Social media is everywhere! You can see people using social media in cafes, groceries, offices, shopping malls, trains, etc. According to a social media agency Hong Kong, the 3 most popular social media in the world are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Recently, Rival IQ, a market intelligence platform, released the 2022 Social Media Benchmark Report. They have been doing it every year for 6 years in a row now. 

A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong highlights the importance of knowing these benchmarks. It can help them make better decisions on their future strategies. As the usage for short-form video booms, a video marketing agency Hong Kong also suggests keeping an eye on these survey results to know the latest trends in social media. There is no doubt, market intelligence is a key to a successful brand or business.

WHAT IS A SOCIAL MEDIA BENCHMARK?

A benchmark is a standard or starting point of assessment. It can also be termed as a metric. A social media benchmark is a metric that averages the performance of all brands of a specific industry in social media. Benchmarking is important for a brand or business to know if its performance is at par with industry standards. It gives a better picture of what is a good performance or a poor performance in social media. Some of the most common social media benchmarks are clicks, comments, downloads, likes, saves, shares, and tags.

Before its 2022 Social Media Benchmark Report, Rival IQ randomly selected 150 companies per industry base among 200,000 active social media brands. These companies had an active presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter from January 2021 to the present. Each brand has around 25,000 to 1 million Facebook followers and at least 5,000 Instagram and Twitter followers. So, we are looking at social media benchmarks for big brands. 

2022 SOCIAL MEDIA BENCHMARK KEY TAKEAWAYS

Contests and holiday promotions topped the hashtag charts.

Nearly every brand or business in social media found success during contests, holidays, and giveaways through the use of hashtags. Among the most popular holiday hashtags are #Halloween and #MayThe4thBeWithYou.  

An Instagram carousel allows brands and businesses to post up to 10 images or videos. Instagrammers can view these multiple pieces of content by clicking or swiping left. They are the secret behind ultra-engaging posts on Instagram. They often get re-served to users, resulting in more impressions. 

Keep an eye on videos.

Since the rise of TikTok, brands and businesses started competing using short-form video clips. Facebook and Instagram launched Reels. Snapchat puts spotlights in the limelight. YouTube is giving a major push on Shorts.

Organic engagement declines in 2021.

The organic engagement rate on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter witnessed a decline. The median engagement rate per post across all industries on Facebook is now at 0.64%. This is slightly lower at 0.09% in 2021. Instagram engagement rate falls from 0.098% in 2021 to 0.67% today. While Twitter’s engagement rate dipped from 0.045% in 2020 to 0.37% today. This social media benchmark just shows that social media is becoming a pay-to-play space.

The frequency of social media posting is rising. 

A majority of brands and businesses increased their posting frequency on all three social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). With a larger user base, the potential of Facebook’s reach keeps companies posting regularly. The median frequency for brands posting on Facebook is 5.87 posts per week. On Instagram, it is 4.55 posts per week. While on Twitter, it is 5.04 tweets per week. The reason behind it is to increase bites of the engagement apple.

Reference: https://www.rivaliq.com/blog/social-media-industry-benchmark-report/