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What are the average engagement rates for B2B social media accounts on Twitter?
The average engagement rates for B2B social media accounts on Twitter was 0.086% in 2016, based on 0.86 interactions per post, per 1,000 followers. The overall engagement rate on Twitter in 2016 was 0.13%. Also, the overall engagement on Twitter for company profiles was 0.05% in 2016. The reasons such low engagement rates on Twitter may be due to the text-based nature of the platform and the times and frequency of posts made by B2B companies. Below we will provide details of how we calculated these figures and some additional information relevant to B2B social media engagement rates on Twitter.
FINDINGS
Of the top five social media platforms, being Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, Twitter is undoubtedly the worst performing with regard to engagement rates on company pages for B2B companies.
The average engagement rates (calculated based on engagements per post, per 1000 followers, e.g. Twitter: (0.86/1000)*100%=0.086%) for each platform are:
REASONS FOR LOW ENGAGEMENT RATES
This may be due to the nature of Twitter, as it is based around text and information delivery and is less of a visual medium compared to platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. It may also have to do with the fact that the most engaged Twitter users are often part of smaller niche communities, and don't have business-related interests.
Another reason for the lackluster engagement with B2B social media accounts on Twitter may also relate to when companies are posting tweets. B2B brands post an average of 4.96 tweets each day during the week, but the number of posts drops dramatically over the weekend to an average of just 1.83 tweets. Social media audiences are most engaged over the weekend, so this seems to be a missed opportunity for B2B companies and something that needs to be addressed.
As a result of the platform's ability to live up to advertising expectations, companies are beginning to reduce Twitter spending budgets. A poll conducted by RBC Capital Markets found that 23% of advertisers are planning to decrease their Twitter budget. One such company is eMarketer who lowered their 2016 ad sales budget from $2.9 billion to $2.6 billion.
This being said, some of the most successful Twitter accounts belong to B2B companies. One B2B technical support company is up there with the most successful profiles, due to their ability to build a unique voice that engages their audience and uses the limited 140 characters of a Twitter post to their advantage.
TWITTER ENGAGEMENT BY INDUSTRY
With regard to rate of engagement on Twitter by industry, the most success is seen within the Medial field, with an interaction rate per post per 1000 followers of 1.98%.
The top 10 engagement rates for B2B accounts on Twitter by industry are:
With relation to company pages on Twitter, the average rate of engagement per post in 2016, across all industries was 0.05%.
The top 5 performing industries were:
FURTHER COMPARISON WITH OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
As previously mentioned, Twitter records the lowest engagement rates for B2B social media account pages of the top social media platforms. However, they do not rate the lowest in all categories within this area. For example, the median social media audience size for B2B brands on Twitter, ranks it third out of the five most popular platforms. LinkedIn leads with a median of 109,000 followers, Facebook follows with 34,000 page likes and Twitter is next with 18,000 followers. Instagram (3,000 followers) and Pinterest (420 followers) round out the top five.
With regard to overall engagement, Twitter significantly lags behind Instagram and Facebook. Instagram reported an engagement rate of 1.0% in February 2016. This rate is 70% higher than Facebook's rate of 0.59% and an astounding 669% higher rate than Twitter's engagement rate of 0.13%.
Twitter also performs well as a platform most used by marketers. It is used by 85% of marketers, compared to a usage of 74% for Facebook, 72% for LinkedIn, 50% for YouTube, 31% for Google Plus, 23% for Instagram and 18% for Pinterest.
CONCLUSION
We can identify Twitter as the least performing social media platform based on engagement rates with posts on B2B social media pages. Twitter recorded an engagement rate of 0.086% in 2016, according to 0.86 interactions per post, per 1,000 followers. This was surpassed by an overall engagement rate of 0.13% during the same period. The reasons for low engagement may be due to the text-based nature of the platform and the times and frequency of posts made by B2B companies.