Average Lifespan of a Post: Facebook vs. Twitter

What I’m about to say next will probably not shock, or come as a surprise to you: Social Media moves fast.

Over the last couple of years, I have discovered more breaking news through my Twitter or Facebook streams than I have traditional forms of media like radio or TV. Michael Jackson’s death. A recent earthquake in Vancouver. The Stanley Cup riot. All examples of things that were at least 5 minutes ahead on my Twitter stream than TV.

I recently saw this article that stated that the average lifespan of a Facebook Post is 22 hours and 51 minutes. (h/t @allisonmmarkin). Not surprisingly, the average lifespan of a Tweet is much shorter: less than hour, according to this post on Read Write Web. Additionally, if your tweet is going to be retweeted, chances are, it’ll be retweeted within the first five minutes. After than, chances of a retweet drop dramatically.

For many of us using social media for marketing, there is a fine line: we want to stay within our customer’s or client’s view, but we don’t want to bug them, because we know that will turn them off.

Based on this information, it seems like the optimal amount of times to post to your Facebook Page is once per day, and sending 8-12 Tweets per day, depending, of course, on the nature of your tweets (are they informational tweets? or conversations?), and where your main audience lives (they may live in another time zone, meaning you may have to tweet in the middle of the night to reach them at a peak time).

What’s been your experience with posting or reading posts of Facebook Pages you administrate or “Like”? And what’s been your experience on Twitter? What do you think is the optimal amount of times to post or Tweet?