Do industry benchmarks for social media still hold value?
In a world dominated by paid campaigns and audience hyper-targeting across social media, is there still a place for industry benchmarking?
In my work, I’m regularly asked to provide “industry benchmarks” to gauge and assess the success of our social campaigns. But what exactly is a benchmark?
Understanding benchmarks
In the world of marketing and communications, benchmarks are commonly used to measure the perceived success or failure of a social campaign or post. In the not-so-distant past, social platforms like Facebook and Twitter would post industry benchmarks to help companies understand their place in the social landscape. That is no longer the case, because the playing field is no longer level due to paid promotion.
Several factors contribute to the way paid campaigns render industry benchmarking ineffective. The most basic is the amount of promotional investment, which will ultimately dictate the amount of impressions and engagement a post or campaign will receive.
Other important factors include:
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