Deleted, But Not Forgotten

With the emergence of IG Stories, vanishing Tweets on X or short-lived Reels, not every digital content are meant to last. It embraced the way where "post fast, delete faster", just as story which last only 1 day. For marketers, such way actually meant much more. It's a way to analyze the interactivity and responses from the deleted posts. A short-term posts carrying the sense of urgency which could also meant faster or even more responses towards it. Even the posts been delete after, it carrying important data to study.

The Rise of the Post-and-Delete Culture

Nowadays, everyone especially Gen Z, treating social content like a live conversation. Mostly always on social media all the time so it's almost nothing anything unique to just simply post. They post fleeting updates to:-

• Test a reaction (before what they so-called "official")

• Avoid being judged (damage control if anything happen)

• Keep their profiles minimal (those inactive but actually active account)

• Create urgency (seemingly live update!)

A lot social media platforms encourage this too. While users still have full control of the previous content's which usually saved at Threads' archive. From there, the insights of each can become useful data. While many users move on from this but as marketers for brands, they wouldn't.

Why Deleted Posts Still Matter to Marketers

For marketers, every engagement to the temporary post meant alot. Even most temporary it still able to :-

• Drive conversions

• Spark conversations

• Reveal sentiment

• Signal intent

Ignoring all this is like running a campaign without caring for the result. This data are game-changer for marketers to be able to pinpoint the effectiveness on each posts. Even positive or negative feedbacks, such time-limited posts waste no time to directly able to find out the result.

How to Capture the Unseen: Content Archiving in Action

CRM tools come in handy in such situation for monitoring those posts, even it been deleted after. Now let's have some case studies :-

1. Influencer Dilemma - A fashion influencer posts a story promoting your latest drop. Three hours later, it's deleted maybe they had second thoughts, or followers criticized them. And since the data been archive, we'll able to see number of views, link clicks, tags and most important, the positive or negative feedbacks. This bring to easily to keep track of the data to determine the next step to be taken.

2. Audience Feedback - A renowned cognac brand booked a venue but got raided at the event day. Their official social media account posted of the situation updates along with apologies note. Taken down shortly after for damage control. However, the account still able to view all the negative feedbacks for further actions.

3. Flashsales - e-commerce site launch a 2 hours time limited promotion on their site. After the sale, everything wiped out. However the site able to keep track of their audience after taken down. The important data that still kept such number of clicks but didn't buy, buyers segmentation, and those who responded.

Of all 3 scenarios, carrying the same thing where some important data been gained from such temporary posts. This usually to determine which steps should be taken based on the results.

We Been Living in Fast Life

As everything moving in fast-paced, even a temporary work so well and could able to deliver a deeper message. While permanent posts are sure here to stay. Temporary posts meant to show the current situations while deliver some urgency. As a reminder for us all where everything seems like going on realtime, as the responds too. It also gave audiences more freedom to complain when they knew it will be removed the next few days. As some are so hesitant to say anything.