Learning Social Media: Why is Engagement Rate Important?
When pulling together social media analytics, there’s a huge array of factors you can report on. From impressions to audience growth to link clicks- the numbers seem to never end. Our favorite reporting metric? Engagement rate. Let’s dive into what it is, how you can calculate it, and why we believe it’s such an important metric.
What is Engagement Rate?
Your content’s engagement rate calculates how your audience engages with your content. The two most common methods for determining this are engagement rate by reach (ERR) and engagement rate by posts (ER Post).
Calculating Engagement Rate by Reach
Calculating your engagement rate by reach uses the number of people who actually see your post, who may or may not be already following you. This method will allow you to calculate for people who find your content organically through hashtags, keywords, shares, the explore page, and more. It illustrates how often people actually interacted with your content when they came across it, usually a good indicator of whether or not it was useful to them.
To determine your ERR, divide the number of engagements you have on a post (including likes, follows, shares, etc) by how many people your post reached. Then, multiply that number by 100% to get your engagement rate.
Calculating Engagement Rate by Posts
Where using the ERR method uses the number of people who saw your post, calculating your engagement rate by posts takes into account your current followers. Calculating your ER Post shows you how engaged your followers are, indicating if your content is relevant to your audience that you already have.
Your ER Post can be found by dividing the total number of engagements on a post (including likes, follows, shares, etc) by the number of followers the account has. Multiply that number by 100%.
ERR Vs. ER Post
While both ERR and ER Post have their advantages based on what specific analytics you’re seeking, our agency tends to use ERR more often. Most of our video traffic across the board comes from non-followers, so the ERR method takes that into account.
ERR also tends to be the more effective tool when your main goal is to grow a smaller account, while ER Post is great when you’re trying to keep the community that you already have engaged.
Why is Your Engagement Rate Important?
Whether you choose to use the ERR or ER Post method (or both!), you’re able to see if your content lands with your audience. Engagement rates show which posts are most successful, allowing you to tailor your strategy to what has been proven to work for your accounts. If you’re running multiple campaigns on your account, such as releasing new items or running a sale, you’ll be able to see how successful each one is by calculating your average engagement rate.
The point is, a higher engagement rate means a more engaged audience. An engaged audience is more likely to lead to sales, conversions, and traffic.
Impressions Vs Engagement
Vanity metrics, like impressions, are just that: vain. While it may feel good to see high views or lots of followers, does it really matter how many people saw your content if no one interacted with it? If people don’t relate to your content, or it provides them with no value, they’re much less likely to make a sale, visit your website, or even do more research into your company.
Without engagements, your content may just be taking up space on your page.
People engaging with your content can indicate to the platform’s algorithm to show it to more people, ultimately leading to higher impressions, even more overall engagement, and keeping the post circulating longer.
What is a Good Engagement Rate?
Each platform and industry has its own average rates. Sprout Social has a great resource to find benchmarks for your niche, and Hootsuite keeps its page of average engagement rates updated.
Comparing your average engagement rate with others in your industry will give you an indication of whether your strategy is on the right track or not.
Whether you’re just starting out or a social media pro, determining your engagement rate every month is one of the most effective ways to measure your analytics. Want to improve your company’s engagement rate without having to determine your strategy, worry about trends, or keep track of your audience? Contact us and we’ll talk all things social media, strategy, and analytics.
