How the social operation measures up.

The brands that perform have a plan and hold to it. Marketing teams that work to a documented strategy are far more likely to report success, yet nearly 40% have none written down.¹ Presenting the brand consistently pays: companies estimate it lifts revenue by 10 to 33 percent.² And consistency beats volume: a 2026 benchmark of more than 2,000 brands found no link between how often a brand posts and how well it engages.³ What matters is one recognisable position, said the same way all year, with every post doing a job: reaching new people, starting a conversation, or turning a follower into a buyer.

Audiences want video, and they want it built for each platform. Almost two-thirds of consumers, 63%, say a short video is how they would most like to learn about a product.¹ The engagement gap proves it: Instagram Reels run at 0.52% against 0.37% for static images, with static engagement down about 17% in a year.² Reach also differs sharply by market, so one Gulf-wide feed is a mistake. In Saudi Arabia TikTok reaches around 38.6 million people while Instagram reaches only about half the population; in the UAE TikTok reaches about 12.5 million and Instagram around 70%, with Snapchat far weaker.³ A strong brand shows up where its audience is and makes vertical video for the feed, not a recycled photo.

People reward content that gives them something and abandon a feed that only sells. Around two-thirds, 66%, say the brand content they find most engaging is content that entertains or teaches,¹ while 35% will unfollow a brand for too many promotional posts and 51% for content that feels irrelevant.² The familiar guides, such as keeping hard selling to about one post in five, are rules of thumb rather than findings, but the unfollow data is real. A strong brand runs three to five recurring themes the audience comes to expect and keeps selling to a small share of the mix, giving the rest over to entertainment, useful answers and things worth sharing.

Here there are hard numbers to measure against. The 2026 benchmark across more than 2,000 brands puts the median TikTok engagement rate at 2.01% of followers, about 3.4% measured against views, and the median Instagram rate at just 0.30%, with a genuinely strong Instagram rate near or above 1%.¹ Food and beverage, the closest category to confectionery, runs ahead of the all-industry median.¹ Engagement is also still falling, with Instagram down around 16% in a year, so the test is the current median, not last year's.¹ What counts is whether the people who see a post react to it: a big view count with almost no engagement signals weak content, however large it looks.

Working with creators has the clearest return in the playbook. The widely-cited influencer benchmark puts average return at $5.78 earned for every $1 spent,¹ and 86% of consumers make at least one influencer-inspired purchase a year, with many buying monthly or more often.² Momentum is still building: in the 2026 benchmark most brands plan to raise their influencer budgets.¹ The brands that win run creators as a steady, year-round programme rather than a one-off, choose creators who genuinely fit, and label paid posts clearly. In this category a single strong creator post can earn hundreds or thousands of times what a brand's own post does.

The most persuasive media is the kind a brand does not pay for directly. 83% of people trust recommendations from people they know above any form of advertising, and about two-thirds, 66%, trust online consumer reviews.¹ Content made by real users carries weight at the till: 79% say it strongly shapes what they buy, against 12% for brand-made content.² So the healthiest brands earn and spread reach rather than only buying ads or broadcasting their own posts. Reach you pay for stops the day the budget stops; reach from creators and from people resharing keeps working. Saves and shares are the clearest sign content is being passed on rather than shown once.

Showing up reliably and answering people has a measurable payoff. 73% of consumers expect a brand to reply on social within a day, and the same share will buy from a competitor when a brand fails to respond.¹ Posting more is not the fix: a 2026 benchmark of more than 2,000 brands found no link between how often a brand posts and how well it engages.² A strong brand posts on a rhythm the audience can rely on and replies, ideally within about an hour.

Language and local timing decide whether content lands. 76% of shoppers prefer to buy when the information is in their own language and 40% will not buy at all in another,¹ yet Arabic still makes up just 0.6% of website content despite more than 300 million speakers, an open space for brands that speak it well.² The Gulf is also among the most active social audiences in the world, and during Ramadan media use rises sharply, with engagement shifting to the late evening after iftar.³ A strong Gulf brand speaks Gulf Arabic, not only formal Arabic or English, plans around Ramadan, Eid and the National Days, and treats each market on its own rather than as one place.

Two things mark a mature operation. First, it keeps content safe and on-message, with little negativity and a plan for when something goes wrong. Second, it judges itself on results, not reach. Nearly nine in ten marketers believe social drives revenue, yet only 35% can clearly attribute it, and 68% still judge social mainly on engagement metrics rather than revenue.¹ Counting impressions is easy; the better question is what the audience actually did. A strong brand ties its reporting to engagement quality and outcomes, and holds the brand-safe standards that protect it.