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We all understand the importance of posting regularly on social media and distributing high quality content, but keeping track of how your posts are performing is just as crucial. While there are many metrics that you can use to measure the success of your campaigns, your engagement rate is one of the best ways to directly assess your audience’s reaction to your content.
Usually expressed as a percentage, your engagement rate is calculated by dividing the total amount of engagements your posts receive by their total number of impressions - so, for example, the engagement rate for a post that has been seen 1000 times and has achieved 100 engagements would be 10%. Engagements are actions such as likes, comments, shares, retweets, link clicks and image expansions.
But what exactly is a good engagement rate? Truthfully, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer, as it varies greatly across every social channel. We’re taking a look at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Facebook Engagement Rate
According to RivalIQ’s 2021 social media benchmark report, the average engagement rate across all industries on Facebook is just 0.08%. Why so low? Well, it’s partly down to Facebook’s sneaky algorithm, which decides which posts it thinks people should see whenever they check their feed - as well as the order in which those posts show up. Essentially, instead of presenting every available piece of content in chronological order, it evaluates each post, scores it, and then arranges it in descending order of assumed interest for each individual user. Therefore, posts tend to reach fewer people, understandably leading to lower levels of engagement. As a result of this, an engagement rate of 1-2% generally signifies a healthy amount of success, with 5% being an ideal target to aim for.
✔️ Top tip for improving your Facebook engagement rate: Post more video content! Vertical videos in particular - especially those with a description length of up to 10 words - have been seen to increase engagement rates from 0.29% to 0.44%.
Don’t forget, boosting and paid advertising options are both available on Facebook if you want to give your brand’s posts an extra nudge (although it’s worth noting that these tools don’t guarantee higher engagement). Learn more about organic vs. paid content here on the podcast.
Twitter Engagement Rate
On Twitter, the average engagement rate across all industries is even lower, sitting at 0.045%. This is most likely due to the short lifespan of tweets (and the fact that 500 million of them are posted per day!). Because of this, most would consider 0.5% to be a good engagement rate, with anything above 1% being great.
Despite such high levels of competition on the platform, however, the good thing about Twitter is that a higher number of actions are classified as engagements than on other social sites. Clicking anywhere on a tweet, for example, counts as an engagement - and so does clicking on a hashtag, clicking on the user’s profile picture or username, voting in a poll, expanding the tweet and more.
✔️ Top tip for improving your Twitter engagement rate: Add videos, links or photos to your tweets to increase the number of retweets you receive. Photos average a 35% boost, while videos and hashtags get 28% and 16% more retweets respectively.
Instagram Engagement Rate
Engagement rates are typically higher on Instagram, perhaps due to the layout of the feed wherein only one post fills the screen at a time, automatically making viewers focus more on the content they see. The visual nature of Instagram posts also makes them easier and quicker to digest, easing users’ decision to engage.
Referring again to RivalIQ’s report, we can see that the average cross-industry rate sits at 0.98%, with the platform interestingly experiencing low posting volumes but high levels of engagement. Most experts would agree that a good engagement rate is between 1% and 5%.
✔️ Top tip for improving your Instagram engagement rate: Carousels tend to perform much better than single images, so try incorporating some of these into your content plan. You can alternate between both videos and photos in a carousel post, adding more context and variety to the information you’re sharing.
LinkedIn Engagement Rate
According to ContentCal, LinkedIn is most likely the best platform for B2B businesses to drive consistent engagement and it presents the biggest opportunity for brands that want to increase awareness and recruit new employees. The average engagement rate per post is 0.35%, with around 2% being an appropriate goal to aim for. Articles generate the highest average engagement per impressions, especially for small accounts, while videos and other visually oriented content encourage likes and comments specifically.
✔️ Top tip for improving your LinkedIn engagement rate: Share insights and voice your opinion on breaking news topics from within your industry in order to build discussion and show that your business is reactive to current affairs.
Summary
It’s important to remember that whichever social platform your brand chooses to focus on, sky-high engagement doesn’t appear magically overnight. It needs to be earned through captivating content that appeals suitably to your audience and gives them a reason to interact. Whether your business has a large following or a smaller, more intimate group of fans, putting in the time and effort to show that you care is the key to reciprocation - don’t forget the “social” in social media!
Stuck for ideas? Discover some creative ways to increase your engagement rate here on the podcast.
