Lifespan of Social Media Posts in 2021: How Long Do They Last?

Knowing the lifespan of your social posts can help you better plan your marketing strategy. We explore what those lifespans are and how they effect your content plans.

When you're in the process of building a social audience for your brand, it can sometimes feel like you're posting into the abyss. Interaction may be low at the onset, and it can be tough to stay the course and keep posting when you're just not sure you're being heard.

Most social savvy marketers will tell you to stay the course, try some different types of posts, different times of day, until you find what works for your brand. You may even here a voice whisper, "If you build it, they will come." (Hey, it worked on Kevin Costner.)

There is also the consideration of audience. We'll talk about that more in the coming weeks, but for now let me just say a few things:

1. A lot of people talk audience like it's one big, faceless group. Most brands have multiple audiences.
2. Marketing done right means identifying those audiences and getting know when and how they like to communicate with a brand. Individualize the offerings to fit the right segments of your audience.
3. Not every brand needs every type of social media and there are some that just may not need it at all. I know. I said it.

One of the things people often ask when they are trying to figure out all this is, "What's the lifespan of a social post?" It's a loaded question because there are a bunch of different answers, but it's also a good question because it can help you to determine how often you should be posting on your social platforms.

You'll likely find different answers to these questions from different sources, but I think this is a good general rule. Debating the merits of one tool for measurement accuracy over another would just get us lost in the weeds and it is, after all, meant to be merely a guide to help you use social more effectively.

I'll give you a quick list in case you want to save it somewhere, but I've also included an infographic on the subject, too!

• Twitter: 15 minutes
• TikTok & Snapchat: Start decaying immediately unless viral
• Facebook: 6 hours
• Instagram: 48 hours
• LinkedIn: 24 hours
• YouTube: 20 days or more
• Pinterest: 4 months
• Blog Post: Over a year

In the coming days and weeks, we'll chat more about audience, frequency of posting, how to communicate your content strategy internally and a bunch of other cool content goodies. If you simply can't wait, feel free to reach out to me and I'd be happy to chat one on one or you can hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn and we can all talk about it.