In social media, benchmarks are treated like gospel.
Everyone wants to know how they "stack up" against the competition.
The truth? Benchmarks are overrated, misleading, and often a complete waste of time. I always say to my clients you can't beat the competition if you are copying them.
Stop chasing averages. Start creating results.
Because the best brands don’t measure themselves against the middle—they measure themselves against their potential.
Yet, many social media agencies cling to them because it’s easy. Promising results is a lot simpler when you’re chasing averages instead of creating outcomes for your clients personal or company brands.
Here’s why benchmarks don’t work—and how to focus on what actually matters for your social media success as a personal or company brand.
1. Benchmarks Ignore Your Audience
No two audiences are alike. The way your audience interacts with content—how often they engage, what they engage with, and why—depends on factors benchmarks can’t capture: your audience's behaviors, preferences, and goals. Benchmarks assume a level playing field, but your audience could be: Hyper-niche and engaged (10 likes = 10 sales) or Broad but distracted (100 likes = no sales)
For example: A LinkedIn post targeting 50 C-level executives may have fewer likes than a mass-market post targeting 10,000 casual followers. Does that mean it failed? Absolutely not.
The Brand Audit Takeaway: Focus on quality engagement with your specific audience. What they think matters—not what the "average" audience does.
2. Benchmarks Reward Mediocrity
Benchmarks are averages. By definition, they’re middle-of-the-road results. If you’re aiming for the industry standard, you’re aiming to be average. That’s not how you win on social media. Social media rewards outliers: those who take creative risks, push boundaries, and break norms. For example the industry average for consulting industry posts on LinkedIn is 1% what happens when you hit 3%? You’ll pat yourself on the back, but is that actually the ceiling? If another personal brand agency promise a “2% engagement rate” because that’s the industry standard, they’re selling you the bare minimum. Is that what you want?Probably not.
3. Platforms and Industries Aren’t Equal
Social benchmarks rarely compare apples to apples. Each social platform has its own nuances: Instagram rewards visuals and personality. LinkedIn thrives on thought leadership and commentary. TikTok prioritizes trends and entertainment. What works for them won’t necessarily work for you—so why compare?
4. Benchmarks Lack Context
Social media benchmarks flatten the story. They don’t account for critical details like: Content quality and message, Audience size and targeting, Distribution strategies (organic vs. paid), resources like team size and budgets, Commenting and listening strategy components. A post’s "success" is about much more than its numbers. Benchmarks can’t tell you why a post performed—or didn’t. A post with 50 likes might “underperform” on benchmarks, but what if it reached decision-makers in your niche? A surface-level stat doesn’t capture that deeper impact. Your competitors aren’t always right—they’re just sometimes a bit louder.
5. Benchmarks Are Already Outdated
Social media changes faster than benchmarks can keep up. By the time a benchmarking report is published, algorithms have shifted, trends have moved, and audience behaviors have evolved. Relying on outdated benchmarks means you’re chasing yesterday’s goals instead of creating tomorrow’s results. Two years ago, “engagement bait” posts were killing it. Now? The LinkedIn algorithm suppresses them. Bad personal brand agencies rely on benchmarks because they can’t keep up with real-time data. Instead of adapting to what’s happening now, they’re clinging to last years' numbers.
What to Do Instead: Set Your Own Custom Benchmarks
Benchmarks can’t measure what matters to you—so create your own standards for success. When we work with CEOs, Founders and Executives we help them set their own versions of success.
Measure Against Yourself.
- Compare this months results to last months and this quarter’s results to last quarter’s. Are you growing? Connecting to the right people? Improving? Outperforming yourself is the ultimate benchmark. Remember even a 1% better every day of the year results in a 37.5% increase over that same year. Incremental growth is important.
Align Metrics to Goals.
- What matters most to your business? It could be: Brand visibility, Engagements, Website traffic, Video Views,Thought leadership downloads etc.
Focus on Your Audience.
- Develop out audience personas and then figure out what content resonates with your people? What drives action? Use your data and social listening to create a playbook tailored to your audience, not someone else’s. Experiment. Test. Repeat. Social media success comes from consistent experimentation: Test content formats, posting times, and messaging. Double down on what works. Scrap what doesn’t. Social Media is not just a science it's an art too. By focusing on your own results and your own growth, you’ll build a strategy that benchmarks can’t touch.
Bad social media and bad personal brand agencies love benchmarks because benchmarks are easy to sell.
But you don’t want average results. You want growth. You want outcomes. You want to dominate—not imitate.
Stop measuring yourself against the competition. Start measuring yourself against your potential.
Because the brands that win on social media aren’t following benchmarks.
They’re setting them.
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