Buffer’s latest benchmark data suggests that engagement became harder to earn on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Threads during 2025, but the picture is more nuanced than a simple platform decline. [1]
As Social Media Today reported, Buffer’s March 2026 study found year-over-year drops in median engagement rates from 2024 to 2025 across all three platforms. In Buffer’s dataset, Instagram fell from about 7.3% to 5.4%, Threads declined from about 4.4% to 3.6%, and LinkedIn slipped from about 6.4% to 6.1%. (Social Media Today)
Key Takeaways
- Buffer’s report is based on more than 52 million posts and uses 2025 data with year-over-year comparison to 2024, with most recent data running through December 3, 2025. (Buffer)
- The headline declines were Instagram -26%, Threads -18%, and LinkedIn -5% in median engagement rate. (Buffer)
- Even after the drop, LinkedIn still had the highest median engagement in Buffer’s 2025 dataset at about 6.1%, while Instagram still remained in the higher-engagement tier at roughly 5.4%–5.5%. (Buffer)
- Buffer also found one of the clearest cross-platform patterns in the study: posts where brands or creators reply to comments tend to perform better, with estimated lifts of +42% on Threads, +30% on LinkedIn, and +21% on Instagram. (Buffer)
- Similar benchmark work from other analytics firms points to the same broader reality: social engagements is becoming more uneven, more format-dependent, and harder to compare across platforms with one single formula. Socialinsider’s 2026 benchmark report found Instagram brand engagement essentially flat at 0.48% in its own dataset, while Metricool’s 2026 study reported declines in Instagram reach and LinkedIn impressions and interactions. (Socialinsider)
What the data actually shows
The most important thing to understand is that Buffer is measuring engagement rate, not total reach, total rime spent, or overall platform health. Its methodology says the report uses posts published through Buffer, not a full census of all content on each network, and that engagement definitions vary by platform. Instgram is measured through likes, comments and shares, Threads through likes, reposts, replies and quotes, and Linkedin through total engagements. Buffer also says these figures should be treated as within-platform benchmarks rather than perfect apples-to-apples comparisons across networks. (Buffer)
That caveat matters because a decline in engagement rate doesn’t automatically mean a platform is weakening in business terms. Buffer explicitly warns that year-over-year movement can reflect algorithm changes, shifts in account mix, changes in posting volume, and differences in what each platform is optimizing for. It specifically notes that Instagram has increasingly pushed creators toward views as a primary success metric, meaning classic engagement formulas may capture less of what Instagram itself is rewarding. (Buffer)
Instagram’s decline looks more like a format shift than a collapse
Instagram posted the sharpest decline in Buffer’s study, falling from roughly 7.3% median engagement in 2024 to 5.4%in 2025. Yet Buffer’s own analysis shows Instagram still sat in the higher-engagement tier in 2025, behind LinkedIn and close to Facebook. The platform’s deeper issue appears to be that visible engagement is becoming more uneven across formats and surfaces, not that users have simply stopped responding altogether. (Buffer)
Buffer’s format breakdown helps explain why. In its 2025 Instagram analysis, carousels led with a median engagement rate of 6.90%, single images came in at 4.44%, and Reels trailed at 3.31%. But Buffer also says a separate analysis of 4 million-plus posts found Reels tended to get the most reach, outperforming carousels by 36% and single-image posts by 125% on reach. That creates a split between discovery and interaction: Reels may still be the best tool for distribution, while carousels drive stronger direct engagement from existing audiences. (Buffer)
That broader reading also fits outside benchmark work. Socialinsider’s 2026 report, which uses a different methodology focused on brand posts across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X, found Instagram engagement almost flat year over year at 0.48%, while comments per post fell 16% and video views rose 29%. The numbers are not directly comparable to Buffer’s, but the pattern is similar: Instagram still delivers attention, yet a larger share of that attention appears to be more passive, view-driven, or harder to capture through traditional engagement metrics alone. (Socialinsider)
LinkedIn remains strong, but the environment is getting more crowded
LinkedIn’s decline was the smallest of the three, moving from about 6.4% to 6.1%, and Buffer still ranks it as the highest-median-engagement platform in its dataset. So the more accurate story is not that LinkedIn has become weak. It is that LinkedIn remains strong while becoming more competitive. (Buffer)
Buffer’s content-format findings reinforce that point. On LinkedIn, carrousel generated a median engagement rate of 21.77%, far ahead of video at 7.35%, images at 6.52%, link posts at 3.81%, and text posts at 3.18%. Buffer interprets this as a sign that LinkedIn is in the middle of an identity shift: video is increasingly important for reach and platform direction, but document-style carousels still dominate when the goal is direct interaction. (Buffer)
A similar pressure shows up in Metricool’s 2026 Social Media Study. Metricool says LinkedIn saw a 23% decrease in impressions and a 14% decline in interactions, linking that to heavier posting volume and a more saturated B2B environment. Again, the metrics are different from Buffer’s, but the direction is consistent: LinkedIn may still be one of the healthiest engagement environments in social, yet it is no longer as easy to stand out there as it was when the creator shift was newer. (Metricool)
Threads is maturing, and that usually means engagement normalizes
Threads fell from roughly 4.4% median engagement in 2024 to 3.6% in 2025, an 18% decline in Buffer’s dataset. That sounds steep, but Buffer’s own interpretation is that Threads is settling after its initial breakout phase. The report describes the platform as still relatively high engagement compared with X, but less buoyed by the novelty and early adopter dynamics that helped lift interaction in its first stretch. (Buffer)
The format breakdown on Threads also suggests that the platform is less purely text-driven than its branding sometimes implies. Buffer found video posts led with a median engagement rate of 5.55%, followed by images at 4.55%, text posts at 2.79%, and links at 2.34%. In other words, Threads may still be conversation-oriented, but visual content appears to be doing more work there than many marketers assume. (Buffer)
The most useful finding is not the decline headline
The stronger actionable pattern in Buffer’s report is not the year-over-year drop. It’s the relationship between replying and better post performance. Accross nearly 2 million post from more than 220,000 accouts on six platforms, Buffer found taht post with replied to comments consistently outperformed those without. The estimated lift was highest in Threads at +42%, followed by Linkedin at +30% and Instagram at +21%. Buffer is careful not to calim direct causationm, but it describes this one of the most stable signals in the entire dataset.(Buffer)
That matters because it reframes the problem. If engagement is getting harder to earn because feeds are more crowded, algorithms are shifting, and some platforms now reward reach more than visible interaction, then conversation itself becomes one of the few levers creators and brands still directly control. In that sense, the report is less a warning about decline than a reminder that social performance is increasingly driven by responsiveness, format fit, and clarity of goal. This is an inference drawn from Buffer’s cross-platform findings and methodology notes. (Buffer)
Practical implications for marketers
- Do not treat all engagement drops as equal. Instagram’s decline appears tied partly to reach-first video behavior, LinkedIn’s to heavier competition, and Threads’ to maturation after an early surge. (Buffer)
- Match the format to the job. On Instagram, Reels remain useful for reach while carousels drive stronger engagement; on LinkedIn, carousels still outperform video for interaction; on Threads, visuals are doing better than many text-only strategies assume. (Buffer)
- Reply behavior is one of the clearest performance levers in the data. Buffer found measurable engagement lifts when brands and creators actively answered comments. (Buffer)
- Use benchmarks directionally, not literally. Buffer itself says its data reflects Buffer-posted content only, while Socialinsider and Metricool use different pools and formulas, so cross-report differences are normal. (Buffer)
The headline that Instagram, LinkedIn, and Threads engagement declined in 2025 is directionally true in Buffer’s dataset, but it is not the full story. LinkedIn still led the pack in median engagement, Instagram still performed well relative to many platforms despite its drop, and Threads still outpaced X by engagement rate. What changed was the ease of earning visible interaction. Feeds became more competitive, format economics shifted, and engagement itself became more context-dependent. For brands and creators, the practical lesson is not to panic over the decline headline, but to publish with clearer intent, choose formats more deliberately, and treat conversation as part of the content strategy rather than an afterthought. (Buffer)