How do you know the \u201cright\u201d number of engagements to expect on your social posts? Is 100 likes a lot or a little? The answer is, it depends.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where social media benchmarks come in. This industry-specific data tracks the norms or averages for specific metrics like social media engagement and follower growth. It gives you an understanding of how businesses similar to yours are doing \u2014\u00a0and a better sense of what those 100 likes really mean.<\/p>\n
Keep reading to learn more about the process of social media benchmarking. This post includes up-to-date (Q4 2023) benchmarks<\/strong> for key industries to help you understand how your social results stack up right now.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Bonus:<\/strong> Get a free, customizable competitive analysis template<\/strong><\/span> to easily size up the competition and identify opportunities for your brand to pull ahead.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n A social media benchmark is an average result<\/strong> that serves as a standard by which other businesses in the same industry or category can be measured or judged<\/strong>. The benchmark is essentially the norm for social media marketing success. Think of it as the level of social media performance all businesses within a category should try to reach or exceed.<\/p>\n Social media benchmarks are important because they provide context for your social media KPIs<\/a><\/strong>. There\u2019s always value to tracking your own social media metrics<\/a> and growth over time, even in isolation. But when you place that data in the context of the larger industry picture, you can better understand where there are real opportunities for improvement.<\/p>\n You can also use benchmarks to set realistic goals expectations<\/strong>. Some industries (like entertainment) will by nature have greater reach than others (like health care). When you know what\u2019s \u201cnormal\u201d for your industry, you can set reasonable milestones that allow you to achieve real growth without burning out<\/a> your social team.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Beautiful reports. Clear data. Actionable insights to help you grow faster.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart free 30-day trial<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n Manually compiling reliable social media benchmarks by industry can involve a lot of very finicky and frustrating research.<\/p>\n Fortunately, Hootsuite Analytics<\/a> has a built-in social media benchmarking tool that allows you to compare the performance of your social accounts against the average of brands in your industry with just a couple of clicks.<\/p>\n To access this new feature, head to Analytics<\/strong> within your Hootsuite dashboard. Under Benchmarking<\/strong> in the the left menu, click Industry<\/strong>, then click Select your industry<\/strong> and choose the most relevant option from the drop-down menu.<\/p>\n Now you can see how your results compare to average performance stats within your industry. You can set up custom timeframes, switch between networks \u2014 <\/span>Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and TikTok<\/b> \u2014 and look up benchmarks for the following metrics:<\/span><\/p>\n \u2026 and more.<\/span><\/p>\n You will also find <\/span>resources to improve your performance<\/b> right in the summary section:<\/span><\/p>\n Try for free<\/a><\/p>\n And, if you need to present your results to your team, boss, or other stakeholders, you can easily download your comparison report as a PDF file.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at a snapshot of some of the most important social media benchmarking data from Q3 2023. We focus here on four key metrics:<\/p>\n Combined, these benchmarks give you a good sense of how your social accounts stack up against the competition in terms of both output and performance.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to compare like with like, so we\u2019ve provided separate social media benchmarks for Facebook and Instagram in each category. The impressions numbers are based on a 30-day period.<\/p>\nWhat is a social media benchmark?<\/span><\/h2>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t#1 Analytics Tool for Growth\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\nHow to find social media benchmarks<\/span><\/h2>\n
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![\"Industry](\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Benchmarking-6-1-620x340.png.webp)
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\n<\/picture>\n<\/a><\/p>\nQ4 2023 social media benchmarks by industry<\/span><\/h2>\n
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![\"Audience](\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Awareness-metrics-audience-growth-rate.png.webp)
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![\"Average](\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Engagement-metrics-Average-engagement-rate.png.webp)
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Social media benchmarks in education<\/h3>\n
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Social media benchmarks in entertainment and media<\/h3>\n
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![\"Q4](\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Q4-Facebook-Page-impressions.svg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSocial media benchmarks in financial services<\/h3>\n
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Social media benchmarks in food and beverage<\/h3>\n
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![\"Q4](\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Q4-Instagram-profile-impressions.svg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSocial media benchmarks in government<\/h3>\n
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Social media benchmarks in healthcare and wellness<\/h3>\n
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![\"Social](\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Q4-2023-Facebook-posting-frequency.svg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSocial media benchmarks in real estate<\/h3>\n
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Social media benchmarks in retail<\/h3>\n
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