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The SEC and Social Media: What NOT to Do + Compliance Tips
Social media is kind of magical, right? With just a few taps on the keyboard, you can share any message you want with the whole wide world.
But with great power… comes great potential to get yourself in trouble with the SEC. Gulp.
Even if you don’t take your social media content too seriously, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) does. The SEC can — and will! — hold businesses accountable for the things they say on social media platforms.
So before you post that hilarious meme about investing in crypto or share an impromptu TikTok vid about splitting your stock, take a beat to make sure you really understand how to comply with SEC regulations on social media.
After all, you’re using social media to build your brand, not commit fraud. (Right?) So read on for everything you need to know to stay in the SEC’s good books.
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What is the SEC?
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the federal government responsible for enforcing federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry.
Its three-pronged mission is to protect investors, facilitate capital formation, and maintain fair and efficient markets. In other words: the SEC is trying its very best to make the American economy an even playing field.
Here are the principles the SEC is working to uphold, according to SEC.gov:
- “Companies offering securities for sale to the public must tell the truth about their business, the securities they are selling, and the investment risks.”
- “Those who sell and trade securities and offer advice to investors — including, for example, brokers, dealers, investment advisers, and exchanges — must treat investors fairly and honestly.”
There are many different ways the SEC regulates and enforces their mission.
One key activity, of course, is monitoring social media platforms for potential fraud.
What is the role of the SEC on social media?
With the rise of social media’s influence on investment decisions (we see you, #cryptotok), the SEC has had to adapt its regulatory oversight to include social platforms.
In other words: the SEC may very well be watching your Instagram Reels.
The SEC is on the lookout on every social platform to identify potential violations, monitor fraudulent activities, and ensure the fair disclosure of information.
It’s a proactive approach that aims to protect investors from misinformation and market manipulation. (But, hopefully, they don’t forget to like and subscribe while they’re there.)
The SEC also has a few social accounts of its own, in case you were wondering: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and LinkedIn.
Who should care about the SEC and social media?
While the SEC’s regulations on social media affect a wide range of people and organizations, those involved in the financial services industry should pay particularly close attention.
Social media managers, financial advisors promoting their businesses, wealth management advisors, and public companies sharing investment and financial information should be hyper-aware of SEC rules to avoid potential infractions.
But even an enthusiastic Lindsay Lohan can get into trouble for promoting stocks without disclosing that she received compensation to do so. No one is safe.
SEC rules for social media
To make sure everyone is communicating about investments with fairness and transparency, the SEC has established marketing rules regarding what you can and cannot do on social media platforms.
What you CAN’T do
Make misleading statements: It is prohibited to make false or misleading statements about a company’s financial condition, performance, or future prospects.
For instance, tweeting a lie that your car-manufacturing company is about to put out a flying car would be a real no-no.
Share insider information: Sharing non-public, material information that could influence investment decisions is strictly prohibited.
For instance, if you know you’re about to fire your whole executive team, don’t announce it on LinkedIn first. That’s information that could give your followers an unfair heads-up that they should dump their stock.
Engage in manipulative practices: Engaging in manipulative practices to artificially inflate or deflate securities prices is illegal.
For instance, practicing what’s called a “pump and dump” scheme: colluding with your friends to really hype up an “amazing” new cryptocurrency called “Barbiecoin” so that everybody else buys it too, and you can then sell it for more than its actual worth.
What you CAN do
Make disclaimers: Including appropriate disclaimers when sharing investment advice or opinions on social media can help clarify that the information is not intended as financial advice.
For example, before you share your excitement about a new stock you’ve just purchased, remind your followers that this is just your opinion and not guaranteed financial advice.
Offer clear and balanced information: Ensure that all material information shared on social media platforms is accurate and balanced and does not omit important facts that may impact investment decisions.
In other words: do your homework before you start talking about a new mutual fund on your Instagram Stories and make sure you talk about it objectively, including both pros and cons.
Provide timely disclosures: Public companies must adhere to the same rules regarding the timely disclosure of material information on social media platforms as they would with traditional communication channels.
When a piece of information is considered “material,” it means that it has the potential to influence an investor’s decision-making process or the market value of a security. This includes information about financial results, mergers and acquisitions, significant contracts, regulatory developments, or any other data that could impact investors’ perception of the company’s prospects.
How does the SEC affect influencers?
Influencers have become a particularly powerful force on social media platforms when it comes to financial information. Content creators have the ability to shape public opinion and influence consumer behavior — for better or for worse.
It’s important to know that the SEC’s regulations apply to influencers as well, particularly when an influencer endorses or approves investment opportunities or provides financial advice.
In December 2022, the SEC charged eight social media influencers for their participation in a $100 million securities fraud scheme. These individuals have been accused of sharing misinformation with followers on Twitter and Discord in order to boost the price of stock they planned to dump. (Hey, Adam McKay: is this the perfect plot for The Big Short 2?)
If these charges are true, this seems like this case involves some pretty intentional fraud behavior, but even well-intentioned influencers can get into trouble if they aren’t crystal clear about conflicts and objectivity.
TLDR: Always be transparent! Influencers must disclose any potential conflicts of interest and make it clear when their statements are opinions rather than objective financial advice.
Tips for preventing SEC infractions
We all want to play by the rules, right? We want to stay out of trouble and ensure beyond a shadow of a doubt that we’re not negatively impacting anyone else’s financial well-being. To stay compliant with SEC regulations and reduce the risk of infractions, consider the following strategies:
Educate your team
Ensure that all employees who manage social media accounts or engage in any communication related to investments or financials are well-informed about SEC regulations.
That could mean sharing this blog post (bless you) or a more formal info sesh.
Training sessions and guidelines can help everybody get familiar with the do’s and don’ts of social media compliance.
It’s really the first step in cultivating a company culture that prioritizes compliance and ethical practices on social media. Encourage open communication, reporting of potential violations, and ongoing education to ensure everyone understands their responsibilities.
Create a clear social media policy for employees
Even if you’ve had a million training sessions with your team, it doesn’t hurt to add SEC regulations to your company’s social media policy.
And if you don’t have a social media policy yet, there’s no time like the present. There’s really no better way to ensure consistent and compliant messaging across social media platforms. Check out our social media policy template here.
Bonus: Get a free, customizable social media policy template designed specifically for banks to quickly and easily create guidelines for your financial institution.
Consult a compliance officer
Who better to ask for support than an expert?
It’s well worth the investment to engage a compliance officer or legal counsel with expertise in securities laws to review social media activities and provide guidance on compliance best practices. Then you’ll never have any lingering doubts about whether or not you actually understand what “material information” is.
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Set up a social listening program
A great social listening tool will help you monitor and detect any transmission of insider information from employees, influencers, or others associated with your organization.
May we humbly recommend Hootsuite’s advanced social listening features? See what people are saying about your brand, industry, and competitors with the most powerful social listening tool around, and catch potential violations before they go public.
Keep messaging on brand with an employee advocacy tool
An employee advocacy tool like Hootsuite Amplify can help empower employees or contractors to share pre-approved content while maintaining brand consistency and compliance. It’s a way to reduce risk while still encouraging your team to share branded messages
Pro tip: You can also disable the editing feature to ensure that messages are accurately conveyed every time they’re shared.
Review influencer partnerships
If you collaborate with influencers or brand ambassadors who endorse financial products or services, conduct due diligence to ensure they are aware of SEC regulations.
It’s a good idea to establish clear guidelines and contractual obligations regarding compliance and disclosure to protect your brand and mitigate potential risks right from square one.
Archive everything
If there’s ever a question about your compliance, the SEC is going to want to dig back in time, so keep those receipts.
It is crucial to archive all of your brand’s social media communications to maintain a complete record of interactions, ensuring compliance with record-keeping requirements.
Hot collab alert: Hootsuite integrates with Proofpoint, offering seamless archiving capabilities and enhanced security.
Conduct regular audits
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but SEC compliance is not a one-day affair — it’s an ongoing process.
That means brands should regularly review and audit social media activities to identify any potential gaps or areas of non-compliance. Pop it in your calendar to do annually to make sure you’re catching issues promptly and implementing corrective measures before things go too far.
Read more about social media compliance and how to set up a social media compliance process for your team here.
Implement review processes
Getting two sets of eyes on every tweet is the easiest way to catch problem content before it goes out into the world.
Establish internal review processes to review and approve content before it is published on social media. This can help ensure compliance with SEC regulations and (bonus!) lets your team maintain consistency in messaging across platforms.
One easy way to do this? Set up an approval workflow using Hootsuite’s social media dashboard.
Leverage social media management tools
Okay, we know we’re a broken record here, but seriously: social media management platforms like Hootsuite, which offer advanced features for compliance monitoring and management, can help streamline your social media activities, ensure brand consistency, and provide archival capabilities for regulatory purposes.
We’ve got a free trial for you here!
Stay updated on SEC guidance
We’re all growing and changing all the time… and so is the SEC.
Keep abreast of any updates or guidance issued by the SEC regarding social media sites and securities regulations so that you don’t accidentally put yourself in hot water, breaking a rule you didn’t know existed.
Follow the SEC on social, and watch their press release page closely so that you can adapt your strategies and practices accordingly, ensuring ongoing compliance.
FAQs about the SEC and social media
Does the SEC regulate social media?
Yes, the SEC actively regulates social media pages to prevent fraud, ensure fair disclosure, and protect investors.
Avoid sharing misleading statements or insider information, and always disclose any conflicts of interest.
Share material information in a timely matter, and don’t engage in manipulative behavior. Let’s create an internet with no more pump-and-dump schemes, please and thank you.
Which influencers were charged by the SEC?
In recent years, several influencers have faced charges by the SEC for violating securities laws over social media, including cases involving undisclosed endorsements and fraudulent investment schemes. These charges underscore the importance of transparency and compliance for influencers operating in the financial realm.
Notably, in December 2022, eight influencers were charged in a $100-million securities fraud case. The defendants were accused of feeding a steady stream of misinformation to their social media followers in order to falsely inflate the value of stocks they held.
Save time managing your social media presence and stay compliant with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can publish and schedule posts, connect with new clients, measure results, and get your posts approved by managers and compliance officers.
Book a personalized, no-pressure demo to see how Hootsuite helps financial services:
→ Drive revenue
→ Prove ROI
→ Manage risk and remain compliant
→ Simplify social media marketing
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B2B social media marketing can be an effective way for brands to build awareness, strengthen relationships, and close sales. But B2B social marketers face unique challenges when it comes to tone and content mix.
So, how do you use social tools to bring in (and keep) followers, create engagement, build brand awareness, and fill your funnel? Read on for all the tips you need to build an effective B2B social media strategy.
Bonus: Get a free social media strategy template to quickly and easily plan your own strategy. Also use it to track results and present the plan to your boss, teammates, and clients.
B2B social media marketing is the use of social channels to market products or services to business clients and prospects. (B2B stands for business-to-business, as opposed to business-to-consumer or B2C.)
Marketers at B2C companies use social channels to reach consumers and influence purchases. Effective B2B marketing requires a different approach. B2B marketers have to think more strategically to reach business owners and decision-makers. They then nurture relationships that can lead to large purchase agreements.
All social channels can have a place in B2B marketing. But the balance and type of content will look different for a B2B social media strategy than for a consumer-focused plan.
B2B social media success begins with a sound B2B social media strategy. Here’s how to build one for your brand.
1. Align goals with business objectives
Just like a good B2C strategy, every B2B social media plan should answer the following two questions:
- What are the company’s business objectives?
- How will B2B social media marketing help achieve them?
But the similarities mostly end here. B2B and B2C social media marketers use social platforms for different purposes. B2C social media campaigns drive sales, while B2B social is more “top of funnel.” Social media goals for B2B marketers should likely focus on longer-term business objectives.
In fact, the top 3 overall goals for B2B companies are:
- Create brand awareness
- Build trust and credibility
- Educate audiences
Generating sales or revenue comes in at number 8.
Those top three goals all contribute to social media B2B lead generation. Successful B2B marketers also use content marketing to nurture subscribers, audiences, or leads.
Our blog post on goal-setting can help you establish the right goals and objectives for your B2B social media plan.
Don’t forget to include internal objectives and goals within your plan. According to research published in the Journal of Business Logistics, social media can help account managers increase both product and competitor knowledge.
2. Know your audience
Your corporate structure probably caters to various client personas. Or, at least, different client categories.
For instance, a design firm might work for commercial, public, and residential customers. It likely has team members or verticals that specialize in each category.
Your B2B social media marketing strategy should do the same. Focus on building fleshed-out buyer personas of your ideal customers. These will allow you to create social media content that speaks to real people.
Understanding your audience also means understanding which social channels they use. As a general rule, you should be where your customers are. Not sure where that might be? Start with the overall social media demographics. Then, dive into some audience research.
Almost all B2B content marketers (96%) use LinkedIn. They also rated it as the top-performing organic platform.
Source: Content Marketing Institute
For paid social media posts, the picture for B2B social media platforms is similar but not identical. LinkedIn again comes out on top (78%). But Instagram outranks YouTube and Twitter (a.k.a. X) is down at the bottom of the pack.
Source: Content Marketing Institute
Separate channels may also be relevant for different verticals, products, and markets. Depending on the industry and size of your business, you might want to consider:
- a news channel
- a careers channel
- a customer service account
Or any other account that speaks to a specific audience within your niche. Make sure you’re delivering the information your target audience wants in the right place and at the right time.
Keep in mind that B2B social marketing will likely become even more personalized in the future. Account-based marketing (ABM) will become the norm. In ABM, sales and marketing teams work together. They personalize outreach and marketing to decision-makers at target companies.
Social media is a prime tool for ABM. For instance, social listening allows you to keep tabs on your most important prospects.
3. Understand the competition
While you never want to copy the competition, it’s always useful to know what they’re up to. Understanding what the competition is doing helps you understand your own specific niche.
Start by benchmarking your current social media performance against your competitors. Hootsuite Analytics has a built-in benchmarking tool that shows how you stack up against others in your field.
You can get an even better understanding of the competition by using social media listening to monitor their social media activities, so you can gain insights from their B2B social media examples. Such as:
- When and how often they post
- What kinds of voice and tone they use
- What kind of content gets the most engagement
- Specific customer pain points that may be unaddressed
You can use this information to guide your own social strategy. Especially before you have enough data to get meaningful insights from your own social posts. (More on that later.)
Want more details on competitor research? We’ve got a full blog post on how to conduct a competitor analysis on social media.
4. Create a content calendar and content library
Once you understand your customers and the competition, it’s time to think about what and when you will post on social media.
First, you need to plan your content calendar: What you will post on each of your social accounts and when. Deciding on the right content mix is an important part of this step, as no one will want to follow you if all you do is promote your products. We’ve got some content ideas for you later on in this post.
A social media management platform organizes your content calendar so you can create and schedule content in advance. And 76% of the most successful B2B businesses do so.
Hootsuite’s Composer allows you to schedule all of your social media channels from one screen. You have a holistic view of your content distribution. This advance planning gives you time to use the built-in content approval workflows. Composer also recommends the best time to post on each platform based on your past performance and selected goals.
Hootsuite’s content library is another important feature for B2B marketers. You can use the library to store pre-approved content and brand assets.
This protects your brand identity and reputation while making life easier for all members of the content creation team.
5. Analyze and refine
Almost all (87%) of the most successful B2B content marketers say they measure their content performance accurately. Compare that to only 19% of the least successful.
This makes sense. How can you know how well your social content performs if you don’t measure with clear metrics and KPIs?
What metrics and data should you monitor? This depends on your business goals. You might focus on response time, impressions, engagement rate, conversions, sales, and more. The important thing is to set benchmarks and achievable goals.
Don’t ignore barometers like customer satisfaction ratings, qualitative reviews, and your Net Promoter Score. Look at reductions in recruitment and customer support costs as well. All of this contributes to return on investment.
Be realistic about what efforts you’ll have hard numbers for and which will be trickier to quantify. Remember, just because you can measure something doesn’t always mean you should. And just because you can’t measure something (easily) doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile.
Your best ally in building out a performance measurement plan is a good social media analytics tool. Hootsuite Analytics gives you one-screen access to performance data from every social network, including easy-to-understand graphics and charts.
Speak to humans, not businesses
Remember that you’re not talking to brands – you’re talking to the people behind those brands. Likewise, they want to do business with the humans behind your brand.
In the LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact study, 64% of executives said they prefer “a more human, less formal tone of voice” over “an even-toned, intellectual voice.”
And you’re not just talking to CEOs and purchasing officers. Younger people will move up the ranks and be making purchasing decisions within a few years. It pays to nurture relationships with industry pros at all stages of their careers.
One simple way to break out of the boardroom with your content is to get your employees involved. Tell their stories. Highlight their accomplishments. Real people make your social media presence and brand voice appear more human and boost your recruiting efforts.
Tip: You can easily build a streamlined employee social program using Hootsuite Amplify.
Help your audience do their jobs
Think about ways you can make your followers’ (work) lives easier or more enjoyable. Provide content and resources that delight them in some way. Think how-to information, industry news, trends, tips, strategy, and so on.
Thought leadership is particularly important. 61% of decision-makers say thought leadership can be ”moderately or a lot more effective at demonstrating the potential value of its products/services compared to traditional product-oriented marketing.”
In content that does specifically promote your product, focus on how it will directly benefit the customer in real business terms. The latest Linked-in-Edelman B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report found that non-business-critical suppliers can best increase their chances of making a sale by:
- Proving they will increase a prospect’s profit margins or minimize losses
- Showing they can increase the likelihood of the prospect retaining customers and clients during a downturn
- Showing they can help the prospect outperform competitors
Use humor your followers will understand
B2B social media is about starting conversations and building relationships that lead to sales in the long term. That “long term” part is key, though. Followers aren’t going to stick around if your content doesn’t interest them.
So don’t let B2B’s reputation for boring content hold you back. Humor is an import tool in your content-creation toolbox. You just have to find the right tone.
What kind of humor speaks directly to your audience? Is there an inside joke that only industry pros will understand? A pun that will amuse your followers while highlighting your product benefits? Signal to your audience that you understand social media is primarily a platform for content that entertains and delights.
Respond to DMs and comments
If we were to highlight the most important component of a B2B social media strategy, this would probably be it. Anyone who comments on your content or sends you a DM is expressing interest in your brand. They’re practically raising their hands and shouting, “Hey! I’m a lead!”
That said, it’s easy for comments and DMs to get lost when you’re juggling multiple social platforms, each with its own inbox. A consolidated social media inbox like the one built into Hootsuite makes sure you never miss a thing.
Hootsuite Inbox also speeds up your response time by automatically routing messages through to the most appropriate person on your team. This ensures potential sales don’t get bogged down in the customer service queue.
Reduce response time (and your workload)
Manage all your messages stress-free with easy routing, saved replies, and friendly chatbots. Try Hootsuite’s Inbox today.
1. Share a free resource
A free resource like a white paper or report can be a valuable way to earn the trust of your B2B social media followers. But only if the report provides quality information backed up by reliable data and research – and offers real-world suggestions for how to incorporate that information into operations.
Two of the main qualities business leaders look for in thought leadership content are “robust research and strong supporting data” and “concrete guidance on how to respond to the issues or opportunities discussed.”
For example, here’s the primary and secondary data information for the Hootsuite 2023 Social Media Career Report:
And here are some of the ways Hootsuite shared the report on social media:
But how much asking is too much? 🤣
All kidding aside, this is why you must ask for the damn raise already! You deserve it for so many reasons.
Discover the most convincing reasons, and build up the courage to ask with insights from our career report: https://t.co/khvqGRv9m1 pic.twitter.com/yzD3sPLZ4k
— Hootsuite 🦉 (@hootsuite) September 19, 2023
2. Crack a joke
We talked about humor earlier in this post. Here’s where the rubber hits the road. From a tongue-in-cheek play on words, to a funny meme, to a straight-up dad joke, tickle your followers’ funny bones from time to time to keep them coming back for more.
The level of humor can vary with the platform, and should be based on audience research. For instance, you can likely skew a lot more silly on TikTok than on LinkedIn.
@adobe @artandsuchevan finds creativity in the tiniest and most unexpected places ✨
Keep a close eye on your analytics after posting anything outside the norm for your brand to see how your audience responds. If they love it, give them more. If the response is tepid or you see an unusual number of unfollows, rethink your strategy and try a different approach to humor.
3. Join a relevant conversation
We talked about social listening above in the context of competitor research. But it’s also a great way to find conversations relevant to your industry and your brand.
Simply add relevant hashtags and industry terms to your Hootsuite streams. When you find a relevant conversation, pop in with helpful information (never a hard sell). This is all about building relationships and creating brand awareness.
For example, when Patrick Mahomes was caught correcting an awkward grammar mistake on Twitter (shout out to the edit button!), both Grammarly and Merriam-Webster jumped in.
Source: @PatrickMahomes
The edit deserves a touchdown.🏈
— Grammarly (@Grammarly) September 12, 2023
Proud of this edit.
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 12, 2023
4. Share some stats
We’ve talked about the importance of thought leadership already. Quick stats and infographics are an easy and effective way to share thought leadership on social media without requiring followers to dive deep into a long report.
Infographics are snackable and highly shareable, meaning they can help your content spread well beyond your own social followers.
5. Empathize
Business can be tough, and you can gain a lot of brand loyalty by showing you understand the difficulties employees face. Remember, you need to win the hearts and minds of future business leaders, not just those who are making purchasing decisions today.
We hope this message finds you well. Unless you’re on PTO. In that case, we hope this message does not find you; we hope you find yourself with a fully recharged battery. 🔋
— Slack (@SlackHQ) September 19, 2023
Easily manage all your social media profiles using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts, engage your followers, monitor relevant conversations, measure results, manage your ads, and much more.
Do it better with Hootsuite, the all-in-one social media tool. Stay on top of things, grow, and beat the competition.
![2023-average-engagement-rates-for-13-industries-[stats]](https://www.social-ping.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/134947-2023-average-engagement-rates-for-13-industries-stats.png)
So you’ve planned and launched a social media campaign, and waited patiently for the likes, comments, and conversions to roll in. Now you’re looking at your performance report, wondering what the numbers actually mean. Is a 2% engagement rate high or low? Did your target audience love your campaign, or was it a flop?
Without social media benchmarks (a.k.a. average performance stats for a social platform or industry), it’s difficult to make sense of raw data. But we got you. In this post, we’ve rounded up average social media engagement rates from 13 top industries to give you a better understanding of where you stand. (And empower you to brag to your boss with data-informed confidence — you’re welcome.)
We’ve even included a simple (and free!) engagement rate calculator you can use to quickly double-check your own performance stats.
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Average engagement rates (September 2023)
Below, you’ll find the latest average engagement rates (per post), broken down by industry and social network.
Where did this data come from? Our team collects and anonymously compiles data from social accounts connected to Hootsuite. Each benchmark is based on at least 100 social accounts, and no data can be traced back to any individual account.
For more benchmarks (including impressions, audience growth rate, posting frequency, and much more) and insights that will help you improve your marketing strategy, start a free 30-day Hootsuite trial and browse stats from your industry — and hand-picked competitors — in Hootsuite Analytics
Agencies
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 1.02%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 2.06%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 0.82%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 1.18%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 0.71%
Education
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 1.03%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 3.16%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 1.63%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 1.81%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 0.52%
Entertainment and media
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 1.4%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 1.66%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 1.09%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 1.32%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 9.77%
Financial services
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 0.99%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 1.87%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 0.97%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 1.74%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 0.64%
Food and beverage
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 0.79%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 1.49%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 0.71%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 1.11%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 0.64%
Government
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 1.33%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 2.05%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 1.64%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 2.14%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 0.8%
Healthcare and wellness
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 0.92%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 2.28%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 1.31%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 1.61%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 0.75%
Nonprofit
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 1.18%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 2.47%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 1.61%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 2.26%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 0.63%
Real estate
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 0.81%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 1.5%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 1.01%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 1.68%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 0.39%
Retail
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 0.87%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 2.07%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 0.82%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 1.29%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 1.21%
Professional services and consulting
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 0.89%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 1.62%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 1.05%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 1.55%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 0.36%
Technology
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 1.34%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 1.47%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 1%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 1.72%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 0.55%
Travel, hospitality, and leisure
- Average X (Twitter) engagement rate: 1.32%
- Average Instagram engagement rate: 1.7%
- Average Facebook engagement rate: 0.97%
- Average LinkedIn engagement rate: 1.47%
- Average TikTok engagement rate: 6.01%
Average engagement rates: September insights
1. Instagram users are the most engaged
Across almost all industries, Instagram consistently has the highest average rates compared to other social networks.
Interestingly, educational institutions generated higher Instagram engagement than any other industry in September. If you run social media for a school, college, or university and struggle to get your engagement rates up to the industry average, here are some tips that will help.
2. TikTok is a great platform for entertainment and travel-related content
Exceptionally high TikTok engagement rates suggest that short-form video is a great way to capture audience attention in these sectors. If you operate in one of these industries and haven’t started using TikTok to promote your business yet, you might be missing out! Our beginner’s guide to TikTok marketing will help you get started and connect with TikTok’s hyper-engaged community.
3. Financial services and technology have a hard(ish) time generating engagement
In general, financial institutions and tech companies appear to generate slightly lower social media engagement compared to other sectors — on every social media platform except for LinkedIn. This might be because these industries deal with complex and technical topics that can be challenging to engage a broad audience.
Remember: It’s not a product or service that makes something seem “boring” — it’s bad marketing. You can create engaging social content even if your industry has a boring reputation. Not sure how? Check out these blog posts for inspiration:
4. The food and beverage industry wins on Instagram
Restaurants and other food-related businesses see high engagement on Instagram — which makes perfect sense, considering the platform’s focus on visual content (and its users’ obsession with posting pictures of their meals).
Free engagement rate calculator
Ready to compare your performance to industry benchmarks? Use this free tool to find out your engagement rate by post.
Note: If you’re calculating your account’s total engagement, include information about all your posts (e.g total number of posts published, total number of likes, and so on). If you’re calculating the engagement rate of a specific social media marketing campaign, only include the details of the posts that were part of the campaign.
If you’re looking for more detailed data or you want to calculate different kinds of engagement (like engagement rate by reach or engagement rate by impressions), download our free spreadsheet calculator that will do the math for you.
Or, better yet, start a free 30-day Hootsuite trial to easily track the performance of all your social channels in one place (so you can replicate what works and get more engagement). Hootsuite’s social media analytics tool collects your stats from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
With Hootsuite Analytics, you can also:
- Find out when your audience is online
- Get personalized recommendations for your best times to post for each of your accounts
- Easily view industry benchmarks and see how you compare to competitors
Use Hootsuite to track and improve engagement rates across all your social media channels. Try it free today.
Beat the competition
See how you perform against competitors, get actionable insights, and become the best in your space with Hootsuite Analytics.
Responding to messages quickly is a huge part of social media customer service—and it’s no different whether you’re dealing with messages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram. Luckily, Instagram has an easy-to-use option that can cut down on your team’s time responding to questions.
With Instagram auto reply, you can easily set auto-responses to common questions and messages. This feature cuts down on the time your social media support team needs to spend monitoring and replying to customers.
In this article, we’ll talk more about the Instagram auto reply feature, how it can be used, and a few message examples for inspiration.
Bonus: Get a free, easy-to-use Customer Service Report Template that helps you track and calculate your monthly customer service efforts all in one place.
What is Instagram auto reply?
Instagram auto reply is a feature available in your Instagram message settings that allows you to send automatic responses to frequently asked questions.
For example, if you regularly get a question like, “Do you offer free shipping?” your team can set up an auto reply that will answer the question instantly rather than forcing the customer to wait for a real person to respond.
There are a few different ways you can do this:
- Instagram tools: Set automatic responses for frequently asked questions or craft canned messages that your team can easily send out via Instagram DM.
- Meta Business Suite: Set up messaging automations for both Instagram and Facebook.
- Third-party inboxes: Use tools like Hootsuite Inbox to easily monitor and manage your Instagram direct messages and comments.
Learn more about how a social inbox like Hootsuite’s can help streamline your social media communication in this video:
There are several ways to take advantage of Instagram’s auto reply feature. Here are just a few types of automated responses you might consider setting up:
- Welcome messages
- Away messages
- Frequently asked questions
- Share contact information
- Share business hours of operation
- Provide shipment and payment details
- Offer discounts
- Explain wholesale pricing information
- Tell customers how to handle issues with their orders
- Share links to additional resources
Pros and cons of using Instagram auto reply
So why use Instagram auto reply? Is it the best option for creating automated responses and freeing up your team’s time? As always, it depends on your needs.
Let’s cover some basic pros and cons to help you decide.
Pros
- Make a good impression. Instagram shows your followers how quick your team is to respond. A faster response time is a better look for your business.
- Answer questions before they’re asked. Create an auto-responder that gives your customers a clear idea of when they can expect to hear from a real person—unless your auto replies can give their answer immediately.
- Save your team time. Stop writing the same reply over and over again. Automated messages give your team more time for escalated messages and other customer support issues.
- Never miss a message. You don’t have to worry about time zones when you enlist auto reply. Even when your team isn’t working, customers can get answers as soon as they send a message.
Cons
- Only for Instagram and Facebook. Instagram/Meta’s built-in features only work for these two platforms. You’ll have to enlist the help of external tools for other social media platforms—don’t worry, we’ve got more on that below.
- You have to connect your Facebook and Instagram pages. In order to access some of the more advanced tools, you must use Meta Business Suite, so you’ll have to connect your Facebook and Instagram pages.
Reduce response time (and your workload)
Manage all your messages stress-free with easy routing, saved replies, and friendly chatbots. Try Hootsuite’s Inbox today.
15 Instagram auto reply message examples
Not sure what types of auto replies to set for your Instagram messages? Here are 15 examples to help inspire you.
Welcome message
Send one of these options to all new incoming Instagram DMs whenever your team is unavailable for a quick response:
- Thank you for getting in touch! Our team is available from 10am-3pm CT. We’ll get back to you within those hours!
- Hey there—thanks for reaching out! Your message is important to us. Someone on our team will get back to you within the next 12 hours.
- Sorry we missed you! Our team is currently unavailable, but we’ll be back around 8am GMT.
Basic business information
Use one of these when someone messages you on Instagram to ask about hours of operation or contact information:
- Our hours of operation are 11am-11pm ET Monday through Saturday.
- To get in touch with a representative directly, please give us a call at [###-###-####].
- To learn more or request a demo, email us at sales@company.com.
- Our offices are located at 1234 Business Street.
Frequently asked questions
Here are a few common questions and answers you might want to incorporate into your Instagram auto replies.
How long does shipping take?
- You can expect your items to arrive within 3-5 business days of your order.
How can I cancel my plan?
- To cancel, go to the “Account” section of your dashboard and find the “Cancel plan” button.
- We’re sad to see you go! To cancel, please call one of our representatives directly at [###-###-####] or send an email to cancellations@company.com
Do you offer any discounts?
- We love that you asked! Use promo code INSTA for 10% off your purchase.
What services do you offer?
- We offer accounting services for small businesses.
How much do your services cost?
- We work on a monthly retainer basis. Packages start at $1,000/month and go up to $15,000+ depending on your needs.
Are you taking new patients?
- Yes, please head to our website to fill out the form for new patients.
- Unfortunately, our therapists are fully booked at the moment. Please check back next quarter to see if any spots have opened up.
There are two ways to set up auto replies on Instagram. The first is pretty easy—do so right inside the Instagram app. The second involves digging into the Automations option in Meta Business Suite.
We’ll walk you through each process.
How to set up auto replies via the Instagram app
First, open the Instagram app. Tap the messages icon in the top right corner of the home feed. Then, tap on the ellipses in the top right corner of your messages dashboard and select Tools.
Here, you can set either saved replies (canned responses your team can tap on to send manually) or auto replies for frequently asked questions.
Tap on Frequently asked questions to access the auto reply feature. Instagram will typically include a few starter questions. You can customize these or use them as is—just add answers.
Add as many questions as you want. You can even show these questions in chat, so customers who want to message you have options to choose from.
How to set up auto replies in Meta Business Suite
If you have your Facebook Business Page set up and optimized and your Instagram business profile connected, you can use Meta Business Suite to create automations like this.
First, head over to your Facebook Business Page, then click on Meta Business Suite in the left-hand sidebar.
You’ll then be taken to the Meta Business Suite dashboard. From here, click on Inbox in the right-hand sidebar.
This inbox section will hold all messages and comments from Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. If you’re looking for a single place to manage these, Business Suite is a great place to do so. The biggest downfall is that those are the only platforms you can monitor here (more on that later).
To set up your auto-reply messages, click the atom icon to access Automations.
Here, you can set up a number of automations relating to your direct messages across all of Meta’s platforms. If you haven’t previously set up Frequently asked questions, it will appear as one of the Suggested for you options. Click on it to get started.
Select your Instagram account from the list of places you want to turn this automation on. Then, start adding questions. You can preview them in the left-hand sidebar.
Once you’re done, click Save changes and toggle this automation into the On position. And voila! You’ve got your frequently asked questions set up.
Other automations you can create are:
- Away messages
- Instant replies
- Follow ups
How to auto-respond to messages and comments on Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn
We mentioned that Meta Business Suite is great for managing your messages and comments on Facebook and Instagram. But if your brand uses other platforms, like X (formerly known as Twitter) and LinkedIn, you’ll need additional support.
Good news—you’re in luck! With Hootsuite’s Social Inbox, your entire social media and customer support team can monitor, manage, and respond to messages across all social media platforms in one space.
You can store information about various customers so you never start a new interaction as strangers, helping customers feel seen and valued. Assign messages and interactions to certain team members so the most-equipped person can handle each specific issue.
Use Hootsuite Inbox as your social media help desk, resolving messages as soon as they’ve been responded to and keeping notes on customer issues.
Create auto-responders for every social media platform you manage with Hootsuite.
Book a free Hootsuite demo and try Inbox today
Why should you use Instagram auto reply?
Instagram auto reply is a great way to minimize wait time for frequently asked questions. If you know common questions your audience has, and there’s a set answer you can provide, set it as an auto-response.
This saves your team time and ensures your Instagram followers don’t have to wait for a response.
How do you turn Instagram auto reply off?
There’s no quick on-off toggle for Instagram auto reply. Instead, you’ll have to go into your Instagram messaging tools and remove any frequently asked question responses you’ve input.
What is a saved reply on Instagram?
A saved reply is a similar tool to auto replies. Instead of sending instantaneously, though, saved replies are simply stored in your Instagram messaging settings for your team to manually send out. This works if the question someone asks has different answers depending on the time of year. You can save replies for a quick response, but you don’t want to have the response be automatic.
Keep your customers happy with faster message responses, thanks to Hootsuite. Respond to questions and complaints, create tickets from social conversations, and work with chatbots all from one dashboard. See it in action.
Save time on social messaging with automated responses, smarter workflows, and friendly chatbots — all in the Hootsuite Inbox.
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