Post Engagement

We live in a day and age where social media reigns. Whether you use it to share photos and videos with friends and family, earn extra income, or use it as your full-time job, social media is prevalent in most of our lives. 

You can receive likes, comments, and shares when you post something on Facebook, Instagram, or another social media platform. These seemingly little things are people engaging with your posts in different ways. 

It's a way to see who's connecting with your posts, and for those who use social media to earn a living, post engagement will matter far more than for someone who uses it just for fun or personal reasons.

Post engagement is how people who follow you or view your content digest it. The more likes, comments, and shares, the higher your post engagement. But what does all this mean, and why is it important? Keep reading to learn more.

Why Post Engagement Matters

The higher your post engagement rate, the more likely your brand is to resonate with your audience. Yes, likes play a role in post engagement, but it's more than just likes. Strengthening your content can encourage more people to engage with your content as they find it relatable, informational, or have other positive reactions. 

Post engagement matters because the higher your post engagement, the more likely your audience will share your posts with friends and family or on their platform. When looking at your post engagement, you can also see how you're shaping up compared to your competition. 

If you see that your competition has a higher post engagement than you, looking into how they post on social media and studying their strategies can help you alter your approach and grow your post engagement. 

Overall, post engagement matters because you can see how well your brand is doing and if you need to focus your efforts on more social media engagement. 

Facebook's EdgeRank Algorithm

Another very specific reason post engagement matters for those working on social media is the Facebook EdgeRank Algorithm. This algorithm focuses on three factors that will determine the newsfeeds your content will appear in, and it then determines how many news feeds your content appears in too, which can all contribute to your post engagement.  

Facebook's EdgeRank focuses on a social media post's weight, affinity, and time decay. It measures post engagement and can either push your content to larger audiences or negatively impact your post engagement. 

Formula For Post Engagement

Calculating post engagement is very easy. The formula to calculate your post engagement rate is as follows: 

• Likes + comments + shares / total followers x 100

How To Calculate Post Engagement

Once you have the formula, you must choose the post you want to calculate engagement for. You'll need to open the post for which you'll calculate post engagement and look for the values that you'll plug into the formula. 

For this example, let's say you have 1,000,000 followers. The post you're looking to calculate the post engagement has 50,000 likes, 25,000 comments, and 50,000 shares. You'll plug those values into the formula like so: 

• 50,000 + 25,000 + 50,000 / 1,000,000 x 100 

When you do the math, you'll get a post engagement rate of 12.5%. The higher the engagement rate, the better. While 12.5% seems like a low engagement rate for the 1,000,000 followers this individual has, most experts agree that any engagement rate over 6% is considered high. 

How To Increase Post Engagement

If you've calculated your post engagement rate for one post or for all your posts and see that there's room for improvement, there are a few ways you can increase your engagement and see more people following your brand. 

Show Emotion and Use Humor

Showing your personality in your posts is a surefire way to have more post engagement. People want to like, share, and comment on things they find relatable and feel like they can connect with you and your brand. Humor and emotion are the best way to do this. 

Use Great Photos and Visuals

Using high-quality photos and visuals is going to draw more people to your posts initially. Yes, the captions and content are just as important, but high-quality photos will get their attention on your post in the first place. 

Ask Questions

Building relationships with your target audience is an excellent way to increase your post engagement rate as a brand. When you post photos with captions or videos, you can ask people to leave a comment or reply to different questions that you ask them. 

Asking questions to your followers and those viewing your profile is an excellent tool on Instagram and Facebook stories to engage more with your audience and grow your following and post engagement rate. 

Stay Consistent

As with many things in life, consistency is critical. Posting regularly will keep your post engagement up. People can lose interest in your brand when you take weeks or longer in between posts. Sticking to a posting schedule or just posting every few days will help. 

Post Engagement vs. Page Engagement

Many people confuse post engagement with page engagement. While both are good indicators of your brand's performance, they're not the same. Post engagement is about one specific post on your entire social media presence. 

Page engagement is more about how many people visit your social media pages as a whole, not just individual posts. Like most engagement, the higher the page engagement rate, the better your brand is overall. 

Final Thoughts

Post engagement is just as meaningful as page engagement for someone who works in social media. A low post engagement rate can mean fewer people are interested in your brand, and your brand isn't doing as well as it could be. 

Calculating the post engagement rate is simple, and anything over 6% is excellent. By following the above tips, you can see an improvement in your post engagement rate and continue to grow your brand.