How to calculate the engagement rate
The engagement rate helps to understand how effective the promotion strategy is. This indicator is calculated by the formula: the total number of likes and comments divided by the number of subscribers, and the result is multiplied by 100%. The higher the indicator will be, the more active the target audience is on the page.
This information also helps to develop the account in terms of cooperation with others. For example, if in the calculation the engagement rate showed a high value, then you can increase the cost of advertising. In addition, it means that the brand or product will be promoted better, and more users will respond to its promotion.
The algorithms of social networks are designed to promote in the feed those posts that, in their opinion, are the most relevant for a particular user. Thus the robots take care that the audience does not miss interesting and useful content in the variety of different publications. The main factor for the construction of the output on Instagram is engagement and its rate. In this case, the algorithms respond to those posts with the most reactions, regardless of whether or not that account has many followers. Therefore, it is important to understand ER in order to assess how effective SMM is.
According to the specialist Yuriy Dubkov there are no specific ranges in which the engagement rate is considered good or bad. In most cases, marketers are guided by competitor analysis, which is performed with the help of special services that automatically calculate ER for different accounts. However, it is not enough to get just a figure, it is important to understand what to do in order to make the brand engagement rate grow. To do this, you need to encourage users to respond to the posts, to leave comments. Publications should provoke emotions, the kind of emotions a person wants to share, to express his attitude towards the publication. To do this, the authors often call for discussion in the posts, raising issues relevant to the target audience. The same mechanism is used for publications with practical jokes.
Now there are a huge number of bots that create a feeling of activity. However, modern algorithms know how to analyze them, and such an artificial increase in engagement can have a negative effect on the account. It is better to let the activity on the page increase naturally, and for this, it is important to pay attention to the quality of the content. In addition, you should regularly monitor the engagement rate in order to react in a timely manner to a decline in performance.
Actively communicating with your audience, and asking them for advice helps increase the number of comments and reactions. In addition, user loyalty increases, they appreciate that their opinion is important to you and respond positively.