Engagement metrics

What is engagement rate?

Engagement rate is a formula that measures the amount of interaction social content earns relative to reach or other audience figures. This can include reactions, likes, comments, shares, saves, direct messages, mentions, click-throughs and more (depending on the social network). “Engagement” on social media generally refers to actions that are more active than passive (such as views or impressions).

Why should you track engagement rate?

When it comes to social media analytics, follower growth is important, but it doesn’t mean a lot if your audience doesn’t care about the content you post. You need comments, shares, likes and other actions that prove your content is resonating with the people who see it. Your engagement rate does just that — shows how much your content is resonating with your audience. It also shows that your relationship with your followers is strong and healthy. If they are willing to take the time to comment on your post, they are paying attention and likely willing to turn into a customer one day.

Common engagement metrics

Now for the age-old question: what counts as engagement? We’ve already hinted at it above, but here’s a more extensive list of interactions on your social media posts that could count as engagement. You may choose to include all or some of these engagement metrics in your equations:

• reactions
• likes
• comments
• shares
• saves
• direct messages
• mentions (tagged or untagged)
• click-throughs
• clicks
• profile visits
• replies
• retweets
• quote tweets
• regrams
• link clicks
• calls
• texts
• sticker taps (Stories)
• emails
• Get Directions (Instagram only)
• use of branded hashtags

Engagement rate calculation methods

These are the most common formulas you’ll need to calculate engagement rates on social media. Total engagements typically represents a tally of likes, favourites, reactions, comments, shares, views, retweets, and sometimes include clicks, depending on which platform you’re using.

1. Engagement rate by reach (ERR)

This formula is the most common way to calculate engagement with content. ERR measures the percentage of people who chose to interact with your content after seeing it. Use the first formula for a single post, and the second one to calculate the average rate across multiple posts.

ERR = total engagements per post / reach per post * 100

To determine the average, add up the all the ERRs from the posts you want to average, and divide by number of posts:

Average ERR = Total ERR / Total posts

In other words: Post 1 (3.4%) + Post 2 (3.5%) / 2 = 3.45%

Pros: Reach can be a more accurate measurement than follower count, since not all your followers will see all your content. And non-followers may have been exposed to your posts through shares, hashtags, and other means.

Cons: Reach can fluctuate for a variety of reasons, making it a different variable to control. A very low reach can lead to a disproportionately high engagement rate, and vice versa, so be sure to keep this in mind.

2. Engagement rate by posts (ER post)

Technically, this formula measures engagements by followers on a specific post. In other words, it’s similar to ERR, except instead of reach it tells you the rate at which followers engage with your content. Most social media influencers calculate their average engagement rate this way.

ER post = Total engagements on a post / Total followers *100

To calculate the average, add up all the ER posts you want to average, and divide by number of posts:

Average ER by post = Total ER by post / Total posts

Example: Post 1 (4.0%) + Post 2 (3.0%) / 2 = 3.5%

Pros: While ERR is a better way to gauge interactions based on how many people have seen your post, this formula replaces reach with followers, which is generally a more stable metric. In other words, if your reach fluctuates often, use this method for a more accurate measure of post-by-post engagement.

Cons: As mentioned, while this may be a more unwavering way to track engagements on posts, it doesn’t necessarily provide the full picture since it doesn’t account for viral reach. And, as your follower count goes up, your rate of engagement could drop off a little. Make sure to view this stat alongside follower growth analytics.

3. Engagement rate by impressions (ER impressions)

Another base audience metric you could choose to measure engagements by is impressions. While reach measures how many people see your content, impressions tracks how often that content appears on a screen.

ER impressions = Total engagements on a post / Total impressions *100

Average ER impressions = Total ER impressions / Total posts

Pros: This formula can be useful if you’re running paid content and need to evaluate effectiveness based on impressions.

Cons: An engagement rate calculated with impressions as the base is bound to be lower than ERR and ER post equations. Like reach, impression figures can also be inconsistent. It may be a good idea to use this method in conjunction with reach.

4. Daily engagement rate (Daily ER)

While engagement rate by reach measures engagement against maximum exposure, it’s still good to have a sense of how often your followers are engaging with your account on a daily basis.

Daily ER = Total engagements in a day / Total followers *100

Average Daily ER = Total engagements for X days / (X days *followers) *100

Pros: This formula is a good way to gauge how often your followers interact with your account on a daily basis, rather than how they interact with a specific post. As a result, it takes engagements on new and old posts into equation. This formula can also be tailored for specific use cases. For instance, if your brand only wants to measure daily comments, you can adjust “total engagements” accordingly.

Cons: There’s a fair amount of room for error with this method. For instance, the formula doesn’t account for the fact that the same follower may engage 10 times in a day, versus 10 followers engaging once. Daily engagements can also vary for a number of reasons, including how many posts you share. For that reason it may be worthwhile to plot daily engagement versus number of posts.

5. Engagement rate by views (ER views)

If video is a primary vertical for your brand, you’ll likely want to know how many people choose to engage with your videos after watching them.

ER view = Total engagements on video post / Total video views *100

Average ER view = Total ER view / Total posts

Pros: If one of your video’s objectives is to generate engagement, this can be a good way to track it.

Cons: View tallies often include repeat views from a single user (non-unique views). While that viewer may watch the video multiple times, they may not necessarily engage multiple times.

6. Factored Engagement Rate

In rare cases some marketers use a “factored engagement rate.” As the name suggests, factored engagement rates add more or less weight to certain factors in the equation. For example, a marketer may wish to place a higher value on comments versus likes, weighting each comment as two versus one. The subsequent equation would look something like this:

Comment-weighted ER = (Total comments x 2) + all other engagements / Reach per post *100

Obviously, this technique inflates the resulting engagement rate and can be misleading, especially since the use of factored engagement rates is not widespread. For this reason, Hootsuite does not recommend its use.

How to increase social media engagement

First, analyze your engagement

It’s hard to measure your growth if you don’t know where you’re starting from. Put on your data scientist hat (looks great on you) and jot down your current number of followers, how many comments and shares you’re getting on average per post, or whatever numbers are meaningful to you. Then make sure to keep tracking regularly so that you catch jumps or dips in engagement that can give you valuable clues about what’s working (or, just as importantly, what’s not).

Select your strategy

Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Since every company’s business goals are different, every company’s social media strategy will be too. Domino’s Pizza and Tiffany and Co. are going to have very different motivations for their engagement, and that will drive the content they put out there. Domino’s is trying to create a young, fun, and weird brand voice, while Tiffany aims to educate about its rich design history: their tweets are both engaging in their own ways.

Depending on what suits your brand and what your business has to offer, your social media engagement goals might include:

• Changing public perception of your brand
• Developing new customer leads
• Collecting feedback about new products
• Educating your audience with resources and advice

Know your audience

It’s hard to get people engaged if you don’t actually know who you’re talking to. The sort of language, tone, and resources that resonate are likely going to be different for a skateboarding company versus a gardening supply shop. Knowing your audience will also help you determine:

• What social media sites to be on
• When to publish
• Type of content
• Brand voice

Create and share valuable content

Now that you know who is following you and why you want to reach them you’re ready for the important third ‘W’: what the heck do I tell them. Content that is helpful to the audience, that addresses their needs and pain points, is critical. Think “conversation” not “broadcast.” If you’re just talking about how great your brand is, or what you have for sale, it’s going to be harder to connect. For a t-shirt company, posting pics of your latest design will only get you so far; posting fashion tips for how to dress up a t-shirt to wear to a wedding, on the other hand, is offering unique service and wisdom to help your fans out. (And daring your followers to share their own “wedding tee stories”? Even better.)

In terms of format, it’s helpful to understand which kind of content is best for each platform: artful images for Instagram, longer text posts or videos for Facebook, and so on. That being said, don’t be afraid to get creative with these post ideas:

• Contests
• Asking questions
• Polls
• Encouraging your audience to ask you questions (try an “Ask Me Anything” session)
• Test their knowledge
• Media upload contests
• Animated gifs
• Spotlighting customers
• Custom stickers or filters for Instagram Stories

Overall, the best way to figure out what content is working is to watch and learn. Be a content scientist (another hat, cute!). Experiment, observe the reaction, tweak and repeat.

Keep the conversation flowing

Some may think of conversation as an art, but in some ways, it’s really more of a sport: volleying attention and questions back and forth. Online, you need that give and take, too. It’s important for brands to practice both reactive engagement and proactive engagement. When you’re reactive, you’re answering direct messages, incoming mentions or comments. When you’re proactive, you’re the one sparking conversation with people who may be talking about you, but haven’t necessarily sent messages to you directly. Maybe they’ve mentioned you with a misspelled brand name (“I love La Croy!”), or a common, unofficial nickname (“can i pls marry a McD’s breakfast sandwich”). Either way, this is an opportunity to reach out and say hey.

Show your human sign

It’s way more tempting to engage with a brand when you think there’s a real person on the other end. And there is! (…Right?) So don’t hide it. A lot of brands encourage their social team to personally sign-off on their posts. If you’re particularly charming, you may even find yourself with a cult following. But beyond names, there are lots of ways to get personal:

• Go beyond retweeting and liking and comment to start a conversation
• Acknowledge and answer questions
• Respond to comments with humor or warmth
• Show the people behind the brand in photos or videos