Sharing performance data without including industry-specific social media benchmarks is like putting on a play without setting the stage. Sure, people will understand what you're saying, but they'll probably come to their own conclusions about the bigger picture.
Industry benchmarks provide the context you need to tell a richer story about your social media marketing strategy.
Use data from Sprout's 2024 Content Benchmarking Report to uncover opportunities to fine-tune your strategy in a way that resonates with your target audience. Before we dive into the data, keep learning more about the metrics, why they matter, and how you can use them to make sure 2024 is your best year yet.
Social media benchmarks serve as performance standards that allow social media teams to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of different strategies and campaigns. Marketers often use benchmark data to set realistic social media goals.
Teams can compare their results to three different types of social media benchmarks: industry benchmarks, competitive benchmarks, and personal benchmarks.
The Content Benchmark report analyzes more than 2.1 billion messages from more than 1 million public social profiles that were active from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023, and analyzes published posts, inbound engagement, We obtained industry benchmarks for three specific areas: outbound engagement.
Here we provide a detailed breakdown of each metric, as well as benchmark data for the top three most active industries for each metric. Download the report to see the data in detail.
Download the 2024 Content Benchmark Report
Published post
The number of published posts is a simple metric. Measures the number of posts published across your account during a specific time period. This may seem simple, but it's often the foundation of a successful social media strategy.
Narrowing down the posts that are published helps you reverse engineer the amount of publication needed to achieve a specific impression, engagement, or engagement rate. If your social media goals are data-driven, you can find ways to achieve them simply by reviewing previous performance reports.
Brands published an average of 10 social posts per day across their networks in 2023. This is unchanged from the benchmark seen from Q1 to Q3 2022.
From a publishing perspective, the consumer industry has consistently exceeded this goal. They include:
- Media (43 posts published per day)
- Leisure, Sports and Recreation (26 posts published per day)
- Retail (20 posts published per day)
To be fair, these industries have an advantage over others. It becomes much easier for consumer-facing brands to align their content with trends, events, and even cultural moments. See how Stephen Madden stayed on trend with his annual In-and-Out list to kick off 2024.
You can replicate this strategy even if you're not in the retail industry. The next time your business has a fun event on your calendar, look at it from a social-first perspective to get more benefit from your presence.
Inbound engagement
This report presents two different inbound social media engagement benchmarks. Average number of inbound engagements per day on content and Average daily inbound engagement per post.
Breaking down these numbers by day and post can help you examine your overall strategy and the success of individual posts. This granularity is key to measuring the success of big shifts in social creative and copy.
Of course, the more you post, the more opportunities your audience will have to engage. As such, industries that consistently outperform publishing benchmarks also receive more inbound engagement.
Industries that receive a proportionally higher amount of inbound engagement per post compared to the pace of publication include::
- Food and drink (17)
- Computer Software and Technology (16)
- government (14)
outbound engagement
In 2024, outbound engagement will make or break your social strategy.
People are flocking to closed communities and vertical networks for more customized online experiences. To stay competitive in this new social era, brands must redouble their aggressive marketing. Building one-on-one relationships on social isn't a recipe for overnight growth, but it's a controllable and sustainable path to long-term rewards.
This marks a major shift in traditional brand social strategies. In 2023, the average number of outbound engagements was just 2 per day across all industries.
Industries that go beyond this include:
- Telecommunications (16 outbound jobs per day)
- Leisure, sports and recreation (8 outbound jobs per day)
- Media (6 outbound engagements per day)
For carriers like Boingo Wireless, outbound engagement also supports excellent customer care. Their team uses Sprout's social customer care tools to monitor keywords related to their service locations, including airports, military bases, conference centers, and more. This allows him to serve those in need without tagging his Boingo account in questions or comments.
One-size-fits-all social media strategies are long gone. Between ongoing network fragmentation and the rise of new content formats, teams now need to create bespoke strategies that take into account the nuances of the desired platform.
Every social media network has its own trends and communication norms that can influence how consumers interact with brands in that space. Segmenting social media benchmarking data by network is a powerful way to ensure that expectations and user preferences are aligned.
According to the 2024 Content Benchmarking Report, users began moving their activities to Meta platforms in 2023. Engagement received on Facebook and Instagram has remained stable year-over-year, while engagement on X (formerly known as Twitter) has decreased slightly.
Benchmarking can turn last year's data into this year's advantage. Now that you have new insights at your fingertips, here are three ways to use social media engagement benchmarks to level up your strategy.
Industry benchmarks for inspiration
Every industry has its own approach to social media. If you want to revamp your social media marketing strategy, looking beyond your competitors is the first step to your next innovative campaign.
Use industry benchmarks to find out which brands outperform others on the metrics listed above. While observing their social presence, identify what they do and how your brand can emulate them. This is a great way to come up with innovative ideas that bring something new to your target audience.
Competitive benchmarks provide performance context
When you understand how your brand compares to your competitors, you can use performance data to tell a richer story. Competitive benchmarking allows you to better communicate your efforts to business stakeholders who may not know what social media success looks like.
Sprout allows you to compare your company's performance against key business rivals using network-specific competitor reports. These social competitive analysis reports provide insights into publishing behavior, fan growth, and engagement, so you can create customized benchmarks based on the metrics that matter.
Personal benchmarks inform immediate goals
Personal benchmarks should be your go-to resource for creating actionable goals. While industry social media benchmarks can impact performance, a brand's own year-over-year benchmarks tell the story of growth over time.
This is especially relevant for brands piloting new social strategies or introducing a new network presence.
Establishing your personal benchmark data begins with your annual report. Year-over-year performance data is important to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your social media strategy. These insights should be the core rationale behind your goals for next year.
Month-over-month benchmarks, on the other hand, can help you assess the progress of a particular campaign, allowing you to identify quick wins or needed pivots. These benchmarks can also help you make sure you're hitting your social media KPIs at the right pace.
Establishing social media benchmarks without using social media analysis tools is like riding up a hill on a bicycle with low tire pressure. You'll get there eventually, but it will take a while.
Sprout Social helps marketers speed up the data collection process with cross-network performance reporting that enables smart data segmentation. These tools support on-the-fly benchmarking data collection, so you always have the big picture in mind, no matter when you start tracking KPIs.
Brands using Sprout premium analysis You can create custom reports that ensure your data is always presented in the right context, no matter where it is sent.simply use text assets widget of report builder Include information about personal and competitive benchmarks along with the latest performance data.
Let benchmarks be your guide
Now you're ready to start collecting personal and competitive benchmark data. Leave the industry data collection to us.
See how you compare to brands operating within your industry with the 2024 Content Benchmarking Report. Inside you'll find the latest benchmark data and research on the type of content your audience is looking for today.
