Hubspot points to a recent study from Bit.ly about the shelf life or how long a link stays alive before people stop engaging with it. It offers an estimate as follows:
- 2.8 hours on Twitter
- 3.2 hours on Facebook
According to the post, it suggests that what’s most important for content shelf life is the quality of the content shared, not where it is shared.
I added this link to my nonprofit content curation list and discovered some conversation from other curators, including this one from presentation from Steve Rubel from June. Rubel talks about the issue of “content decay” or the amount time content has to get attention from our networks.
That window of time is a small one because of the sheer volume of content available on the Web. For example, Facebook produces 30 billion pieces of content a day. This may be why curated content may get a second life or what the scoop.it blog calls the “ricochet” effect.
Rubel suggests that there are ways to increase shelf life or avoid a rapid decay. This includes understanding when your community is engaged so it easier to engage them in a meaningful way. Frequency and good storytelling are important.
Rubel suggests that it is essential to handcraft your social content for the particular network or channel. This means that Facebook content should be different from Twitter content. A simple tactic on making sure that you have hand crafted content is to create an editorial calendar. It is also a good idea to avoid automatic cross posting of content from social network to another.
How are you ensuring that your content for social channels is not only capturing attention, but also has a longer shelf-life than it took to create it?
Emily Jones Rushing says
Looking forward to learning more tips from Beth at community foundation conference next week in SF. We’ll be reporting out on social media, too, as we learn more effective ways to engage people who care about making lives better in our home communities. #COFSF
Maria Peagler says
Beth – I saw this study also, and while it has a nugget of truth to it, it’s looking at content from only one perspective. The best way to ensure a long shelf life for your content is to write for longevity. Use keywords so people can find your content in search, link to other relevant content you’ve written, and repurpose it in a video, Slideshare presentation, or checklist.
Rock solid content has an incredibly long shelf life. It’s the fluff that disappears quickly.