The 2025 Content Benchmarks Report from Sprout Social offers the definitive snapshot of where brand content strategies stand in today’s hyper-competitive social media landscape. After analyzing more than 3 billion messages across over 1 million public social profiles between February 1, 2024, and January 31, 2025, the report finds that brands published an average of 9.5 posts per day, a striking illustration of both the nonstop pace and content saturation defining digital marketing this year.
Posting Volume
Across industries, brands are increasing the frequency and diversity of their content in response to evolving platform algorithms and greater pressure for visibility.
The social media landscape evolves quickly, but one thing remains constant — content remains an asset to every brand’s strategy.
Sprout Social’s data reveal that the average number of daily posts rose, reflecting the race for attention in newsfeeds. This figure factors in posts across Meta platforms (Facebook, Instagram), X, TikTok, LinkedIn, and emerging channels.
Industry Benchmarks and Network Trends
The study is granular, unpacking differences by sector: travel and hospitality brands leaned slightly above average, while financial services providers posted less frequently, prioritizing quality and compliance.
Engagement on Instagram climbed by 28%, while Facebook saw growth of 9% in inbound interactions year-over-year. TikTok is flagged as a rising contender for brand engagement, while X (formerly Twitter) engagement held steady at an average of 13 daily inbound engagements per account.
Meta platforms continue to lead the way in posting activity, but TikTok is emerging as a rising player in the mix.
“Posting Isn’t Enough”: Quality, Engagement, and Community
Sprout Social’s findings drive home that more posts do not guarantee standout content or real customer connections.
Social media is more crowded than ever, and simply posting isn’t enough to stand out. This report highlights the key content traits that audiences say make brands memorable — and showcases companies whose content truly breaks through the noise
Top-performing brands are those embracing original creative—such as dynamic video, live storytelling, and real-time UGC (user-generated content)—and prioritizing interaction over broadcast messaging.
Community Building and Engagement Metrics
The study goes beyond counting posts, highlighting the rising importance of community:
Consumers want to be listened to. Community building is equally (if not more) important than content creation when it comes to securing trust and driving sales on social. Use these insights to calibrate a customer engagement strategy that exceeds expectations.
It details two critical inbound engagement measures: average inbound engagements on content per day, and average daily inbound engagements per post. These granular metrics empower brands to monitor not just how often they post, but whether their content resonates and converts real connections.
How Brands Should Use the Findings
Sprout Social’s recommendations for 2025 include accessing competitor-specific benchmarks for context and goal-setting, experimenting with new video, live, and community-first formats, doubling down on genuine, real-time engagement over vanity posting, and using integrated social analytics tools to segment data and benchmark against the competition.
Establishing social media benchmarks without a social media analytics tool can be challenging. You’ll get there eventually, but it’s going to take a while.
Where To From Here?
As social media content nears saturation, the brands who win will be those who balance frequency with quality, innovation with authenticity, and automation with genuine community commitment.
