The Lifespan of Social Media Content (Or, the Fish, the Stream, and the Shore)

by Andrew Hanelly on April 29, 2011

life and times of social media content

There are a lot of analogies being passed around when it comes to where to publish social media content:

“Fish where the fish are.” (You should focus efforts predominately on Facebook and Twitter.)

“Don’t get lost in the stream.” (You should build your own presence, so you avoid getting lost on Facebook and Twitter.)

“Rent, don’t buy.” (You should focus on the social networks which are trending at the current moment, lest the trends trend elsewhere and you’ve invested in the wrong platform.)

“Buy, don’t rent.” (You should own your digital media presence so you can build it up over time, make changes the way you want, and own something that lasts.)

There are pros and cons to each of these overly simplistic philosophies. The uncomfortable truth is that we need to be both in the stream and on the shore. 

Uncomfortable because it’s a lot more work.

True because we need to fish where the fish are and have a base of operations on the shore.

The stream has more people spending time there.

  • On Facebook, 600+ million users generate 2.2 million status updates per day

But it’s harder to stand out, and tough to establish permanency.

  • 95% of all activity on a Facebook post will conclude within 22 hours

The shore has less people spending time on it.

I’m making an educated guess that your blog (and mine) don’t have the usage numbers that Facebook and Twitter does

Once a URL, always a URL.

Content you create on your site has the potential to work for you indefinitely, and have a second wind.

Graph showing visits to a single post over a 6 month period.

The sustainable solution is to establish a footing on the shore and venture out to the stream to fish where the fish are. It’s not an either-or proposition.

Trust me, you’ll eat better and sleep more comfortably.

[image: stawarz]

This post originally appeared on hanelly.com.

Andrew Hanelly

Written by: Andrew Hanelly

Andrew is SVP, Strategy at McMurry/TMG and for one semester in college, was a sociology major. Follow him on Twitter and Google+.

  • Lydia

    I just stumbled across this blog, but was so excited as I began to read the posts! I’m currently taking a social media class for which we’ve been asked to maintain blogs as well as study Twitter, Facebook, etc. for their own usability in public relations campaigns. I liked this post a lot because it really spoke to what we’ve been discussing in my class – what platforms are best to use, what are the best ways to use the platforms, and how do you decide to permanently or only ephemerally stay with a given platform? I’m definitely going to share some of the ideas you’ve written about here with my class and will be thinking about them as I venture into the social media world!

    • http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly

      This is the feel-good comment of the century for me. I’m glad you found our stuff to be useful, and I hope it can contribute to your learning experience. You should post the link to your blog here!

      Good luck in class – and thanks for the comment, Lydia.

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