How to Calculate Instagram Engagement Rate
If you’re trying to determine the percentage of your audience that regularly engages with your content, then you need to know how to calculate your Instagram engagement rate.
Engagement on Instagram refers to the average number of comments, likes, and saves on a post.
Because an engagement rate indicates how effectively an Instagrammer connects with their audience, influencers and brands should value good engagement over anything else.
Why is Engagement Important?
The importance of engagement goes far beyond the number of likes on a post.
On Instagram, high levels of engagement gives your account greater social credibility.
Any account with a lot of followers, likes, and comments will be seen as more legitimate in the eyes of their audience and potential followers.
More specifically for businesses, curating engagement is also one of the best and most effective ways to establish your brand identity. As followers continue to regularly engage with a brand on Instagram, they can easily turn into loyal customers that support your brand both on and offline.
Meanwhile for influencers, brands will take notice of your high engagement and automatically view you as the leader in your industry.
Establishing yourself as an authority on Instagram will make it easier to attract better partnerships with top-tier influencers and companies to collaborate with.
How to Calculate Instagram Engagement Rate
So, how can you calculate your Instagram Engagement Rate? Here are the two main methods.
1. Using a Formula to Calculate Your Instagram Engagement Rate
If you are trying to calculate Instagram engagement rate on your own, you can use the following formula to compare the number of likes and comments you receive with your follower count:
Add the number of comments and likes on a post, then dividing by the number of followers. Then, multiply by 100 to get the percentage.
Like so: (400 likes + 20 comments) / 2,500 followers
X 100
= 16.8%
In this example, the Instagram engagement rate is 16.8%, which is particularly high.
To keep track of your engagement rate, it’s a good idea to put together a spreadsheet with the types of posts and their engagement rates in order to properly gauge how your audience responds to certain types of posts.
2. Using Tools to Find the Engagement Rate
If you prefer a faster way to automatically calculate your posts’ engagement rate, there are several tools that you can use.
An Instagram engagement rate tool like Fanpage Karma allow you to view charts and graphs of your engagement in comparison to that of your competitors.
Another option is using an Instagram engagement rate calculator like Sprout Social to analyze a brand’s engagement against their competitors’ use of hashtags, publishing frequency, amount of comments and likes, and their audience growth.
How to Calculate Instagram Engagement Rate Click To TweetWhy You Should Avoid Purchasing Comments and Likes
If your Instagram engagement rate is less then desired, you might think, “Well, I’ll just buy some likes and comments to get my rates up.”
WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!
Companies that buy into these quick fixes will eventually have to face the consequences.
1. No Return On Your Investment
These fake likes and followers are exactly that, fake.
They will never lead to meaningful conversations, sales, or loyal customers.
2. Lose Your Social Credibility
You will find yourself in a vicious cycle having to buy like and comments for all of your pictures to make it look “natural.”
Instagram users can evaluate inauthentic engagement just as easily as they can determine if a brand has fake followers. A brand’s following may be over 20k, but if their posts are regularly getting 30 or 40 likes, it’s obvious there’s a disconnect in their level of engagement.
3. Risk Getting Shut Down
Anyone that inflates their own content with fake likes and comments run the risk of getting flagged by Instagram.
If Instagram spots fake comments or followers on your account, you run the risk of being temporarily disabled or even deleted in the next Instagram purge.
Brands that truly understand the power of real engagement should never bother purchasing comments or likes.
Increasing Your Engagement Authentically
Instead of running the risk of ruining your engagement, you should make it a priority to get real followers for Instagram.
Join the many brands that are using an Instagram marketing service, like Kicksta, to attract and grow a larger following and more engaged audience.
With Kicksta, brands no longer struggle to get attention on Instagram. With this service, brands are able to gain quality followers, as well as increase the number of partnerships, gigs, and other opportunities they receive through Instagram.
There is a science to growing a brand’s engagement that demands authentic practices to reach other users and brands. By being intentional about how you pursue engagement, you’ll ensure that your Instagram connections are as authentic as possible.
