Why does my brand’s Engagement Rate differ so significantly on different platforms?

If you’ve pulled your brand’s Engagement Rate recently, you may have noticed that different platforms and formulas will return some pretty significant differences, ranging from 0.3% to upwards of 25%. Which is correct, and why would it vary so much?

There are two main types of Engagement Rate that social media marketers can use to guage engagement: measuring by post and by reach. Beyond that, there are different ways to calculate engagement rates. For example, some platforms do not count likes as engagement (and instead define it as comments, DM shares, and saves).

At prettySOCIAL, we measure our client’s engagement rate by post, a formula that measures engagements by followers on a specific post. Let’s analyze the Engagement Rate of a current skincare client of ours, 22.31%.

This number is significantly higher than what you would see if you used an online tool like Phlanx, which tells us this same client’s current engagement rate is 0.59%. That’s because Phlanx, like many platforms, calculate their Engagement Rate by Reach. If you do opt to use this type of Engagement Rate (by reach), understanding industry average is key. We love Social Insider, which benchmarks the average E.R for beauty brands to be around 0.54%. 

While measuring your Engagement Rate by reach is a better way to gauge interactions based on how many people have seen your post, measuring by post replaces reach with followers, which is generally a more stable metric. In other words, if your brand’s social reach fluctuates often (depending on different marketing initiatives like influencer partnerships and giveaways), we can always use this method for a more accurate measure of post-by-post engagement.

Both metrics will communicate the same level of growth, but it's important to always ensure that you’re using apple to apple comparisons and analyzing your E.R. within the same context.