This is the first part of our influencer series, Engagement Rates 101.  In this series you will learn all there is to know about calculating, tracking & boosting your engagement rates using your analytics and exclusive audience insights. We talk you through psychological tips & tricks to creating more engaging content, and look into all the tools ZINE has to offer, to guarantee your followers keep coming back for more. 

 

Understanding Your Engagement Rates

What is engagement?

Engagement, is the rate at which your followers / audience interact with your content. It’s an indicator as to whether your audience is interested in your content enough to interact with it; to go that extra step by “liking”, “commenting” or “sharing” your post. 

A higher engagement shows to brands that your audience likes what they see, and suggests that you’ll be a great influencer for them to collaborate with. However, it’s important to note that as reach increases engagement rate typically falls…

• If your following falls between 1-10k you should aim for an engagement rate nearing 6%
• If you following falls between 10-50k you should aim for an engagement rate nearing 4% 
• If you following falls between 10-50k you should aim for an engagement rate nearing 3% 
• If you following is above 1 million  you should aim for an engagement rate nearing 2%

Read more about understanding your engagement rates & which bracket you fall in 

 

How do I calculate engagement RATE?

To calculate your engagement rate, find the average number of likes you receive on your posts, divide it by your total following and multiply by 100.

Engagement Rate = AVG likes/ Total Following *100

On ZINE engagement rates are shown as a percentage and are based on your last 15 posts. Considering the number of “likes” your post receives and your “total following” engagement rate is calculated as: 

AVG likes (total likes of 15 posts/15)  / Total following* 100  e.g 324 (4,869/15) / 12,000 *100 = 2.7%

 

How Do I Track My Engagement Rate?

If you’re already signed up with ZINE, you can keep track of your engagement rate by signing into your profile. Alternatively, you can choose to create an excel spreadsheet with the above formula to keep track of it all, but this requires much more manual work. 

 

How Can I Boost My Engagement Rate 

Now comes the important part…. A higher engagement rate is always better, but boosting it is not always as simple. 

In the past when Instagram’s algorithm was chronological, boosting your engagement was pretty simple. Posting at a particular time, during which your followers would be active would almost guarantee that your posts would appear at the top of your followers’ feeds. 

But since the algorithm switched from chronological to algorithmic, getting those likes and being at the top of your followers’ feeds doesn’t just depend on what time you post, but also what you post and how many times you post. 

 

The 3 most important factors to boosting your engagement rate are:

1. Interests

This means that Instagram prioritises posts depending on how much users care about it. The more Instagram predicts that they’ll like the content the higher it appears on their feeds. 

There are a number of ways you can accurately predict what your audience is into, with minimal guesswork. 

 

• Instagram: Look into your Instagram Content Analytics.

 

If you have a business account on Instagram, you’ll have quite a few insights to help you figure out what your audience prefers, by comparing the most and least engaged with content (comments & likes), and looking at the engagement Vs impressions ratio (revealing which type of content may be receiving the most views, but are not being engaged with).

 

•   ZINE: Look into your Audience Insights. 

Signing up with ZINE means that you’ll have access to in-depth audience insights which you wouldn’t necessarily have otherwise. This not only includes statistics for your audience demographics, such as age, gender and location, but also information about your audiences’ likes & interests, brand affinities and income. 

 

Such insights will help you come up with a more engaging content strategy and make calculated decisions.

 

2. Time

The Instagram algorithm still prioritises recent posts, so it’s best to keep an eye out to see the times and days your followers are most frequently active.

 

3. Consistency Over Frequency 

There doesn’t seem to be a drop-off in engagement for posting more or less frequently. However, this is provided you can keep up the rate at which you’re posting. What this means is, if you’re posting several times a day, then you must stick to it, if you transition from several times a day to a few posts per week you will probably generate a much lower engagement rate. 

 

Hope you enjoyed the first part of Engagement Rates 101! Stay tuned for part two where we’ll be giving tips & tricks based on psychology to creating more engaging content. 

 

Want to skip all the manual calculations?
Sign up with ZINE to find out your exact engagement rate and dive into more of your analytics.