Calculating Your Engagement Rate
Written by Courtney Raguso, Social Media Content Creator
What is engagement rate?
Engagement rate is a formula that’s used to measure the performance of a social account. A high performing account would be considered to have high levels of engagement which can be read as interactions from the audience. This can include reactions, likes, comments, shares, saves, direct messages, mentions, or click-throughs, depending on the social network. When we refer to “Engagement”, we are referring to actions people are taking on your post. So this wouldn’t include someone just viewing a post, instead they would have to interact with the post by either commenting, sharing, saving or liking it. There are multiple ways to measure engagement rate, but today we are going to show you the easiest way to calculate it.
Why should you track engagement rate?
Tracking your engagement rates is a helpful way to keep track of the performance of your social account. It also offers you a way to measure data and performance overtime and compare your growth over a period of time. When it comes to social media analytics, follower growth is important, however, if you aren’t getting any engagement, what good does that do? The goal is to give people content they care about and will want to interact with. By getting likes, shares, and comments, you’ll find out a lot faster if your content resonates with your audience. Your engagement rate will reflect how well your content aligns with your audience and get some form of feedback on where you should take it next. When your engagement rate is high, you can bet on having a stronger and healthier relationship with your followers who are now more likely to be willing to make a purchase in the future with your brand.
Common engagement metrics:
- reactions
- likes
- comments
- shares
- saves
- direct messages
- mentions (tagged or untagged)
- click-throughs
- clicks
- profile visits
- link clicks
- calls
- sticker taps (Stories)
- Get Directions (Instagram only)
- use of branded hashtags
How to calculate your Engagement Rate:
Calculating this is simple, all you have to do is take your interactions which includes likes, comments and shares, then dividing that by the total number of followers you have and times it by 100.
Interactions / Total followers x 100
How to calculate cost per engagement:
Now if you want to see how much your engagements are costing you, another useful equation you can use is cost per engagement (CPE). If you’ve chosen to sponsor content and you want to know how much that investment is paying off, try using this equation. Most social media ad platforms will make this calculation for you, but just make sure to check which interactions count as engagements, so you can be sure you’re comparing apples to apples.
CPE = Total amount spent / Total engagements.
What is a good engagement rate?
Most social media marketing experts agree that a good engagement rate is between 1% to 5%. The more followers you have, the harder it is to achieve. Believe it or not, the average engagement rate is 0.5-1%, but what’s considered a low engagement rate is under .5%. So if you are getting numbers that low, it’s time to re-examine your messaging.
Increasing your engagement rate:
When it comes to increasing your rate, you’ll have to focus on delivering value through your content. That can be answering their questions, giving them tips and tutorials, or even posting something really funny and relatable. Recent reports have shown that most e-commerce brands have trouble. Engagement rates are the currency of the social media marketing industry. It’s better to have an engaged audience than just a large audience of people who don’t care about what you’re posting. Of course we like to see a lot of likes for the popularity aspect, but what really matters is the bigger picture. A like takes two seconds, but comments can tell you what people are saying about your brand. Shares and saves show that people are interested in your content and that it’s worth seeing more than once. Mentions help you broaden your reach. Direct messages show that people are considering making a purchase. Engagement metrics helps you gauge a social campaign’s return on investment, and gives you the opportunity to make more data-driven decisions to help improve what content you put out as a brand. This was never meant to be easy, which is why we have experts to help!
At MSM DesignZ, we put in the time and energy needed for success, so you can ensure you are using every dollar for maximum return. With over 20 years in the business, we have watched marketing evolve from traditional to digital. Whether you need a website refresh, more attractive email, or a quality online presence, we can do it all. When we take on a client, we put in 110% and treat every brand as if it’s our own. We will always continue to place our clients’ needs at the heart of our operations. From web development to social media management, we’ll work directly with you to build a personalized strategy to not only retain but also gain business. We are assisting in all areas for our clients. Visit our contact page at https://www.msmdesignz.com/contact/, and we’ll work with you to devise a custom plan that will keep your brand alive and well. We look forward to working with you!
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