That’s where a social media analytics dashboard comes in.

This guide will cover what a social media dashboard is, why it matters, and how to build one that actually supports better decision-making. We’ll walk you through the different types of dashboards you can create, the metrics worth paying attention to (and the ones to leave behind), how often to run your reports, and more.

Ready to get clear on your metrics? Let’s dive right in.

Learn how you can easily build social media analytics dashboards with Rival IQ

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What’s a social media analytics dashboard, anyway?

“Dashboard” can mean a lot of things depending on who you ask, so let’s get specific.

For the purposes of this social analytics-focused article, a social media dashboard is a visual, real-time snapshot of your most important social media metrics. It pulls data directly from your social platforms and turns it into easy-to-digest charts and graphs, so you can quickly see what’s working, what’s not, and how your performance is trending over time.

To be clear, a social media analysis dashboard is NOT a laundry list of every social metric you can get your hands on. Editing is really importnant (<–editing joke) because too much data can easily overwhelm you or your coworkers and become unhelpful.

At a minimum, your dashboard should make you say “Hells yes!” to the question, “Does this clearly show how my social media strategy is performing and progressing over time?” Bonus points if you can answer the same to the question, “Can my boss understand it too?”

Why social media dashboards matter (and what they’re actually for)

It’s easy for everyone in marketing (including me!) to get caught up in the doing and forget about the “how’s it doing?” That’s where dashboards earn their keep:

• Social media dashboards show impact over time. Dashboards make it easier to demonstrate how your work is benefiting the business. Trends, growth, and conversions are much clearer when you can see everything in context.
• They keep everyone aligned. When different team members pull data from different platforms at different times, things can get messy. A unified dashboard ensures everyone — from social media managers to CMOs — is looking at the same data when making decisions.
• Dashboards save your team time. Rather than spending hours manually pulling social data, a dashboard automates your data collection and reporting.
• They help you spot patterns you’d otherwise miss. When all your data lives in one place, it’s much easier to uncover insights that get lost in siloed platform analytics. When you can better understand which channels and content are reaching, growing, and converting your audiences, you can smartly invest your time, efforts, and budget.
• Dashboards make it easier to justify budget. Accurate info = ability to demonstrate impact = bigger marketing budgets. Keeping an eye on your performance will help you get a bigger piece of the pie.

Ultimately, a well-designed social media analytics dashboard isn’t just a reporting tool but a communication tool. It turns your hard work into something stakeholders can actually see, understand, and invest in.

Types of social media dashboards

One of the biggest advantages of social media dashboards is that there’s no single “right” setup. You can build different dashboards tailored to what you’re trying to understand, who you’re reporting to, and how closely you need to track performance.

Dashboards usually fall into a few common categories. Think of these as starting points. You can go deep on one or combine several views depending on your goals.

1. A performance overview dashboard

For answering: “How are we doing overall?”

This is your high-level snapshot. It pulls together core metrics across one or more platforms so you can quickly assess performance and progress over time.

You’d typically include:

• Reach or impressions to understand visibility
• Engagement to see how audiences are interacting
• Clicks or traffic-driving actions
• Organic vs. paid performance, viewed side by side

This type of dashboard is useful for regular check-ins, monthly reporting, or leadership updates. In other words, when big-picture insights matter more than granularity.

2. A content performance dashboard

For answering: “What’s actually working?”

Once you know how things are performing overall, the next question is usually why. A content-focused dashboard lets you move from the macro to the micro by breaking performance down post by post.

This view might highlight:

• Top- and bottom-performing posts by engagement or clicks
• Performance by content format (video, carousel, static, etc.)
• Trends over time that show which topics or formats consistently resonate

The goal here isn’t just to report the numbers. You want to identify patterns. This kind of dashboard helps you decide what to double down on (and what to stop spending time on).

3. A paid social or campaign dashboard

For answering: “Is this worth the money?”

If you’re putting budget behind social, you’ll want a dashboard built specifically around paid performance. This keeps investment-focused metrics front and center.

Some common metrics:

• CPM, or cost per thousand impressions, is a great way to see how much you’re spending to get eyes on your posts.
• Cost Per Result is a little more variable depending on the action you’re trying to get your customers and fans to take. For instance, if you’re aiming for clicks, you’d want to measure your cost per click (CPC).
• ROAS, or return on ad spend, is calculated by dividing the revenue your ad spend brought in by its cost (revenue/cost). While it’s similar to social media ROI, ROAS stands out for being ad-centric, allowing you to take a closer look at your Instagram Ads campaign and figure out what’s working and what’s not.

Having these metrics in one place makes it much easier to spot underperforming campaigns early and to justify spend when things are working.

4. A competitive benchmarking dashboard

For answering: “How do we stack up?”

Social performance doesn’t exist in a vacuum. A competitive dashboard adds context by showing how your metrics compare to others in your space. After all, anyone can have a million Facebook fans or Instagram followers, but you’re only reaching those fans successfully if you’re doing it better than your competitors.

The basic premise of social media benchmarking is identifying key competitors and leaders in your industry and then keeping an eye on their social metrics over time to check against your own stats.

If you’re Pepsi, you’re probably crawling Coke’s social presences on the regular to see how their page likes and key engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments, etc.) compare to your own performance. The very same goes for smaller or more local competitors.

Depending on your goals, the metrics might include:

• Engagement or follower growth rates across a competitive set
• Channel-by-channel comparisons
• Share of voice or brand mentions trends

A competitive benchmarking dashboard is especially valuable for strategy discussions, quarterly planning, or explaining results to stakeholders who want to know how your brand compares.

Pro tip: It’s pretty safe to say we’re obsessed with benchmarking here at Rival IQ — so much so that we make a big, free report every year tracking Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok performance across top industries like fashion, media, and auto. To see how your industry is doing at a glance, check out our Social Media Industry Benchmark Report.

And to keep things current and interactive, we also have live benchmarks for top industries, including the most popular hashtags, top-performing posts, posting frequency, and more. Use these for a current snapshot of how you measure up to your competitors.

The most important metrics to focus on

No matter which type of dashboard you build, the same rule applies: every metric should earn its place. Instead of trying to track everything, choose metrics that help you answer questions and make informed choices.

For example:

• A performance dashboard might prioritize engagement, clicks, and conversions over vanity metrics
• A content dashboard might focus on engagement rate and clicks rather than total likes
• A competitive dashboard might emphasize relative growth and engagement instead of raw totals

Ultimately, when your dashboard is aligned with a specific purpose, it becomes much easier to turn data into decisions (and explain those decisions to stakeholders).

How do I build a social media dashboard?

By now, you know what a social media dashboard is and what you might want to track. The next question is: how do you actually build one?

At a high level, the process looks something like this:

Step 1: Define your goals (and the metrics that matter)

Before you touch any tools, get clear on what the dashboard is supposed to answer. Is it meant to show overall performance, content effectiveness, or competitive position?

Your goals will determine:

• Which platforms to include
• Which metrics matter
• How detailed the dashboard should be

Don’t shy away from creating multiple dashboards. After all, a dashboard built for a CMO will likely look very different from one built for a social media manager optimizing posts week to week.

Step 2: Bring your social data together

This is often the hardest part. Each social platform has its own interface and metrics — and pulling data manually from multiple sources can be time-consuming and error-prone. Connecting directly to platform APIs is the best approach, but this requires technical expertise and ongoing maintenance.

If you don’t want to deal with that complexity, many teams use a platform that’s already connected to social network data and keeps it up to date automatically. (Psst, this is where analytics platforms like Rival IQ come in).

Step 3: Pick your visualization tool

Once you’ve got your sources, you need a way to visualize the data.

Broadly, teams tend to choose between business intelligence tools or dedicated social media platforms. Business intelligence tools, like Tableau, offer deep flexibility but can come with steep learning curves and setup time. Meanwhile, social media management and analytics tools are easier to use, though some tools limit what you can customize or compare.

The key thing to look for is flexibility: the ability to build dashboards around your goals, not just pre-set reports.

Step 4: Design your dashboard

A strong dashboard should be understandable at a quick glance. That means:

• Grouping related metrics together
• Choosing chart types that make trends easy to spot
• Writing clear titles so the data doesn’t need explanation

Titles, labels, and date ranges matter more than most people realize. If someone can’t quickly understand what they’re looking at, the dashboard won’t get used.

Step 5: Automate, share, and iterate

The best dashboards update automatically and are easy to share with stakeholders. Once it’s live:

• Set regular refreshes so data stays current
• Establish how and when dashboards are shared
• Revisit and refine metrics as goals change

Don’t be afraid to tweak as needed. Dashboards are there to make your life easier, so they should evolve as your strategy does.

Custom social media dashboards in Rival IQ

With Rival IQ, you get one centralized platform that pulls in all of your social media data, so you can access on-demand analytics without jumping between tools or spreadsheets.

Our dashboards are a flexible collection of charts, tables, and visualizations designed to help you tell a specific data story. You can create multiple custom dashboards for different audiences or goals, and access them anytime from the Custom Dashboards section in our platform.

We put the power in your hands. You can:

• Start from pre-built templates for cross-channel or channel-specific competitive data
• Duplicate an existing dashboard and tweak it
• Build one entirely from scratch

From there, you choose how your data is displayed. Put any metric you want from any and every channel into your dashboard for the ultimate bespoke analytics display. We support a wide range of chart types, including time series charts for trend tracking, bar and stacked bar charts for comparisons, and more advanced visualizations that compare multiple metrics at once.

You also have control over how metrics are calculated and displayed, including current values, previous-period comparisons, and relative or absolute change. With hundreds of customizable metrics, this is the best way to report on that one weird Facebook reaction your CEO really cares about or dialing up your cross-channel reporting to 11.

Quick example: A custom dashboard for a complete landscape review

We’re talking about visualizing data — so it only makes sense to show you what that actually looks like. Let’s walk through an example custom dashboard built in Rival IQ for a full competitive landscape review.

In this dashboard, Costco is the focus company and part of a competitive landscape that includes brands like Sam’s Club, H-E-B, Target, Walmart, and more. The goal here was to get a fast, clear read on how Costco is performing across social and how it stacks up against the competition.

Right at the top, the dashboard kicks things off with a cross-channel performance snapshot for Costco. You’ll see key metrics like total audience size, number of posts in the selected time period, total engagement, and engagement rate by follower. Each stat includes a percentage change from the previous period, so it’s easy to spot wins, dips, and trends without pulling multiple reports.

From there, the dashboard zooms out to show cross-channel competitive metrics across the entire landscape. Audience size, posting volume, total engagement, and engagement rate by follower are all laid out in clean, visual charts. Total numbers and percent changes sit right next to each metric, making it simple to see which brands are leading — and how the Costco (in bold as the focus company) compares at a glance.

The dashboard also includes a snapshot of top-performing posts across the landscape. This is where you can quickly see the kind of content that audiences love. Each post preview can also be clicked and expanded for deeper metrics, so it’s easy to go from big-picture insights to specific content examples in seconds.

Because this is a complete landscape review, the custom dashboard then breaks things down by individual channels — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. These sections are perfect for zeroing in on performance on a specific platform and uncovering channel-level insights you might miss in a purely cross-channel view.

The best part? None of this is locked in.  can add new charts, remove ones you don’t need, and reorder everything to match how you want to tell the story. Whether you’re building a quick executive overview or a deep-dive for your social team, custom dashboards in Rival IQ make it easy to create a view that actually works for you.

How often should I generate reports from my dashboard?

The answer to this question, of course, depends on the nature of your job. If you’re a one-person shop, your reporting needs will no doubt look very different than those of a 25-person marketing team with a dedicated analytics lead. Our high-level recommendation? Report as often as you have the chance to share your findings and inform future strategy decisions.

If you’re still working on establishing a reporting rhythm, here’s our breakdown:

Yearly and quarterly: Big picture

These reports are all about the big picture. Here are some questions you want to be asking:

• What’s happening on your channels over time, and how are your strategies doing against your yearly or quarterly goals? (You did set goals, right?)
• Did a change in strategy, like investing heavily in Instagram, correspond to a spike in engagement?
• Are you seeing a bunch of growth or engagement on one channel in particular? If yes, you might want to pivot some of your social energy there in the quarter or year ahead.
• Has your social strategy been reflective of new features and updates, such as Instagram’s latest foray into TV?
• Does your engagement change each year with the seasons or current events (like school getting out or the holidays, for example)?
• Are there channels you aren’t very active on where you should focus some energy in the quarter ahead?
• What are your competitors up to, and how can you emulate their success?

This level of reporting is all about the 30,000-foot view, and much like a long flight, it’s good to put some time and brain power into these periodic reports.

Monthly: Diving deeper

Monthly reports bridge the gap between the granularity of weekly reports and the strategic review of quarterly or yearly reports. It’s great to keep an eye on the content, channels, and post types that are doing well. Don’t forget to compare completed campaigns against each other and against the goals you set for them.

Monthly reports can also be good for a quick check-in on your social media health: Did you lose a bunch of followers this month? Might be good to dig in deeper if the answer is “yes.”

Weekly and bi-weekly: Going granular

Weekly reports are great for tracking short time periods and content bursts. Check out how this week’s posts fared against last week’s, or look at the performance of your newest campaign. This is all about the 30-inch view, and unless your whole job is social analytics, we bet you’re not spending more than 30 minutes collecting this information.

Remember: Don’t just sit on these analytics! Use them to show your boss and team that your strategy is working, and to refine your strategy and content so it resonates strongly with your social media audience.

How to locate your social media analytics natively

The good news: Since these channels want to keep you on their platform, they make it pretty easy for you to access your stats and see how your posts are performing.

Facebook

Facebook houses its analytics in two different places: Facebook Insights and Meta Business Suite. While Facebook Insights focuses exclusively on your Facebook Page’s performance, Meta Business Suite is the “umbrella” platform for managing both Facebook and Instagram.

Both sources report much of the same data, so you can take a look at your analytics in either. You’ll be able to toggle the date range and dive deeper into all sorts of metrics in order to better understand how your posts are faring.

However, if you want to export your Page’s insights data, Meta Business Suite will be the one to go to. Simply head over to the Results tab and press the export option in the top right corner of each metric. This will be how you get your data out of Facebook and into your computational software of choice (like Excel or Google Sheets) so that you can build your dashboard.

For the full rundown of accessing and measuring your Facebook performance, check out our ultimate Facebook analytics guide.

X (formerly Twitter)

Accessing Twitter analytics has gotten a bit more complicated since the platform became X. While all accounts used to have access to their performance data, as of writing, only X Premium subscribers have access to account analytics. Verified Organizations — accounts with the gold checkmarks — can also see their analytics.

Another option that X promotes is to convert your personal account into a Professional Account, which comes with helpful features for promoting your business, including a performance dashboard called Professional Home. Unfortunately, the roll-out of that has been a bit slow so not everyone has access.

The good news? Once you’ve gotten past the gates, so to speak, and secured access to your analytics, the data is available for export in .CSV format.

Instagram

Instagram really wants you to use it on your mobile device, and requires you to be a business account (instead of an individual account, though verified accounts are an exception) to see any meaningful stats.

Fortunately, once you meet that criteria, you can access a fair amount of information about your activity, content, and audience by tapping the Professional dashboard bar under your profile description or navigating to Settings and activity (the hamburger menu in the top right corner of your profile) and then Insights . Thankfully, Instagram’s Graph API allows third-party tools (like ours) to display your stats in the desktop app or web browser of your choice.

TikTok

Like most other social platforms, TikTok requires you to have a business account in order to see your analytics. Luckily, all you need to do is toggle “on” the Business account option in your settings to get access. Once that’s done, simply navigate to your Business Suite and then click the Analytics tab. It should look a little something like this:

As you can see, you can easily export your insights with a click of the Download data button in the top right corner — a handy feature you’ll need to build your dashboard.

Want more details on how to approach TikTok’s analytics? We go more in-depth in our handy TikTok analytics reporting guide.

Aggregated social media analytics

Okay, we’re biased: We like seeing all our social analytics in one spot. Social media analysis software can make a marketer’s life easier so she doesn’t have to go channel by channel to access her stats. Here’s what we want in a social media analytics app:

• The ability to analyze your stats across multiple channels
• Meaningful insights to help you go beyond the numbers
• Even more stat breakdowns than you can get on native analytics (like follower adds and removes in Instagram, for example)
• Scheduled reports so your favorite social stats are delivered in-app or to your inbox when you need them
• To really take this article to a meta level, custom dashboards are a handy feature too

Use case: How do we report on social media analytics at Rival IQ?

Curious how we walk the talk? This group of self-professed data nerds loves reporting on our social media progress. Here are a few ways the company keeps an eye on social success:

Monthly full-team metrics meetings

Our marketing team reports on our social footprint in the prior month to the whole team. (For a full write-up on metrics at Rival IQ and how it relates to pizza, read on here.) We take a close look at our engagement rate by channel month over month and also strive to identify any content, content types, or paid campaigns that we should emulate next time around.

For example, we’ve noticed that our audience seems to love data as much as we do, with our most popular posts often featuring our reports on engagement, so we’re excited to add even more of that into our editorial calendar.

Emailed reports

Let the robots do some of the work for you by having them crawl your social progress and your competition instead of having to do it manually. Automated social media reports from within our app are customizable, so if we want to track a particular campaign or arch nemesis, we can choose how often to get alerts in our inboxes.

Quick reference guide: social media analytics glossary of terms

Things might get a bit technical, so we’re stashing definitions of some commonly used social media analysis terms here so we’re all on the same page.

Engagement: Measurable interaction on social media posts, including likes, comments, favorites, retweets, shares, and reactions

Engagement rate: Engagement interactions divided by total follower count

Find out what is a good engagement rate on social media.

Learn more

Channel: The app you’re using to share your content or connect with your audience (Example: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Google+, etc.)

Followers: Anyone who’s chosen to like, follow, or otherwise actively opted into your content and activity on a social channel

Audience: Anyone you’re hoping to connect with on social (Note: This isn’t limited to just your followers — thanks to the power of likes, shares, ads, and mysterious algorithms, your content can reach people who don’t follow you directly.)

Post type: The media, often limited by the channel, you can share to engage your followers (For instance, on Facebook, you can share photos, videos, status updates, links, live streams, and more.)

Reach: The total number of people who see your content

Impressions: The number of times your content is displayed

Reporting on this report: How’d we do?

Whether you’re monitoring high-level growth, benchmarking against competitors, or just trying to make reporting less painful, dashboards give structure to your data and focus to your analysis.

We hope this guide has gotten you excited about building your very own social media dashboard. We’re firm believers in the idea that you can’t argue with cold, hard data, especially when it’s beautifully presented in a way that anyone can understand.

After all, at the core of effective social strategy is being able to use data to make informed decisions. With the right tools and approach, you can transform raw data into actionable insights that drive your success on social.

This post was originally posted on September, 2024, and has since been updated.

The post How To Build A Social Media Reporting Dashboard: A Step-By-Step Guide appeared first on Rival IQ.

Social media audits are an effective way to assess your strategy, see how your content is performing compared to similar brands, and identify new opportunities and improvements. To get the most out of your audit, it’s helpful to use a template as your framework so you don’t miss an important metric or assessment. So, whether you’re preparing for a new campaign or simply looking to sharpen your strategy, grab our free social media audit template and quickly see how you stack up.   

TL;DR: Your quick guide to running a social media audit

A social media audit helps you understand what’s working, what’s not, and where to improve across your social channels. Using a template keeps the process consistent and makes it easier to benchmark against competitors, analyze posting activity, identify top and bottom content, and build a clear action plan.

In this guide, we walk through each step using Costco as an example, and show how Quid’s Insight Briefs can help you go deeper by analyzing social and media conversations together.

Let’s dig into why a template is helpful and then we’ll walk through how to use our social media audit template so you’re prepared to start auditing your own social channels. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Why use a social media audit template
• How to use our social media audit template
• Common audit mistakes to avoid
• More resources for your social media audit
• Go beyond a social media audit
• Back to Top

Ready to conduct your own social media audit?

Download our free template

Why you should use a social media audit template

Whether you’re taking over social media duties in your new role, your company has shifted its business goals, or you simply want to take stock of how your brand performed on social media, a social media audit will help you reassess your strategy and get you back on track. 

A social media audit is a way to analyze your content, engagement, activity, and audience metrics to assess your performance, compare with the competition, and identify opportunities to improve. Even though the word “audit” may sound intimidating or scary, it’s a valuable process for social media marketers that can be done in just a few steps — especially if you use a template. 

A social media audit template makes the audit process smoother by providing the framework for what you should be analyzing. Not to mention, using a template helps keep your audits consistent across reporting periods, whether you audit on a quarterly or yearly basis.

How to use our social media audit template

If you haven’t already, download the free slide deck, which includes everything you’ll need to get started. We included social media auditing template slides and a sample report we filled out that’ll help you see what goes where. Then, log into your Rival IQ account (or sign up for a free trial) to conduct your own audit by following these steps.

To help you get started, let’s walk through the template slides and our example audit of Costco, so you can see a social media audit in action.

Step 1: Build a competitive landscape

Before you start your audit, have a list of competitors to refer to for benchmarking and gathering inspiration when auditing your brand. As a social media marketer, you’re always keeping tabs on your brand’s competitors so this shouldn’t be anything new for you. But to conduct an accurate audit, it’s helpful to have all of your competitors’ social analytics in one place so you can easily access and compare. To create this, use a social media analytics tool like Rival IQ to build a competitive landscape.

Watch and learn: Check out this quick video and discover how to create a competitive landscape in Rival IQ.

Once you have your landscape built, it’s time to start filling out the template. The first slide is where you’ll add your logo, brand name, reporting period, and anything else you’d like to have an overview of. For instance, there’s an open space on the left side of the slide where you can add images of your posts as a preview of what you’ll be reviewing in the report.

If you want to showcase some of your best posts here, head to your dashboard in Rival IQ and select the channel you want to feature. Then, go to “Social Posts” and check out the “Top Landscape Posts” to screenshot your posts. For this example, we are auditing Costco’s performance from January through October 2025. Feel free to customize the reporting period to look at the monthly, quarterly, or yearly performance depending on your auditing cadence.

Here’s an example of how the first slide could look:

On the second slide you can include the logos of all the brands included in the audit. For reference, here’s the competitive landscape for Costco which was built in Rival IQ:

Step 2: Summarize your profiles

The next slide is a profile overview. Here is where you’ll add your current bio for each of your channels. Make note of any hashtags, emojis, links, or CTAs you use in each of your social bios.

You should also check out what your competitors’ bios say. Doing this can help you identify any key differences or give you some ideas for what you can add to craft an effective bio. While you can certainly check out every competitor’s bio manually, doing so for every channel can take a while. Save time by heading to your Rival IQ landscape and adding a Social Bios Summary template to your custom dashboard. This way you can see all of your competitor’s bio information in one place and even get alerted when anything changes.

Here’s an overview of what this slide looks like for Costco. As you can see on the right side of the slide, there are notes that sum up some quick thoughts on the general qualities of the brand’s social bios. For Costco, we noticed that many competitors use bios to highlight value propositions or personality, while Costco’s profiles rely heavily on the same “official account” language across all channels.

Step 3: Review your cross-channel performance

Next, summarize your cross-channel engagement and audience metrics. For this section, you’ll need to compare your current reporting period to the previous period. For example, if you’re conducting a quarterly audit, then the previous reporting period would be the last quarter.

Once you have your reporting periods set, you’ll add a couple of sentences about your audience and how it changed compared to the previous period. Did you see a spike in followers? Has your growth rate been steady or stagnant? Make note of any changes across each channel.

You’ll also do the same for your cross-channel engagement. What were your engagement rates on each channel? How do they compare to industry rates?

Find out what is a good engagement rate on social media.

Learn more

Here’s how the cross-channel slide looks in practice:

The charts and audience and engagement summaries were pulled from Costco’s dashboard in Rival IQ. The data was auto-populated based on the reporting period. The landscape generated visual standings which makes it easier to understand and digest in a report format. Including a cross-channel overview in your audit helps to quickly understand how your brand is performing and where it’s seeing the most success. For Costco, we saw strong overall audience growth, especially on TikTok, and continued high engagement on Instagram, though posting volume dipped slightly from the previous period.

Step 4: Dive into channel-specific metrics

Now it’s time to audit your performance for each channel. Copy the metrics overview slide and create one for each of the social channels you’re active on. This slide is where you’ll make note of key metrics for that channel for the reporting period.

The metrics we like to audit are the number of followers, number of posts, engagement total, and engagement rate. Enter all of this data onto the slide and write a few sentences that sum up any significant changes during this reporting period.

Again, let’s take a look at how this slide looks in practice using Costco’s analytics. This slide is the metrics overview for Instagram. It provides a visual representation of changes in followers, posting frequency, and engagement. There are also some notes on the right side of the slide that sum up the reasons for the changes during the reporting period.

Step 5: Compare your performance to the competition

Another key to a successful audit is to compare your metrics to your competitors. Doing this helps you get a more accurate picture of how you’re performing in relation to similar brands in your industry.

Using your competitive landscape in Rival IQ, you can see where you rank among the competition on each channel.

Here’s how this slide looks for Costco. The brand’s Instagram rankings are showcased in bar graph form to better demonstrate how it’s performing in terms of the number of posts and engagement rate when compared to the competition. The audit notes also do a great job of putting more context behind the graphs.

Try it: To perform an in-depth competitive analysis analysis, we use the Cross-channel Landscape Comparison report in Rival IQ.

Step 6: Evaluate your posting activity

Once you have an overall sense of your social performance compared to the competition, the next step involves going one level deeper into your posting frequency and the post types that are generating the most engagement for the channel. Within Rival IQ’s Social Posts panel scroll down to the the Activity & Engagements section to visualize the average posts and engagement rate trends matching your selected filter set and time period. Take a screenshot of this chart to complete the left side of the slide below.

Scroll a little further down within the Social Posts page to get to the Post Types widget. This section shows you your brand’s posting activity broken down by post type and which types of posts get the most engagement in your landscape.​

In our social media audit of Costco, the slide below indicates that Costco’s posting activity on Instagram was lower than the competition. Interestingly Costco is above average for Instagram Engagement Rate by Follower, ranking 3rd of 13 companies.

In the post-type breakdown section, we observe that Reels dominate Costco’s Instagram post type, making up 48% of their posts. Photos generated the highest engagement in the landscape, even though it was the least common post type.

Step 7: Review what worked and what didn’t work

Now that you have an overview of how your brand is performing on each channel, it’s time to review specific posts. To see your top posts for the channel you’re auditing, go to “Social Posts” and check out the “Top Landscape Posts.”

Audit your top and bottom posts to identify any patterns that could’ve been attributed to the performance. What made your top posts stand out? Were they part of a specific campaign? Did they all follow a similar format? Make note of what worked well and why (and don’t forget to include performance metrics like the engagement rate or total) so you can create similar content going forward.

Conduct the same analysis for the posts that performed the worst on that channel. Sometimes we think a post will perform well and it ends up falling flat. See if there’s a reason why. Maybe your lowest-performing posts were photos but your audience gravitates towards video content. Or perhaps you didn’t include a hashtag and, as a result, your post didn’t reach as many people. Identify any patterns and make note of them for your audit.

Here’s how the top vs. bottom posts slide looks in practice. As you can see below, Costco’s top posts focused on simple visuals and everyday Costco experiences that feel warm, relatable, and rooted in real member moments.

If you’ve kept up with our industry benchmark reports, this comes as no surprise — brands continue to find success with genuine, authentic content due to the relatability and community impact that they generate. We can also see that Costco’s lowest-performing posts were focused on more promotional content like travel ads, partner content, or niche product spotlights.

Once you’ve audited your brand’s top and bottom posts, you should also recreate this slide for a few of your competitors. Competitive benchmarking helps you better evaluate your own performance by seeing what your competitors are doing differently and how you can improve.

In the example below, one of Costco’s main competitors in the wholesale grocery business, Sam’s Club, also saw success when it involved joyful, everyday snapshots with a healthy dose of seasonal posts. The brand’s worst posts lean more promotional or structured.

Repeat the same for a few competitors to understand where your brand stands out or falls behind. For example, Aldi excels at playful, humorous posts that include playful food closeups to cereal glow-ups and clever shopping tips — which could inspire new directions for Costco to test.

You’ll repeat steps four through seven for each channel you want to audit. This will be the main portion of your audit before you wrap it up with an action plan in step eight.

Step 8: Create an action plan

After you’ve completed steps four through seven for every channel you want to audit, the last step in conducting a social media audit is to create a to-do list based on your findings. You learned a lot about what’s working well, which channels perform better than others, and how you differentiate from the competition. Make note of the major takeaways and how you want to apply them to your strategy during the next reporting period.

We recommend identifying up to four initiatives you want to try next.

Here’s Costco’s to-do list based on the learnings from its social media audit:

Each action item includes a couple of sentences that explain what went well and how the brand wants to implement the takeaway in future content. This to-do list perfectly sums up what the takeaways are and helps everyone on the social team get on the same page about what the social priorities are for the next reporting period.

Want to conduct your own social media audit?

Download our free template

Common Audit Mistakes to Avoid

Even with a solid framework, it’s easy to miss crucial steps in a social media audit. Let’s look at a few common pitfalls and how to steer clear of them:

Focusing only on vanity metrics: Sure, follower counts and total views are nice to have, but they don’t tell the full story. To get a clearer picture of your social media performance, focus on engagement metrics like total engagement and engagement rate, as well as likes, comments, shares, and saves.

Skipping competitor analysis: If you only look inward, you’re missing half the picture. Keeping an eye on how competitors are performing helps you spot trends and opportunities you might have overlooked.

Ignoring audience sentiment: It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers, but don’t forget to check in on what your audience is saying. Comments, reviews, and feedback can offer invaluable insights into what’s working and what needs improvement.

Treating all platforms the same: Each platform has its own quirks and audience behavior. What works on Instagram may fall flat on TikTok or LinkedIn. Tailoring your approach to fit each platform is key to maximizing results.

By avoiding these common mistakes, you’ll ensure that your social media audit is both thorough and actionable, helping you refine your strategy and achieve better results.

More resources for your social media audit

You’ve successfully completed the social media audit template, but the fun doesn’t stop there! Take your social media audit a step further by tapping into more resources. Here are a few tools and resources that can help inform your social strategy year-round, and can be especially helpful for conducting your next audit or putting together a social media report.

Industry benchmark reports

Our annual Social Media Industry Benchmark Report is a comprehensive guide on industry performance and trends across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. The report breaks down engagement rates, posting frequency, and other key metrics by industry, from Food & Beverage to Health & Beauty to Higher Education, so you can benchmark your brand’s social performance to similar brands and see where you stand.

Live benchmarks

Looking for real-time insights? Explore our live benchmarks. The live benchmarks sum up industry metrics from the past 30 days including top-performing posts, trending hashtags, and notable activity.

The data is broken down into specific subsets within industries — for instance, under the Beverage category, you can see data for craft beer brands or coffee brands — so you can see which brands in your niche are standing out on social.

Social media audit course

If you want to dive deeper into the ins and outs of auditing, we have a course for that. Our Social Media Competitive Audit Course, led by marketing expert Lauren Teague, is a self-paced video course that walks you through detailed steps of building a competitive social strategy. Each lesson is packed with actionable takeaways that you can use to analyze your brand’s social channels and effectively compare your performance to the competition. And did we mention it’s free?

Free head-to-head analysis

Remember step five from our social media audit? (If you need a refresher, it’s “compare your performance to the competition.”) A quick and easy way to gather the information you need for this step is with a head-to-head report.

A head-to-head report is useful when you want to analyze key metrics such as engagement rates, top posts, and follows so you can quickly see what differentiates you from your top competitor at a glance.

Here are the head-to-head report tools for each channel, for easy access:

• Instagram Head-to-Head Analysis
• Facebook Head-to-Head Analysis
• Twitter Head-to-Head Analysis
• TikTok Head-to-Head Analysis

Social media analytics tools

Using a social media analytics tool to track and measure your performance year round is essential when it comes time to conduct a social media audit. Having all of your key metrics and content activity in a central location helps you find the information you need when you’re putting together a report or conducting an audit, and that’s where Rival IQ comes in. Create landscapes, spot industry trends, and gather detailed insights on engagement across all channels — all in one place.

Start auditing your social media with Rival IQ.

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Interested in going beyond a social media audit?

Once you’ve completed your audit, you can take your analysis a step further with Quid’s new Insight Briefs. These powerful, data-rich briefs turn your social and media data into clear, presentation-ready narratives that help you understand the bigger story behind your brand’s performance in minutes, not hours.

A social media audit is great for channel metrics and competitive benchmarking, but Insight Briefs help you dig into the “why.” They look across social, news, blogs, forums, reviews, and other open web sources to uncover the themes, trends, and audience signals that sit underneath the numbers. This added context helps you move from “what happened” to “what it means” so you can make smarter decisions faster.

Insight Briefs are also easy to share with your team or leadership, which makes them a natural companion to your audit.

To show how much more depth you can get, we created a Costco Insight Brief that highlights which trends are helping the brand shine and which ones may be creating risk behind the scenes.

What's working for Costco and what's not.

Dig deeper with Quid

Wrapping it up

Social media audits are a key element of a successful, well-informed social strategy. By using a template for your audit, you save yourself time and resources instead of trying to create these reports from scratch every time you want to conduct an audit. Audit your way to social media success by using a template to get started.

This blog was originally posted on Jan 13, 2025, and has since been updated.

The post How to Conduct a Social Media Audit in 8 Easy Steps: Template Included appeared first on Rival IQ.

While it may be cool to create a viral video that ends up on everyone’s FYP, generating consistently high engagement rates for your brand is the ultimate goal. With the right TikTok engagement strategies, you can reach the right audience, amplify reach, and increase brand awareness.

Below, we’ll cover what counts as a good engagement rate on TikTok, how to calculate your TikTok engagement rate, and effective ways to increase your brand’s engagement on the platform.

What is a Good Engagement Rate on TikTok?

The median engagement rate by follower is 1.73%, according to our 2025 Social Media Benchmark Report. This rate is nearly five times more engaging than the next most engaging channel, Instagram.

And since TikTok is a video channel, it’s also worth noting what the median engagement rate by view is. Counting the number of times a viewer liked, commented, or shared and dividing it by the overall number of views measures just how compelling your content was. On TikTok, the median engagement rate by view is 3.4%.

When it comes to posting frequency, the average brand publishes about 1.97 videos per week or about eight per month. The most active brands, those in the top 25%, published videos at least four times per week on average.

How to Calculate Engagement Rate on TikTok

At Rival IQ, we define engagement as measurable interaction on organic and paid social media posts. On TikTok, this includes likes, comments, and shares.

TikTok engagement rate is calculated based on all of these interactions divided by total follower count. Here’s the formula to calculate your brand’s TikTok engagement rate:

TikTok engagement rate = [engagement total] / [total number of followers]

There are a few different ways to calculate engagement rate, but we find that dividing by the number of followers paints a more accurate picture of how your brand’s engagement rate compares to similar brands in your industry — regardless of audience size.

Top 5 Industries on TikTok

While brands of all industries and sizes are finding success on TikTok, there are a few industries that are doing especially well on the platform.

The top five industries on TikTok, as ranked by engagement rate by follower, are:

• Higher Ed (7.36%)
• Nonprofits (3.04%)
• Travel (2.73%)
• Sports Teams (2.68%)
• Food and Beverage (2.04%)

Schools and nonprofits stand out as the two industries with the highest engagement rates on TikTok. To put it into perspective, Higher Ed’s median engagement rate of 7.36% is more than 4x the all-industry median, while nonprofits’ 3.04% engagement rate is nearly double.

So what are these industries doing to generate impressive engagement rates like these? Let’s take a look at a couple of ways these top-performing industries are tapping into TikTok’s influential reach.

Top Industry on TikTok: Higher Ed

Schools and universities dominate across social channels year after year, and their performance on TikTok is no different.

As we mentioned, the median engagement rate by follower for schools is 7.36%, nearly four times the average engagement rate across industries. Even more impressive is that the top-performing schools (those in the top 25%) earn more than double that rate at a little over 19%. When it comes to posting frequency, schools and universities post 1.59 times per week on average. This comes out to around six to seven posts per month (which is about a third of how often they post on Instagram).

All that to say, Higher Ed has found a sweet spot for themselves on TikTok that many brands would hope to emulate — fewer posts with major impact. So, what exactly are schools doing differently to earn such impressive engagement rates on TikTok?

For starters, school pride is unmatched. Schools often tap into that school spirit by sharing things that current and past students alike can relate to. While on Instagram this often means sharing celebratory carousel posts, on TikTok, this spirit shows up in the form of informal, short videos — moments from a game, glimpses of a school tradition, or even user-generated content that shares an insider’s perspective.

This TikTok by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville is a great example. Their TikTok showing a beloved mascot reveal — when a graduating student finally gets to share that they were the mascot all along — hit a jaw-dropping 90.7% engagement rate by follower. That’s more than 12x the median rate for higher ed.

The University of South Carolina, Columbia, posted a similar mascot reveal and also saw incredible results: a 74% engagement rate by follower, or about 10x the higher ed median. Both schools tapped into the same trend, using #mascotreveal to boost visibility and connect with audiences who already love this type of content.

These examples highlight how powerful it can be to lean into authentic, shareable traditions that spark pride and support. They also show the value of tracking hashtags your industry peers are using. By keeping an eye on popular hashtags, your brand can spot rising trends early and join the conversation in ways that feel timely and relevant.

Top Industry on TikTok: Nonprofits

Nonprofits thrive by tapping into passion and purpose — whether it’s showcasing the impact of their work, spotlighting their community, or giving fans and supporters a special look at something they can’t get anywhere else.

The video below from Boston Ballet highlights a breathtaking moment from Swan Lake, showing a dancer completing the iconic 32 fouetté turns. Paired with a short, expressive caption and a handful of strategic hashtags, the video drew nearly 90K engagements and an astounding 682% engagement rate by follower. That’s 224x greater than the median engagement rate for nonprofits (3.04%).

Nonprofits make an impact in the world — and that extends online. By sharing moments that are visually striking, inspiring, or mission-driven, nonprofits turn casual scrollers into engaged supporters. Whether it’s a powerful performance, a heartwarming story, or a behind-the-scenes glimpse, short-form video offers the perfect format to inspire, educate, and garner support.

8 Ways to Increase TikTok Engagement

Whether you’re just getting started on TikTok or want to shake up your approach, here are eight ways to navigate the algorithm and increase TikTok engagement in 2025.

1. Mention other brands

When you mention another brand, especially if that brand is a big TikTok account with a lot of reach, the tagged account may engage with it, share it, and ultimately help get your video and brand in front of its audience.

The median brand on TikTok includes a mention in about 11.2% of its videos. However, it seems that using mentions in moderation is the most strategic approach. We found that brands that include mentions in 10% of their videos or fewer receive the highest engagement rates by view, with effectiveness dropping off when that percentage goes over 30%.

Now, that’s not to say that you should abandon mentions altogether. In fact, brands that included no mentions at all had notably less engagement than those that used mentions in moderation (or less than 30% of their TikToks). So, let’s take a quick look at exactly how mentions can impact your performance on TikTok.

When Coach mentioned The Summer I Turned Pretty, Amazon, Lola Tung, and Prime Video in the video below, it saw great results. The video received over 2M views and generated a 27.1% engagement rate by follower, which is more than 21x higher than the average for retail brands on TikTok (1.28%).

Note how the mentions were relevant and appropriate, with the brand simply tagging the appropriate accounts when discussing its collaboration rather than mentioning accounts just for the sake of it. The result was a TikTok that appealed to diverse audiences, from fans of the Prime Video show to Amazon shoppers.

All in all, mentions matter. If you’re ever talking about another brand or product, be sure to mention them if they’re on TikTok. It’s also wise to tap into social media listening so you can get involved in relevant conversations in your industry and mention other brands when it makes sense.

While it’s not a good idea to mention accounts simply for the sake of reach and exposure (you don’t want to risk coming across as spammy), keep mentions in mind for about 10% of the videos you post, and you’ll be primed to generate more views and engagement.

2. Engage in the comment section

You’ve invested time and effort into creating content, so get the most out of it by staying engaged with your followers and other users. Being active in the comment section is a simple yet effective way to generate higher engagement rates on TikTok. This includes the comment section under your own videos as well as other users’ videos.

Replying to your followers’ comments and questions, commenting on other users’ videos, and mentioning brands in your comments all help amplify your account’s reach by getting it in front of a larger audience.

The interaction in the comments section of this video by Fenty Beauty, one of the top beauty brands on TikTok, is a great example of how to engage thoughtfully. Fenty Beauty consistently interacts with its followers in the comments of its TikToks. For instance, when a user commented on the satisfying appearance of the brand’s new primers, Fenty Beauty took the opportunity to shed a little more light on what made the new release special.

Actively monitoring your comments section ensures you never miss an opportunity to share more details with your followers, loop in other brand accounts, and effectively increase engagement.

3. Leverage hashtags

Want to increase your chance of landing on someone’s FYP? Use hashtags. Niche hashtags and hashtag challenges are a great opportunity to join in on a relevant trend or conversation.

Like other social channels, TikTok uses hashtags to curate content and help users discover videos they could be interested in. Hashtags can also help boost your brand’s searchability on TikTok, which is especially important when you consider how many people use TikTok as a search engine, especially among younger generations.

When using hashtags on TikTok, less is more. According to our report, the median number of hashtags used by brands across all industries is four per video, with 16% of the brands we analyzed including one or fewer hashtags in their videos. The takeaway here is to be intentional when choosing which hashtags to include. Focus on using just a few that have the most potential to increase your video’s number of views and engagement.

For instance, if we take a look at Rival IQ’s hashtag analysis for top-performing airlines, we can see which hashtags were most used, how many airlines on TikTok were using them, and what the engagement rate is for each one.

If you were a marketer for an airline, you could use this to determine which hashtags are worth using in your videos to increase your engagement. You could also use this as an opportunity to tap into a lesser-used hashtag that still performs well in order to stand out above your competitors.

4. Reply with videos

In the same vein as mentions, replies are one of the best ways to increase your engagement by amplifying your video’s reach. By re-engaging a follower who previously commented, you’re creating an opportunity to grab their attention and get back on their radar again.

Creating content as a reply is also a great way to give followers the content they want to see and let them know you’re taking their comments, questions, and feedback into consideration, making them active participants.

Use video replies to answer FAQs or fulfill audience demands like Laneige frequently does. The beauty brand makes it a point to give the audience exactly what they want, like the comeback of a popular product that fans have been asking for in the comments.

Garnering 689K views and earning 25.4K engagements, the TikTok below scored an engagement rate by follower of 2.58%, or more than 3x the median for health and beauty brands on Instagram (0.85%). Talk about a successful way to announce and promote the return of a product!

5. Find the posting frequency that works for you

As we mentioned earlier, the median posting frequency across all brands on TikTok is about 1.97 videos per week or about eight per month. While posting frequency on TikTok is growing over time, brands are still posting less here than on other channels.

This could be because creating video content requires more planning and resources than creating carousels or graphics on Instagram. Or it could be because brands are still figuring out the right cadence. Either way, it’s important to experiment with what works for your brand.

Take a look at your industry posting rates and, more specifically, your competitors to figure out how often you should be posting. Start by experimenting with one post per week, then increase or decrease your posting frequency depending on the engagement rates you generate.

6. Use a hook (and get straight to the point)

Short-form video is still TikTok’s bread and butter, but longer content is gaining traction. In fact, one study found that videos between three and ten minutes earned the most views, with clips longer than three minutes generating more than double the views of super-short videos (six to ten seconds).

Still, just because longer videos are performing well doesn’t mean you can take your time getting to the point. No matter how long the video is, the first few seconds still matter the most. According to the research by TikTok, over 63% of all videos with the highest click-through rate highlight their key message or product within the first three seconds. If it’s not immediately clear what your video is about, or there’s nothing visually appealing about it, then users will quickly scroll past it.

A common way to introduce the topic of a video is to use text overlay in the first frame. This can also be used as your cover photo, which helps your video stand out in the thumbnails on your page. After your hook, either a) deliver value quickly or b) promise a reveal. Let’s look at a video from Southern Connecticut State University for an example of this in action.

In the video below, the first frame uses text to introduce the focus of the TikTok: first day of college fits at SCSU. Immediately, the video starts spotlighting friendly faces across campus and their first day outfits. In other words, the TikTok uses a hook that’s instantly attention-grabbing and then delivers on that promise.

With a 25.6% engagement rate by follower, the video saw triple the median engagement for Higher Ed brands on TikTok, while the comments were filled with fellow students pointing out people they recognized.

7. Tap into audio

Trending audio was the main feature that propelled TikTok into popularity, so it’s no surprise that it continues to be a major engagement tool on the platform.

Not only does using trending TikTok sounds help increase your video’s discoverability, but it also makes it more memorable. 68% of TikTok users say they remember a brand better when they use a popular song in one of their videos.

Of course, this goes beyond songs to include any kind of trending audio. For instance, JetBlue joined in on a viral meme that’s centered around an edited audio of the song “So Mi Like It” by Jamaican dancehall artist Spice. The sound is paired with jokes about being “islanders” and, in this case, involved the airline pointing out how JFK airport, one of their main hubs, is on an island.

The video was a fun way to incorporate a viral trend while also creating something its followers will remember. The metrics also prove that the video resonated with followers. With a whopping 491% engagement rate by follower, the brand generated a rate that’s 180x greater than the median rate for travel brands (2.73%) by getting creative and leveraging a popular sound.

8. Track your analytics

At the end of the day, what works for other businesses on TikTok may or may not work for yours. The only way to figure out where to focus your TikTok marketing efforts is to track your analytics.

Compare your metrics to the average all-industry rates or the engagement rates in your specific industry, whether that’s Food and Beverage, Beauty, or Higher Ed. To get the most accurate picture of your performance, it’s best to track your analytics with similar brands.

Tap into live benchmarks for your industry to get real-time insights into top-performing posts and trending conversations. You can also use Rival IQ to create a landscape of competitors in your industry. Within the landscape, you can see which videos are generating the most engagement by view or by follower, and how your videos stack up. You can also see which topics and hashtags are being talked about the most within your industry.

Once you’ve tapped into what your competitors are doing, create, analyze, and measure your videos against this data to really understand what’s working and what’s not.

Wrapping it up

TikTok continues to dominate the social media landscape, proving to be a must-have channel for brands across all industries. While average engagement rates on TikTok have dropped since last year, they remain well above Instagram, Facebook, and X (Twitter), thanks to the platform’s massive reach and highly active user base.

To harness TikTok’s engaged audience for your brand, experiment with the proven engagement methods that the top-performing brands are using. Stay tapped into what other businesses in your industry are doing to drive engagement, but don’t hesitate to try something different to stand out above the pack. Just be sure to regularly track and analyze your performance. That way, you can refine your TikTok strategy and consistently drive higher engagement over time.

This post was originally published in June 2023 and has since been updated.

The post What is a Good Engagement Rate on TikTok? appeared first on Rival IQ.

From breaking exciting news on Facebook to joining trends on TikTok, today’s top auto brands aren’t just building vehicles — they’re building communities. Let’s take a look at which automakers are excelling on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, and what marketers can learn from their success.

The Top 3 Automotive Brands on Facebook

According to our 2025 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, the median engagement rate across all industries on Facebook is 0.046%. But a few standout automakers are smashing that number, turning Facebook into a hub for community, conversation, and connection.

#1 Rivian

Known for its all-electric trucks and SUVs, Rivian has built a reputation around innovation, adventure, and sustainability.

With just around 142K Page Fans, Rivian’s Facebook following is small compared to industry giants like Toyota and Nissan, which each boast over 20M fans. But Rivian’s smaller audience is deeply invested, and it shows. The brand’s average engagement rate on Facebook is an impressive 0.36%, nearly 8x the all-industry median.

That kind of engagement is often easier for smaller, niche brands to achieve because their audience tends to be more tightly knit and enthusiastic. When Rivian posts, they’re speaking directly to a tuned-in fanbase — and they respond.

Rivian’s top-performing posts often highlight company milestones and tease new innovations. One standout example is a post announcing that Rivian’s founder and CEO was named Executive Disruptor of the Year by Newsweek, which earned an engagement rate of 1.96% — 42.6x the median. Comments were packed with congratulations from fans who clearly feel invested in the brand’s success.

Rivian is a great example of how brands can use Facebook to engage with their audience. By consistently sharing meaningful updates and highlighting its forward-thinking vision, Rivian is slowly but surely growing its loyal community of fans.

#2 Lucid Motors

Lucid Motors, another electric vehicle brand, is also carving out a space in the EV market. With 123K Page Fans, Lucid’s Facebook audience is also modest but mighty. Its average engagement rate of 0.35% is 7.6x higher than the industry median.

One of Lucid’s most successful posts came at the start of the year. The brand welcomed new customers into the Lucid Owners Club for 2025, sharing candid photos of drivers proudly posing with their new rides. That New Year’s post earned a 1.09% engagement rate — nearly 24x the median — and was met with positive comments from happy owners and future fans alike.

This is a powerful reminder that for newer or smaller brands, fostering a sense of community can be a major competitive advantage. Massive legacy brands may have reach, but newer players can offer something they can’t: exclusivity, belonging, and the excitement of being part of something fresh. Lucid taps into that desire to be “in the club,” and in doing so, turns customers into engaged advocates.

#3 Genesis

Genesis, the luxury vehicle division of Hyundai, has been making a name for itself with its unique designs and premium styling. With 178K Facebook Page Fans, Genesis sees an average engagement rate of 0.12%, or about 2.6x higher than the all-industry median.

Genesis’s posts feel more like high-end magazine spreads than standard product shots, and the audience is here for it. The comments are packed with fans insisting Genesis bring its concept vehicles to life.

In fact, the brand’s top three most engaging Facebook posts were all concept photos. The standout? A sleek post about its X Gran Coupe Concept, which earned an engagement rate of 0.69% — 15x the all-industry median.

The Top 3 Automotive Brands on Instagram

When it comes to Instagram, the bar for engagement is a bit higher at 0.36%. With scenic Reels and creative collabs, though, several automotive brands are cruising right past that benchmark.

#1 Rivian

Rivian also topped our list for most-engaging auto brands on Instagram. With an average engagement rate of 0.72%, the brand outperforms the all-industry median by 2x.

What’s working for Rivian on Instagram? Location, location, location. The brand sees success when it leans into destination-driven content, using location call-outs to showcase real-world adventure.

A perfect example is a Reel showing a caravan of Rivian vehicles rolling through iconic San Francisco landmarks. That one post alone earned a 3.31% engagement rate — nearly 9x the industry median.

Other standout moments include updates about new charging outposts in Yosemite and Joshua Tree, as well as announcements about events in Boston and Pasadena. Each of these posts scored engagement rates at least 4x higher than the median, suggesting that Instagram might just be the ideal platform for promoting real-world events and activations. People love seeing places they recognize or aspire to visit, and Rivian leverages that smartly.

#2 Dodge

Right behind Rivian is Dodge, clocking in at a close 0.69% engagement rate. If you dive into Dodge’s top Instagram posts, you’ll spot a common thread. The hashtag #ThatsMyDodge appears in 65% of their 20 most engaging posts. It’s essentially a tag for user-generated content, with the brand reposting photos taken by real fans and crediting the original creator. They’ll also tag #Dodge and the specific model to keep everything discoverable.

The hashtag strategy taps into an already passionate fan base and makes it easier for Dodge lovers to connect and engage. And since these UGC photos are shot by real enthusiasts, they have a unique, personal feel that stands out.

One of Dodge’s top posts — a moody, fog-filled shot of a Challenger — earned a 2.09% engagement rate, or about 5.8x the all-industry benchmark. It’s a great example of what happens when a brand taps into the creativity of its fans. The variety of backdrops and perspectives simply wouldn’t be feasible with brand-created content alone.

#2 Lucid Motors

Tied for second place is Lucid Motors, with a 0.69% engagement rate — again, roughly double the Instagram median.

This brand loves giving fans a peek behind the curtain on Instagram. Some of its top-performing content includes Reels from inside its factory, offering a behind-the-scenes look at its sleek EVs coming to life.

One of its most engaging Reels announced the start of production for the Lucid Gravity at their Arizona factory. Signing off with an invite to design your own, the post earned a 2.6% engagement rate — more than 7x the all-industry median.

This kind of content hits the sweet spot of building trust, showing progress, and creating excitement all at once. For a luxury EV brand focused on the future of driving, factory-floor access offers just the right kind of transparency.

#3 Porsche

With a massive following of 32.6M, Porsche is among the most-followed car brands on Instagram, trailing only behind BMW (41.8M) and Mercedes-Benz (32.6M). And yet, despite its massive audience, it still manages to keep engagement high, pulling in a 0.67% engagement rate. That’s nearly 2x the median — no small feat at this scale.

So, how does Porsche do it? By giving the spotlight to its fans. The brand’s hashtag #PorscheMoment is the driving force behind much of its content strategy. In fact, Porsche proudly declared in its 2024 highlight reel that half of its social content came from fans.

And it works. The brand’s most engaging post of the year was a carousel roundup of its top posts — many of them UGC — and it racked up a staggering 1.56M engagements. That’s a 13.4x engagement rate compared to the platform median. The brand’s approach shows that even luxury can feel personal when you invite your audience to help shape the story.

#3 Acura

Acura rounds out our list, tying Porsche for third place with a 0.67% engagement rate. One of Acura’s winning strategies on Instagram? Collaborations.

A great example is the launch of the Mattel Brick Shop Hot Wheels ’90 Acura NSX Building Set. Its announcement on Instagram earned 72.6K engagements and an impressive 7% engagement rate — nearly 20x the Instagram average.

So why did it work? Nostalgia, novelty, and shareability. Collaborations like these can breathe fresh life into a brand and spark excitement across segments, boosting reach and engagement.

The Top 3 Automotive Brands on Twitter

While many companies have scaled back their activity on Twitter, a few standouts are still pulling impressive numbers. With an all-industry median engagement rate sitting at 0.015%, these three brands went way beyond.

#1 Genesis

With a 0.60% engagement rate per follower on Twitter, Genesis outperformed the all-industry median by 40x. Digging into the brand’s most engaging tweets, a clear theme emerges.

Out of Genesis’s top 20 tweets with the highest engagement rates, 16 were about Magma and motorsport racing. Clearly, Twitter users were excited over the brand’s entrance into endurance motorsport with Genesis Magma Racing and the launch of its new performance sub-brand, Magma.

Interestingly, though, Magma content wasn’t as popular on Genesis’s other platforms. That highlights an important lesson: Know your audience on each social media platform. Twitter is evidently the place where racing fans are active, so Genesis was able to tap into this niche and engage that community. Going forward, focusing on platform-specific strengths could be a key part of their social media playbook.

#2 Honda

With 1.19 million followers and a 0.25% engagement rate — roughly 17x the platform average — Honda proves that a well-executed newsfeed strategy still works on Twitter.

Unlike other brands that lean into memes or fandom, Honda takes a more informative approach. Most of its top-performing tweets include external links, inviting fans to learn more about everything from its latest brand campaign starring racing legends to its newest EVs.

It’s not flashy, but it works. Twitter users often come for quick updates and bite-sized news, and Honda delivers exactly that: snackable content with substance. By using Twitter as a launchpad for deeper dives, Honda keeps its audience in the loop.

#3 Porsche

With a sizable 2.3M followers and a 0.24% engagement rate (that’s 16x the median), Porsche knows how to keep the conversation going — and that’s key on a platform built around banter.

One of Porsche’s most engaging tweets? A cheeky post about how to pronounce “Porsche” — a simple joke that drove 50K engagements and earned a staggering 2.23% engagement rate. That’s nearly 150x the median.

Porsche also gets credit for sticking around in the comments. Fans respond, and Porsche responds back, keeping the interaction going and building real-time rapport. This humanizes the brand, sparks community engagement, and shows that even a luxury automaker doesn’t always have to take itself too seriously.

The Top 3 Automotive Brands on TikTok

TikTok is fast-moving, trend-driven, and fueled by personality. The median TikTok engagement rate across all industries is a relatively high 1.73%, but these three top-performing automotive brands were able to beat the benchmark.

#1 Mazda

Coming in at first place is Mazda with its jaw-dropping 12.5% engagement rate. That’s over 7x the platform average!

What’s the brand’s secret? Listening. On TikTok, Mazda leans into real-time fan feedback and isn’t shy about jumping on TikTok trends. Case in point, one of its biggest hits is an ASMR-style video that highlights the sounds of the MX-5 Miata. More notably, it was created because someone asked for it in the comments. The result? The video earned a whopping 127% engagement rate.

Mazda’s success is a great example of what happens when a brand doesn’t just post but actually participates. On TikTok, where audiences expect real interaction, Mazda’s responsiveness gives it a serious edge.

#2 Lexus

With an audience of 507K, Lexus comes in second with an impressive 11.8% engagement rate, easily 7x the norm.

Scroll through Lexus’s TikTok feed and you’ll see slick car footage, much like other auto brands. But what sets Lexus apart is its ability to hop on trends and make them feel on-brand. For instance, one video featured a ‘93 Lexus and used a trending TikTok sound (with over 25K uses) that’s commonly associated with nostalgic throwbacks. Lexus even used hashtags like #nostalgia and #90sthrowback to complete the effect.

The takeaway? Trendy sounds and relevant TikTok hashtags aren’t just noise. When used well, they can amplify reach and make a brand much more fun to interact with.

#3 Rivian

Rivian once again makes it to the top 3 with an impressive 11.4% engagement rate by follower, which is about 6.6x higher than the all-industry median of 1.73%.

It’s clear Rivian has built a highly engaged community across channels. But while Rivian’s messaging still centers around innovation and excitement, its TikTok content is slightly different. Rather than recycling posts from Facebook or Instagram, Rivian drops in the occasional exclusive video that matches TikTok’s casual, authentic culture.

Take, for example, a video featuring Rivian’s CEO testing out the new Launch Mode feature. It’s not overly polished — just a candid moment with an exciting product demo — but it racked up a staggering 48.3% engagement rate by follower.

TikTok rewards brands that embrace its culture. By creating content that speaks the language of the average TikTok user — unpolished, authentic, and a bit silly — Rivian expands its reach and keeps audiences engaged.

Methodology

To determine the top automotive brands on social media, we looked at the engagement rates of major companies in the industry and compared them to the all-industry benchmark from our 2025 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report. We then ranked the brands that outperformed the median engagement rate to spotlight the top performers. This data covers activity from June 5, 2024, to June 4, 2025.

Wrapping It Up

Whether it’s niche brands like Rivian building deeply engaged communities or legacy names like Dodge finding smart ways to let their fans lead, one thing’s clear: Social success isn’t just about showing up but about showing up strategically. The best automotive brands on social media are analyzing what works on each platform, leaning into their strengths, and listening to their audience.

The post Best Automotive Brands on Social Media in 2025 appeared first on Rival IQ.

Once again, we’re delivering the key social media benchmarks and insights for 14 top industries: Alcohol, Fashion, Financial Services, Food & Beverage, Health & Beauty, Higher Education, Home Decor, Influencers, Media, Nonprofits, Retail, Sports Teams, Tech & Software, and Travel.

Wondering if you’re posting enough? Posting too much? Or if your content is truly resonating? You’re not alone. That’s why we analyzed more than 4 million posts and 9 billion (!) likes, comments, and shares across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter to bring you the freshest social media benchmark data.

Let’s dive in and start benchmarking!

Social Media Benchmark Key Takeaways

	Engagement took a tumble, especially on Twitter (X) Every platform saw engagement rates fall—Facebook dropped 36%, Instagram 16%, TikTok 34%, but X took the biggest hit at 48%.
	Carousels took the lead on Instagram Carousels outperformed Reels in engagement this year, proving that multi-image posts still resonate with audiences.
	TikTok is king, but its crown is slipping TikTok still leads in engagement but saw declines overall. Higher Ed and Nonprofits bucked the trend, showing that campus and cause-driven content continues to connect.
	Posting frequency shifted TikTok posting ticked up, while Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter saw declines. Media and Sports Teams led the charge, posting more than any other industry.
	Holiday hashtags delivered again Once, again, almost every industry earned top engagement rates from holiday-hashtagged posts.
	Health & Beauty struggled to stand out A saturated market hurt Health & Beauty, which had the lowest engagement across platforms.

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All-Industry Social Media Benchmarks

All-Industry: Facebook

Average Facebook engagement rate per post, all industries

Engagement took a dip this year: the all-industry median fell, along with declines in Sports Teams, Higher Ed, and Influencers. But there were some bright spots—Food & Beverage saw a small gain, while Financial Services held steady.

Average Facebook posts per week, all industries

Brands hit the brakes on Facebook posting this year, with Fashion, Health & Beauty, and Food & Beverage seeing the biggest slowdowns. Media stayed the most active despite a slight dip, while Sports Teams picked up the pace.

Facebook posts per week vs. engagement rate per posts, all industries

Higher Ed and Influencers continue to hit the sweet spot, pairing moderate posting frequency with strong engagement.

Average Instagram engagement rate per post, all industries

Instagram engagement dipped across the board. Retail and Home Decor brands saw sharp declines of nearly 30%.

Average Instagram posts per week, all industries

For the first time in three years, median posting frequency on Instagram decreased slightly. While most industries held steady or scaled back, Influencers bucked the trend, increasing their posting frequency the most by nearly 20%.

Instagram posts per week vs. engagement rate per posts, all industries

Higher Ed was the clear engagement winner on Instagram despite below-median posting frequency, suggesting more isn’t always better on Instagram (though second-place Sports Teams might beg to differ).

Average Twitter engagement rate per tweet, all industries

Twitter engagement continues to slide, with multiple industries—including Fashion, Food & Beverage, and Health & Beauty—dropping to nearly zero. Financial Services and Media held steady, but overall, brands saw a notable decline.

Average Twitter tweets per week, all industries

Tweeting slowed down even more this year, with most industries cutting their posting in half—or stopping altogether. Sports Teams were the rare exception, ramping up their activity.

Twitter tweets per week vs. engagement rate per posts, all industries

Higher Ed and Sports Teams still lead on Twitter, but Media proves once again that more tweets don’t mean more engagement.

Average TikTok engagement rate per video, all industries

TikTok engagement rates continued to fall this year, with industries like Fashion, Food & Beverage, and Sports Teams seeing some of the biggest drops. The silver lining? TikTok still outperforms every other social platform for engagement.

Average TikTok videos per week, all industries

TikTok posting ticked up overall, with Sports Teams, Higher Ed, and Home Decor leading the charge. Media scaled back slightly but stayed the most active.

TikTok posts per week vs. engagement rate per posts, all industries

Higher Ed once again outpaced the competition on TikTok, boasting the highest engagement rates with modest posting activity. This year, Nonprofits claimed second place, edging out Sports Teams.

Engagement rate benchmarks vs time, all industries

TikTok engagement rates dipped again this year but still far surpass Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. While the gap has narrowed slightly, TikTok remains the dominant platform for audience interaction.

Posting frequency benchmarks vs time, all industries

Post frequency increased just a bit on TikTok this year while slowing down on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Twitter posting took the sharpest dive at 33%, suggesting people aren’t as invested in X as they once were.

Alcohol Social Media Benchmarks

Alcohol brands matched or beat median engagement rates across the board this year. Facebook saw the biggest win with a 72.5% engagement boost, even as brands posted 40% less often.

A few ways Alcohol brands can keep up the pace:

• Prioritize high-performing content types—videos on Twitter and carousels on Instagram drove the best engagement this year.
• Lean into hashtags tied to beer and seasonal events. Giveaways on Instagram and beer-themed tags on TikTok were big crowd-pleasers.

Overview of all benchmarks, Alcohol

Notable brands in this year’s report include Better Beer, BrewDog, Fireball, Lagunitas, Shipyard, and STALK&BARREL.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Alcohol

Photo posts still lead the way for Alcohol brands on Facebook. Once again, they deliver the highest engagement rates, outperforming links, videos, and status updates by a wide margin.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Alcohol

Carousels topped engagement for Alcohol brands on Instagram, with Reels and Photos close behind. Turning single-photo posts into carousels could offer an easy win.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Alcohol

Photo tweets were the most frequent for Alcohol brands on Twitter, but videos drove the highest engagement. Status and Link tweets were posted so infrequently they round down to zero posts per week, yet still showed measurable engagement—suggesting occasional use can be effective.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Alcohol

Alcohol brands leaned into giveaways on Instagram, with #giveaway earning over 1.5x the engagement of the next best performer. Seasonal hits like #thanksgiving and #dryjanuary followed closely, while #cocktails stayed a fan favorite.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Alcohol

Alcohol followers ate up holiday-themed hashtags on Instagram, with #fathersday leading the charge. Other favorites like #halloween, and #valentinesday also kept audiences engaged, proving that seasonal content continues to resonate year-round.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Alcohol

Channel-specific hashtags like #fyp and #foryou still dominated on TikTok, but beer-related tags proved to be the real crowd-pleasers.

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Fashion Social Media Benchmarks

Fashion brands saw engagement dip across platforms this year, particularly with Twitter activity coming to a standstill.

Some suggestions for Fashion brands:

• Invest more in TikTok, which is paying more engagement dividends than other channels right now.
• Double down on Reels and trending hashtags like #fitcheck on TikTok, where video content still drives engagement despite overall declines.

Overview of all benchmarks, Fashion

Notable brands in this year’s report include Armani, Lucky Brand, SKIMS, Marc Jacobs, Uniqlo, and Primark.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Fashion

Photos kept stealing the spotlight for Fashion brands on Facebook.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Fashion

Fashion brands leaned into Reels and Carousels on Instagram, both driving the highest engagement rates this year. Reels saw a slight edge over Carousels, marking a shift in how brands connect with their audiences.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Fashion

Fashion brands kept Twitter activity light, with most post types seeing minimal use. Video tweets led in engagement, while status and link posts remained rare and less effective.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Fashion

Seasonal favorites like #fathersday and #valentinesday were big hits on Instagram, while go-to fashion tags like #ootd and #streetstyle kept the likes rolling in.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Fashion

Fashion brands saw big wins with seasonal hashtags on Twitter.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Fashion

#fitcheck was the clear winner for Fashion brands on TikTok, pulling in an engagement rate over 1.5x higher than the next best hashtag

Financial Services Social Media Benchmarks

Twitter was a bright spot for Financial Services, doubling its engagement rate while nearly doubling post frequency.

A few ideas for Financial Services brands:

• Keep the momentum going on Twitter, where both engagement and post frequency have surged for FinServ brands.
• Educational hashtags like #FinTok and #Money were top performers, proving FinServ followers are down to learn.

Overview of all benchmarks, Financial Services

Notable brands in this year’s report include Citi, Crypto.com, Deutsche Bank, MoneyLion, Monzo, and New York Life.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Financial Services

Photos topped the charts for Financial Services brands on Facebook, pulling in the highest engagement rates. Videos weren’t far behind, while status and link posts saw less love.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Financial Services

Carousels took the lead for Financial Services brands on Instagram, pulling in the highest engagement, even though Reels were posted more than twice as often.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Financial Services

Photo tweets pulled in the highest engagement for Financial Services brands on Twitter, with videos close behind.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Financial Services

Financial Services brands leaned into meaningful moments, with #internationalwomensday leading the way in engagement.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Financial Services

Financial Services brands were all about holiday and finance hashtags this year on Twitter.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Financial Services

While holiday-themed hashtags ruled Instagram and Twitter, Financial Services brands got straight to business on TikTok with money-focused tags.

Food & Beverage Social Media Benchmarks

Food & Beverage brands served up strong engagement on Instagram and TikTok, outperforming the median engagement rates across industries.

Some ideas for improvement:

• Short-form videos are still the recipe for success. Keep experimenting with Reels and trending TikTok content.
• Holiday and recipe-themed content continues to resonate \u2028year-round, keeping followers engaged and hungry for more.

Overview of all benchmarks, Food & Beverage

Notable brands in this year’s report include Bachan’s, Kidfresh, Liquid Death, Love One Today, Mamma Chia, and Oatly.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Food & Beverage

Photo posts stood out for Food & Beverage brands on Facebook this year hoping to entice followers to connect IRL with mouthwatering snaps of their offerings.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Food & Beverage

Food & Beverage brands cooked up success with Reels this year, shifting focus from traditional videos to short-form content that delivered strong engagement. But it was carousels that stole the spotlight, leading engagement rates despite being posted less frequently.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Food & Beverage

Photo tweets served up the highest engagement for Food & Beverage brands on Twitter this year.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Food & Beverage

Food & Beverage brands spiced up Instagram with hashtags like #giveaway and #recipes, driving the highest engagement rates.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Food & Beverage

Holiday-themed hashtags served up solid engagement for Food & Beverage brands on Twitter this year.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Food & Beverage

Food & Beverage brands blended trend-driven hashtags into their TikTok strategy to cook up stronger engagement.

Health & Beauty Social Media Benchmarks

Health & Beauty brands struggled to engage fans and followers compared to their fellow industries, earning the lowest engagement rates far below the all-industry median across all four channels thanks in part to a saturated market.

A few growth ideas:

• Continue favoring TikTok and Instagram while keeping efforts low on Twitter, which doesn’t have much engagement payoff in this industry.
• Keep engaging fans with product releases and the next big trend in beauty.

Overview of all benchmarks, Health & Beauty

Notable brands in this year’s report include Aveeno, Caudalíe, Creed Fragrance, Ranavat, Sol de Janeiro, and Youthforia.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Health & Beauty

Photos took the lead for Health & Beauty brands on Facebook this year, pulling in the highest engagement rates by far. While videos performed decently, links and status updates lagged behind, proving that vibrant visuals are still the key to capturing attention.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Health & Beauty

Photos stole the spotlight for Health & Beauty brands this year, earning the highest engagement rates. But Reels weren’t far behind—and brands posted nearly twice as many Reels as photos.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Health & Beauty

Health & Beauty brands tweeted less than ever this year, leaning slightly more on links and status updates, which edged out photos and videos in engagement rates.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Health & Beauty

Giveaways and festive vibes ruled for Health & Beauty brands on Instagram this year, with hashtags like #giveaway, #christmas, and #happynewyear leading the charge.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Health & Beauty

Giveaways were the clear winners for Health & Beauty brands on Twitter this year, earning significantly more engagement than any other hashtag.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Health & Beauty

Product launches stole the show for Health & Beauty brands on TikTok this year, with hashtags like #newlaunch and #newproduct driving top engagement.

Higher Ed Social Media Benchmarks

Colleges and universities saw massive engagement rate boosts, especially on Instagram and TikTok, where they more than quadrupled the median.

For even higher Higher Ed engagement rates:

• Photos and Carousels continue to drive strong engagement, so don’t underestimate its impact alongside video.
• Leverage campus-focused hashtags like #openingweek and #moveinday to tap into student pride and involvement.

Overview of all benchmarks, Higher Ed

Notable brands in this year’s report include North Dakota State University, Pepperdine University, University of Turin, Technological University Dublin, Pratt Institute, and University of Washington.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Higher Ed

Photo posts dominated the engagement charts for Higher Ed this year, with videos and links to content and campus news coming in a distant second.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Higher Ed

Carousel posts soared for schools on Instagram this year, but Reels weren’t far behind as Higher Ed continued to reinvest energy normally spent on videos.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Higher Ed

Photos led the way for Higher Ed brands on Twitter this year, earning the highest engagement rates while being posted 3x more than any other tweet type.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Higher Ed

Campus life hashtags like #finalsweek, #collegelife, and #graduation struck a chord with Higher Ed audiences on Instagram this year, driving strong engagement.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Higher Ed

Colleges and universities were all about holiday-themed hashtags on Twitter this year.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Higher Ed

Travel and event-focused hashtags like #travel, #springbreak, and #collegefootball scored big for Higher Ed brands on TikTok this year. By tapping into student adventures and campus pride, schools kept their content relatable and highly engaging.

Home Decor Social Media Benchmarks

Home Decor brands earned engagement rates towards the bottom of the pack on all channels,

Some ideas for increasing engagement:

• Industry-themed hashtags helped followers find Home Decor content, so keep those up.
• Photos and Reels are the way to go on most channels.

Overview of all benchmarks, Home Decor

Notable brands in this year’s report include Anthropologie, Arhaus, CB2, MUJI, Ruggable, and Serena & Lily.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Home Decor

Home Decor brands were way likelier to post a photo on Facebook than any other post type, which is a smart move, since photos grabbed much higher engagement rates.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Home Decor

Home Decor brands left video behind in a big way this year in favor of Reels, which paid off with the highest engagement rates of any post type.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Home Decor

Photo tweets earned the highest engagement rates for Home Decor brands on Twitter this year, even though posting overall was pretty sparse.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Home Decor

Holiday-themed hashtags like #winter and #valentinesday brought the most engagement for Home Decor brands on Instagram this year, showing that seasonal content really resonates with followers

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Home Decor

Valentine’s Day tweets outpaced other Home Decor hashtags on Twitter by a mile for Home Decor brands this year.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Home Decor

Home Decor brands mixed things up on TikTok this year, pairing seasonal and room-focused hashtags like #easter and #bedroominspo with unexpected favorites like #pasta and #recipe.

Influencers Social Media Benchmarks

Influencers saw strong success on Facebook and Instagram this year. However TikTok was the toughest nut to crack, falling 36% below the median engagement rate.

Ideas to boost that engagement even more:

• Motivational hashtags like #love and #mindset resonated with fans on Instagram.
• Try shaking up your posting frequency and content on TikTok to dominate on this channel as well.

Overview of all benchmarks, Influencers

Notable brands in this year’s report include Bethenny Frankel, Gerard Adams, Kevin O’Leary, Kylie Jenner, Liza Koshy, and Mike Tyson.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Influencers

Photos were the top-performing post type for Influencers on Facebook this year, bringing in the highest engagement rates compared to videos, status updates, and links. Prioritizing visual content paid off for these creators.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Influencers

Carousels led the way for Influencers on Instagram this year with the highest engagement rates, closely followed by photos and Reels.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Influencers

Status updates edged out photos as the most engaging tweet type for Influencers this year, even though photos were posted nearly three times as often.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Influencers

Positive vibes ruled for Influencers on Instagram this year, with hashtags like #love, #gratitude, and #mindset driving strong engagement. Even branded hashtags like #ad found their place among the top performers, showing that authenticity and promotion can go hand-in-hand.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Influencers

Influencers tapped into trending events and nostalgic moments on Twitter this year. Hashtags like #paris2024 and #tbt topped engagement charts.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Influencers

TikTok-themed hashtags like #asmr, #foryou, and #viral helped Influencers hop onto the For You Page of fans and followers.

Media Social Media Benchmarks

Media brands dramatically ramped up their posting frequency (no surprise there with the US election coverage) across all four channels this year, especially on Facebook and TikTok, but struggled to maintain engagement rates.

A few ideas to improve engagement rates:

• Visual content like photos and Reels outperformed links, which remained Media brands’ go-to post type.
• Current events and political hashtags like #debate and #election2024 drove strong engagement, especially on TikTok.

Overview of all benchmarks, Media

Notable brands in this year’s report include Antara News, Fox News, El Faro, Crypto Banter, The Mirror, and MSNBC.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Media

Photos rocked top engagement rates for Media brands on Facebook, though these brands were more than 3x as likely to post a link.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Media

Reels earned more than thrice the engagement rates of video posts for Media brands on Instagram this year.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Media

Media brands favored link tweets this year, but video tweets pulled in about 2.5x more engagement, signaling an opportunity to shift focus toward richer content.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Media

Media brands leaned into entertainment on Instagram this year, with hashtags like #funny, #film, and #viral leading engagement.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Media

Media brands leaned into social issues and major global events on Twitter this year. Hashtags like #paris2024,#internationalwomensday, and #donaldtrump topped engagement charts, proving that timely, newsworthy content continues to resonate with followers.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Media

Election chatter was a big win for Media brands on TikTok this year, with hashtags like #election2024 and #debate driving solid engagement alongside trending celeb moments.

Nonprofits Social Media Benchmarks

Nonprofits saw above-median engagement rates across all social channels this year and earned the silver on TikTok.

Suggestions for Nonprofits:

• Event-themed hashtags helped followers find your content.
• Keep investing in post types that resonate on each channel.

Overview of all benchmarks, Nonprofits

Notable brands in this year’s report include Amnesty International, ASPCA, HAYTAP, Innocence Project, Oxfam, and Pancreatic Cancer UK.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Nonprofits

Photos earned top engagement rates for Nonprofits this year, who shared this post type 3x more often than any other.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Nonprofits

Carousels outdid other posts types for Nonprofits on Instagram this year, who might want to increase their investment in that post type to capture more of their audience’s attention.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Nonprofits

Videos earned top engagement rates for Nonprofits this year on Twitter, but the extra work that goes into producing a video meant photo and link tweets were more common for these organizations.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Nonprofits

Hashtags tied to social issues and global events drove strong engagement for Nonprofits on Instagram this year. From #paris2024 to #humanrights, followers were eager to connect with causes that matter.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Nonprofits

Hashtags tied to awareness days and social causes dominated engagement for Nonprofits on Twitter this year.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Nonprofits

Nonprofits saw strong TikTok engagement with hashtags tied to both social causes and timely events.

Retail Social Media Benchmarks

Retail brands struggled on social media this year, with engagement rates dropping across all channels—most notably on Instagram, where rates fell by over 50% despite more frequent posting.

Some ideas for improving social performance this year:

• Stick with photo posts to help boost engagement, and have some fun experimenting with videos, especially Reels and TikToks.
• Get creative with hashtags like #officelife, and #unboxing to connect with followers in a more playful, everyday way—not just during the holidays!

Overview of all benchmarks, Retail

Notable brands in this year’s report include Aldi, Buy Buy Baby, Hydro Flask, Macys, Walmart, and World Market.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Retail

Retail brands found success with photos on Facebook this year, earning the highest engagement rates across post types. While videos and links saw moderate engagement, photos clearly resonated most and brands leaned into this by posting them 3x more frequently.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Retail

Reels led the way for Retail brands on Instagram this year, earning the highest engagement rates among post types.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Retail

Photos earned the highest engagement rates for Retail brands on Twitter this year, but videos and links weren’t far behind. Despite this, Retail brands hardly posted videos, links, or status updates, suggesting an opportunity to diversify content.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Retail

Retail brands leaned into contest-themed hashtags on Instagram this year, with #competition, #win, and #giveaway topping the charts for engagement.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Retail

Retail brands got festive on Twitter this year, but it was #taylorswift, #happynewyear, and #fathersday that stole the spotlight, beating out classic shopping events like #blackfriday.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Retail

Retail brands leaned into lifestyle content on TikTok this year, with hashtags like #officelife, #selfcare, and #outfitideas earning top engagement. Turns out, followers love a little behind-the-scenes peek while they shop!

Sports Teams Social Media Benchmarks

Once again, Sports Teams saw top engagement rates on Facebook and Twitter and were runners-up on Instagram. More posting doesn’t always equal more engagements, but it certainly did for Sports Teams this year.

Some ways to improve engagement rates even more:

• Keep the content coming—frequent posting is clearly winning over fans.
• Play into fans’ love of nostalgia with throwback hashtags like #onthisday and #tbt.

Overview of all benchmarks, Sports Teams

Notable brands in this year’s report include Arsenal, Boston Celtics, Carolina Panthers, Seattle Kraken, Scuderia Ferrari, and Wallabies.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Sports Teams

Photo posts helped Sports Teams earn nearly 5x the median engagement rate on Facebook, putting these brands comfortably in first place.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Sports Teams

Video posts stole the show for Sports Teams on Instagram this year, pulling ahead of the more frequently posted Reels, Carousels, and Photos.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Sports Teams

Photos were the MVPs for Sports Teams on Twitter this year, but videos were a strong runner-up with higher engagement despite fewer posts.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Sports Teams

Sports Teams went all-in on major events and memorable moments on Instagram this year, with hashtags like #paris2024 and #throwbackthursday leading the pack.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Sports Teams

Sports teams kept the nostalgia alive on Twitter this year with throwback hashtags like #onthisday and #tbt, helping fans relive memorable moments.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Sports Teams

Sports teams brought the fun to TikTok this year, mixing playful hashtags like #prank, #funny, and #mascot with pop culture hits like #taylorswift.

Tech & Software Social Media Benchmarks

Engagement rates dipped for Tech & Software brands across all channels this year. Posting slowed down too, except on Twitter, where a small engagement boost showed some promise.

Here are two ideas for improving engagement rates:

• Carousels outshined other post types on Instagram, even though they were posted less often—time to give them a whirl!
• Hashtags like #marketing and playful picks like #foryou and #funny kept things lively. Mixing in more of these could help reignite follower interest.

Overview of all benchmarks, Tech & Software

Notable brands in this year’s report include AWS, GitHub, HubSpot, NVIDIA, Slack, and Xbox.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Tech & Software

Photos grabbed great engagement rates on Facebook for Tech & Software brands and were posted most frequently.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Tech & Software

Carousels and Reels battled for the top spot on Instagram for Tech & Software brands this year, with Carousels edging ahead slightly in engagement rates. Despite this, brands posted Carousels less frequently than Reels, suggesting an opportunity to boost engagement by increasing Carousel content.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Tech & Software

Photo tweets were the go-to for Tech & Software brands on Twitter this year, leading in both engagement rate and posting frequency.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Tech & Software

Tech & Software brands had #marketing on lock this year, pulling in nearly 4x more engagement than industry-focused hashtags like #tech and #gaming on Instagram.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Tech & Software

Tech & Software brands were all about the deals this year, with #blackfriday leading engagement by a wide margin on Twitter.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Tech & Software

Tech & Software brands leaned into playful, trending hashtags like #foryou and #funny on TikTok this year, proving even techies love a good laugh.

Travel Social Media Benchmarks

Travel brands earned above-media engagement rates on Facebook and TikTok while running in the middle of the pack on Instagram and Twitter.

A few suggestions to grow engagement:

• Luxury and destination hashtags performed especially well for Travel brands this year.
• Posting frequency was below-median across the board, so experiment with an uptick here to see if you can increase your current engagement rates without sacrificing content quality.

Overview of all benchmarks, Travel

Notable brands in this year’s report include Alaska Airlines, Four Seasons, La Quinta, Mandalay Bay, Ryan Air, and Sol by Melia.

Facebook posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Travel

Photos led the way for Travel brands on Facebook this year, earning 1.5x the engagement of other post types and posted more frequently than videos, links, or status updates.

Instagram posts per week and engagement rate by post type, Travel

For the third year in a row, Reels outperformed other post types for Travel brands.

Twitter posts per week and engagement rate by tweet type, Travel

No surprise that it’s all about the visuals for Travel brands on Twitter, with video and photo tweets performing about twice as well as link and status tweets.

Top Instagram hashtags by engagement rate, Travel

Holiday cheer ruled Travel hashtags on Instagram this year, with #merrychristmas, #christmas, and #festiveseason topping the charts.

Top Twitter hashtags by engagement rate, Travel

Holiday hashtags took off for Travel brands on Twitter this year! #fathersday led the pack with over 4x the engagement of the next top hashtag, #merrychristmas.

Top TikTok hashtags by engagement rate, Travel

Travel brands had TikTok followers dreaming big this year with hashtags like #luxurytravel and #travelgoals, which led the pack by more than 1% over the next top hashtag.

Methodology

To spot trends and identify benchmarks, we used Rival IQ to analyze engagement rates, posting frequency, post types, and hashtags on the top three social channels for brands: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

We define engagement as measurable interaction on social media posts, including likes, comments, favorites, retweets, shares, and reactions. Engagement rate is calculated based on all these interactions divided by total follower count.
Within this report, we provide a representative sample of organic and paid posts from national and international companies in each industry by selecting 150 companies at random from each industry in our database of over 200,000 companies. Companies selected had active presences on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as of January 2023, and had Facebook fan counts between 25,000 and 1,000,000 and minimum Instagram and Twitter followers of 1,000 as of the same date.

We used median performance from the companies selected for each industry to compile the data for this report.

Why do we benchmark?

Social media success is about so much more than getting the most comments or likes: it’s about increasing engagement while also growing or maintaining the percentage of your audience that engages as you expand your audience.

To us, engagement rate per post is the metric because it controls for post volume and audience size and helps marketers understand how they’re doing in relation to their competitors.

Why can’t you gauge success on likes alone? Because audience size is hugely important: 1,000 likes makes a huge difference to a brand with 2,000 followers, but is a drop in the bucket to a brand with 100,000 followers.

Live Social Media Benchmarks

Ready to start benchmarking your social media performance? Check out our Live Benchmark landscapes, where we feature live social media metrics from a sample of companies from each industry represented in this study. These landscapes feature hashtag performance, top post types, and so much more on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.

(Oh, and if you’re a Rival IQ customer or in a trial, you can add those stats directly into your Rival IQ account for even more comparisons.)

Or, run a free Head-to-Head report against your biggest rival to see how you measure up to both your competition and against industry benchmarks represented in this study.

Wrapping It Up

Another year, another wild ride in the world of social media. Engagement rates shifted, platforms evolved, and brands had to work harder than ever to keep their audiences interested.

TikTok is still the engagement powerhouse, Instagram continues to be a staple, and despite constant speculation, Facebook is still holding its own. Twitter (X) remains unpredictable, but the brands that stuck around found ways to spark conversations and make waves. Short-form video still reigns supreme, but carousels refuse to back down. And let’s be honest—organic reach isn’t getting any easier, making every like, comment, and share more valuable than ever.

So what’s next? Smart brands will double down on what works, experiment with what doesn’t (yet), and stay flexible as social media continues to keep us on our toes. What trends do you think will define 2025? We’re listening on Twitter (X) and Instagram!

Start analyzing how your brand stacks up with a free Rival IQ trial.

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The post 2025 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report appeared first on Rival IQ.

For businesses, competitor benchmarking is how you get a clear picture of where you stand compared to your rivals. It’s all about taking a good look at your competition and using that knowledge to set realistic goals, refine your strategies, and ultimately outperform them.

Whether you’re looking to boost your social media engagement, enhance your customer experience, or streamline operations, competitive benchmarking is your roadmap to getting ahead. Let’s break down what competitor benchmarking is, how it can fuel your success, and the steps to making this process work for you.

What Is Competitor Benchmarking?

In simple terms, competitor benchmarking is the process of comparing your business’s performance against key competitors within your industry. Unlike general market research or a simple SWOT analysis, though, competitor benchmarking zeroes in on specific, measurable data points.

Competitor benchmarking might involve comparing things like:

• Social media engagement: How do your competitors’ likes, shares, and comments stack up against yours? Find out what is a good engagement rate on social media and see how you compare
• Website performance: How does your search engine ranking compare? What’s the average bounce rate for your industry, and how does your site measure up?
• Customer satisfaction: How does your NPS score compare to your competitors’?

Ultimately, this kind of analysis enables you to evaluate your business against industry best practices and set realistic performance goals grounded in real-world data.

The Advantages of Competitor Benchmarking

Analyzing and comparing the numbers is a core part of competitor benchmarking — but the benefits of this practice run deeper. Here are a few advantages of benchmarking:

Set Smarter Goals

It’s natural to set ambitious goals, but without context, how do you know if they’re achievable? Benchmarking gives you the data to set goals that make sense. For instance, if you know the industry average email open rate is 20% and you’re currently at 15%, you can aim to hit or exceed that benchmark within a specific timeframe. Without this knowledge, you might be setting goals that are too high — or too low.

Spot Strengths and Weaknesses

By comparing your performance metrics to your competitors, you can identify areas where you shine and where you’re falling behind.

Say you find out a competitor’s social media posts are performing better than yours through benchmarking. From there, you can then dig into their social media engagement strategies. What are they doing differently? Are they posting more frequently? Are they posting mostly video content? Benchmarking leads you towards these details, so you can fine-tune your strategy and stay competitive.

Social media competitive analysis tools like Rival IQ make this process easy. We offer competitive context to all your metrics, letting you see how you stack up with data visualizations and straightforward explanations. As an example, check out how Alaska Airlines is doing on Instagram below.

Let’s focus on engagement rate by follower. The company’s doing better than average but, at 6th place, there’s definitely room for improvement. With a few clicks in Rival IQ, Alaska Airlines can quickly determine that Hawaiian Airlines is one of the top airlines on social media right now and study the brand’s strategy to see what they’re doing that stands out.

From exciting sweepstakes to engaging prompts, Hawaiian Airlines’ feed is full of lessons. And who better to learn from than the best?

Make Informed Decisions

Another big advantage of competitor benchmarking is that it empowers you to make data-driven decisions. Instead of relying on gut feeling or vague assumptions, you have concrete data to back up your strategies.

Maybe you’re thinking about launching a new brand’s first social media influencer campaign. Using influencer analytics tools and analyzing how other companies in the industry approach influencer marketing can validate your idea and refine your execution.

What’s the average engagement rate of their influencer posts, and how does that compare to the overall industry standard? If influencer campaigns garner less engagement, is there something you can do differently to get better results? Or does it seem like your audience simply doesn’t respond well to influencers? Asking and answering these questions can help you make better decisions about your influencer marketing strategy.

Quick tip: Optimize the research process by using Rival IQ’s Discover Tool to streamline the process of finding and evaluating new influencers and brand advocates.

Mitigate Risks

Competitor benchmarking also acts as a safeguard against costly mistakes. You can imagine how failing to benchmark can put you at risk of overspending on ineffective strategies. After all, if you pour money into a channel without proper research, there’s a chance you’ll waste valuable resources.

For example, what if your target audience consistently shows lower engagement with influencer campaigns across your industry, as evidenced by competitor numbers? That’s a potential red flag, signaling that this approach may not align with their preferences. On the other hand, if one or two competitors dominate with high-performing influencer campaigns, jumping in without further research and a unique angle could leave you overshadowed.

Benchmarking helps you make smarter decisions about where to allocate your budget and efforts. Whether it’s doubling down on proven tactics or steering clear of ineffective ones, you reduce the risk of wasting resources while positioning yourself for better results.

Avoid Stagnation

Without benchmarking, it’s easy to fall into a “good enough” mindset. But with clear data on what others are achieving, you’ll be motivated to keep pushing boundaries. Staying ahead of the curve requires constant improvement, and benchmarking ensures that you’re measuring yourself not just against your past successes but also against the best in your industry.

In short, competitor benchmarking doesn’t just reveal where you stand — it gives you the tools to chart a path forward. Whether it’s identifying opportunities for success or patching up weak spots in your strategy, this process can make all the difference.

Competitor Benchmarking: A Five-Step Guide

Now that we’ve covered why competitor benchmarking is so essential, let’s get into how to get started.

1. Identify Competitors

Start by pinpointing your direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors target the same audience with similar products or services, while indirect competitors satisfy the same needs but with a different solution. So, the athletic brands Nike and Adidas would be direct competitors while Nike and Crocs could arguably be indirect competitors.

While you probably already know who your competitors are, consider leveraging social listening to identify the companies that come up during relevant online conversations. Take the topic “ice cream.” A quick search with our social listening tool and you can see that Haagen-Dazs, Chicken Republic, McDonald’s, Ben & Jerry’s, and Dairyland are some of the brands most discussed with that keyword in the last 30 days.

2. Choose Metrics

Once you’ve identified your competitors, the next step is selecting what metrics to benchmark. Your metrics should align with your business goals and lead to actionable insights.

Try to be as specific as you can. If your goal is to improve engagement on social media, determine exactly how that will be measured. After all, engagement metrics slightly differ based on the platform. For instance, “engagement rate by view” is an important TikTok metric but it’s not an Instagram metric because of differences in how each channel operates and reports data.

3. Gather and Analyze Data

Once your competitors and metrics are selected, it’s time to collect and analyze data. You can do this manually or use tools to make the process more efficient and accurate. Here are some categories of tools that can help, depending on the type of data you’re analyzing:

• Social Media Benchmarking: This, of course, is our bread and butter! Rival IQ was designed for competitive benchmarking, letting you see exactly how you stack up against competitors with easy-to-understand visualizations and helpful comments. You can build multiple landscapes of brands and compare all kinds of metrics across different social channels.
• SEO and Website Performance: Platforms like Semrush and SE Ranking can provide insights into your and your competitors’ website traffic (organic vs. paid), keyword rankings, domain authority, and more.
• Content: How does your content — your articles, videos, listicles — compare? Tools like BuzzSumo can show you what’s working for the competition, including average shares, content format, and length.
• Email: See industry email trends and comparative benchmarks with platforms like Mailcharts and Owletter. Getting analytics on things like how often they send emails to their average promotion rate can help you optimize your own strategy.

All in all, tools like these are invaluable, saving you time, money, and effort by streamlining data collection and simplifying competitor comparisons.

4. Uncover Gaps and Opportunities

After collecting the data, the next step is to analyze it for gaps and opportunities. Look for areas where your competitors outperform you, and identify opportunities where you can outpace them.

For instance, if a competitor’s website has significantly more traffic, see what content is driving that traffic. Look for opportunities to capitalize on weaknesses, such as an underserved audience segment or a topic they aren’t covering in their blog posts.

5. Implement Changes and Benchmark Regularly

Put your findings into action! Update strategies, adjust campaigns, or refine your product based on insights. After implementation, continue to track your progress regularly. Set up monthly or quarterly benchmarking reviews to assess whether the changes have had the desired impact and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Wrapping It Up

Competitor benchmarking is more than just keeping tabs on your rivals — it’s about uncovering the details that drive smarter decisions and stronger results. By tracking the right metrics and using tools like Rival IQ, you can find opportunities to outpace the competition. Ready to take the lead? Start benchmarking today and see the difference it makes for your business.

The post Competitor Benchmarking: What It Is and Why It’s Important appeared first on Rival IQ.

From animal welfare to arts to criminal justice and beyond, this report has it all when it comes to the ultimate guide to nonprofit social media. We studied top posts, hashtags, engagement rates, and more from 100 of the world’s most engaging nonprofits on social to help your nonprofit prepare for Giving Tuesday and the year ahead.

Drop a donation to your favorite nonprofit and then get reading!

Spoilers! See the full Nonprofit rankings.

Grab the report here

Top 10 Nonprofits on Social Media (overall)

It was a great year for nonprofits on social who earned epic engagement using everything from adorable puppy adoption pleas to behind-the-scenes pointe shoe content to bats that are guaranteed to steal your heart (more on that later).

Bat fans, rejoice: Bat Conservation International has taken the gold for the second year running! American Ballet Theatre climbed the ranks in a big way to land the silver, while Planned Parenthood repeated its podium finish with a bronze. Innocence Project, Amnesty International, National Trust, and HAYTAP also pulled off top 10 repeats, while the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, the ACLU, and Seattle Humane landed in our top 10 for the first time.

Top Nonprofit Overall: Bat Conservation International

Bat Conservation International is a fan favorite on social for a reason: their colorful and quirky posts engage fans on every channel they post on and go a long way towards making bats less scary. BCI uses everything from colorful graphics to weird but gripping bat memes to entice and engage followers in their quest to protect bat populations across the country.

BCI generally posts less frequently than their average competitors but makes every post count with above-average engagement rates and totals. The nonprofit pulled all that off with way fewer followers than their average rival. Fewer posts + fewer followers usually equals lower engagement, but not for BCI who harnessed the power of bats to fly straight into followers’ hearts.

BCI ranked 8th on Facebook thanks in part to posts like this featuring, wait for it, bat poetry (no, the bats did not write it). The poem by environmentalist and poet Anna Ferguson Montague delighted bat fans on BCI’s favorite day of the week: Baturday. With a 56.2% engagement rate by follower, BCI should definitely look into commissioning more bat poems. The nonprofit earned 5x the engagement rate of their average nonprofit competitor on Facebook despite having a quarter of the fans. Part of that incredible engagement can be explained by posts like this that earned nearly six million impressions, suggesting BCI’s content reached far beyond their follower count.

Adorably spooky Reels like this one helped BCI earn 2x the engagement total and 5x the engagement rate of their average competitor on Instagram. The Reel featured five spooky/sweet bats guaranteed to turn anyone into a bat conservationist. BCI earned a 147% engagement rate and more than 1.2 million estimated impressions on the post, proving that in the right hands, even the most niche causes can go viral.

This beautiful photo tweet celebrating Bat Appreciation Day earned a 14.2% engagement rate and more than 85K impressions by inviting followers to turn out for this important holiday that BCI actually did not make up. Many of the nonprofit’s posts feature real bats in all their glory, but shaking up the style to something more artistic helped engage fans new and old who might not be fully on board with bat content just yet. BCI continues to impress by doing more with less: the nonprofit earned 10x the engagement rate by follower on Twitter but tweeted about half as often as their average competitor, and did it all with one tenth of the followers.

Not every nonprofit we studied this year managed to keep abreast of the constantly-evolving TikTok trend landscape, but BCI definitely gave it their best shot. The video put a bat-themed spin on the trending clip from Lizzo’s song Boys by swapping the meaning of the song to Bats Of varYing Species. Fans and followers ate up the playful post to the tune of a 12.4% engagement rate by view and more than 340K views. Not every trend will feel applicable to your nonprofit, but videos like this remind us that getting in on the right trend at the right time can be an engagement slam dunk.

BCI has really invested in TikTok this year, with a 38% increase in follower count and above-average posting frequency by about 30%. The nonprofit’s efforts are paying off with more than 2x the engagement total and 6x the engagement rate by view.

Top Nonprofit Social Media Trend 1: Holiday-themed posts

From observing national holidays that align closely with any given nonprofit’s mission to cute manatees celebrating Halloween, holiday posts led to an engagement uptick across all four channels we studied this year.

Save the Manatee Club finished 31st on Instagram and 25th overall thanks to the success of photo posts like this one featuring a costumed manatee presiding over a gaggle of pumpkins. The Halloween-themed post earned a 27.8% engagement rate by follower and more than 7.3K impressions by keeping in the holiday spirit. User-generated content is a great way for nonprofits to stretch tight staff and tighter budgets like in this post which sourced a photo from the larger STMC community.

Environmental activism nonprofit Greenpeace took to its TikTok platform during Pride Month to remind followers that an important part of fighting for climate justice includes protecting trans rights. The nonprofit ranked 17th on TikTok this year thanks in part to this simple video that earned a 10.5% engagement rate by view, which is about 10x the nonprofit TikTok median. Making the most of holidays and themed months like Pride can help your content stay relevant all year long.

Top Nonprofit Social Media Trend 2: Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday is a critical time for nonprofits looking to fundraise, and many of the top nonprofits we studied encouraged donations creatively for maximum engagement and minimal grumbling.

Second-place winner American Ballet Theatre’s posts about Giving Tuesday ranked consistently across channels as some of their most engaging of the year, making the nonprofit one to watch for inspiration. ABT’s series encouraging donors to engage throughout the day to see dancers doing feats of increasing difficulty as donations rolled in led to fun and social engagement online and at the ballet studio. Not every channel saw an engagement increase with posts that mentioned Giving Tuesday, but nonprofits saw a 1.44x engagement rate lift on Facebook when talking about the day of giving.

Playful content performed well on social when it came to Giving Tuesday as well, like in this impressive bat portrait from overall winner Bat Conservation International. Rather than ask directly for donations, BCI reminded followers about Giving Tuesday with tweet content featuring Gen-Z slang about a look “giving” (which means it’s good) and “serving” (which means it’s even better). The tweet earned a 1.3% engagement rate, which is about 4x the nonprofit Twitter median this year. Not every donation request on social has to feel like a desperate or urgent plea: adding fun or casual content into your campaign can give followers a break while still keeping your nonprofit at top of mind.

Top Nonprofit Social Media Trend 3: Behind-the-scenes content

Taking supporters and donors behind the scenes is a tried and true strategy for nonprofits around the world because it helps people deepen their connection to their favorite organization’s mission and impact. Backstage content on social media can serve the same purpose, even if there’s not actually a stage to peek around the back of.

Education Post focuses on schooling opportunities for bright kids around the world, which very much includes the stunning music coming out of this classroom in Africa. This Reel helped EdPost finish first on Instagram–no surprise with the impact of this post, which earned nearly three quarters of a million engagements and more than 11 million estimated impressions. Many organizations might feel tempted to post a slick video with high production values, but EdPost knew the content would resonate with fans based on nothing more than unbelievable music from the mouths of truly talented kids.

Going behind the scenes isn’t just for the arts. The Blank Park Zoo finished 13th on Facebook thanks to this video post about training one of their giraffes to feel calm and comfortable during x-ray imaging. The video went viral to the tune of 13 million views and more than 18K engagements by involving fans in a side of the zoo they probably would never be able to experience from a casual stroll through the park. Behind-the-scenes content like this helps strengthen followers’ and donors’ relationships with the causes they support and is an important tool in any nonprofit social media marketer’s toolkit for sustaining engagement over time.

Top Nonprofits on Social Media: Instagram

Congrats to Education Post for winning big on Instagram this year, and to American Ballet Theatre and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights on their respective silver and bronze finishes. Overall top 10 finishers Seattle Humane, Bat Conservation International, HAYTAP, and the Innocence Project also saw impressive rankings on Instagram. Doctors Without Borders, Joffrey Ballet, and Hillel International finished strong on Instagram but didn’t quite break into the overall top 10 thanks to some lagging ranks on other channels.

Nonprofits earned an average engagement rate of 0.51%, which sits well above the all-industry Instagram average of 0.43% that we saw in this year’s Social Media Industry Benchmark Report. These nonprofits posted just as frequently as the average organization on Instagram this year at 4.8 posts per week. Higher engagement rates with similar post frequency means nonprofits are punching above their weight on Instagram.

Featured nonprofit: American Ballet Theatre

American Ballet Theatre is a force to be reckoned with on social, especially on video-focused channels like Instagram and TikTok. With 4x the followers of their average nonprofit competitor, the nonprofit has a leg up (pun intended) on engagement: ABT rocked 6x the engagement total at 2.44M compared to 392K competitor average, and more than 3x the engagement rate. Especially notable is that ABT posted about 1/3rd as frequently as their average competitor on Instagram and still managed to top the engagement charts, suggesting the content they do publish is high quality and reliably able to snag those likes and comments.

Behind-the-scenes content reigned supreme for the Boston-based ballet company, from pointe shoe ASMR to rehearsal footage to seemingly impossible tasks like fouetté challenges. The nonprofit also found creative ways to encourage donations and created plenty of nostalgic opportunities for followers to wax poetic about their favorite ballets over the years.

Followers ate up pointe shoe ASMR from a corps de ballet member of ABT’s company to the tune of a 26.3% engagement rate, which is more than 50x the nonprofit Instagram average. ASMR is all about pleasing sounds and images, so the crunching, crinkling, gluing, and sewing of pointe shoes is the perfect way to tickle followers’ brains. Professional ballet dancers modify their shoes nearly every day, so capturing the ritual for social media is a great way to capitalize on content just waiting to be shared.

ABT posted a carousel with moments from the fall 2023 season to help fans remember their favorite moments with a little boost from the Instagram algorithm. The carousel post earned a 9.84% engagement rate and more than 1.37 million estimated impressions, not to mention nearly 80k likes. Instagram re-serves the second frame of a carousel to followers if they didn’t engage with the first, which often leads to higher engagement rates and means this post type should definitely remain in the mix for nonprofits.

Nonprofits constantly have to find balance between sharing the results of their mission-driven work and asking for donations to help fund it. ABT wasn’t afraid to get creative about encouraging donations with a little help from the dance company by promising amazing feats from the dance company if their online community could hit certain fundraising milestones. In this Instagram Reel, ABT delivered on its promise that dancer Léa Fleytoux would balance on pointe for an entire minute if 50 followers donated on Giving Tuesday. The feat impressed followers, earning the organization an 8.02% engagement rate and encouraged further donations for ABT’s next milestone of 100 donations. Finding new ways to ask for donations is a challenge that many nonprofits face, but they can definitely take a page out of ABT’s book with their Giving Tuesday campaign.

Top Nonprofits on Social Media: TikTok

The National Down Syndrome Society snagged gold on TikTok this year (while landing just outside our overall top 10 ) with Planned Parenthood and RepresentUs also standing strong on the TikTok podium. Many of our overall top 10 winners also performed well on TikTok like American Ballet Theatre, Seattle Humane, Bat Conservation International, National Trust, and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. Best Friends Animal Society and the American SPCA stood out in a big way on TikTok but have some improving to do on other channels if they want to crack the overall top 10 next year.

Nonprofits earned a 0.99% engagement rate by view and posted videos about once per week on TikTok, which is about half as often as our multi-industry average. Imagine what these organizations could do with the resources to post even more frequently.

Featured nonprofit: Planned Parenthood

Health care and sex education nonprofit Planned Parenthood grabbed the silver on TikTok this year and bronze overall thanks to stellar content and strategic partnerships. With about four times the followers as their average nonprofit competitor and 4x the engagement totals, it’s no surprise that this nonprofit is ranking well this year. Planned Parenthood posted about twice as often as their average competitor at 1.87 videos per week and saw about twice the views. The nonprofit also rocked 6x the engagement rate by view at 18.8%, which is definitely a stat they can write home about.

It’s worth noting that Planned Parenthood’s follower counts and engagement totals are off the charts, but its engagement rates by follower on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are actually a little lower than the competitor average. Really big accounts like Planned Parenthood sometimes have to accept lower engagement rates in favor of eye-popping engagement totals. We balance engagement total and rate in our ranking to account for nonprofits like Planned Parenthood, which also helps smaller nonprofits and brands with impressive engagement rates but teeny engagement totals stay competitive in our rankings.

Planned Parenthood had strong success with sharing news stories about things like abortion and contraception with a related GIF playing in front of it, like in this video about expanding abortion access with Phoebe and Rachel from Friends dancing on a loop in the foreground. The video earned a 17.8% engagement rate by view and more than 12K engagements, suggesting adding a little silliness to serious news pays off when it comes to engagement.

The nonprofit wasn’t afraid of humor, especially when it comes to raising awareness for reproductive freedom. This video features Planned Parenthood providers looking around their clinic for medical reasons to restrict abortion everywhere from desks to drawers and coming up empty, earning a 13.3% engagement rate by view and nearly 400K views. Tone matters when it comes to storytelling, and many nonprofits have learned that going playful instead of somber can engage more supporters in their causes.

Many nonprofits rely on partnerships to boost awareness and reach new audiences, and Planned Parenthood is no exception. Partnering with TikTok celebs like @JamesIsSmiling earned the nonprofit a 9.95% engagement rate on TikTok this year. Switching up your brand’s representative online can help new audiences and followers find your nonprofit’s content while offering variety to your existing fanbase. In this case, James has partnered with Planned Parenthood since 2023 to share stories about STDs, reproductive rights, trans rights and more and their posts are always thoughtful, conversational, and engaging. Many nonprofits don’t have the budget to pay an enormous roster of influencers, so finding the right alignment is critical for nonprofits looking to stretch their dollar while reaching new audiences.

Top Nonprofits on Social Media: Facebook

The Alzheimer’s Assocation topped the Facebook charts for nonprofits this year, with PetSmart Charities and Seattle Humane hot on its heels. The rest of the Facebook top 10 ranged far and wide, from healthcare nonprofits American Cancer Society and Red Cross to animal welfare organizations Anti-Cruelty, the Humane Society of the United States, and Bat Conservation International, with the Wounded Warrior Project and Carnegie Hall coming in as wild cards.

Nonprofits on Facebook earned a 0.06% engagement rate and posted just under 6x per week, which is more than on any other channel we studied this year. This high post frequency makes sense even with lower engagement rates on Facebook, since posting on Facebook is often a lot less labor-intensive than creating TikTok videos or Reels. As we can see in the chart below, status updates and photos are the most engaging post types by rate for nonprofits on Facebook, so it makes sense that nonprofits are churning them out more frequently.

Featured nonprofit: Seattle Humane

Rival IQ is based in Seattle and filled with pet-loving humans, so it’s no surprise we were jazzed to see Seattle Humane topping this year’s Facebook charts. The animal welfare nonprofit had about ⅕ the Page Fans of their average nonprofit competitor while boasting 4x the engagement total and rate, suggesting their social strategy is seriously dialed in. Posting more than twice as often as their rivals certainly helps explain those big engagement totals, and strong content that tugs at everybody’s heartstrings explains the rest of Seattle Humane’s success on social this year.

As you might imagine for an animal shelter, Seattle Humane was all about calls for adoption on Facebook this year, like this post about pup Pretty Girl that earned an impressive 12.3% engagement rate. With so many followers looking for their next furry family member, these posts performed well consistently for the nonprofit. We used our natural language processing to analyze popular topics and phrases, and posts that celebrated a successful adoption earned a 2.41x engagement rate lift over Seattle Humane’s average posts–no surprise, since everyone loves a happy ending.

Every animal welfare nonprofit is bound to rely on cuteness at some point or another, and Seattle Humane was no exception. The nonprofit showed off cute dogs to their full potential in this post about 18 tiny doggos that were surrendered to the shelter that earned a 5.58% engagement rate and more than 500K estimated impressions. Sharing pets for adoption is an important part of Seattle Humane’s mission, but telling the stories behind the surrendered or found pets is critical for connecting pets with their forever homes like in this heartstring-tugging post.

A big part of nonprofit communications has to be about donations and giving, but Seattle Humane gives equal air time to thanking donors for their contributions large and small like in this video post. The post rocked a 2.39% engagement rate which is nearly 40x the nonprofit industry median thanks to cute dog-friendly baked goods and even cuter pups. Asking for donations and thanking donors is a constant cycle for nonprofits around the globe, and while balancing the two can be tough, Seattle Humane has it down.

See how your nonprofit ranks.

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Top Nonprofits on Social Media: Twitter

The Innocence Project had a big year on social including snagging the Twitter gold, and other top 10 overall finishers US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and HAYTAP also have a lot to be proud of on Twitter this year. Amnesty International, the ACLU, and Bat Conservation International also rode their Twitter success all the way to our overall top 10, while Heartfulness, Carter Center, Save the Manatee Club, and Doctors Without Borders had stronger showings on Twitter than on other channels we studied.

Nonprofits saw lower engagement rates on Twitter compared to other channels in our report at 0.03%. This stat isn’t too surprising, since Twitter consistently earns lower engagement rates than any other channel across all the industries we track in our Social Media Industry Benchmark Report. Small engagement rates didn’t slow down their post frequency which came in at 4.6 tweets per week.

Featured nonprofit: Innocence Project

Legal justice advocacy nonprofit the Innocence Project is no stranger to topping our engagement charts placing third overall and 15th on Twitter in last year’s nonprofit report. The nonprofit zoomed to first place on Twitter thanks to gripping tweets calling for support for exoneration. The Innocence Project tweeted about 50% more frequently than the average nonprofit which gave them lots of opportunities to connect with concerned and motivated followers. With an eye-popping engagement total of 539K compared to 38K for the average nonprofit and more than 5x the engagement rate of their peers, this nonprofit is one to watch.

The Innocence Project focused heavily on turning the nation’s eyes towards Marcellus Williams’ execution by the state of Missouri this year in many of its social posts and tweets. These compelling and somber tweets generated action and support but were sadly unsuccessful at saving him from his fate. This tweet in the final lead-up to his execution saw a 39.7% engagement rate and more than 10 million impressions from followers tracking his story around the globe.

Tweets tagged #MarcellusWilliams saw a 12.4x engagement rate lift compared to the Innocence Project’s average tweets as followers shared their support for Williams and followed the news about his appeal and sentencing. Our AI-powered Popular Topics feature also analyzed language from Innocence Project’s tweets and found that tweets that mentioned “innocent man” performed 14x better than the nonprofit’s average tweet, suggesting having a clear point of view on Williams’ sentencing and execution helped the Innocence Project reach further than they might’ve with more neutral language.

While the Innocence Project is great at encouraging urgency around upcoming exoneration opportunities, the nonprofit also excels at telling the stories of innocent men and women failed by the US justice system like Kalief Browder. This photo tweet featured an eye-catching image and an invitation to followers to remember Browder for his wrongful death and fight for justice. The tweet earned a 2.21% engagement rate and more than 75K impressions as followers left their remembrances of Kalief and called for investigation into his innocence even after his death by suicide in 2015.

While urgency is really the name of the game for the Innocence Project, the nonprofit also peppers in plenty of hopeful stories like Sandra Hemme’s. This photo tweet celebrating Hemme’s freedom from jail after 43 years of being wrongfully imprisoned earned a 0.70% engagement rate, which is more than 23x the average nonprofit engagement rate this year. Reminding followers of the life-saving impact the Innocence Project and other exoneration-focused organizations can have is critical for fostering and maintaining the financial and community support needed to sustain criminal justice nonprofits.

Check out the latest Social Media Industry Benchmark Report for even more benchmarks.

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How is My Nonprofit Performing on Social Media?

See what the best nonprofits are up to on social with our Live Social Media Benchmarks featuring top posts, engagement rates, high-performing hashtags, and tons more. Pro tip: you can even add these benchmarks directly into your Rival IQ account for always-on monitoring of these top organizations.

Or, go head-to-head with a free report on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter to see how you stack up against your top competition. Discover what makes your competitors tick with key insights and actionable advice you can start using now to come out on top.

If you’re hungry for even more stats, grab a free 14-day trial with Rival IQ.

Methodology

We surveyed hundreds of nonprofits between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024 on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. We included a selection of nonprofits from Forbes’ Top 100 Charities list and a sample of nonprofits from our broader database of organizations around the world. Using this data and a weighted formula, we generated an overall engagement ranking for each nonprofit and narrowed the list to the top 100 brands based on our criteria. The top-ranked nonprofits have high engagement rates with average or better audience size and posting volumes. We reviewed a mix of boosted and organic posts.

We define engagement as measurable interaction on nonprofit social media posts, including likes, comments, favorites, retweets, shares, and reactions. Engagement rate is defined as the total engagement divided by audience size except on TikTok, where it’s defined as the total engagement divided by views.

Due to Instagram API limitations, we’re able to pull accurate Instagram engagement numbers only for creator and/or Instagram business accounts.

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The Case for Benchmarking

Why benchmark instead of just measuring how your nonprofit’s individual performance changes over time? Because social success is relative. Benchmarking means figuring out what’s working (and what isn’t) for organizations in your industry and measuring your success against that.

It’s really important to go beyond likes and favorites because audience size matters: 200 likes is great engagement for a nonprofit with 1,000 followers but is a drop in the bucket to an organization with 100,000 followers. Engagement rate helps us take audience size into account to see who’s really reaching the highest percentage of their fans and followers with their social posts, which are the nonprofits you need to beat.

Wrapping it up

Congratulations to all the organizations in this report for continuing to lead and redefine nonprofit social media! We can’t wait to see what you get up to in the year ahead.

Want to share your thoughts with us about nonprofit social media? Drop us a line on Instagram!

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With moms and dads doing extensive research online for parenting tips, product recommendations, and reviews, it’s no wonder baby brands are stepping up their social game. But with so many brands vying for attention, which ones are knocking it out of the park?

Let’s take a closer look at the top baby product brands on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. First up? A brand of baby sleepwear that’s both cute and gentle for sensitive skin.

The Best Baby Product Brands on Social

Best Baby Products Brand on Facebook: Little Sleepies

When it comes to engaging a community of parents on Facebook, Little Sleepies has mastered the art. Known for their soft and adorable pajamas, this brand’s engagement numbers are also top-notch. With an engagement rate by page fan of 0.2%, Little Sleepies’ rate is nearly five times higher than the median rate for the retail sector (0.041%).

So, what’s their secret to keeping fans so engaged? Little Sleepies regularly uses Facebook to generate excitement for its new collections, many of which are inspired by customer requests. One of their biggest hits? The Bluey collection. The below post earned an incredible 4.02% engagement rate — that’s 98 times higher than the average retail brand!

By listening to their customers and delivering on their demands, they’ve transformed product drops into highly anticipated events. And they don’t stop there — the brand even created a VIP Facebook Group that gets early access to these collections, further fueling engagement.

Most of Little Sleepies’ top posts are centered around these limited-edition drops, featuring characters in high demand like Winnie the Pooh, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King. By making social media the platform for exclusive reveals, the brand has turned Facebook users into eager shoppers. The comments are often flooded with parents raving about the upcoming releases, hoping to snag the prints before they sell out.

Each new drop is an event, and Facebook has become the place to stir up excitement not just through the brand’s posts but also through the buzz created by the fans themselves. The takeaway? When you engage your audience, listen to their requests, and build a sense of community, you create brand advocates who can’t wait to see what you’re releasing next.

Honorable Mention: Tubby Todd

Another baby care brand making waves on Facebook is Tubby Todd. Known for its gentle baby skincare products, Tubby Todd has an impressive overall engagement rate of 0.18% — well above the retail median. So, what’s driving this success? One word: giveaways.

A whopping 23 out of Tubby Todd’s top 25 posts with the highest engagement were giveaways, proving this strategy is a major hit with its audience. Giveaways are a tried-and-true way to boost engagement, increase brand visibility, and grow a community of loyal followers. They not only create a sense of fun and anticipation but also encourage people to share posts, tag friends, and interact with the brand in hopes of winning something special.

Best Baby Products Brand on Instagram: Frida

With 60% of time spent on Instagram dedicated to video content, it’s no surprise that brands need to up their game when it comes to creating video. Clearly, Frida knows this. The brand, which specializes in innovative parenting solutions, has fully embraced Instagram Reels, using the format to showcase how its products work.

Just take a look at their post featuring the Push Pop Feeder, which earned a 93.5% engagement rate by follower — that’s 413 times higher than the retail industry’s median Instagram engagement rate of 0.226%!

Reels are clearly a winning strategy for Frida, with 17 out of its top 25 posts being Reels and all of its top 10 most engaging posts falling into this category. Why? Because the brand knows that parents don’t just want to see a product, they want to understand how it works.

Frida uses Instagram Reels to demonstrate its solutions in action, showing exactly why their products are so great. On top of that, the brand also offers a breakdown of how each product works and its benefits in the captions, making sure there’s no room for confusion.

With an engagement rate by follower of 0.99% — 4.38 times higher than the retail sector’s median on Instagram — Frida proves that video-first content, combined with helpful captions, is a winning formula. The lesson here? Think about your products. If they aren’t instantly intuitive, showing them in action through video can be the key to building customer trust and excitement.

Honorable Mention: Solly Baby

With an engagement rate by follower of 0.56%, more than double the median for retail brands on Instagram, Solly Baby stands out with its emotional, text-based carousels. These posts, often filled with affirmations and heartfelt messages, tap into the emotional journey of motherhood.

For example, its affirmation post for postpartum mothers resonated deeply with their audience, earning 27.9K total engagements for an engagement rate of 5.16% — nearly 23 times higher than the median. The comments were filled with gratitude from new mothers who resonated with the message.

Solly Baby has found a way to create a deeper, more meaningful connection with its community, showing that sometimes, it’s not flashy visuals but thoughtful words that make the biggest impact. This strategy proves that understanding your audience’s emotions and offering content that speaks to their experiences can foster brand loyalty and engagement on a whole new level.

Best Baby Products Brand on TikTok: Graco

Graco is an iconic baby brand known for its reliable strollers, car seats, and high chairs. While Graco isn’t posting on TikTok as often as you might expect — less than once a week, compared to the retail median of 2.85 videos per week — the brand’s content performs well when it does.

With an average engagement rate by follower of 58.7%, Graco’s TikTok videos are performing miles above the retail median engagement rate by follower on TikTok, which sits at just 1.8%. The brand’s approach? User-generated content (UGC).

​​Graco regularly posts TikToks that were created by other users, ranging from big creators, like @babiesruscanada, to micro-influencers. For instance, this video, credited to @lifewithrobbye, earned an incredible 12.7K engagements, translating to a whopping 702% engagement rate.

The beauty of UGC lies in its authenticity. Parents are more likely to trust real experiences from fellow parents than traditional marketing. By showcasing real-life usage and genuine praise from customers, Graco creates a community of fans who feel valued and heard. This not only enhances brand reputation but also drives engagement, proving that sometimes the best marketing comes straight from your own customers.

Honorable Mention: Pampers

With a 10.1% engagement rate, Pampers excels on TikTok. One of the brand’s standout strategies is its creative partnerships, which it promotes with the hashtag #PampersPartners. Most creators they collaborate with are parents or parenting influencers, making their content highly relatable to Pampers’ target audience. But the iconic diaper brand also knows how to think outside the box.

Take, for instance, a TikTok by Grace Wells, who amassed over two million followers by making “epic commercials for random objects.” A behind-the-scenes look at her ASMR commercial for Pampers wipes racked up an incredible 159% engagement rate by follower, massively outperforming industry benchmarks.

Not only does Pampers feature these influencer-created videos on their own TikTok, but most creators also post the content on their own accounts, extending the brand’s reach to an even wider audience. This double exposure taps into both Pampers’ following and the creator’s loyal fan base, making it a win-win for everyone involved.

Methodology

To identify the top baby brands on social media, we analyzed the engagement rates of popular companies in the baby product industry and compared them to the average engagement rate for the retail sector, as reported in our 2024 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report. Brands that exceeded that median engagement rate were ranked to determine the top performers. The period looked at spanned from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024.

The Wrap Up

As we’ve seen, the top baby product brands on social media aren’t just posting cute baby pics — they’re building excitement, showcasing their innovations, and offering a space for parents to connect. Whether through giveaways on Facebook, engaging demos on Instagram, or influencer marketing on TikTok, these brands are setting the bar for connecting with modern parents.

The good news is there’s plenty of room for you to join them. Take inspiration from these top brands, experiment with different approaches, and keep an eye on your social analytics to see what’s resonating with your audience. With the right tactics, your brand can grow your presence and boost engagement on social.

The post Top Baby Product Brands On Social Media appeared first on Rival IQ.

From creative campaigns to more community management than your dog can shake a stick at, pet brands have a whole lot to be proud of on social this year. We looked at who’s outbarking the competition on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter for the definitive round-up of all things pet brand social media. We’ve got all the metrics you care about from engagement to posts per week, plus oodles of content inspo from top-performing campaigns.

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Top Overall Pet Brands on Social Media

The Farmer’s Dog grabbed the overall gold this year thanks to stellar finishes across all four channels we studied. BarkBox and Chewy.com snagged the silver and bronze respectively and will no doubt be hot on The Farmer’s Dog’s heels next year.

Litter-Robot, Redbarn Pet Products, and Outward Hound finished just outside the winner’s podium, with Bullymake, Stella and Chewy’s, CatIt, and Blue Buffalo rounding out the overall top 10.

Top Pet Brand on Social Media: The Farmer’s Dog

What made human-grade dog food brand The Farmer’s Dog stand out from the rest? With top 10 finishes on Twitter and TikTok and top 15 ranks on Instagram and Facebook, the brand has clearly cracked the pet brand social media code. The Farmer’s Dog invested a bunch in its online presence this year with everything from a breakneck posting frequency to a super successful Super Bowl spot that it made the most of during and way after football season.

The Farmer’s Dog made so much hay on social about its heartwarming Super Bowl commercial this year, with engaging reposts across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. In this Reel version of the commercial, followers lapped up the touching commercial about extending the all-too-short time we get with our pets to the tune of a 12.7% engagement rate by follower, 34K engagements, and more than 661K estimated impressions. Big-budget content like this definitely helped the brand reach new heights on social, but the Farmer’s Dog earned 2.5x the engagements of their average pet brand competitor thanks in part to being nearly twice as active as other pet brands on Instagram.

The Farmer’s Dog was more likely to post a photo on Facebook than any other post type by a mile, and this post about dog tattoos was their most engaging photo of the year by rate. Every pet owner knows how precious toe beans and snoots can be, so this user-generated content (UGC) post grabbed attention and got followers sharing their own ink tributes to their beloved pets. The post earned a 1.54% engagement rate and more than 165K estimated impressions, helping The Farmer’s Dog maintain an engagement rate about 35% stronger than its average competitor on Facebook.

If you’ve been on the internet in the last five years, you’ve more than likely heard of cult favorite social account We Rate Dogs, which offers humorous and oh-so-memorable “ratings” of people’s pets. The Farmer’s Dog teamed up with We Rate Dogs for an adorable commercial which excited followers to the tune of a 40.2% engagement rate and more than 554K impressions. Collabs are a strong strategy in nearly every industry, but the top pet brands we studied had a lot to show for picking the right brand to partner with, especially when pairing the partnership with inventive content.

The Farmer’s Dog was extremely active on Twitter, with 4x the tweets per week as the average pet brand. The vast majority of these are replies, indicating a really active community engagement strategy. The brand rocked 5x the engagement total and 41x the engagement rate on Twitter compared to its average competitor thanks in part to successful content like this video.

Speaking of big-name pet brand partnerships, this TikTok video from beloved dog influencer @AGuyAndHisGolden made big waves as a repost on The Farmer’s Dog account. The repost rocked a 5.03% engagement rate by view, more than 95K engagements, and nearly 2 million (!) views thanks to an adorable (if a little weird) golden retriever’s love affair with his toy. UGC is a strong strategy for any pet brand on social media, and the viral reach of this video definitely backs up The Farmer’s Dog’s decision to bet big on a behind-the-scenes partnership with A Guy and His Golden.

The Farmer’s Dog has 6.5x the followers of their average pet brand competitor on TikTok, suggesting strong investment on this channel. That investment is definitely paying off with 2x the engagement total and 3x the engagement rate by view of the average pet brand.

Top Pet Brand Trend 1: Dog and cat memes

It seems like every pet brand on social this year used memes as part of its strategy, and with many meme posts topping the engagement charts, we’re not complaining.

Memes are popular for a reason: they’re easily shareable and even easier to giggle at. Spot & Tango boasted the top four Instagram posts by engagement rate this year, and three of four were memes in the brand’s signature blue. The photo post earned a 291% engagement rate and more than 3 million estimated impressions from pet lovers who can relate to the desire to share memes with their furry friends.

Of course, memes are popular with pet brand content creators too because they’re way less work to put together than, say, a studio-shot video with a camera-shy pup.

Taste of the Wild ranked first on Twitter and 13th overall thanks in part to the success of meme tweets like this one about substituting fur babies for real ones. The tweet rocked a 43.8% engagement rate with nothing more than a simple meme branded with Taste of the Wild’s logo. Memes that last are scannable and relatable, and Taste of the Wild was one of the most successful pet brands on social this year at finding ones that would resonate with their audience of pet lovers.

Top Pet Brand Trend 2: Macro- and micro-influencer partnerships

Pet brands made the most of partnerships and collabs this year with a strong mix of human and pet celebs. From reposts to contests to original content, partnership posts topped the charts for pet brands on social media.

Meow Mix is known for its earworm jingles, so a collab with NSYNC band member JC Chasez feels almost inevitable. Meow Mix ranked 20th on TikTok and 14th overall thanks in part to this campaign, which encouraged fans to duet with JC to create the next big Meow Mix single. Just five posts featuring Chasez and more than a few dancing cats earned Meow Mix an eye-popping 500 million views, not to mention tons of repostable UGC they could use on their channel. The partnership can’t have been cheap, but with numbers like that, it certainly seems like it paid off.

Pet brands, don’t sleep on more niche brand partnerships or even reposts from accounts you know your followers will love. Oxbow Animal Health ranked 18th overall and 13th on Facebook thanks to the success of videos like this featuring beloved bunny TikTok account @JoJosBunBuns. The bunny account is a perfect fit for Oxbow, which focuses on food and gear for smaller pets. The humorous “day in the life” video took off on Facebook for the brand with a 13.4% engagement rate and nearly 1.5 million estimated impressions. Bunny content won’t be relevant to every pet brand in our study, but the video reminds us that finding your content niche is the ultimate way to reach your followers on social.

Top Pet Brand Trend 3: User-generated content

User-generated content is a social media marketer’s favorite strategy because it combines already-vetted content with freedom from having to produce something from scratch. UGC was a popular strategy for pet brands on social media this year and led to a 1.43% engagement rate lift on Instagram alone, with extra bonus points for particularly heartfelt or tear-jerking content.

Instagram Reels were a great way for pet brands to show off relatable (if weird) behavior from pets all across the world. Second-place pet brand BarkBox found a ton of success with this strategy on social, including this goofy video of dogs at their weirdest right before company comes over. The Reel rocked a 41.2% engagement rate and nearly 13 million estimated impressions. UGC when done right can feel more authentic and resonant with users than a highly-produced ode to pet ownership, and is a key tool in the toolbox of any pet brand on social media this year.

The only thing better than a weird pet behavior repost is UGC that encourages other pet brands to post their pets online like this Facebook post from Diamond Pet Foods which ranked 4th on Facebook this year. This simple photo post earned an amazing 37.5% engagement rate by asking pet owners to share their best nap photos, and Diamond’s community turned out. The comments section is filled with adorable photos and odes to sleepy pets. Is there anything more wholesome?

Top Pet Brands on Instagram

Congratulations to Spot & Tango for grabbing the Instagram gold this year, narrowly beating out BarkBox and Honest Kitchen for the top of the winner’s podium. Kinship, Bullymake, and Pet Meds barely missed the top three, and Oxbow, Pooch Perks, Stella and Chewy’s, and Tiki Pets rounded out the pet brands top 10 on Instagram.

Pet brands earned a median engagement rate of 0.33% on Instagram this year, which is a little below the all-industry average of 0.43% we saw in our Social Media Industry Benchmark Report. Pet brands also posted about half as often as the median brand in that report at 2.5 posts per week.

Featured brand: Bullymake

How did dog subscription box brand Bullymake snag 5th place on Instagram and 7th overall in our rankings? Twice the Instagram followers of their average competitor definitely helped, as did posting twice as often. Combine those stats with more funny dog memes than Fido could shake a stick at and you’ve got a foolproof formula for earning 5x the engagement total and about 20% more engagement by rate than its average pet brand competitor.

Bullymake’s repost of a short and sweet dog comic by illustrator Becky Barnicoat went seriously viral among dog owners who totally grokked how different our dogs look without their collars. The post earned an eye-popping 49.5% engagement rate by follower and more than 2 million estimated impressions, indicating the photo post traveled even further than Bullymake’s impressive follower list. Any brand can repost UGC, but selecting content that’ll truly resonate with followers is the art of good social media content, and Bullymake has it down.

Heartfelt, tear-jerking content like this post about service dogs on September 11th performed really well with BullyMake’s audience this year. This UGC Reel memorialized the heroic sacrifice of pups who searched for survivors and resonated with followers to the tune of a 3.94% engagement rate, which is about 6x Bullymake’s already impressive average engagement rate. Bullymake deftly strikes a balance between playful and more serious content to maintain a cohesive Instagram feed.

This goofy Reel that’s oh-so-relatable for dog owners earned more than 8.6K engagements and more than 152K estimated impressions. The Reel features a “velcro dog” (IYKYK) and his beleaguered owner trying and failing to spend time on his phone while slowly losing all sense of personal space. The Reel rocked because of a universal dog owner experience and didn’t need any fancy lighting or equipment to shine with followers. Bullymake did a great job of finding simple but relatable user-generated content to serve its Instagram followers, who ate it up on the reg.

Top Pet Brands on TikTok

Pet lifestyle brand Kinship rocked first place on TikTok this year, edging out Spot & Tango for the gold. BarkBox and The Farmer’s Dog were the only overall top 10 finishers in the TikTok top 10, with Frenchie Bulldog, Wellness Pet Food, PetSmart, Solid Gold Pet Nutrition, Nulo, and Ruffwear standing out on TikTok but not performing well enough on other channels to rank competitively overall.

Pet brands earned a median engagement rate by view of 2.8% on TikTok this year, which is nothing to sneeze at. These brands posted videos just under once per week on TikTok, which definitely has some room for improvement.

Featured brand: BarkBox

BarkBox was just one of two brands from our overall top 10 that also had a dynamite finish on TikTok — we brands that have cracked the code on multiple channels. The pet gear subscription brand had plenty of personality on TikTok to grab attention and engagement from viewers. Posting about twice as often as their average competitor also helped the brand’s engagement skyrocket this year to nearly 5x the engagement total and 4x the engagement rate by view of its average competitor. Posting often helped BarkBox snag more bites at the engagement apple, and the brand really stepped up its posting after an epic summer of engagement.

Sharp-eyed readers might be wondering how BarkBox ranked so highly while actually earning about half the views of its average competitor. The tl;dr is that social media success is a blend of engagement rate, engagement total, views, comments, shares, and so much more. Sure, earning fewer views than your competitors is a bummer, but what’s a view worth if it doesn’t come with an engagement? BarkBox was four times more likely to garner a like or a share for every view its earned compared to their average competitor, which is a sure sign of the quality of their content.

Like many pet brands we studied, BarkBox leaned hard into UGC this year. This photo carousel post featuring an adorable weiner dog named Leroy and his outfits earned an unbelievable 20% engagement rate by view and more than 800K views, not to mention 166K engagements. Leaning on carousels like this one to share photos or even posts from other channels with TikTok followers is a great way to repurpose content to get more bang for your buck.

The brand also employed the sneaky strategy of encouraging people to stay until the end of a carousel or video in the caption. BarkBox used this caption strategy in a few of their top videos to boost the reach of their posts, and it’s very safe to say it was successful.

Influencer partnerships are a tried and true strategy for social media engagement, and this post featuring TikTok’s own Noodle has to be one of the most successful examples of a killer partnership in recent memory. The elderly pug went viral back in 2021 for predicting Bones/No Bones Days, which is the simplest possible fortune telling about whether you should stay in your (dog) bed or go out and see the world. Reposting his owner’s journey of inking Noodle’s adorable mug on his arm for BarkBox’s National Dog Day tattoo campaign resonated strongly with fans to the tune of a 10.7% engagement rate by view, which is more than 3x the pet brand median.

BarkBox has had success with this campaign multiple years running, but partnerships and posts like this help its message soar far beyond their impressive follower list. Picking the right influencer to collab with works well in every industry, and pet brands and famous pups are no exception.

The BarkBox team wasn’t afraid of a little behind-the-scenes fun, and many of the brand’s top TikToks featured quick shots of BarkBox office life, like this video about the team’s supposed big ideas for a new line of Pride-themed toys. The video features more than a little sass with some NSFW toy ideas and had viewers laughing and cheering in the comments to the tune of an 8.73% engagement rate by view and more than 122K views. Viewers loved the snark and the LGBTQ-positive message of the video, reminding pet brands that it’s okay to live your values and have a little fun along the way.

Top Pet Brands on Facebook

We’re raising a glass to pet gear brand Kurgo for its top finish on Facebook this year, and Fromm Family Foods and PetSafe for its respective silver and bronze medals. Taste of the Wild, Ziwi, and Litter-Robot used their impressive Facebook ranks to finish strong in our overall top 20, while Diamond Pet Foods, NutriSource Pet Foods, NaturVet, and Sleepypod stood out on Facebook but struggled a little more on other channels.

Pet brands earned a median engagement rate of 0.04% on Facebook and posted just over twice per week, which is only a little less frequently than it posted on Instagram and way more often than it did on TikTok or Twitter.

Featured brand: Litter-Robot

If you have or know an animal in your life, you’ve probably heard of self-cleaning litterbox company Litter-Robot thanks to its ubiquitous ads. The company has worked hard to build its presence online between heavy social investment, creative ads, and an influencer program, all of which helped the brand skyrocket to 4th overall in our rankings and 9th on Facebook.

Litter-Robot rocked more than 2x the engagement total, and a 50% higher engagement rate than its average competitor on Facebook this year. With just a third of the Facebook followers of its average competitor, Litter-Robot’s impressive engagement tells us they’re making the most of the attention from every one. The brand also posts just as often as the average pet brand.

Litter-Robot wasn’t afraid to get a little funky on social like in this out-of-this-world Facebook video featuring a cat entering a psychedelic new dimension via its litterbox. The groovy video went seriously viral to the tune of a 23.6% engagement rate and more than 1.83 million views. Fans raced to the comments to talk about how much their cats love using the Litter-Robot and to giggle about the brand’s playful video. The video delivers info on the product’s key features while also emphasizing the true promise of their brand: kitty nirvana.

Many of Litter-Robot’s top posts by engagement rate were videos, which had 10x the engagement of other posts for the brand. The brand is investing heavily in this post type and has the engagement rates to back up their strategic decision to do so.

The brand was all about celeb endorsements, with several of their top posts by engagement rate featuring everyone from Jenna Fischer to Ted Allen to YouTube influencers. Hearing your favorite TV star endorse a product can go a long way to establishing trust with a brand you maybe haven’t heard of, and Litter-Robot put serious effort (and likely $$$) behind securing and posting about these endorsements. This video post had just 3.26K engagements but more than a million video views, suggesting that Litter-Robot also employed boosting to make sure the post reached fans of The Office far beyond their follower count.

Litter-Robot kept its ear to the ground about trending content across its channels and took care to emulate some of social media’s biggest trends of the year. This video features a day in the life video of adorable black cat Bali narrated in the Trickster voice, which was a hugely popular voice effect on TikTok last year. Bali’s narration is fun and funny, and focuses on how thrilled she is about getting to use a Litter-Robot. Many of the brand’s top posts focus on how their product benefits both owners and pets themselves by pulling at pet owner’s heartstrings, showing how happy their cats will be thanks to Litter-Robot. Every pet brand needs to separate itself from their competitors by demonstrating clearly how their product works, but Litter-Robot was one of the most successful at going beyond the feature to focus on the true benefit their product provides.

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Top Pet Brands on Twitter

Okay, hear us out: you might be wondering if Twitter is even relevant for pet brands in 2024 since the median engagement rate is 0.0% and the median tweets posted per week is…also 0.0. Does that mean not a single pet brand invested in Twitter this year? No, but it does mean that more than half of the brands we studied were putting their social media content energy elsewhere. As we’ll see in the top 10 Twitter rankings below, Twitter is still very much alive and well for the top pet brands on social media this year, so let’s focus on pet brands that are using Twitter to connect with their followers and customers.

There’s a metric ton of overlap between the overall top 10 rankings and the Twitter top 10 rankings, with seven of our top 10 overall winners also topping the charts on Twitter. Taste of the Wild came in first this year, with The Farmer’s Dog and Blue Buffalo close behind. Chewy.com, CatIt, Outward Hound, BarkBox, and Bullymake all used top 10 Twitter finishes to skyrocket in our overall rankings, while NaturVet and Ziwi stood out on Twitter but didn’t quite make the cut across every channel we studied.

Featured brand: Blue Buffalo

Blue Buffalo has a lot to brag about this year, with a 10th place finish overall thanks in part to their highest-ranking channel, Twitter. Funny memes and drool-worthy giveaways helped catapult the brand to success, as did an absolutely die-hard community management strategy. Blue Buffalo tweeted 9x as often as the average pet brand, and with the vast majority of those tweets being reply tweets, it’s easy to see the brand is dedicated to robust convos and community management on Twitter. This strategy is definitely paying off, since the brand is rocking 64x the engagement total and 9x the engagement rate of the average pet brand.

Photo tweets+pet memes=a match made in heaven for Blue Buffalo, and many other pet brands this year. Pet brands are all about combing the web for trending memes and serving them up to their pet-loving followers, like this tweet about a sassy cat with a thousand-yard stare. The simple tweet rocked an impressive 20.1% engagement rate by follower and performed about 10x better than Blue Buffalo’s average engagement rate this year. Photo tweets averaged a 2.19% engagement rate for Blue Buffalo this year, which is, well, a lot more than the industry average of 0.0% engagement rate.

Contest and giveaway posts performed well for the brand on Twitter to the tune of a 2.37x engagement rate lift over their average tweet. Blue Buffalo held giveaways regularly on Twitter this year, with its most dedicated and effective giveaway campaign taking place leading up to the holidays. The adorable photo tweet earned an 8.4% engagement rate and 500 (!) comments from followers excited about winning a cozy hoodie complete with a kitty pouch. The success of this tweet reminds us that giveaways don’t have to be over-the-top to be effective, so grab some swag or industry-related merch and get givin’.

We’ve gotta give it up to Blue Buffalo’s community manager featured in this tweet, who must be glued to her phone to pull off the kind of reply pace we see from the brand. The brand replies to nearly every conversation started by fans online, especially on tweets that are performing well. This strategy requires a ton of person power but can really pay off by effectively doubling the number of comments on a post. It also taps into Twitter’s OG purpose, which was one-to-one convos between everybody on the internet, very much including brands. Not every pet brand has the bandwidth to approach community management this way, but connecting with your community can be a great way to cement your position on a social channel, particularly conversation-friendly Twitter.

Check out the latest Social Media Industry Benchmark Report for even more benchmarks.

View the report now

How is my Pet Brand Performing on Social Media?

Comparing your pet brand’s social performance has never been easier. Browse our pet brand live benchmarks for a real-time look at a selection of top pet brand posts, engagement rates, high-performing hashtags, and tons more. You can even add these benchmarks directly into your Rival IQ account for always-on monitoring of these top brands.

Methodology

We surveyed pet brands on social media between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023 on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Using this data and a weighted formula, we generated an overall engagement ranking for each pet brand. The top-ranked brands on social media have high engagement rates with average or better audience size and posting volumes.

We define engagement as measurable interaction on social media posts, including likes, comments, favorites, retweets, shares, and reactions. We used engagement rate by follower to measure engagement on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which is defined as the total engagement divided by the number of followers. We used engagement rate by view to measure engagement on TikTok, which is defined as the total engagement divided by the number of views.

The Case for Benchmarking

Why benchmark instead of just measuring how your pet brand’s individual performance changes over time? Because social success is relative. Benchmarking means figuring out what’s working (and what isn’t) in your industry and measuring your success against that.

It’s crucial to go beyond likes and favorites because audience size is hugely important: 100 likes is great engagement for a pet brand with 1,000 followers but is a drop in the bucket to a pet brand with 100,000 followers. Engagement rate helps us take audience size into account to see who’s really reaching the highest percentage of their fans and followers with their social posts, which are the pet brands you need to beat.

Wrapping It Up

We hope all the pet lovers out there enjoyed this report as much as we did. It was a great year for pet brands on social media, and all the brands we studied have a lot to be proud of. We can’t wait to see what pet brands get up to on social media in the year ahead!

By the way, if you need even more competitive analytics, you can go head-to-head with a free report on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to see how you stack up against your top competition. See what makes your competitors tick with key insights and actionable advice you can start using now to come out on top.

Want to continue the pet brand conversation or share photos of your favorite furry friend? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us on Twitter!

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The post Top Pet Brands on Social Media appeared first on Rival IQ.

We’ve analyzed every D1 and D2 school across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok to bring you engagement numbers, key trends, case studies and campaigns from top schools, and of course rankings for each division.

We won’t blame you if you skip right to the rankings, but read on for all the Higher Ed social media intel your school needs to trounce the competition this year.

Spoilers! See the full Higher Education rankings.

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Higher Education Social Media Trends

We’re the first to shout from the rooftops about the importance of research and experimentation in your social media content, but there’s no denying that Higher Education social media had a few key themes emerge this year that are definitely worth covering. These themes bubbled to the top across divisions, regions, and channels to dominate many of Higher Ed’s top posts by engagement rate this year.

Top Trend 1: #Winning

Everyone loves a win, and colleges and universities are some of the best at showing off about everything from sports blowouts to alumni achievements to academic excellence and beyond. These posts are a surefire bet for stoking community enthusiasm and excitement, not to mention a fun way to remind parents and alumni about all the good things happening on campus.

Virginia State University rounded out our D2 top 10 thanks in part to a silver medal-worthy performance on Twitter with videos like these about Trojan dominance on the football field. The tweet blew the D2 Twitter engagement rate median out of the water (much like VSU’s epic victory over rival Bowie State seen in the video) by more than 100x at 7.17%. The video featuring slick footage from the big game and between the football, cheerleaders, and marching band really had something for everyone in the Trojan community. VSU wasn’t afraid to get a little sassy by calling out the fact that the win put a damper on Bowie State’s homecoming week . Playing up rivalries and going hard at a brag can make a post about a big win even more fun, and in the case of VSU, resonate with your community on and off campus.

One win is great, but how about two at the same time? D1 school Arkansas State University ranked 10th on Instagram this year thanks in part to the smashing success of this post about drum major Alandria snagging the homecoming queen crown and still going on to conduct the band. The celebratory Reel earned more than 529K engagements and nearly 9 million estimated impressions, with fans crowding the comments to congratulate Alandria on her big night. Telling the story of Alandria’s big win via Reels helped ASU’s fans feel like a part of her success even if they couldn’t be in the stadium that night.

Top Trend 2: Famous alums

A recognizable alum can go a long way towards catching attention on social outside of your school’s immediate sphere of influence, and colleges and universities weren’t afraid to remind their followers about just how far you can go in the world with a degree from their institution. From throwback posts to reunion footage to keeping fans up to date on alumni accomplishments, D1 and D2 schools leaned hard into their celeb alums this year.

D1 school North Carolina Central University ranked 25th on Facebook thanks in part to the success of posts like this one about famed NCCU alum artist Ernie Barnes. The painter was famous for both his art and his NFL career, and NCCU never missed a chance to post about his accomplishments during and after his time at the school with nearly two dozen posts about the artist throughout the school year. This Facebook photo in particular encouraged followers to learn more about Barnes’ legacy via a New York Times article and earned an impressive 18% engagement rate and nearly half a million estimated impression. NCCU is a shining example of reaching back a few generations in your alumni catalogue to show off your school’s legacy while also educating current students and followers about notable celebs they might not know owe a thing or two to their alma mater.

Spoilers: University of Nebraska at Kearney’s posting about pro wrestler Tyrus’ triumphant return to campus years after he couldn’t afford the commencement gown helped propel the D2 school to 6th overall and 2nd on Facebook. With nearly 25K engagements and more than two million estimated impressions, the post highlighting what Tyrus’ time at UNK meant to him resonated far beyond UNK’s 24K page fans and helped the school reach new fans and followers previously unfamiliar with the school. It’s worth noting that our boosted post detection picked up some $$$ behind the post, reminding us that pay-to-play is an important tool in the HESM toolbox, even with a famous wrestler to feature in your posts.

Top Trend 3: Authentic campus moments

From glamour shots to behind-the-scenes of move-in day, nearly every D1 and D2 school we studied this year worked hard to make campus life accessible to all the prospective students, parents, and alumni unable to participate in person as part of the day-to-day.

D2 school Oklahoma Baptist University ranked 11th on TikTok this year thanks in part to fun and fresh videos like this one asking faculty and staff about the last time they’d thought about the Roman Empire, which trended on TikTok this year. Many schools’ TikTok feeds are filled with Gen-Z and Gen Alpha faces, but OBU won big with featuring a slightly older demographic. Campus giggles like these require both a creative social team and willing participants, but as seen with this OBU post, combining the two can bring about true social magic.

Hilarious viral posts like this one about different types of campus dads on move-in day propelled Bryant University to 10th on D1 TikTok. The video is a compilation of clips from move-in day on the Rhode Island campus with some cheeky labels about dads who always have a snack ready or are more than a little eager to pose with Bryant’s bulldog mascot Tupper. Capturing campus life by sending your social media team out to actually live it alongside parents and students goes a long way towards authentically representing your school’s signature experience, and this TikTok is a great example of strong content that doesn’t need to be professionally produced to succeed.

Top D1 Higher Education Institutions on Social (overall)

Epic, heartfelt congrats to the University of South Carolina for beating out their social media rivals University of Iowa to clinch the overall gold! The Gamecocks have been hovering near the top of our overall top 10 for years, but they channeled stellar finishes across the board into dethroning the reigning champ for the ultimate social media bragging rights.

It was definitely a year of shake-ups in our top 10: University of Connecticut, Oklahoma State University, Michigan State University, Colorado State University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, The Ohio State University, and Ohio University all managed to break into the top 10 after scoring lower last year, while James Madison University and Bowling Green State University were the only other universities to repeat their top 10 finishes.

Top school: University of South Carolina

The Gamecocks had a huge year on social, with three top 10 finishes on Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, and a still-impressive 29th finish on Instagram. USC seriously improved on all three of the channels on which they finished in the top 10 while sliding slightly on Instagram, proving there’s always room for improvement even if you’re at the top. USC struck the perfect balance between school spirit and heartfelt campus storytelling to engage fans on and off campus. Let’s get into University of South Carolina’s stellar school year on social.

Speaking of beating Iowa, University of South Carolina had a lot to brag about this year, including beating the Hawkeyes in the NCAA women’s final. USC finished 10th on Facebook by centering celebrations like this photo post which rocked a 6.41% engagement rate by follower, with fans turning out to congratulate their alma mater on going all the way. The Gamecocks scored 3x the engagement total and 50% more engagement rate by follower than their average D1 competitor on Facebook. Not every school has a championship like this to brag about (though it sure does help), but centering wins is a surefire engagement strategy for colleges and universities year after year.

Reels have never been more important than in this past school year, and USC definitely made the most of this medium by being 7x more likely to post a Reel than any other post type. This dedication to Instagram’s favorite post type helps the app’s algorithm distribute USC’s content to followers and new fans alike.

Picking the right post type helps, as does super-engaging content like the moment Gamecocks wait all year for: the reveal of the top-secret identity of this year’s mascot Cocky the Gamecock. USC always makes a big deal about this reveal by having Cocky attend the ceremony in cap, gown, and rooster shoes. Fans went wild in the stadium and online watching the full student body cheer on the symbol for USC’s rabid school spirit to the tune of an 18.6% engagement rate by follower.

There’s never been a more confusing time to be on Twitter, but USC has cracked the code and actually improved their position from last year by grabbing the bronze. The Gamecocks earned 8x the engagement total and 2x the engagement rate of their average D1 competitor and are generally quite active on Twitter, treating it like the conversational social media channel it is. Not every college and university pours time into Twitter these days, but USC keeps up a steady stream of tweets throughout the week, and is especially dedicated to retweets to keep the conversation going.

This video tweet asking followers about their experience during the 2024 solar eclipse featured a USC Easter egg about the Gamecocks securing a spot in the Final Four had something for everybody and absolutely cleaned up on retweets. The success of this tweet reminds us that social media doesn’t have to be highly produced or even strategic to resonate with followers–sometimes, you just need a GIF with a topical event and your basketball team in it.

Did someone say “gold medal”? University of South Carolina does an awesome job balancing their sports content with more campus-focused content like this video, which helps explain how the Gamecocks finished first on TikTok this year. USC dominates here, with 3x the videos per week, 3x the engagement rate by view, 10x the views, and 27x the engagement total of their average D1 competitor. This video of Gamecocks saying farewell to their younger siblings earned an unbelievable 19.6% engagement rate by view and more than 84K views by tugging at heartstrings.

A strong hashtag game also helped the Gamecocks exponentially increase their engagement on TikTok, with the #OffToCollege and #SayingGoodbye hashtags used here helping the post earn an engagement rate lift of 1.26x.

Top D1 Higher Education Institutions on Instagram

Good news for Higher Ed social media managers everywhere: this industry’s most popular channel by a mile actually increased its median engagement rate this year to 2.92%. Schools are also posting just as frequently on Instagram as they were last year at around 4 posts per week, suggesting investment in this channel really hasn’t flagged.

Speaking of good news, University of North Texas is surely pumping their metaphorical fists after finally dethroning reigning Instagram champ James Madison University (who still landed safely in the Instagram top 10). Oral Roberts University and High Point University rounded out the winner’s podium, while University of Connecticut joined JMU as the only overall top 10 finishers in the Instagram top 10. Miami University, University of Iowa, Gonzaga University, Georgia Tech, and Arkansas State University all managed impressive finishes on Instagram but couldn’t quite eke out a spot in the overall top 10.

Featured school: University of Connecticut

University of Connecticut earned silver overall thanks to a big year on Instagram, coming in 8th. The Huskies’ only top 10 finish was on Instagram, proving that being well-rounded can still help you win big. UConn earned 1.49 million engagements, which is about 3x the competitor median, and an impressive engagement rate of 4.33% that was about 50% higher than the competitor median. The school had plenty of engaging strategies to catapult them towards Instagram greatness, but posting a little more frequently than their competitors at 5.5 posts per week definitely helped.

The Huskies’ top post of the year by engagement rate was a Reel all about winning–or more specifically, snagging a spot in the NCAA men’s basketball finals. To casual fans, this might look like another sea of Huskies cheering on their favorite team, but insiders would know UConn superfan Big Red anywhere, who helped inspire school spirit during his tenure in the 90s and is still buoying the team in the stands today. The Reel rocked a 31% engagement rate and more than 38K engagements, with fans jumping into the comments to both express their excitement about their team’s success and shower praise upon Big Red for his continued support of the team.

If Big Red is the Huskies’ biggest fans, new mascot Jonathan XV is the smallest (but cutest!). UConn revealed their latest mascot with this adorable Reel that earned an impressive 24% engagement rate. The school was all about the puppy content this year, with this top-performing Reel bringing fans to the comments to share their excitement and ask how they could snag a chance to meet the newest member of the pack. UConn’s content featured Jonathan XV consistently throughout the school year to hype him up, while of course honoring his predecessor’s retirement.

The takeaway? If you have a cute mascot, you probably can’t tell your fans about it enough.

While we’re on the topic of mini-campaigns, there’s clearly a Swiftie behind this school’s winning Instagram feed. Some of UConn’s most engaging posts had a little Taylor to them, including this one showing off what campus looked like in 1989 complete with Taylor-themed hashtags. The carousel snagged an 11.6% engagement rate and more than 228K impressions, with alums commenting all about their memories of being at UConn in the 80s. This refreshing take on #TBT content was a fun way to throw it back while managing to ride the oh-so-modern Taylor wave of 2024.

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Top D1 Higher Education Institutions on Facebook

Big news for colleges and universities on Facebook: engagement actually increased this year to 0.24%, up from 0.19% last year. Schools are posting just about as frequently as last year with 6.4 posts per week, or just under one post per day.

University of Iowa grabbed its preferred #1 spot on Facebook again this year, with Georgia Tech falling from first to third and James Madison University elbowing its way into 2nd. Overall top 10 finishers Colorado State Univeristy and University of South Carolina also earned a coveted spot in the Facebook top 10. Big ups to Alabama A&M University, South Carolina State University, Grambling State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Longwood University, and University of West Georgia all managed to break into the Facebook top 10 this year .

Featured school: University of Iowa

Readers familiar with past versions of this report won’t be surprised to see the University of Iowa dominating, but we can bet you will be shocked to see they’ve fallen out of the top 10 for the first time since we started writing this report seven years ago. Iowa is one of the states that banned TikTok for state-run agencies including universities, which has to be devastating for the Hawkeyes who came in first overall and 35th on TikTok last year.

Iowa still has plenty to be proud of on social, including coming in first overall on Facebook yet again. The Hawkeyes earned 10x the total engagement of their average competitor and 4.6x the engagement rate thanks to stellar content and more than a few mentions of beloved women’s basketball player Caitlin Clark. Iowa was all about sports content this year, which is no surprise for a record-breaking year of playing ball.

When 9 out of 10 of your top Facebook posts by engagement rate are about superstar Caitlin Clark, you know your social media team is onto something. Clark dominated both the court and Hawkeye social media this year, with celebrations and tributes to the star all season long, including this one about how she’s inspiring basketball fans young and old with her incredible talent. The tear-jerking video earned an eye-popping 19.1% engagement rate and nearly 4 million estimated impressions as fans engaged any way they could with their favorite player. Not every school has a phenom like Clark to feature, but telling the stories behind players to help fans connect off the field is a surefire strategy every time.

Are you even on Hawkeye social media if you don’t see the famous Wave featured at least once? This beloved campus tradition features fans and players taking a break from the big game to wave at kids and families receiving treatment at the renowned children’s hospital that overlooks the stadium and remains a staple of Hawkeye goodwill on and off the field. The post rocked a 3.18% engagement rate, which is about 13x the Higher Education Facebook median this year. Connecting off-campus fans to tried-and-true campus traditions helps keep school spirit alive (and results in epic engagement).

If you only looked at the top 20 most engaging Facebook posts by rate in the University of Iowa feed, you might think all of campus life takes place on the basketball court or the football field, but snowy photos like this one will help you remember you’re in Iowa. This beautiful snowy carousel of campus life in the winter earned a 4.7% engagement rate and three quarters of a million impressions, with tons of alumni talking about their snowiest campus walks ever in the comments (and, okay, more than a few were stoked to be residing in warmer climes).

Top D1 Higher Education Institutions on Twitter

George Mason University ran away with the win on Twitter this year, which is an impressive glow-up from 38th last year. University of Iowa grabbed the silver for the second year in a row, and first-place overall winner University of South Carolina snagged the bronze. James Madison University was the only other school to reprise its role in the Twitter top 10, with the U.S. Military Academy, Alabama A&M University, University of Nebraska (Lincoln), University of Nevada (Las Vegas), Jackson State University, and Morgan State University all upsetting last year’s Twitter top 10 in a big way.

Engagement rates on Twitter signify more good news for Higher Education social media marketers, with a 16% increase from last year to 0.07%. Schools kept their tweet frequency about the same at one tweet per day on average.

Featured school: James Madison University

James Madison University’s consistently stellar social presence has landed them in our top 10 for several years running. The Dukes finished in the top 10 on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, but we’re going to hone in on their 4th place Twitter finish that shows other schools how it’s done. JMU moved up from 10th to 4th on Twitter this year by cracking the code on balancing campus glamour shots, school traditions, and more than a little D1 rivalry. The Dukes can brag about earning three times the engagement total and engagement rate of their average D1 competitor despite similar follower counts and tweets per week, proving they’re working smarter not harder than their peers.

We’re just gonna say it: nobody does campus glamour shots like JMU. Many colleges and universities employ talented photographers who help keep their social media feeds feeling fresh, but JMU combines unique vantage points, stunning skies, and more than a few lens flares for the ultimate in eye-catching content. This photo tweet featuring 26,000 fans in the JMU quad earned a 3.9% engagement rate and more than 100K impressions, proving that JMU seamlessly translates their visual content to more text-heavy channels like Twitter.

JMU’s marching band the Marching Royal Dukes are a force to be reckoned with as seen in this video tweet that garnered an impressive 2.9% engagement rate, which is more than 40x the D1 competitor average. JMUMRD helped fans on and off campus get ready for the College Game Day broadcast, which translates to seriously high-profile coverage from ESPN for top college sports teams like the Dukes. A special vantage point above the event captured the excitement and enticed alumni and parents off campus to tune in and follow along on Twitter as well.

JMU always puts a ton of stock in campus traditions like the annual Quad Lighting on their social feeds, and this top-performing tweet celebrating the tradition’s 40th anniversary is no exception. The video tweet featuring JMU’s signature purple washing over the Quad earned an impressive 1.09% engagement rate and more than 20K impressions thanks to stunning visuals and more than a little campus coziness. Tweets about beloved campus traditions like this help bring far-flung alumni or JMU parents who weren’t able to attend right to the action.

Top D1 Higher Education Institutions on TikTok

It was a weird year for colleges and universities on TikTok, with several states around the country banning TikTok on state-funded campuses including state universities (with more than a few schools defying the ban). There’s a strong mix of colleges that have gone all in on TikTok and schools that don’t even have their TikTok handle reserved (note: we highly recommend reserving your school’s TikTok handle if you haven’t yet). As Higher Ed social media continues to target the next generation, going where they hang out is more important than ever, so TikTok remains a huge player in this industry.

Overall winner University of South Carolina, Columbia finished first on TikTok, narrowly beating out Temple University and Pennsylvania State University for the top spot. The Ohio State University was the only other overall top 10 school in the TikTok top 10. The rest of the TikTok top 10 was all-new from last year, with University of Alabama, University of Michigan, Northeastern University, Boston College, Auburn University, and Bryant University busting onto the scene (and FYP) with style.

The median TikTok engagement rate by view for Higher Education dropped just 6% this year to 4.75%, while schools posted about as often as last year at 1 video per week. These engagement rates still dramatically outpace other channels, so it’s a good bet that TikTok will remain hyper-relevant for colleges and universities into the next school year and beyond.

Featured school: The Ohio State University

The Buckeyes are at it again, moving up from 12th place overall last year to 9th this year thanks in part to a stellar TikTok record. The Ohio State University nailed the right mix of Buckeye pride, big sports wins, and touching behind-the-scenes campus happenings. How do we know they nailed it? More than 10x the total engagement of their average competitor and 3x the engagement rate by view. Combine that with an above-average number of videos per week and 20x (!) the followers gives other schools plenty to aspire to on TikTok.

The Buckeyes’ most engaging post by view earned an impressive 13.9% engagement rate by view, which is about 3x the competitor average. Non-Buckeyes might look at the plethora of emojis throughout Ohio State’s TikTok feed and wonder what’s going on, but any Buckeye will know the school would rather do just about anything than feature an M for archrival Michigan State anywhere on campus. OSU goes so far as to cover every M on a campus building with red tape every year for Beat Michigan Week, and the Buckeye social media team was sure to do the same throughout the year. The dedication to the emoji (seen in this post as The Gae instead of The Game) helped fan the flames of the rivalry for fans on and off campus.

While we’re on the topic of “obscure OSU campus traditions,” TBDBITL, or “The Best Damn Band in the Land,” also dominated OSU’s TikTok feed this year. Is there anything more fun than video compilation of a superb marching band trolling their rival? Fans ate up the video to the tune of more than 1.5 million views and an impressive 11.1% engagement rate. They also jumped into the comments to dunk on Michigan, wish OSU well, and even used TikTok a little like Twitter for conversations about big games in real time. Marching bands are a consistent content machine for colleges and universities, and OSU’s band is one of the best.

Slices of campus life can be a powerful way for schools to connect with alumni and parents hoping for a glimpse of the Buckeye spirit, and this video tribute to dads who helped with campus move-in grabbed a ton of attention in the OSU feed. The video earned a 6.52% engagement rate by view and oodles of comments from OSU alums and current parents bragging about how helpful their own dads were during their move-ins. Heartwarming content like this can help break up the sports-heavy TikTok feeds that are especially prevalent at D1 schools.

Top D2 Overall Higher Education Institutions on Social

The D2 rankings held more than a few shakeups this year, but fans of this report a few years running won’t be surprised to see the winner’s podium comprising Carson-Newman University, Michigan Technological University, and Southern Connecticut State University all reprising their top 10 finishes from last year. Angelo State University was bumped from 1st to 5th after falling victim to the Texas TikTok ban. The rest of the top 10 was all new, though: Harding University, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Morehouse College, Texas Woman’s University, Assumption University, and Virginia State University all climbed the ranks in a major way this year. Congrats to all the D2 schools for another strong school year in spite of TikTok bans, algorithm changes, and the constant need to stay one step ahead on TikTok trends.

Top D2 school: Carson-Newman University

It was a big year for Carson-Newman University, who managed to clinch the overall D2 gold after narrowly missing it by just one rank last year. C-N is a top performer consistently across all four channels, which is critical for grabbing the gold. Last year’s top D2 school also had tons of top 30 ranks to brag about without actually winning outright on any one channel. Consistently knowing your audience on every channel is a stronger overall strategy than being really great on one channel (at least for the purposes of this report), and nobody does it like the Eagles.

Famous alums can help grab attention from folks online who might not be familiar with your school in particular, and is there a more famous alum than Dolly Parton? The Instagram photo post earned a 15% engagement rate by follower and more than 22K estimated impressions, reaching far beyond C-N’s follower list. C-N posts less frequently on Instagram than the median D2 school with nearly 2x the engagement rates, suggesting they’re making the most of their efforts on what is arguably Higher Education social media’s most essential channel.

Winning and graduation photos always play well on social, and this Facebook link post combining both is no exception. With an awe-inspiring 4.22% engagement rate and more than 50K estimated impressions, the C-N community turned out to congratulate the school on being accorded a big honor from the Princeton Review. Many schools we studied made the most of awards like this on social, never missing a chance to brag about having the most beautiful campus or being the best in their region like Carson-Newman. Winning can look like all sorts of things for colleges and universities, but the best of ‘em on social never fail to include all the big campus wins in their social feeds.

Footage from C-N’s summer baptism of Eagle footballers topped the charts for engagement on all four channels, very much including this TikTok video with a 15.4% engagement rate by view and nearly 10K engagements. Fans flooded (no pun intended) the comments to offer their excitement, with the video reaching far beyond C-N’s modest follower count to officially achieve viral status. Carson-Newman’s social feeds saw consistent success with religious-themed posting like this, which is a great example of working within your niche. Religious content doesn’t work at all schools, but this joyful baptism clearly resonated with C-N’s followers.

C-N’s strongest channel in our rankings was Twitter, where the Eagles beat out hundreds of other D2 schools to grab 6th. Tweets about campus happenings like a new head football coach (not to mention football content in general) helped the Eagles soar on Twitter, grabbing a 4.76% engagement rate and more than 32K impressions. Updates like this one can take just a few minutes to put together but help connect those off campus with major events and updates.

Top D2 Higher Education Institutions on Instagram

Congrats to Cedarville University and Bemidji State University for tying for first on Instagram this year, narrowly beating out Valdosta State University for the top spot. University of New Haven and Southern Connecticut State University stayed in the top 10 from last year, but Lee University, University of North Georgia, Western Colorado University, University of Texas (Permian Basin), and Texas Woman’s University were all new to the Instagram top 10.

D2 schools rocked a 3.02% median engagement rate on Instagram this year, which is a very slight uptick from last year. Colleges and universities posted about 4 times per week, or about every other day. These numbers are quite similar to D2 numbers last year, suggesting engagement and posting frequency are keeping steady–always good news for Higher Education social media marketers.

Featured school: Texas Woman’s University

Texas Woman’s University had a huge year on social, going from 54th in our 2023 rankings to 8th this year. Instagram has always been their strongest channel, but the Pioneers still managed to jump from 21st to 8th on arguably the most relevant channel for Higher Ed social media. This co-ed university earned 2.5x the engagement total and 50% higher engagement rates than their average D2 competitor by making their Instagram feed feel up close and personal for followers both on and off campus.

TWU made strong use of carousels this year to show off campus happenings like funny and heartfelt graduation caps, and followers ate it up to the tune of a 16.5% engagement rate, which is nearly 6x the D2 median. Thanks to graduates’ cleverness and more than a few Taylor Swift references, followers hopped into the comments to congratulate students and ask for more. In an era where Reels reign supreme, this post is a good reminder that carousels can still resonate strongly with followers with the right content.

Did you even live through summer 2023 without at least one Barbie movie reference in your Instagram feed? TWU jumped on the bandwagon with the Barbie-fication of campus landmark Hubbarb Hall, and fans loved it. The photo post rocked a 14% engagement rate and more than 41K estimated impressions, with fans dropping their impressions of the Barbie movie or favorite memories from their time in Hubbard Hall in the comments. Creativity can go a long way toward social media success even without a huge production budget or scripted Reel, so don’t be afraid to match your own famous campus landmarks with the latest trend or movie.

The Pioneers also found oodles of success with day in the life Reels like this one featuring TWU junior Lizette. The Reel earned an impressive 11.5% engagement rate and more than a few encouraging comments from Lizette superfans. User-generated content (UGC) is relevant in any industry, but with Higher Education social media needing to constantly pivot as the latest generation rises to college age, having your target audience create your content is always a good idea. TWU had a number of high-flying videos like this in its Instagram feed this year, and we can bet their TikTok feed would’ve been filled with them as well if Texas hadn’t banned all state universities from TikTok .

Top D2 Higher Education Institutions on Facebook

D2 schools pulled off yet another engagement rate increase this year on Facebook, coming in hot at 0.4% over last year’s 0.29% finish. Schools are posting just as frequently as they were last year at about 5.4 posts per week, which is more than they post on any other channel.

Point Loma Nazarene University clinched the gold after finishing second last year. University of Nebraska at Kearney slipped into second and Virginia State University hung onto the bronze for the second year in a row. Albany State University (Georgia), Morehouse College, and Angelo State University all repeated their finishes squarely in the top 10, while Elizabeth City State University, Miles College, and Wayne State College (Nebraska) broke in as newbies.

Featured school: Angelo State University

The Angelo State Rams are a social media powerhouse year after year and consistently dominate on Facebook, moving up to 7th after last year’s 10th place finish. Angelo State posted about half as often as the median D2 school with more than 2x the engagement total and engagement rate by follower, indicating the Rams are prioritizing quality over quantity. Rams fans love a win, and Angelo State delivers that year after year, with a big football win propelling them to social media fame last year and an epic baseball win exciting Rams fans everywhere this year.

Winning is such a consistent theme in Higher Education social media, and the Rams’ victory in the baseball National Championship definitely won big with Angelo State’s Facebook followers. The photo post announcing the win earned an eye-popping 14.7% engagement rate, which is more than 35x the D2 Facebook median engagement rate. The photo post also earned nearly 300K estimated impressions and hundreds of comments from Rams fans wishing the team well. You don’t have to pull off a win on this scale to rustle up engagement like this (though it sure helps)–finding small wins around campus can be just as powerful for current students and alumni alike.

Angelo State has cracked a code that almost no one else manages to pull off: finding consistent engagement with link posts on Facebook. The post about being named one of the nation’s best colleges by the Princeton Review excited fans to the tune of a 9.32% engagement rate and more than 220K estimated impressions to reach way more than Angelo State’s 34K followers.

60% of Angelo State’s Facebook posts were links including this top performer, which is fairly surprising for a channel that traditionally hates when posters send their followers off-site. It’s worth noting that photo posts earned 2x the engagement rate as link posts for Angelo State, should they wish to widen their lead on Facebook even more next year.

Angelo State regularly vies for the prettiest campus glamour shots (we’re looking at you, James Madison University) like in this stunning vantage after a spring thunderstorm. The shot of Angelo State’s iconic belltower with a backdrop of thunderclouds dazzled fans to the tune of a 2.85% engagement rate and nearly 900 reactions. Knowing where and when your campus looks most enticing buoys many of the top D1 and D2 schools on social, and Angelo State definitely knows its angles. No budget for a staff photographer? Don’t be afraid to pull UGC or even run a contest to generate student-shot photos to inject new flavor into your school’s Facebook feed.

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Top D2 Higher Education Institutions on Twitter

Top marks to the University of Nebraska at Kearney for moving from third to first on Twitter this year, knocking back Virginia State University to second place. Johnson C. Smith University also moved from 6th to 3rd this year to round out the winner’s podium.

There were lots of other familiar faces in the Twitter top 10 from Morehouse College to Carson-Newman University to Bowie State University. Limestone University, Fort Valley State University, Colorado School of Mines, and Delta State University should all be proud of their top 10 finishes, which represent moving up the ranks in a big way.

D2 schools rocked an average engagement rate of 0.09% on Twitter this year and tweeted about three times per week, or every other day. Both of these represent a very small dip from last year, but engagement and tweeting frequency are basically flat in Higher Ed. It’s worth mentioning that schools are seeing engagement totals orders of magnitude lower on Twitter than on any other channel we studied, suggesting colleges and universities are putting less effort into content and engagement on Twitter. There are still plenty of impressive campaigns and strategies to profile on Twitter in spite of these smaller engagement numbers, though.

Featured school: University of Nebraska at Kearney

Between snagging the gold on Twitter and their second-place Facebook finish, an overall top 10 spot was a foregone conclusion for University of Nebraska at Kearney. UNK invests consistently in its Twitter content, and those efforts have definitely paid off. The Kearney Lopers had about the same number of followers as their average competitor, but tweeted about twice as often and earned 10x the engagement total and 4.5x the engagement rate–impressive stats to be sure.

UNK boasted the top tweet by engagement rate of any D2 school last year featuring Kearney alum and pro wrestler George “Tyrus” Murdoch’s big return to campus. We mentioned the success of this campaign in our top trends section up above, but it was so engaging across all of UNK’s channels that it’s worth dissecting further. The video earned more than 194K views and an incredible 87.5% engagement rate, suggesting strong virality that reached far beyond UNK’s followers. Everyone loves a heartwarming redemption arc, and Tyrus’ story about the impact Kearney had on him as a young man brought everyone in the room and UNK’s Twitter feed alike to tears. Not every school has a famous wrestler alum, but finding the unique and occasionally tearjerking stories about your school’s impact on its students is an important engagement strategy for any Higher Education social media marketer.

Speaking of epic brags, UNK set a new world record for the largest attendance at a women’s sporting event this year thanks to the Kearney community’s rabid support of all things volleyball. Setting the women’s sporting event attendance record was a HUGE deal, and UNK made sure to shout it from the rooftops. The video tweet showed off the full stadium’s reaction to setting the record in real-time and helped fans at home be a part of the excitement as well. With more than 6K views and an impressive 3.74% engagement rate, UNK’s social media team knows how to be in the right place at the right time and curate on-campus moments for their fans and followers. Video tweets earned about 4x the engagement of any other tweet type for UNK and were a strong focus for the Loper social media team this year, which definitely paid off.

In another top-notch video tweet, UNK wasn’t afraid to get a little playful even outside of April Fool’s Day with a little help from AI to reimagine campus as one giant interconnected bounce house. The short clip reached far beyond Kearney’s Twitter follower count and earned a 1.11% engagement rate. Some of Kearney’s other super-successful tweets this year involved a secret sauce that not every college can replicate, but the success of this fun and funny tweet is within reach for anyone with a ChatGPT login.

Top D2 Higher Education Institutions on TikTok

Southwest Minnesota State University went from 64th last year to 1st this year on TikTok to snag our channel gold. Slippery Rock University moved from 13th to 2nd on TikTok while Elizabeth City State University maintained its bronze for the second year in a row. Southern Connecticut State University, University of Tampa, University of Minnesota Duluth all hung onto their TikTok top 10 spots from last year as well, while Valdosta State University, Cedarville University, Pittsburgh State University, and Shepherd University were all fresh on the top 10 scene this year.

TikTok engagement rates by view for D2 schools stayed basically flat at 3.69% compared to 3.86% in 2023. Schools are posting just as (in)frequently as they were last year at around two videos per month.

Featured school: Southern Connecticut State University

Southern Connecticut State University was a force to be reckoned with on TikTok this year, and their 4th place finish on this channel was no surprise. With twice the followers, 18x the videos, 23x the engagement total, and 14x the views as their average D2 competitor, it’s safe to say the Owls knocked it out of the park on nearly every metric we studied. With fresh takes on content and doubling their videos per week over the course of the school year, SCSU is one to watch for Higher Education TikTok inspo.

Sure, it’s cool to get a sitting U.S. President to speak at your commencement (we’re looking at you, Morehouse College), but sometimes a Gen Z icon can bring down the house just as hard. SCSU invited Disney channel alum Corbin Bleu to speak at graduation, and the actor dropped the mic with more than a few High School Musical references. Southern Connecticut’s TikTok feed is filled with clips from Bleu’s speech including this one, which earned an incredible 20.3% engagement rate by view and nearly a million views. Securing an awesome graduation speaker is only half the battle for colleges and universities, and SCSU was up to the challenge of making the most of the actor’s speech on social, especially TikTok.

Every school has graduation videos in their TikTok feed, but can you boast a graduation engagement? SCSU upped the ante this year with this heartwarming video of two undergraduates promising to tie the knot in their caps and gowns. The video rocked a 19.6% engagement rate by view, which is about 5x the D2 median. Fans and followers commented on the post with their congratulations and more than a few tears.

Finding unique ways to represent annual events on campus like move-in and graduation can be tough, but SCSU definitely cracked the code with this post.

From graduation proposals to 4th graders wishing SCSU students good luck during finals week, Southern Connecticut State University was all about the heartwarming (and occasionally tear-jerking) content on TikTok this year. New Haven nine-year-olds penned encouraging notes to stressed Owls and took the time to bundle up and hand them out on campus, bringing more than a little holiday cheer during finals week. The video touched the hearts and minds of Owls everywhere, resulting in a 14% engagement rate by view and more than 12K views. Community-focused content like this can bolster connection to fans on and off campus while bringing in mondo engagement and represents true Higher Education social media creativity.

Live Higher Education Social Media Benchmarks

Comparing your school’s social performance has never been easier. Browse our D1 and D2 live benchmarks for a real-time look at top Higher Education posts, engagement rates, high-performing hashtags, and tons more. You can even add these benchmarks directly into your Rival IQ account for always-on monitoring of these top schools.

Need even more competitive analytics? Go head-to-head with a free report on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to see how you stack up against your top competition. See what makes your competitors tick with key insights and actionable advice you can start using now to come out on top.

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Methodology

We surveyed all D1 and D2 colleges and universities on social media between June 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024 on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Using this data and a weighted formula, we generated an overall engagement ranking for each school. The top-ranked colleges and universities on social media have high engagement rates with average or better audience size and posting volumes.

We define engagement as measurable interaction on social media posts, including likes, comments, favorites, retweets, shares, and reactions. We used engagement rate by follower to measure engagement on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which is defined as the total engagement divided by the number of followers. We used engagement rate by view to measure engagement on TikTok, which is defined as the total engagement divided by the number of views.

Please note: If you haven’t grabbed your school’s TikTok handle yet, consider doing so now even if you’re not ready to post there yet. There are a ton of imposters on TikTok snapping up handles, and we’d hate to see you struggle for a handle that matches your university’s brand by waiting too long.

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The case for benchmarking in Higher Education social media

Why benchmark instead of just measuring how your school’s individual performance changes over time? Because social success is relative. Benchmarking means figuring out what’s working (and what isn’t) in your industry and measuring your success against that.

It’s crucial to go beyond likes and favorites because audience size is hugely important: 100 likes is great engagement for a college or university with 1,000 followers but is a drop in the bucket to a school with 100,000 followers. Engagement rate helps us take audience size into account to see who’s really reaching the highest percentage of their fans and followers with their social posts, which are the schools you need to beat.

Wrapping it up

Congrats to all the D1 and D2 schools rocking it on Higher Education social media this year! We love seeing HESM trends change over time and secretly relish shake-ups in the rankings, and can’t wait to see what colleges and universities get up to next year.

Want to continue the #HESM conversation? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us on Twitter!

The post 2024 Higher Education Social Media Engagement Report appeared first on Rival IQ.

However, manually generating social media reports can be time-consuming and prone to errors. This is where automation comes in. Automated reports gather real-time data from all your social networks, compiling it into easy-to-read formats that can be delivered regularly.

With this kind of efficiency, you can focus less on number-crunching and more on fine-tuning your efforts for greater success. Let’s dive into how you can set up these automated reports and take your social media strategy to the next level.

Why Automate Social Media Reports?

From saving you time to reducing errors, automating social media reports can make a huge difference. Here are five advantages that make automated reports not just a smart choice, but a necessary one.

1. Save Time

One of the biggest advantages of automating social media reports is the immense amount of time it saves.

Instead of spending hours manually compiling data from different platforms, automation tools gather and consolidate this information in a fraction of the time. You set up your reporting parameters once, and the automation tools do the rest, delivering reports at scheduled intervals. This efficiency allows your team to focus on more important tasks, like creating high-quality content and engaging with your audience.

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2. Reduce Errors

Automation also reduces the risk of errors that can occur with manual reporting. Human error is natural, especially when dealing with large volumes of data, and this can lead to inaccurate reports and misguided decisions.

Automated tools consistently apply the same data-gathering and reporting methodologies every time. This consistency minimizes mistakes allowing you to trust that your reports are accurate.

3. Keep Things Consistent

Consistency in reporting is crucial for tracking performance over time. Uniformity helps you better identify trends, understand what’s working, and tweak strategies accordingly.

Automated social media reports ensure that your data is collected and reported in the same way every time. This means you can compare performance over different periods without worrying about differences caused by varying data collection methods.

4. Get Real-Time Insights

Real-time insights are another advantage of automating social media reports. Manual reporting can take a lot of time and often involves delays, meaning you’re typically working with outdated information.

The speed of automated reporting tools means you get access to up-to-date data at any moment, allowing you to react quickly to emerging trends and make timely adjustments to your strategy. Whether you’re spotting a sudden spike in engagement or identifying a dip in reach, real-time insights let you respond promptly and effectively.

5. Focus on Strategy

Finally, by automating the time-consuming task of data collection and reporting, you can shift your focus to strategy rather than getting bogged down by the numbers. Take a look at this slide from an automated report for the University of Texas at Austin, for instance. With the press of a button, data about the school’s engagement (plus its competitors’) was presented in a way that’s easy to understand and actionable.

In other words, with automation, you can spend more time analyzing the data, identifying problem areas to address, and brainstorming new ideas. The insights gained from automated reports should be your guide as you refine and enhance your social media strategy.

Key Metrics for Automated Social Media Reports

Automating your social media reports makes things easier and faster — but the power’s still in your hands to pick the right metrics to track. Here’s a breakdown of the essential metrics you should include in your automated reports and why they matter:

• Follower Growth: Keeping an eye on your follower growth can tell you a lot about the effectiveness of your strategies. A steady growth in followers usually indicates that your marketing efforts are working well.

• Engagement Metrics: Engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and overall engagement rate give you insight into how your audience is interacting with your content. With this info, you can identify popular content themes and adjust your strategy to boost engagement.

Find out what is a good engagement rate on social media.

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• Reach and Impressions: Reach tells you how many unique people see your content, while impressions measure how many times your content is displayed, regardless of whether it was clicked or not. Together, these metrics give you a snapshot of your content’s visibility and potential audience size.

• Content Performance: Identify your top-performing posts and types of content to understand what works best for your audience. By knowing which posts drive the most engagement, you can create more of what your audience loves.

• Brand Mentions and Sentiment: Use social listening tools to track brand mentions and sentiment. This helps you understand how people perceive your brand and what they’re saying about it.

• Traffic and Conversions: This is where your social media efforts translate into tangible business results. Measure clicks, website visits, and conversion rates to see how well your social media drives traffic to your site and leads to actual conversions, whether it’s a sale, sign-up, or other action.

• Competitive Data: Monitoring your competitors’ social media performance can also provide valuable insights. By tracking their follower growth, engagement, and content strategies, you can spot trends, see how you stack up, and find new ways to stand out and improve your own performance.

Including these key metrics in your automated social media reports ensures you have a well-rounded view of your performance. Keep in mind, though, that the specifics of how these metrics are tracked and presented can vary depending on the tool you choose. Up next, we’ll cover some of the top tools available to help you automate and optimize your reporting.

6 Platforms and Tools for Automated Social Media Reports

Automating social media reports typically involves the use of third-party tools or platforms, though there are also ways to do so via the social platforms themselves. Here’s a rundown of some top tools that can help you automate your reports:

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Rival IQ

We’ll kick things off with our own social media analytics platform. At Rival IQ, we’re all about making your social media reporting not just easier but also smarter. We know how important competitive context is, which is why our analytics dashboard offers not just robust reporting capabilities but also powerful competitive analysis insights.

With our automated scheduled exports, you can have branded reports delivered right to your inbox. Plus, you can export any panel, page, or dashboard within Rival IQ in any format you need, from PNG to PPTX to CSV.

Crowdfire

Known for its ability to schedule and automate social media posts, Crowdfire also offers automated reporting features. It allows you to schedule and generate weekly or monthly reports that are sent directly to your email. The report templates are also customizable, meaning you can pick the specific metrics that matter most to you.

AgoraPulse

AgoraPulse offers a suite of tools for social media management, including reporting features that allow you to generate comprehensive reports on your social media metrics. Reports can be customized to chosen metrics and date ranges, as well as automatically scheduled to be sent to internal and external stakeholders.

Looker Studio

Looker Studio is a tool for creating customized, automated dashboards and visualizations. With it, you can connect to various data sources and design reports that automatically update as your social data changes. This allows you to create visually appealing charts, graphs, and tables that make complex data more digestible.

The automation aspect comes from the ability to schedule regular updates, ensuring your reports always reflect the latest information, whether you need daily, weekly, or monthly updates.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a simple yet effective way to keep track of brand mentions and relevant keywords across the web. Although not a full-fledged reporting tool, you can integrate these alerts into your social media reports to track how your brand is being discussed online.

Setting up Google Alerts is straightforward: just enter the keywords you want to monitor, such as your brand name or industry terms, and Google will send you notifications when those terms appear online. For instance, if your brand is mentioned in a major news article, Google Alerts will notify you, ensuring your reports reflect real-time public sentiment and media coverage.

Native Analytics

Most social media platforms also offer their own native analytics, typically through a dashboard that provides a snapshot of your metrics. Meta (including Facebook and Instagram), Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn all allow users to export their data into downloadable files, which can be incredibly useful for compiling detailed reports. However, as of writing, only Meta Ads provides the option to schedule recurring reports.

How to Set Up Automated Social Media Reports

So we’ve touched on the key metrics and tools to know, but how exactly do you get started? Here’s a quick step-by-step:

• Identify your reporting goals. Before diving into the technical setup, define what you want to achieve with your social media reports. What are the key metrics you need to track? Who will be the primary audience for these reports? How frequently do you need the reports? Tailoring your reports to your goals ensures that you collect relevant data.

• Choose the right tools. Select the tool that best fits your needs, considering factors like ease of use, integration capabilities, and the specific metrics you want to track.

• Set up your reports. Once you’ve chosen your tool, it’s time to set up your reports. This will typically involve connecting your social media accounts, selecting your metrics, and incorporating visual design elements like graphs and charts to make your reports more engaging and easier to understand.

• Ensure actionable insights. Remember that data is only useful if it can lead to informed decisions. When setting up your reports, focus on metrics that inform strategy and decision-making. Highlight key trends, add helpful visuals, and include recommendations for improvement.

• Schedule regular reports. Set up your reports to be sent to internal and external stakeholders automatically at regular intervals, such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly.

• Review and update. Automation doesn’t mean set-and-forget. Regularly review your automated reports to ensure they still align with your goals and provide the necessary insights. Adjust the parameters, metrics, and visuals as needed to keep your reports relevant.

All in all, with the right tools and a little setup effort, you’ll be able to keep track of your social media performance regularly and effortlessly.

The Wrap Up

To sum up, automating your social media reports is a game-changer. It saves you time, reduces errors, and provides real-time insights, allowing you to focus more on what really matters — crafting impactful strategies and engaging with your audience. And if you want to make your reporting process even smoother, be sure to check out our free ultimate 30-minute social media reporting template.

The post How To Automate Social Media Reports appeared first on Rival IQ.

With the 2024 sports seasons in full swing, we’re excited to bring you the latest social media highlights, insights, and winners from all 179 teams in the seven major North American professional sports leagues.

Enjoy a plethora of case studies from NFL, MLB, NWSL, NBA, WNBA, MLS, and NHL brands who piled up the engagement on social, in addition to a bucketful of trends to help your brand increase engagement on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter.

Dive into the top pro sports teams of the year.

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Top Overall Sports Teams on Social Media

The Cincinnati Bengals not only #RuleTheJungle, but they also rule the professional sports teams social media rankings, grabbing the gold out of all the brands we studied in 2023. The Bengals pulled this off thanks to a balanced content strategy that customized posts to the unique audiences of every major social channel. The Buffalo Bills and Inter Miami CF put up a strong fight, rounding out No. 2 and No. 3 on our podium, respectively.

Other pro sports teams like the Houston Astros, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Phillies, Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Eagles, L.A. Dodgers, and San Diego Padres had strong years in 2023, rounding out our overall Top 10.

Top Brand: Cincinnati Bengals

Who dey? Dey just the pro sports team social media champs, and they should be proud. The Cincinnati Bengals ranked in the Top 10 of all four social channels we measured this year, including Top 3 rankings on Instagram and TikTok. Thanks to a never-ending flow of short-form video, the Bengals’ social squad leveraged TikTok to maximum efficiency, as 9 of its top 10 posts (total engagement) were published the world’s trendiest platform.

They also paired photos with cheeky and well-timed captions, with many top performers on Instagram, usually featuring superstar quarterback Joe Burrow. As one of their captions bluntly stated: “No such thing as too much @joeyb_9 content.” And they were right, as more than half of the Bengals’ top 25 social posts in total engagement featured “Joe Cool” himself.

We don’t know if felines are early risers, but the Cincinnati Bengals’ social media team definitely is, with posting the highest concentration of its content before noon, especially during the pregame hours between 9-10 a.m. (EST). They enjoyed spikes in engagement rate by follower during postgame hours, in particular, usually sharing a plethora of game highlights, post-game interviews, and engaging statistics graphics between 3 and 5 p.m.

Top Trend 1: Short-Form Video Reigns Supreme

It’s no secret that most social media channels are prioritizing short-form video in their feed algorithms, but professional sports teams are an industry that excels at Instagram Reels and TikTok videos, in particular. Of the 179 teams analyzed, their TikTok videos and Instagram Reels combined for 2.2 billion engagements, comprising more than one third of all total engagements in the industry in 2023.

San Diego Wave FC was the top-ranked NWSL team on TikTok, also ranking in the top five of all pro sports teams in TikTok engagement rate by follower. Its strategy was simple. Post videos about rookie Melanie Barcenas as much as possible. Barcenas made her Wave debut in 2023 the age of 15, making her the youngest player to ever play in the NWSL, and San Diego rode the Gen Z “wave” to TikTok success all year long.

Their motto is #FlyEaglesFly, and boy did the Philadelphia Eagles soar in 2023, earning a No. 7 overall ranking, largely in part to its success with Instagram Reels. Take this Reel for example, showing off their beloved live mascot, Noah the Eagle, who kicked off a Sunday Night game versus the Miami Dolphins in October. No disrespect to the Eagles’ official mascot, Swoop, but the fans in Philly sure loved seeing their local Elmwood Park Zoo resident make an appearance at their beloved Lincoln Financial Field, to the tune of more than 8 million engagements on this post alone.

Top Trend 2: Candid Moments

Game highlights are great and all, but pro sports team fans seem to prefer soaking up social media posts showing the human side of their favorite athletes. Posts featuring funny sideline moments, mic’d up audio clips, locker room footage, and pre-game fashion regularly earned high engagement rates by follower for brands. With so many superstar athletes carrying international fame — and their own massive social media followings — the secret sauce includes a healthy dose of content revolving around their personalities off the court/ice/pitch/field.

Call it clickbait if you want, but there’s no denying that cute kids hold a special place in the social media world. The Memphis Grizzlies took advantage of an adorable courtside moment with star point guard Ja Morant and his 3-year-old daughter Kaari during pregame warmups. In a world where superstar athletes are often judged by their performance, social posts featuring their families do a wonderful job of mixing up content to keep things positive. Fanbases are passionate, often resulting in critical engagement on social media, and pro sports teams leverage content like this to lighten the mood.

Keeping the family vibes going, take a look at this fun Instagram post by the Atlanta Dream, featuring team vice president and part owner Renee Montgomery. The strategy here is clear; Just a mom and her son (Angel) dancing to music in their courtside seats during a timeout at a game in August. The simple 5-second video checks two of the good-vibes boxes: catchy tunes and a wholesome family moment , and it earned the Dream nearly 1 million Instagram engagements.

Top Trend 3: Fan-Centric Posts

It sounds like a no-brainer, but what better way to engage with your fans on social media? Make the content about them, duh! Many of our top-ranked pro sports teams did just that in 2023, posting a wide range of fan-centric content, including in-game jumbotron footage of game attendees at the venues, players signing autographs for children, babies wearing branded sports apparel, and pre-game festivities and tailgates.

While all pro sports teams use a variety of tactics on their video boards to engage with fans during games, the Tampa Bay Lightning broke from the trendy celebrity look-a-like schtick, and instead challenged ticket holders to make faces matching the emoji on the jumbotron. The live results are comical, and the social media results are even better, as this video piled up a whopping 1.2M engagements on TikTok.

Professional athletes are often generous with their time, giving autographs to fans at official team functions and in their personal lives. But in this case, Detroit Tigers superstar — and future Hall of Famer — Miguel Cabrera made a young fan earn his autograph. The boy was wearing the jersey of the opposing team, and Cabrera refused the autograph because of it. The fan’s solution? Switch jerseys with his brother, who happened to be wearing Cabrera’s jersey. His resourcefulness worked, as “Miggy” rewarded the child with his game bat for his efforts. The Tigers’ social media team beautifully edited the captured footage of the moment into an Instagram Reel, to the tune of 137k engagements.

Top Sports Teams on Instagram

Pro sports teams knocked it out of the park on Instagram in 2023, with a median engagement rate by follower of 1.39%, which is way higher than these brands earned on Facebook and Twitter (but way lower than on TikTok). It’s no surprise that pro sports brands perform so well, as the industry ranks No. 2 on Instagram (behind only Higher Education) in our 2024 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report. Pro sports teams posted more than 18 times per week on Instagram — nearly three times per day — which is tops among all industries we measured in that same report, by a landslide.

Inter Miami CF took the gold on Instagram this year, with the Cincinnati Bengals and Philadelphia Eagles rounding out the medalists. Overall top 10 finishers Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Phillies, Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres also stood out on Instagram, while the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Angels stood out on Instagram, but didn’t score well enough on other channels to make it into the overall top 10.

Featured brand: Inter Miami CF

Inter Miami managed a big win on Instagram this year thanks to nonstop coverage of international superstar Lionel Messi. The brand brings us a taste of international fútbol, along with its rabid fanbase, helping the Herons finish on the podium in our overall rankings, as well. Inter Miami FC also ranked No. 1 on Facebook and Twitter, and if it can move up the charts on TikTok, it has a strong chance at earning our No. 1 overall sports team on social media in next year’s report.

The Herons outperformed all the competition on both Instagram engagement rate and total: the brand earned a median engagement rate of 4.35% and nearly 280M total engagements. That’s a big number, folks. Like, REALLY big. Inter Miami CF’s Instagram engagement total alone was more than the combined cross-channel total engagement of 176 of the 179 teams we studied, averaging about 353k engagements per post. Beautifully designed graphics and cleverly edited videos helped, but so did adding an astonishing 14.6 million followers on Instagram in 2023.

Inter Miami CF’s social media team clearly prepared for the arrival of Messi, as it regularly rolled out consistent, branded graphics for every possible scenario, including welcome messages, goals scored, sponsorships, highlights, etc., and its fans ate it all up. This Instagram Reel celebrating his first goal with the club racked up nearly 6.2 million engagements alone. We guess the separation really is in the preparation.

Messi wasn’t the only international fútbol superstar to join the Herons in 2023, as Inter Miami CF also signed Uruguay legend Luis Suárez to the roster. Just as they did with Messi, the club leveraged Suárez’s international fame to not only help its chances of winning an MLS Cup, but to increase brand visibility through its social channels. When they made the announcement in December, the rich got richer, with this carousel post earning nearly 5.3 million engagements, positioning the club for even more Instagram success in 2024.

At the end of the day, pro sports fans care most about one thing, and that’s winning. Like many other successful pro sports brands on Instagram, Inter Miami CF regularly shared match highlights in the form of Instagram Reels, and this post was no exception. Messi made a rousing debut for the club with a stoppage-time winner to beat Liga MX’s Cruz Azul 2-1, and this Reel highlighting the goal earned an astonishing 39.1% engagement rate by follower, nearly 28 times the industry median for Instagram posts.

Top Sports Teams on TikTok

Kudos to the Chicago Bulls for earning TikTok gold this year, and to overall top 10 finishers Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals for joining the NBA team on the winner’s podium. The Houston Astros — another top 10 overall finisher — also had a superb performance on TikTok, along with the Golden State Warriors, Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions, Memphis Grizzlies, Las Vegas Raiders and Milwaukee Bucks rounding out our top 10. The Astros are the standout MLB team on the list, while the New Jersey Devils (NHL), San Diego Wave FC (NWSL), and Inter Miami CF (MLS) were the top-ranked TikTok accounts in their respective leagues.

If you’ve read our 2024 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, you’ll know that TikTok engagement rates dwarf those of all other social media channels. If you read that report, or our 2024 TikTok Benchmark Report, you’ll also remember that we measure engagement rate by view on this platform, instead of by follower, because counting the number of times a viewer liked, commented, or shared and dividing it by the overall number of views measures just how compelling your content was.

Pro sports teams drew a whopping 9.45% engagement rate by view on TikTok this year and posted just 3.4 videos per week, the fewest of all the social channels we measured in 2023.

Featured brand: Chicago Bulls

The Chicago Bulls have a storied history and are one of the most recognizable brands in all of pro sports,  but the NBA team set itself apart in 2023 by standing out on TikTok, in particular. So how did the Bulls’ social media team pull off this feat in arguably the most competitive social landscape in 2023? Adding 1.5 million followers (third most of all 179 teams we studied) certainly helped, but the Bulls also ranked in the top 5 in engagements per video and engagement rate by view, despite posting slightly below the industry median of 3.4 videos per week. Let’s dive into the content that helped the Chicago Bulls slam dunk on TikTok.

Behind the scenes footage was the Bulls’ go-to in 2023, regularly showing what it’s like for the players during pre-game sessions, practices, travel, and other team obligations and events off the court. A simple bag of candy was all that was required for its social squad to put together this fun TikTok video, which accumulated nearly 8.8 million engagements, the most of any single TikTok post from the 179 teams we studied, and the second most of any post across all social channels.

The social team continued with its cheeky shenanigans to kick off October’s spooky season with this #ScarePrank post. While it’s unclear if he was put up to it, guard Coby White’s sneaky scare of teammate Zach LaVine during the Bulls’ official media day was a hit on TikTok. LaVine wasn’t impressed, but the team’s social media followers were definitely pleased.

We are ALWAYS here for mascots, and the Bulls didn’t disappoint. A common theme we noticed across all channels was pro sports teams posting content of celebrities attending their games or events, usually rocking branded team apparel. Leveraging celebrity influence has been a tactic for all industries for as long as we can remember, but Chicago pulled it off to perfection here, combining their beloved Benny the Bull mascot with acclaimed musician Billie Eilish in this wildly successful TikTok video.

Top Sports Teams on Facebook

Pro sports teams earned a median engagement rate of 0.3% in 2023, which is nearly double the next closest industry featured in our 2024 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report. Pro sports teams were also 5x more active on Facebook than the average brand (4.69 posts per week) in that study, trailing only the Media industry, posting more than 24 times per week. There were too many engaging posts from the realm of professional sports on Facebook this year, so let’s take a closer look at what worked well for just a few of these brands.

Let’s start with another tip of the cap to Inter Miami CF, which was the top-ranked Facebook brand in our study. Other overall top 10 performers also cracked our Facebook top 10, including the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Astros and Cincinnati Bengals. The Las Vegas Aces, Toronto Blue Jays, Indiana Fever, Cincinnati Reds, and Texas Rangers all had stellar Facebook performances in 2023, as well.

Featured brand: Las Vegas Aces

The Las Vegas Aces took home the honor of our top ranked WNBA team in our overall rankings (No. 19), and that was largely thanks to its herculean efforts on Facebook, where they ranked in the Top 5. The Aces earned a 1.82% engagement rate by follower, which helped lead the charge of successful women’s teams’ dominance in that metric. Nine of the top 10 pro sports teams in engagement rate by follower on Facebook came from the WNBA and NWSL.

The defending WNBA champs were well-represented at the 2023 WNBA All-Star game, and they leveraged it into social media gold, as their duo of Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum won the KIA WNBA Skills Challenge as part of the festivities. Their resulting highlight reel of the contest piled up nearly three million views and more than 42k engagements, proving that you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel on social media, and ol’ reliable (game highlights) will keep fans engaged throughout the year.

We talked about this in past industry reports many times, but it always pays to get celebrity appearances or collabs in social posts. This Facebook post is no exception, as the Aces’ social squad not only leveraged a photo of star guard Jackie Young and celebrity musician Usher, they took an extra step by writing a caption specifically geared toward hometown fans. It worked to perfection with a mind-boggling 100% engagement rate by follower. That’s 333x the mean of all 179 teams we studied on Facebook, folks.

Time and time again, it’s been proven that the best recipe for success on social media is winning. The Aces’ leveraged their status as defending champions all season long in 2023, but put the icing on the cake in October, repeating as WNBA champs, guaranteeing they will be a force to reckon with on social media again in 2024. This fantastic (and candid) celebration photo of the players after the game was simple, timely, and nailed the “mood” factor, earning more than 40k engagements.

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Top Sports Teams on Twitter

Major League Baseball stole the show on Twitter in 2023, slugging their way to eight spots in the Top 10. Inter Miami CF continued its overall success, earning Twitter gold, with cross-town baseball teams Los Angeles Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers earning silver and bronze, respectively. Rounding out the Top 10 was overall winner Cincinnati Bengals, along with the San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles and Cincinnati Reds.

Pro sports teams earned their lowest engagement rates of the year on Twitter at just 0.07%. This jives with the platform’s general decline, which saw engagement rates drop 20% overall in our 2024 Industry Benchmark Report. Despite this, pro sports teams earned the highest engagement rates of all the industries we measured, tweeting nearly 42 times per week (no, that’s not a typo), nearly 13x more than our cross-industry average, trailing only our Media category for the highest post volume.

Featured brand: Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles were one of many successful pro baseball teams on Twitter in 2023, thanks to an engagement rate by follower more than 4x the industry mean. The brand was all about nostalgia, chasing its first division championship in nine seasons, keeping its 850k Twitter fans engaged during their historic run all season long. The Orioles also grew the platform with an additional 30k followers, which is no small feat, considering nearly a third of the 170 teams we studied actually had a net follower loss in 2023.

Did we mention winning? Yes? Well, we’re going to do it again, because it truly is the greatest catalyst for engaging social media content in pro sports. The Orioles rolled out gorgeous graphics all year long on Twitter, culminating in this tweet celebrating their A.L. East division championship in September, which earned an engagement rate by follower 61x the industry mean.

Did we mention winning yet? No? Good, because this locker room celebration photo kept Baltimore’s good times rollin’ on Twitter, racking up nearly 19k engagements, to go along with endless smiles. The Orioles’ engagement peaked during its late-season run to the playoffs, and for the playoffs themselves, earning an engagement rate of 0.37 — more than 5x the industry mean — from September through October.

One trend we consistently saw across all pro sports teams were posts celebrating the fans, which goes to show that when you make it about your followers, and less about your brand, the fans will keep coming back for more. This tweet was just one of the Orioles’ many sharp-looking graphics in 2023, which also doubled as a highlight, showing off some of their best photography from the year, all in one post.

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How is my Team Performing on Social Media?

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Methodology

We surveyed 179 pro sports teams on social media between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023 on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Using this data and a weighted formula, we generated an overall engagement ranking for each brand. The top-ranked pro sports brands on social media have high engagement rates with average or better audience size and posting volumes.

We define engagement as measurable interaction on social media posts, including likes, comments, favorites, retweets, shares, and reactions. We used engagement rate by follower to measure engagement on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which is defined as the total engagement divided by the number of followers. We used engagement rate by view to measure engagement on TikTok, which is defined as the total engagement divided by the number of views.

The Case for Benchmarking

Why benchmark instead of just measuring how your pro sports team’s social media individual performance changes over time? Because social success is relative. Benchmarking means figuring out what’s working (and what isn’t) in your industry and measuring your success against that.

It’s crucial to go beyond likes and favorites because audience size is hugely important: 100 likes is great engagement for a brand with 1,000 followers but is a drop in the bucket to a brand with 100,000 followers. Engagement rate helps us take audience size into account to see who’s really reaching the highest percentage of their fans and followers with their social posts, which are the outdoor brands you need to beat.

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Wrapping it up

We hope you had as much fun as we did digging into what made pro sports teams stand out on social media. Maybe we inspired you to head out and catch a game for your favorite local team.

Did we miss a pro sports team on social media you love? Want to share another industry we should rank on social? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us on Twitter.

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