Social media sees decline in engagement – except TikTok

Although TikTok sees less posting by users, it's interestingly the one that has seen the most engagement compared to others.

Social media sees decline in engagement – except TikTok

TikTok users are much more likely to engage with posts compared to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, says a new report by Rival IQ.  

The 2023 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report analyzed the social media data of 150 companies across various industries and summarized key trends.

TikTok, which appeared in Rival IQ’s report for the first time this year, showed a median engagement rate of 5.69% compared to 0.47% for Instagram. Facebook and Twitter were further behind with engagement rates of 0.06% and 0.035% respectively.

How to boost engagement

Social media platforms earned top engagement rates from posts hashtagged with "holiday", while contests and giveaways were less popular.

Interestingly, the higher education industry excelled on all platforms.

On TikTok, colleagues and universities had an engagement rate of above 15%, and on Instagram, the engagement was five times higher than average.

Across all industries, Instagram engagement fell by about 30% this year, showing a decline for the third year in a row. Engagement on Facebook and Twitter stayed at the previous year's level.

“2022 was a weird year for social media: watching Instagram’s engagement rates decline is a big bummer for marketers, but keeping Facebook and Twitter flat (if low) reminds us it could be worse,” - Rival IQ

Most engaged content

Videos and Reels are most likely to grab high engagement rates, even in industries such as financial services, according to the report.

“TikTok videos and Instagram Reels are where it’s at for engagement for many of the industries we studied, proving what we all know: video is here to stay,”
- Report's authors

Reels earned particularly strong engagement rates for sports teams on Instagram, even though they were posted less frequently than static posts.

For travel brands, Reels enjoyed higher popularity compared to photos, which remain the most common type of content.

Posting frequency on the decline

Most platforms saw signs of slowing in posting frequency.

Facebook and Twitter had on average, 5 and 3.9 posts per week respectively, which corresponds to a more than 20% decline in each case.

In Twitter’s case, this is not surprising given the turmoil that ensued after the self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist" Elon Musk acquired the platform.

Instagram, which struggles with engagement decline, managed to keep posting frequency at a stable level of 4.6 posts per week.

However, in an interesting turn, TikTok showed the highest engagement rate, despite having the lowest posting frequency at only 1.75 videos per week.

TikTok’s example shows that more is not always better. The platform’s strong performance came as no surprise.

By 2024, the Chinese-owned app is forecasted to catch up to YouTube and even overtake both YouTube and Meta combined in ad revenue by 2027.

With 1 billion active users spread across 154 countries, TikTok seems set to become one of the most, if not the most, popular and effective ways to market a business in 2023.

The takeaway for marketers is, according to the authors of the study, getting a foot in the door on TikTok is certainly more important than investing in sophisticated video production.

TikTok’s influence on US millennials’ food purchasing behaviors
TikTok is great for entertainment, but a new survey shows just how powerful it is to convert millennials to customers.

Save time and money when creating and distributing high-quality content for branding and marketing with ContentGrow. Sign up to get your campaign started or book a quick call with our team to learn more.

Book a call with ContentGrow (for brands & publishers) - Enricko Lukman
Thanks for booking a call with ContentGrow, a managed talent network of freelance media professionals ready to serve brands, publishers, and global content teams.Let’s chat a bit about your content needs and see if ContentGrow is the right solution for you!IMPORTANT: To confirm a meeting, we need
hire freelance writers and journalists on ContentGrow