What is the engagement rate
While it is important to establish your presence on social media through regular posts with rich and varied content, it is equally important to be able to identify the impact of those contents or posts. Indeed, with each post you should seek to answer the following question: how many interactions did your content generate?
The number of interactions a post generates helps better understand the engagement produced by your post within your target audience. Given the growing demands of the digital world, the engagement rate has a particular significance.
Indeed, the engagement rate is the ratio of the number of interactions obtained to the number of people who saw your post. In other words, the social media engagement rate quantifies users’ propensity to react to a company’s or brand’s various posts.
Why the engagement rate matters
When carrying out actions and activities on social media, it is important to pause and evaluate the impact produced by each digital action taken. Thus, the engagement rate is important because it is a performance indicator that allows you to know precisely the impact of your media content on social networks.
Your social media presence must have a measurable impact. It’s good that your posts generate interactions, but how should those interactions be interpreted?
You must interpret the results using a performance indicator. In the digital context, the engagement rate is a very important indicator used to inform strategic decisions in order to properly analyze each interaction generated by your content.
In summary, the social media engagement rate gives value to your content. The engagement rate helps guide and redefine the digital marketing actions and strategies to implement in order to better meet customer expectations and provide a better customer experience/journey.
For each type of social network, algorithms are in place with specific criteria to calculate the engagement rate and the engagement generated by your content.
For example, according to Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm, the Facebook follower most likely to see your next posts is the one who interacts regularly. Facebook interactions are nothing more than "likes", "comments" and "shares".
The algorithms on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and others are designed to help you offer quality content to your community and to improve engagement by encouraging healthier, more genuine interactions.
Improve your engagement rate on social media
Do the people who follow you on social media interact with you? Do you want to increase that interaction and have greater engagement ? While it is relatively easy to gain new subscribers, fans, or followers or to share posts, it takes creativity to elicit comments and start a dialogue.
Here are 10 ways to get your audience to interact with you on social media.
1. Ask questions creatively
If you ask a question to your audience, you will certainly be able to get answers from them. But if you really want higher engagement, you'll need to take matters into your own hands and offer something different.
Let's say you're in the food industry. If you ask a question like "What is your favorite dish?", it's a basic question everyone has seen before. Your audience might not respond. But if you offer multiple possible answers and illustrations, the result could be different.
Zomato, an app that allows users to search for restaurants, writes very good posts on social media. The managers ask questions to learn about their audience. They pair everything with high-quality graphics. In the end, their posts get many reactions.
Ask questions your audience will want to answer. Remember that images and a bit of humor are very effective ingredients.
2. Run contests
Social media contests are very common these days, so it's important to stand out from the others and do something different or unusual.
TurboTax is tax software that isn't really appealing to most people. To add some fun during tax season this year, they came up with the idea of launching an Instagram contest to promote their product.
People were invited to follow the brand on Instagram and post a photo under certain conditions for a chance to win $500. In the end, the contest gathered more than 730 participants.
Don't just create a contest. Try to find something that will make people want to participate, share, and comment on the campaign.
3. Host a Questions & Answers event
Your customers probably have more questions to ask you about the company, the products, or the services you sell. Don't hesitate to set up a forum where they can express themselves.
For this, you can use Google Hangouts, Twitter, or post a message on Facebook by asking the question directly to people.
For example, NASA occasionally holds sessions with astronauts and scientists using Google Hangouts. They then answer people interested in space or the work done by the agency.
No matter what your business does, there are things your audience will want to know. Give them the opportunity to ask questions and consequently improve your social media engagement.
4. Identify people involved in content curation
There are two ways to practice content curation to increase your engagement.
First of all, whenever you share someone else’s content, remember to identify the original publisher. It’s the best way to attract those people to your page so they can discover your own content. The likely scenario is that the publisher will post a comment to thank you.
The other method is to write articles that reference other articles.
Choose a topic and refer to several articles, naming the authors each time and creating links back to the source. Then, tag all those authors when you publish your article on social networks.
For example, Andrea Beltrami She created a blog featuring the best articles about visual marketing on social networks. When the article was published, she shared the link and mentioned the names of all the authors included. The result was a success, as she received many comments from those same authors.
People mentioned in this kind of post are likely to comment to thank you. The more people you tag, the more likely you are to get a large number of comments and start a conversation. They may also share your post with their audiences.
5. Encourage user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) is an excellent way to get interaction from your fans and improve your engagement.
If you don’t design the format carefully, it can go unnoticed. You can take inspiration from brands like General Electric, Belkin, Target, Warby Parker, Pepsi, or Starbucks, which are at the forefront of creativity.
The hashtag #WhiteCupContest launched by Starbucks is a good example of a successful UGC contest. The coffee giant noticed that customers were doodling on the cups.
In 2014, they launched a campaign where people were invited to design their own cup, take a photo, and share it on social media using the appropriate hashtag.
The campaign received more than 4,000 entries in just three weeks. Buoyed by its success, Starbucks repeated the operation again this year.
When your fans contribute to your page’s content, they are likely to engage and invite their friends to do the same.
6. Connect with a social cause
Even if a social cause is not directly related to your brand, you can still talk about it and promote it on your page.
It's always nice to do things for others. In addition, this action improves your brand image.
Estée Lauder is a manufacturer of beauty products with a worldwide reputation. By running an awareness campaign against breast cancer, the brand became civic-minded and compassionate. To engage the public, they chose the phrase 'Listen to our stories. Share yours.' The public quickly responded.
The brand asked people to visit BCAcampaign.com to listen to former patients' testimonials and to share their own experiences. At the launch of the campaign, hundreds of people had spoken out.
If your company supports a social cause, don't hesitate to create a dedicated campaign or post a message on social media. Your audience will be very receptive to socially responsible content.
7. Talk about current events
Following current events will always bring traffic to your page, especially if it concerns a public holiday, vacations, an event, or a show.
For example, Papa John's Pizza talked about the March Madness basketball final on its Facebook page. They asked their fans to choose the team that would win the game. Fifty comments in a few hours for this simple and effective post.
When you create content tied to current events that succeeds on social networks, you have a strong chance of engaging your audience.
There are many things you can do to make people react on social networks. You just need to be creative and find original posts that will make people want to participate and talk with you.
8. Create live streams
Live or live streaming on social networks whether it's Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter is increasingly used to generate more interest from followers but also from other users. Lives are often hosted by the brand's community manager or by well-known influencers. Before launching a live, announce its date, time, and topic to ensure the audience will be there. Use these live sessions to interact with your followers about your company, your products, your events, etc.
9. Use hashtags
The use of hashtags on social networks has become common. They let you reach a wider audience beyond your current community. Indeed, attaching hashtags that describe the image on Instagram or the post on LinkedIn allows you to appear in the feeds of users who have indicated interest in one or more specific hashtags.
10. Partner with influencers and well-known personalities
Nowadays, brands increasingly partner with well-known influencers (more than 5,000 followers) on social networks.
Indeed, influencers are generally micro-opinion leaders who share most of their daily experiences with their community. That's how brands find them valuable. Influencers showcase products, use them, and give their opinions. In this way, members of their community discover the associated brands' products and benefits, and are encouraged to buy and try them for themselves.
How to measure the engagement rate
To obtain the engagement rate on social networks, the following formula is applied:
Total number of engagements / Post reach x 100.
From this engagement rate formula arises the term: the reach of your post. A post is the message or content aimed at a specific, well-targeted community.
The number of followers who are supposed to be reached by your post or content is the reach of your post, also called "Reach." It is the number of subscribed users who saw your post.
Thus, the social media engagement rate indicator shows the ratio of people who made any impression (shared and/or liked and/or commented) on your post among all those who were reached by your post.
Moreover, on social networks like TikTok and Instagram, the engagement rate is measured as follows:
Total number of engagements / Number of followers or fans x 100
Concretely for these social networks, to obtain an acceptable engagement score, your post must prompt a sufficient reaction from your fans, followers, or subscribers in one way or another. These platforms therefore require you to produce content that aligns with your fans' or subscribers' preferences.
Our tip to improve your engagement rate on social media
To improve your engagement rate on social networks, you should increase your active engagement on those platforms.
Successfully engage with your target audience
It's not enough to regularly produce and publish interesting, high-quality content. You must succeed in interacting with your community. Interacting with your target means responding to your followers' comments and occasionally commenting on their stories.
You are also required to regularly follow new and relevant pages.
Listen to your community
Followers always express themselves under your posts. It is therefore useful and wise to listen to your followers. This will enable you to offer content that interests them. To this end, it is recommended to adapt communication strategies tailored to customers' needs.
Quality content
Your posts must be flawless, high-quality content that meets the needs of your customers and followers.
Your content should:
- Be personalized: Your followers should recognize you through your posts — your brand, colors, visual identity, etc.
- Be unique, exclusive and attention-grabbing.
- Be an influencer: your content should specifically influence your target's behavior. For example, make agreements with influencers so they promote your brand and services.
- Encourage interactions: your content should include hashtags that prompt reactions from your audience.
- Tap into current events: occasionally capitalize on hot news topics. Publish posts that, for example, ride a current controversy that is eliciting strong reactions.
- Organize polls: occasionally create posts that allow your followers to freely share their opinions so you can better understand them and identify their needs.
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Conclusion
As you’ve probably guessed, bringing your brand or business to life on social media is above all about engaging a community.
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