What goes viral today, is often forgotten tomorrow. The world of social media spins faster every day, with more and more content being created and shared every second. It’s for that reason that marketers have one question in mind: which network has the longest life for a piece of content?
While we generally think that the life span of content will decrease over time, there is a network where this is not necessarily the case. With the rise of Instagram and TikTok over the past few years, Pinterest has been pushed out of focus for a little bit. However, the truth is that this visual social network is more relevant than ever before – simply for the fact that it offers the longest life for a piece of content.
Why Pinterest has the longest life for a piece of content?
Unlike many other social media sites, the feed is not so important for Pinterest. In most other social networks the feed dominates the experience. However, due to the design of most networks, content will also disappear quickly and get buried with newer content. With Pinterest, that’s different.
While the algorithms of other social network sites often prioritise new and viral content, Pinterest will show content that is most relevant to what you are looking for. This means that your Pinterest content from a few years ago might still appear on the top of the platform’s search results page – if people are looking for actually that.
This is also backed by HubSpot. If you have done the HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification, you will literally have encountered the question ‘which network has the longest life for a piece of content?’ And according to HubSpot, Pinterest is the right answer.
A comparison with other social networks
Let’s take a look at other social networks and see how Pinterest compares.
Most content that is shared via personal accounts will drop out of the feed in less than 24 hours. Depending on how much content appears in your feed, it might even be less. A few years back, Facebook also started to prioritise paid content posted by brands or pages. This means that the organic reach of your branded content is decreasing and it’s harder to stand out with your content as a result.
Instagram has the benefit that posts and reels are searchable via hashtags and enjoy therefore a longer life span. However, Stories also disappear forever after 24 hours. The feed and the discovery feature are designed to show you content that you are most likely going to engage with. If someone hasn’t interacted with your brand in a while, then it’s very likely that they won’t even see your post.
Snapchat
Although the popularity of Snapchat drastically decreased since Instagram introduced Stories, the platform still has its loyal following. However, if you used Snapchat before, then you will know that ‘Snaps’ only last 24 hours and then disappear – that’s the general idea of this social network. Furthermore, your short videos might even get lost in the flood of other Snaps.
This social network has maintained a strong following over the years. However, as Twitter prides itself with breaking news, the life span of content is really low and might only be a few minutes – until the next bigger story comes along.
Why the information is relevant for marketers
Marketers who are not using Pinterest today are missing out. If you are working in the content creation business, you will know that there is a continuous schedule to create more and new content. However, with Pinterest you can actually build a database of sorts that will remain relevant for your users.
Sure – adding and ‘pinning’ new images is still important, but it is not as vital to remain on top as it is with other social networks. Focus rather on creating and curating great visuals. To make them easily discoverable by Pinterest users, you can tag them, use hashtags and relevant descriptions or create topic-related moodboards.
Visuals on Pinterest are also relevant for Google image search, as images from Pinterest often get displayed in the search results – if they are relevant to the search term. This means that you can also get organic traffic back to your Pinterest profile and your website (if you have pinned you images there).
How to leverage Pinterest to make your content last longer?
I think it’s fair to say that not every content is suited for Pinterest. If most of your content is text-based, then simply posting in on the platform won’t benefit you. As Pinterest is best for visual content, you need to find a way to visualise you ideas. One of way doing it is by creating infographics or charts that illustrate your texts.
To make the best out of Pinterest it’s important to remember what people use it for. Pinterest is often used as a source of inspiration. People are not necessarily looking for something concrete, but rather are open for suggestions and ideas that are related to their topic of interest. It’s especially popular among people who work in design, branding and curation. So design your visuals accordingly and describe it well.
