Cohort
The comparison set you judge your numbers against: chosen deliberately, or chosen badly.
A cohort is the group you're comparing yourself to. In content analysis it's usually a handful of accounts in the same category, at a broadly similar scale, publishing to the same platform.
Cohort choice does more to shape a competitive read than any other decision, and it's the one most often made by accident. Include a channel ten times your size and every number says you're failing. Include only channels you already beat and every number says you're winning. Neither is information.
A useful cohort is boringly specific: same platform, same rough audience size, same category, same period. Write down why each account is in it. If you can't justify an inclusion in a sentence, it's there to flatter you or to scare you.
Where this comes up
A repeatable method for reading a competitor's strategy from public data alone: what to collect, how to compare it honestly, and what it can't tell you.
Four tiers of content evidence, from public view counts to sales data: what each can prove, what it can't, and how to know which one you're holding.