A recent study indicates that half of Facebook Likes are generated within the first couple of hours after a post is published.

Internet marketers who want to drive Facebook engagement should create new posts every hour and 20 minutes, suggests a study from Visbli. The study found that 50 percent of a post’s Likes are generated in just under 90 minutes.

Visibli studied Facebook engagement across artists, media organizations and brands, analyzing the activity of more than 200 million fans. While half of a given post’s Likes are garnered in less than an hour and a half, the study indicates that Facebook posts have longer engagement periods than posts on other forms of social media.

The organization found that posts garner new Likes for nearly a day on average. Sixty percent of Likes are generated in the first two hours and 15 minutes, 70 percent in four hours and 80 percent in 7 hours – but posts still get activity beyond the eight-hour mark. Ninety-five percent of Likes come within the first 22 hours.

Marketers should consider posting every hour and 20 minutes for maximum engagement, being careful not to over post, thereby “cannibalizing Likes from earlier posts,” Visibli says. The organization believes these figures show that “Facebook posts are much more resilient than Twitter posts.”

Indeed, Tweets have a notoriously short lifespan. Plus, as Brafton has reported, studies suggest Likes are more valuable than Tweets in terms of revenue.

Marketers trying to decide which kind of posts will best drive engagement might consider using custom news content that deals with industry-specific developments and drives traffic to their sites. The Visibli study indicates that breaking news is likely to get comments. The organization found that people are “more likely to comment on current news” than brand-related posts. Marketers

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.