Do industry benchmarks for social media still matter?

In the world of marketing and communications, benchmarks are commonly used to measure the perceived success or failure of a social media campaign or post.

In the not-so-distant past, platforms such as Facebook and Twitter would post industry benchmarks to help companies understand their place in the digital landscape. That is no longer the case, because the playing field is no longer level due to paid promotion.

Several factors contribute to the way paid campaigns render industry benchmarking ineffective. The most basic is the amount of promotional investment, which will ultimately dictate the amount of impressions and engagement a post or campaign will receive.

Other important factors include:

Together, these variables create an environment that makes apples-to-apples comparisons of paid campaigns nearly impossible.

1. Clearly define your campaign objectives. I want to reach [fill in specific audience group] with [fill in specific messaging] so that they [fill in specific call to action].