Transcript
Introduction
We know, we know... Reporting and analytics are the least fun parts about working in social media. I mean, reporting versus making TikToks? The answer is a little obvious, but the reality is the numbers matter too. In fact, knowing how to calculate your Instagram engagement rate is an important skill and insight that can help you grow your audience and showcase your content's value to brands.
So, get your calculators ready because today, we're showing you how to calculate your Instagram engagement rate - no math degree required!
What is an Instagram engagement rate?
Before we dive into the numbers, what is your Instagram engagement rate and why is it so important to your brand or business?
Your Instagram engagement rate is the calculation that shows what percentage of your following has interacted with your content. It typically takes into account the number of likes and comments a post receives in relation to your overall follower count. And, in some cases, it can also take into account the number of impressions, saves, and shares a post received.
Why is your Instagram engagement rate important?
So why is it important? Well, your engagement paints a picture of how your audience actually feels about your content. If your engagement rate is high, meaning people are commenting, they're liking, they're interacting with your content... Then you know your audience is resonating with your content and finding value in it.
And if your engagement rate is lower than you'd like it to be, then this might be a sign that something's not working and it's probably time to go back to the drawing board. The reality is you could have a million followers and post great content, but if your audience isn't engaging with it or sharing it, your follower count really just doesn't mean much.
Plus, if you're a creator looking to build relationships with brands, it's your engagement rate that they're going to be looking at, not your following. They want to know your audience will care about what you're sharing and after all, sharing is caring.
How to calculate your Instagram engagement rate
Okay, now that we know why your Instagram engagement rate is important, let's get down to the numbers. To calculate the Instagram engagement rate for a post, you're just going to divide the total number of likes and comments by your follower count and then multiply that by 100 to give you a percentage.
Let's take a look at an example together.
First, let's add up our likes and comments. This post received 5495 likes and 114 comments, so together, that equals 5609.
Now we're going to take that number and divide it by our number of followers, which just so happens to be 459,000.
Next, we're going to multiply that number by 100, and voila! Our engagement rate for this Instagram post is around 1.2%.
Using Later to find your Instagram engagement rate
Now, we know that working in social media can be a little bit hectic, and we don't always have time to manually calculate our Instagram engagement rate. Plus, we just really like making your life a lot easier.
So, our hot tip: ditch that calculator and get your automated engagement rate for each post from Later's Analytics Dashboard. From here, you'll be able to see how all of your recent posts have performed and even filter your posts to see which ones drove the highest engagement rate and you can even look back at this for up to one year. Cue the Happy Dance.
What is a good Instagram engagement rate?
Happy Dance aside, now that you know how to calculate your Instagram engagement rate, how do you know if it's good or bad?
The honest truth: well, it really depends. So, what could be considered a good engagement rate for a fitness creator with 10,000 followers may be a little different from what is considered good for a beauty brand with 150,000 followers.
But lucky for you, we've created a free Instagram Benchmark Report with insights from over 30 industries so that you can compare your Instagram engagement rate with other creators and brands in your niche. To get a better understanding of how you stack up against industry peers with similar follower accounts, and if you want to download the report, you can just click the link right over here or in the description box below.
That is it. That is how you calculate your Instagram engagement rate. We've got more Instagram Analytics tips where this came from, so make sure to hit that Subscribe button for more top social media tips. Catch you later.
