You may notice that Instagram has become a perfect marketplace for building a successful business and performing profitable sales. A growing number of online shops and private entrepreneurs are using the social network as a marketplace for their products. Some users don't care about business; they create profiles so they can gain popularity. There is one common goal among the above goals, regardless of their differences - the desire to gain as many followers as possible. This seems to be a reliable measure of future success.
However, you may also notice that some accounts with thousands of followers are less popular and successful than their rivals with a few audiences. The answer is simple. Followers aren't the key to success; engagement rate matters the most in the promotion stage. Now let's discuss in depth what the engagement rate is, what its purposes are, and how we can improve its effectiveness.
Engagement on Instagram and what should you know about it
The engagement rate on Instagram or ER is an indicator of how many people are interested in and visit your account. We do not consider the number of followers now. We speak about how actively your audience likes, shares, and saves your posts, watches and reacts to stories, leaves comments, and visits your profile. In a few words, ER is a percentage of users who stay up to date with your content and interact with it.
The level of followers` involvement represents a leading force in the promotion and gaining popularity of an Instagram account. The promotion of Instagram accounts was mainly based on cheating subscribers a few years ago. After you boost followers, advertisers queue up and pay money to advertise your account. However, Instagram has worked on new algorithms in recent years.
For this reason, the stage of involvement should receive priority attention when analyzing daily, weekly, and especially annual results. You will see accurate statistics, compare them with the current state of your business, and identify problems. Performing simple steps, you will understand why being an owner of an intimate Instagram community with dozens of live and dynamic members is much more profitable than managing an account with millions of bots, ghosts, and fakes.
The extreme importance of engagement rate on Instagram
For Instagram promotion, you can measure many important parameters using the participation index:
The level of trust in the brand. By how actively users respond to publications, you can tell if you've established a trusting relationship with them. On a subconscious level, people are not ready to interact with the content or start a dialogue if they expect some kind of deception.
Popularity. Let's face it: nothing shows popularity among your audiences like the number of likes, comments, and reposts. And here is where ER. Metric allows you to determine what success you achieved for a certain period.
Content Virality. Virality is a content characteristic that defines with what probability readers will want to share the publication. Users on social networks, messengers, and other channels actively shared viral content.
Instagramability. ER shows how interesting your product is on Instagram. The only app limits this feature.
Different ways of counting engagement on Instagram
Having looked through the information above, it is impossible to ignore significant advantages. You may ask how to check or count the engagement rate of my Instagram account. To give a detailed answer, we prepared several approaches to involvement level measurement. First, you need to know that there are two ways of obtaining profound information on this point – manually and using special services. Both methods are equally effective and efficient. The choice depends on the time and effort you are eager to spend on analyzing ER.
Let's start with identifying the percentage of active subscribers manually. The developers and promoters have designed a few trusted formulas, as all of them intend to analyze your account from different perspectives.
The calculation of daily ER:
ERday = Reactions per day/No of Followers * 100%
In this formula «a day» means a number of published posts during one day. For example, there are 5000 people following your account. You published two catching posts and they got 100 likes and 75 comments. Thus, the daily ER – (175/2)÷5000×100%=1%.
The daily ER represents several users that took part actively in the life of your account during a day. You can see the result in percentage. Obviously, the above strategy is not ideal as there may be certain inaccuracies such as:
One user can leave an unlimited number of commentaries and they will be taken as several different people.
The specificity of an account and the regularity of posts are not taken into account. Your followers may just miss the publication and not react to it.
The calculation of engagement rate by reach.
ERR = Reactions/Reach * 100%
This is a good way of counting the level of involvement for a certain period. Interestingly, here we need to know several followers as we determine the number of active users besides your subscribers. Sometimes such an approach can give an even more vivid and deep understanding of the real present posture of affairs. It accommodates both followers and non-followers. Still, the strategy is mostly implemented to determine how viral the posted message was.
Remember that you get only the rough estimation because the following cases may also take place:
Being reposted on another social website, the entire world may know your message, but the ERR will be low.
Instagram may introduce specific regulations or do not show your publications. Therefore, that will change the ERR.
The calculation of engagement rate per post.
ERpost = Reactions on Post/Followers * 100%
ER per post is applied to get a more stable view of the social engagement of your followers. Rarely, a vast number of followers leave your profile at one time. This process takes time and is characterized by sequenced unsubscribing. Moreover, you will analyze the accurate figures and identify the most debated and attractive topics for the audience.
Instagram introduced the key minus itself — the bigger number of followers, the lower level of involvement. We can explain it for the next reasons:
People who follow your page for many years may lose interest in the topic or style of posts.
Substitution of your publications by post of accounts with a higher engagement rate.
On the whole, we described the most popular and widely implemented methods of identifying the level of active participation of followers by yourself. But what to do if there are loads of publications? Do you want to spend days and nights calculating and making notes? Of course, not. You need to get automatic help. To facilitate the process of analyzing, marketing specialists address trusted services to get professional help.
Pay attention to the reliable service GhostHunter.online which stands on the top in the list of the most efficient tools for analyzing and increasing engagement rates. In a minute, you will be given a whole pack of benefits that boost an Instagram account and make it visible and memorable.
The average figure of an Instagram engagement or a so-called norm
If you want to know the average engagement rates in your particular industry, you'll have to do a little research to find out, but this range serves as a good average baseline. Having performed the unchallenging steps of counting the involvement level, you need to compare it with an average figure. In other words, it may seem that being close or sticking to the norm is a perfect direction for fast development. But, the situation is not always so straightforward.
Unfortunately, the so-called norm of engagement on Instagram suitable for any account does not exist. When comparing the obtained figures with the collected figures of the rivals, pay attention to a scope of essential features:
Page specificity
Audience composition
Time of the day for posts
Regularity of publications and many others.
Only by considering all the aspects, the correct result will be achieved. If you are eager to get at least approximate values, the next information is for you.
less than 1% - bad indicator;
1% to 3.5% - average indicator;
3.5% to 6% - high indicator;
over 6% - very high indicator.
A very high level of followers` activity is an absolutely reachable dimension. One of the most crucial rules to remember is that you have to be presented to as many users as possible without boring them with too much content. But this affirmation may be called just a tip of an iceberg. We need to dive into the depth of up-to-date valuable information on the Instagram promotion.
Useful tips on how to increase engagement on Instagram
SMM managers and market specialists can boast of a vast number of possible ways how to increase the engagement rate on Instagram. What should you do if there is an absence of deep knowledge? Read our article and do not waste a minute. We are glad to introduce a list of the 5 best tips for promoting your account.
Focus upon interactive stories. Instagram offers an ocean of opportunities for communicating with the audience via interactive content. You may add widgets, stickers, and gifs. A good solution is to conduct surveys, and polls, arrange to vote, ask questions, or make up games - everything is limited only by your imagination. Go live more often and post clips on IGTV. People are interested in the real lives of famous people, the internal sides of manufacturing, and other related activities.
Regularly hold contests with simple rules. This is an easy, although costly, way to work with the audience. For instance, a language school can present a certificate for attending free lessons or speaking clubs. Be creative when deciding on gifts. Think of what you personally would like to fight for. In addition, people do not intend to undertake a step that takes lots of time, even for valuable offers. The more difficult the conditions of the contest, the less activity. So I recommend coming up with some simple conditions: for example, write a short comment, or post a photo in a story.
Write a controversial text that will provoke people to comment. Avoid radical ideas to get rid of quarrels under posts. Let your audience speak about daily things and everything they are surrounded by. Do not forget to answer questions in the comments. This is the main way to show your followers that you appreciate each of them. Psychologically, it will create more tight bonds.
Address special services, like GhostHunter.online, to get a trusted view. GhostHunter.online aims at cleaning up your account from inactive followers and protecting the profile. You will collaborate with a team of experienced specialists that help to eliminate commercial accounts, bots, and ghosts from the number of your subscribers. Besides, you get a shield from spam attacks and phishing. Customized settings that are available with GhostHunter.online make you visible in the organic field. Such non-complicated but highly important opportunities result in an increased engagement rate and attract more potential customers to the business.
Use hashtags under each post. Hashtags are a good tool for navigation and search, so be sure to put them in the post description. They allow your followers to instantly find the posts they want and navigate through the Instagram space. Include both general and special hashtags. The main thing is not to go overboard, do not use only high-frequency ones. Bright idea is to invent your personal hashtag, something creating and catching. This indicator will be associated with your identity and spring up in the mind of the audience.
The most crucial outcomes to make note of
One of the most important indicators of a profile on Instagram is its engagement rate, which is taken into account when collaborating or promoting a profile. The number of times your publications are seen and interacting with them can be used to measure your audience's interest and loyalty.
It takes more effort than you might think to promote your Instagram account and establish a successful business career. Keep in mind that you create and post messages not for abstract numbers on your page, but for real people. People want attention and feedback from brands they love. Don't offend your customers with strict standards and distances. High competition produces a tremendous amount of offers that followers will not forgive your silence. Work regularly, analyze the media sphere, identify the most emotional topics, and open your mind to everyone.
By following the simple rules described above, you can not only increase engagement but also sales. Work in collaboration with personalized services and you will see how beneficial they are. It is the investment that will definitely pay off.