A lot of people today are focusing too much on building their followers on their Social Media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.). From business owners, content creators/bloggers, influencers, or big time brands- but we live in a world where likes and followers are becoming king.

We are surrounded by the stigma that social media accounts with millions of followers are the only ones to make sales or brand deals on the internet. Well as much as that looks and sounds right, it’s not.

Followers are important, but it shouldn’t be the main focus of your Social media account. People can buy followers in this digital age, so the one thing that everyone on Social Media is really after, is Engagement.

So, let’s talk Social Media Engagement.

It is the amount of likes, comments, and shares your account is receiving from Social Media users worldwide. For example, when you posted a photo on your Instagram and 500 people liked it, with 100 people commenting, those are all counted as engagement.

But there’s more- it’s called an Engagement Rate. It is the percentage of your followers that actually like, comment, and share your posts online.

So now you’re obviously wondering, “How can I get my account’s engagement rate?”. It’s basic math- (if you didn’t want to talk numbers, this is where you stop reading- but it would help you if you didn’t!)you just need the total number of your post’s likes and comments, divide it by your total followers and multiply by 100 to get your percentage.

It’s so easy, it’s stupid. Here’s how:

You post a new photo on Instagram. It receives a total engagement of 200 (170 likes plus 30 comments). Your Instagram Account has 3,000 followers, so divide 170 by 3,000 then multiply it by 100.

“170/3,000*10=5.66”

You don’t even have to move that decimal over. Engagement Rate = 5.66%

As your account grows, your engagement rate will likely decrease because your followers won’t see your posts as often unless they turn on their notifications for your account.

Accounts with millions of followers usually have a 2% to 4% engagement rate, so don’t worry if your likes and comments decrease in percentage every time, that’s normal.

Why you should focus more on engagement?

Because brands and agencies want to work with accounts that have active followers, because those are the followers who will probably check out any sort of product or service they’re promoting- and that goes for growing the numbers of your following too.

If you’re an influencer who aspires to collaborate with brands online, having a good, solid engagement rate will be the key for you to land those brand deals (and growing the numbers in your bank account too!)

Brands today want accounts to advertise their products for so many reasons: it grows their following, it shows their product in different lights, it reaches different demographics. So when brands see you have a high engagement rate, that makes you a valuable asset to them because it could mean a rise in sales for them, and they also won’t lose any money taking a chance on you either. More and more companies choose micro-influencers to promote their products because they know that they have a bigger chance on them on landing sales on a more affordable budget.

So just remember, having a lot of followers doesn’t mean that you have everything set. Brands don’t want to click on your account, see you have 10.5k followers, only for your posts to get a max of 300 likes.. Try working on getting people engage in your posts by making them attractive and like-worthy- think a theme, good captions, high quality pictures.

And if you’re a brand reading this (Hey! We’re an awesome marketing team, totally check us out) take a chance on influencer marketing, because content creators online are becoming a big part of advertising and generating sales.

If you need someone to help you with Social Media, you can always ask professionals for help.