Social Media Benchmarks by Industry in 2025 | Sprout Social

Sharing your performance data without including industry-specific social media benchmarks is like putting on a play without setting the stage. Sure, people will get what you’re saying, but they’ll probably come to their own conclusions about the bigger picture.

Industry benchmarks provide the context needed to tell a richer story about your social media marketing strategy.

What is a social media benchmark?

A social media benchmark is a performance standard that allows social media teams to assess and compare the effectiveness of various strategies and campaigns. Marketers often use benchmark data to create realistic social media goals.

Teams can compare their results against three different types of social media benchmarks: industry benchmarks, competitive benchmarks and personal benchmarks.

What to measure in 2025: Social media benchmarks by industry

The 2025 Content Benchmarks Report delivers a masterclass in social performance, built on the analysis of 3 billion messages across 1 million active public profiles. This research identifies exactly where brand investments miss the mark and where they meet rising consumer expectations.

Benchmarks are your baseline, but the real competitive edge comes from applying these insights directly to your strategy with a platform built to handle the heavy lifting.

To see how your brand stacks up against these global standards in real-time—and unlock up to a 268% ROI—integrate Sprout’s AI-powered analytics into your workflow today.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of each metric, along with benchmark data from the three most active industries for each metric.

Posts published

Posts published is a straightforward metric that measures the number of posts published across accounts during a specific period. Although it may seem simple, it’s often at the foundation of a successful social media strategy.

Narrowing in on posts published helps you reverse engineer the publishing volume needed to reach certain impressions, engagements and engagement rates. With data informing your social media goals, figuring out how to reach them is just a matter of reviewing your previous performance reports.

Brands published an average of 9.5 social posts per day across networks in 2024—a slight dip from 2023. It’s a sign that brands can pull back on volume and focus more on creating higher-quality content.

That said, not every industry is slowing down. Consumer-facing industries, in particular, continue to post at much higher rates. These include:

Inbound engagements

In this report, you’ll find two different inbound social media engagement benchmarks: average inbound engagements on content per day and average daily inbound engagements per post.

In 2024, brands saw a 20% jump in average inbound engagements, climbing from 70% in 2023 to 83%. Average daily inbound engagements per post also grew by 17%, rising from 12 to 14.

Industries that receive a proportionally higher amount of inbound engagements per post compared to their publishing cadence include:

Outbound engagements

In 2025, outbound engagements will make or break your social strategy.

People are flocking to closed communities for a more tailored online experience. To remain competitive in this new social media landscape, brands will have to double down on proactive marketing.

Some industries, however, are already leading the way when it comes to proactive engagement:

Social media engagement benchmarks across social networks

One-size-fits-all social media strategies are a thing of the past. Between ongoing network fragmentation and the rise of new content formats, teams must create bespoke strategies that account for the nuances of each platform.

According to the 2025 Content Benchmarks Report, Meta platforms continue to lead the way in terms of activity. Engagements on Facebook and Instagram have grown by 9% and 28%, respectively. Engagements on X have remained steady at 13.

Regional social media benchmarks

North America

North America has the lowest posting frequency of all three regions, averaging 9.5 posts per day. Instagram leads in daily engagement with 27.

EMEA

EMEA brands post more frequently, averaging 12 posts per day.

APAC

APAC brands post the most—averaging 20 posts daily—and it pays off. Facebook leads in engagement, followed by Instagram.

The benefits of social media data

Benchmarks turn last year’s data into this year’s advantage. Here are three ways to level up your strategy with social media engagement benchmarks:

Industry benchmarks serve as inspiration

Every industry has its own unique approach to social media.

Competitive benchmarks give your performance context

Understanding how your brand stacks up against competitors will help you tell a richer story with your performance data. Competitive benchmarking helps better translate your efforts to business stakeholders who may not know what social media success looks like.

Personal benchmarks inform your immediate goals

Your personal benchmarks should be your go-to resource for creating actionable goals. Establishing personal benchmark data starts with annual reports.

How to find social media benchmarks by industry with Sprout

Sprout Social helps marketers speed up the data collection process with cross-network performance reports that allow for smart data segmentation.

Let the benchmarks be your guide

Find out how you stack up against brands operating within the same industry with The 2025 Content Benchmarks Report. Inside, you’ll find up-to-date benchmark data and research on the types of content your audience is craving today.