working together?
- Is confidence being built as the team progresses?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 0.6 = ___.
Add all of the points to obtain the final score. Total score is ____ out of a maximum of 100 points.
Results range from 100 to 0, with 100 being the ideal for the project's success potential.
It is suggested that projects with a score less than 90 are revisited, and that challenges or impediments are resolved.
How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2016, January 2). What Are Your Chances of Project Success? [From the Archives - First Published on 12 December 2012]. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/archive---chances-of-project-success.html.
© Copyright 2016 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Typical Software Development Risks: Symptoms, Causes, Indicators, and Mitigations [From the Archives - First Published on 16 December 2012]
02 January 2016
This article was first published on 16 December 2012.
The risks for software development projects can vary. However, this article provides a view of the typical risks along with the respective symptoms, root causes, leading indicators, and mitigations for each.
Risk: Inaccurate effort and estimates and schedules
- Symptoms to watch for: Pattern of late deliverables; lack of awareness of schedule and status.
- Potential root cause: Schedules based on business ('top down') need rather than team-generated ('bottom up').
- Leading indicators: Earned value - schedule performance index (SPI).
- Mitigations: 'Bottom up' planning; monitor effort and schedule; engage earned value for monitoring, control as needed.
Risk: Unconstrained requirements growth
- Symptoms to watch for: Development staff cannot keep up with requirements changes.
- Potential root cause: Requirements change not well-managed.
- Leading indicators: Requirements change rate.
- Mitigations: Plan for change (employ a requirements/change control process); don't start development until there is a stable set of requirements.
Risk: Dysfunctional organization
- Symptoms to watch for: High project staff turnover; frequent staff reassignments; poor work environment; low productivity; staff lacks necessary skills and experience; and key role(s) are vacant.
- Potential root cause: Lack of motivating work environment; poor management of project prioritization; lack of experience with work needed on project.
- Leading indicators: Project staff turnover compared with historical trend; productivity; project team does not have an appropriate understanding of the requirements and project status.
- Mitigation: Monitor, manage, and control issues and risks; status reporting; external (peer) assessment of project plans.
Risk: Poor software quality
- Symptoms to watch for: High test defect counts; significant rework.
- Potential root cause: Focus on schedule rather than quality.
- Leading indicators: Test inspection yield; test defect density; defect discovery and closure rates/profiles.
- Mitigation: Create a development quality plan that focuses on inspection rather than (only) test; measure and track against quality plan; cultivate a focus on software quality.
Risk: Under-performance
- Symptoms to watch for: Low productivity.
- Potential root cause: Technical complexity; development environment changes; under-achievement.
- Leading indicators: Earned value - cost performance index (CPI).
- Mitigation: Engaged earned value, control as needed.
Manage risks and you'll greatly improve the probability of success.
How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2016, January 2). What Are Your Chances of Project Success? [From the Archives - First Published on 16 December 2012]. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/archive---software-development-risks-and-mitigations.html.
© Copyright 2016 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.