How long can a tweet sustain itself in the social media ecosystem? How long before a link on Facebook fades into the ether? Bitly just released a research report that tells just that. The key findings are below:
The Mean Half Life of a…
- Link on Twitter: 2.8 hours
- Link on Facebook: 3.2 hours
- Link via Direct Sources (email, IM, etc): 3.4 hours
- Link on YouTube: 7.4 hours
I read in a Buddy Media research report that people are 3 time more likely to interact with a URL that’s not shortened. I wonder if bitly themselves (and other URL shortening services) also affects the shelf life of links. It feels like the next generation of data sets will tell us not only that kind of information, but also how long the shelf life is based on who shared the link. Klout, are you looking for another cog in your algorithm?