Put a ring on it: Why you should care about ENGAGEMENT.
When it comes to social media, metrics can be just as confusing as your college situationship (IYKYK). But, we’re here to fill you in on a little industry secret… Follower count really doesn’t matter.
Okay, let me back track for a second and rephrase before you come after me. Follower count matters, but engagement matters more. Despite the punny name of this article, I’m not talking about getting down on one knee — I’m talking about whether or not you’re actually engaging with the audience you have. Let me explain.
The goal is to create content that’s engaging. It’s as simple as that. If you find your niche, explore it, and create a piece of content that resonates with that audience the follower will come.
Plus, is it any wonder that “going viral” is such a buzz-phrase nowadays?? I think most social media managers know that people want to “go viral” not only because they like seeing that instant gratification of a post doing well, but because so many more people are interacting with it than simply their followers. And that’s show biz, babe! (AKA, reach!!)
ICYMI: There are a few ways to measure engagement. Views, shares, saves, likes, and comments. Essentially anything that you would consider a user interacting with your post in some way. Per the latest IG updates, views are now the primary metric for creators…So, you may want to focus on that for now.
But wait, you might be asking yourself how do you even measure engagement?!? Don’t panic, we got you. This is your sign to take out your calculator and do some math with the following formula:
Engagement rate = (total engagements / total impressions) x 100
The higher your engagement rate, the better. But also, don’t be too discouraged if your numbers are low at first. It takes time to understand and learn from your audience to help finetune your content to fit their needs. In the meantime, here are a few suggestions on how you can boost things a bit.
Put a question in your caption — us marketing buffs love a good CTA. By adding a question to your caption, or asking your audience to respond in some way creates a direct line of communication between you and the audience. And let’s not forget this is called ~social~ media… not “talk to yourself” media.
Speaking of social media, start doing some outreach — just like IRL, the convo isn’t going to come to you if you don’t have a little input here and there. Start commenting on other accounts like yours and interacting with like-minded people and businesses.
Post to your Stories (IG, FB or TikTok, tbh!) — stories are an opportunity to help foster a community and bring your profile to everyone’s FYP. Try using polls, questions, or any native tools to ask for some feedback or just have some fun (I’m a sucker for a good “this or that” personally).
Hire Amplify! Okay okay, I couldn’t go this far without a shameless plug. But seriously, you should be worried about running your business, leave boosting your engagement up to us.
