Analysis of over 52 million social media posts gives a snapshot of which platforms are faring best at the moment. Buffer spent time looking at engagement across numerous social networks and its findings make for interesting reading.
There are lots of ways of breaking down the data Buffer’s research uncovers, but one of the key takeaways is that LinkedIn, Threads and Instagram are all in decline.
LinkedIn’s engagement levels have dropped by around 56 percent while Threads is down 18 percent and Instagram by 26 percent. Rising slightly, TikTok is up by 3 percent, and Facebook by 11 percent. Faring better, Pinterest is up by 23 percent, and X by a staggering 44 percent.
But these numbers don’t necessarily tell the full story as Buffer points out:
A word of caution on these numbers: a drop in engagement rate doesn’t mean a platform is in decline. It could reflect changes to the algorithm, a shift in who’s posting or how often, or simply that the platform is growing and engagement hasn’t caught up yet.
Instagram for example, has increasingly steered creators toward views as its primary success metric over the last year, which means the traditional engagement rate formula may be measuring less of what Instagram is actually optimizing for. Equally, a rise doesn’t automatically mean a platform is thriving for everyone.
Providing a little more insight, Julian Winternheimer – Buffer’s data lead – says:
The dramatic changes in some metrics — particularly X’s 44 percent increase, which led to a move from a lower baseline (1.96 percent to a 2.83 percent median engagement rate) likely reflect changes in the user base or metric definitions rather than genuine performance improvements. The composition of accounts changes, which can have a bigger impact on medians than actual platform performance.
Buffer’s data is interesting for a variety of reasons, although the reasons for its analysis is to provide help with how best to use each platform to get the best results – and this is something that is of more interest to creators, influencers and businesses.
It is worth taking a look at Buffer’s full report, which can be found here.
Image credit: MMollaretti / depositphotos
