There’s one characteristic you’ll notice as you study social media marketing or work in the industry: Instagram can offer a high engagement rate despite being less popular than other social networks. Due to its high engagement rate, Instagram is so valuable. Those aren’t huge numbers, but they’re above those of competitors. In addition, Facebook and Twitter have engagement rates ranging from .25% and 1%. Businesses must understand their individual Instagram engagement rate, and we’ll explain why it is so critical.
This can be surprisingly difficult to calculate. Is your post’s “engagement” measured by the number of times it was saved? Is there a difference between followers and impressions? Can you tell what’s better, followers or impressions? With this handy guide on Instagram engagement rates, we’ll help you figure out which method is most appropriate for you and makes sense.
The Engagement Rate on Instagram: What is it?
Engagement rates are a measure of the number of people who interact with your post in some way. Divide engagement by the total number of audience or impressions to find it. We’ll talk about how engagement is calculated soon.
Engagement rate on Instagram is a key metric
In addition to its importance in Instagram’s algorithm, your engagement rate can provide you with an insight into your post’s performance.
The Instagram algorithm and engagement rates are linked
A few years ago, Instagram began displaying content in a priority order based on what it believed each user would find interesting.
The algorithm is based on several factors, among which are:
- Recentity of the post’s sharing
- User relationship on the platform
- User interest is determined by past behavior and interactions with content on Instagram
- Users’ frequency of opening Instagram
- Your posts are noticed by Instagram if you have a high engagement rate.
- It will likely be displayed to users who engage frequently with your content, resulting in better reach.
- Having a positive upward spiral on your platform can help you gain traction and create engagement.
A clearer picture of post-performance by measuring engagement
When you only count up likes and comments, engagement might seem impressive, but when you don’t consider the quantity of impressions, it isn’t so useful. It is amazing to receive 100 likes and comments when 500 people viewed the post, but it is less impressive when 25,000 people viewed the content.
This is not to say that you shouldn’t monitor metrics such as impressions or follower counts; it’s always a good idea to monitor your impression-to-follower-count ratio to ensure you are reaching a sufficient number of prospects. Additionally, you must determine whether your message is interesting enough to the users that they want to click over to your website or request directions.
We still believe it’s very important to watch the overall data; however, we believe you should prioritise the engagement rate.
Instagram Engagement Rates: How to Calculate Them
Nonetheless, you may notice that this very simple definition is subject to some debate on the web. How do you define engagement? Do you add up likes and comments? What about saves? Which audience do we count? Should it be the number of followers that saw the post or your total number of followers?
Considering the platform changes regularly, this answer may change as time goes on, but for now here is how you should calculate an engagement rate:
- All engagement, including comments, likes, and saves, must be added up.
- The way you are measuring saves isn’t conventional, visual engagement, but they are a way for users to interact with your content.
- Furthermore, they demonstrate the value and relevance of your content for your audience.
- The total engagement will be divided by the amount of impressions, or viewers.
- You can, however, divide your total engagement with the total number of followers if you want.
- This will give you an idea of your engagement rate based on your entire following.
In terms of engagement rate, there’s no clear winner! If it is a personal account or a business account, it really depends on your goals. For instance, if you want a more accurate representation of your Instagram engagement rate, look at the number of impressions because it’s your best bet when you’re analyzing your own content. Using followers, however, is better if you are evaluating an influencer’s engagement rate against your competitors, or if you are comparing engagement rates across competitors.
