The 2024 Content Benchmarks Report | Sprout Social
Content Marketing |
Social Media Moves Fast and Content is Constant
Social media is evolving at a breakneck pace, with 38% of consumers planning to engage on even more networks in 2024, as noted in a Q4 2023 Sprout Pulse Survey. Whether generated by social teams, influencers, users, or AI, each post—and the choice of what not to post—shapes every brand’s social strategy. Engagement, brand affinity, and customer acquisition are all fueled by a digital economy where content is the leading currency.
So, how does your content stack up?
Our 2024 Content Benchmarks Report reveals how brand content performed across industries and networks in 2023, what audiences are responding to now, and what it means for the future.
2023 Industry Content Benchmarks
Brands posted an average of 10 times daily across networks in 2023, holding steady from Q1 – Q3 2022. Consumer-focused industries, such as media, leisure, sports and recreation, and retail, consistently surpassed this benchmark. Yet, our analysis from 2022 to 2023 shows a 12.5% drop in average daily engagements on content—from 80 to 70 interactions—indicating that users are increasingly selective about what they like, comment on, or share in their saturated feeds.
Inside Instagram: Are Brands Meeting Video Demand?
Both social media users and platform algorithms favor video content (we’ll delve into why in the next section). But are brands truly meeting this expectation?
On Instagram, video posts accounted for just one-quarter of brand content published in 2023. For many sectors, there’s still a prime opportunity to shift resources toward video production and capture audience attention in fresh ways.
Engaging Audiences Where They Want to Connect
According to The 2023 Sprout Social Index™, engagement metrics remain the top focus for social media marketers and executives. However, not all platforms offer the same level of interaction with brand content.
Across industries, brands see an average of 22 daily engagements on Facebook and Instagram, compared to just 13 on X (formerly Twitter). Engagement also varies with company size—enterprise organizations (1,000+ employees) average 42 engagements per day on Facebook, compared to 25 for mid-market (51-1,000 employees) and 14.5 for small to medium businesses (1-50 employees).
These contrasts underscore the importance of knowing where audiences are most active—and where they’re not. Strategically choosing where to engage can allow brands to redirect resources toward creating unique and impactful content.
The new rules of content: Original, authentic, informative
Social media teams faced a year full of surprises, from emerging platforms competing for prime screen time to legacy networks constantly tweaking algorithms, and some networks shifting from brand opportunities to potential risks.
With brand content opportunities expanding like never before, it’s increasingly challenging to prioritize and allocate resources effectively. But what do audiences really want?
Dive into essential insights on content performance! Explore the 2024 Content Benchmarks Report to elevate your brand’s social media strategy. Download the full report now.
Related report: B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Outlook for 2025 | Content Marketing Institute
- Things move fast in the world of social, but the need for content is constant
- 2023 industry content benchmarks
- The new rules of content: Original, authentic, informative
- Letting AI share the wheel
- Content calendar non-negotiables: Quick videos and employee faces
- Make your content work harder in 2024
- About the data
- Sprout Social
Number of Pages:
- 18 pages
Pricing:
- Free
Methodology
The report analyzed more than 2.1 billion messages from over 1 million public social profiles that were active between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023. Data includes posts from Facebook, Google My Business, Instagram, LinkedIn company pages, Pinterest, TripAdvisor, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).
Engagement activities include actions that generate a published message, such as reposting or commenting. Non-publishing activities such as likes and reactions are not included. Graphics are rounded to the nearest whole percentage and may not add up to exactly 100%. The top 0.5% of data was winsorized to limit the impact of extreme outliers.
