Recapitulation of Part I
In the previous article, we discussed the different ways of measuring the ER and metrics of importance. However, we have to be careful in calculating and comparing our profile's analytical growth. Indeed, there are benefits to the mentioned methods of computing the engagement rates, but we have to be vary of the loopholes.
We have to learn from them and understand the important pointers before we choose to make a final decision. The following article will help you realise the steps, decisions and precautions you need to consider before choosing any method.
Drawbacks of the Engagement Rate Methods
Method: Engagement Rate based on Followers
This method, as explained in the first part of the explainer, calculates the engagement rate based on the number of followers one has. This method is easily able to identify the active follower audience of the profile. The active follower audience is important since only the active followers constitute a part of a community around your brand. While this is of the best methods in our opinion, it can have some biasses.
Cons: The engagement rate for an account where the followers are too low, will be too high. This is usually in the case of accounts which have just started. While this is not wrong, since this is just the start, people should not be fixated about the type of content they are producing in this initial stage because of this. It happens because when an account is started, usually the first people to follow the page are friends and family and not the real target audience.
Method: Engagement Rate based on Impressions
This method calculates the daily metrics based on impressions (the total number of people who view your content in the form of interactions).
Cons: The disadvantage of measuring ER with this method is that the results might be unreliable and unstable. In case of a sponsored post, the reach might skyrocket along with the ER, but it would not reflect the liking of the target audience and hence dilute the whole essence of calculating the engagement rate.
However, with the reels on Instagram becoming very popular, this can be a method which can be explored to calculate the engagement rate of reels.
Method: Daily Engagement Rate
This method calculates the level of engagement supported by the audiences daily.
Cons: The disadvantage of measuring ER with this method is, it can offer incorrect results. It does not count the number of times the same person engages with the post a day. Such ER varies and is based on various factors, for example, the number of times you share your post.
Comparison Bias Related to ER
Take a hypothetical situation of a company. A social media manager person is examining the engagement rate of his company. He manages the social media for BCA (an online grocery company), which has a business page on Instagram. The analysis method for the same is ER through followers. The same person measures the rate of engagements for the Lyra company(makeup & cosmetics company) but with a different method, based on engagement.
The calculated analysis represented:
BCA company recorded: 5.6% as its Engagement Rate.
Lyra company recorded: 2.43% as its Engagement Rate.
The social media manager is happy that the engagement rate of his company is greater than that of the famous brand, Lyra. However, he fails to take cognisance of the type of engagement rate and the categories. The ERs which he has calculated, cannot be compared with each other because of two reasons. The first reason being that since the ERs of the companies have been calculated through two different methods, both the ERs indicate something else and are different measures altogether. Moreover, both the companies belong to different industries and it’s important to compare the ERs according to their industries. This is one of the factors in the engagement rate launched by One Nought One. To get the free extension rate calculator, visit this link.
Through the Engagement Rate Calculator by One Nought One, one will be able calculate the actual engagement rate of a business or creator profile on Instagram in real-time and free forever. It also provides a category standard to facilitate a better and actual comparison with peers.
Important Metrics on Instagram
If you endorse your brand/company on Instagram, the only way to expand your social media presence is simply by making constructive decisions and learning to abide by them. In that case, you will have to uncover the right set of metrics. You need to decide and plot the appropriate strategies to monitor your growth on Instagram.
The following are some metrics you need to reconsider before you choose to implement them. Do not trust everything blindly, learn the best-suited strategies for your brand. However, they are the useful ones to adopt.
Include Hashtags Within Your Content Cloud
Hashtags indeed play a significant role in giving a boost to your profile's reach. It leverages your growth and helps you top amid your competitors. Make sure you use the necessary hashtags. After doing so, your posts get sorted under a particular tag, which allows people to view your posts, once they follow them.
For instance, a professional marketer should learn to differentiate and add the hashtags suited to your niche which should be relevant.
It is not rational to overload your profile with plenty of hashtags but try adding the appropriate ones. Surprisingly, you can even create your hashtags to increase the credibility of your brand as it would help you in building your presence amidst your competitors. Hence, hashtags will help you in establishing your brand's awareness.
It is always good to know with the help of the algorithm which hashtag to put, keeping all the factors in mind, such as your brand narrative, what your audience is clicking on, and what the Instagram algorithm is expecting from your brand.
Conversion of Clicks into Leads
To increase the traffic on Instagram, inserting links and URLs are some of the effective ways of leveraging your brand's awareness. No wonder these links play a crucial role in increasing your profile's analytical growth too.
Those specific links attract the audiences and clients whenever they view your profile, which even allows you to track the record for the same. In addition to this, some URLs are auto-generated with the help of tools whereas some of them are added manually. Once they click on these URLs, these links are helping your site reach more visitors.
Such links enable you to drive traffic, which converts them into leads. Hence, this is one of the metrics that help you drive better analytical growth. The key part here is to include a call to action on every social media activity so that your audience can slowly be a part of your inbound marketing strategy.
Reach
Reach is considered one of the important metrics in boosting your profile's growth. A business account gives you a comprehensive view of Instagram's insights and allows you to record the total number of people who viewed your posts. Reach is one of how we can improve the quality of our brand while witnessing the number of people who see our post. We can increase the reach by adding correct hashtags and much more. The reach allows you to calculate the reach rate, permitting you to know the percentage of viewers who saw your post. One way of increasing reach is through advertisements, but that does not guarantee the specificity of the audience. Another way is through using the social media algorithms, which deals in 24*7 engagement with the related audiences.
Instagram Stories
Instagram stories are an important metric, which allows you to add photos and videos. Such is only available for 24-hours and it disappears after that.
No wonder we can even track the engagement gained on the Instagram story we post. One of the ways of tracing the engagement is by looking at the analytics, also called insights. To track the same, you should have a business profile on Instagram. The insights show us a comprehensive record including story forwards, exists, and views. These analytics are how we can know what interests the audiences and what doesn't. It allows us to improve on our content and make it even more interactive. In total, the Instagram story feature is one of the best aspects of driving attention to our profile.
Conclusion
We conclude that we need to be careful and mindful when computing the value of the ER through numerous methods. In that case, we have to look for suitable methods for measuring the ER. The ER strategies even have some loopholes. Keeping in mind the same, a company's needs shouldn't be compromised or wronged in measuring important factors like analytics. We, at One Nought One, assure and ensure the same.
Stay mindful and try planning a better social media strategy for expanding your social media presence. Thus, be rational, realistic and try adopting the most favourable approaches to measure the ER. While you are it, do also download the chrome extension by One Nought One which helps you to calculate the engagement rate for free of cost, unlimited times, with no signup required!
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