Engagement Rate: A Sign of a Healthy Social Media Presence

Who isn’t familiar with social media these days? Surely everyone is already aware of and understands social media. According to the 2022 Digital Data report, there were 180 million social media users in Indonesia in 2022. This number represents 68.9% of Indonesia’s total population. From these figures, we can conclude that social media wields significant influence.

As a public relations professional at a PR agency in Jakarta or a digital marketer at a digital marketing agency in Jakarta, we certainly understand the power of social media. In fact, social media has become a key component of digital marketing strategies for communicating campaigns.

One of the benefits of using social media is collaborating with KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders), commonly known as influencers. When we want to collaborate with an influencer who aligns with our target market, we need to conduct research on that influencer first. One key factor to consider is the influencer’s engagement rate.

It’s best to choose influencers or KOLs who can make a real impact for our clients, so that neither we nor our clients are disappointed when a carefully planned campaign fails to deliver results. In this post, Media Buffet PR will explain what an engagement rate is and why it’s important for influencers.

According to Hootsuite, the Engagement Rate (ER) is a metric used to measure audience interaction with a person’s content. The purpose of the ER is to gauge how well followers respond to a social media account. The engagement rate is calculated based on the total number of interactions from followers, including likes, comments, saves, and so on.

Read also: Engagement Metrics in Digital Marketing Strategies

Take Note! 5 Social Media Metrics That Make Your Campaign a Success!

Why is ER important on social media, especially for influencers? Because the engagement rate measures the extent of audience interaction with a specific post and indicates the success of a social media strategy. Additionally, building a strong social media presence, enhancing credibility, and fostering positive relationships with your social media audience are crucial investments for any business.

Each social media platform has different engagement components. On Instagram, engagement is calculated based on the number of likes, comments, and shares. This differs from Facebook, which counts the number of reactions, clicks, comments, and shares. Meanwhile, on Twitter, the components counted are the number of retweets, comments, and likes. Example of ER calculation on Instagram:

Engagement Rate (%) = (Number of likes, comments, and shares / Number of Followers) x 100

As an Indonesian PR agency, Media Buffet PR has collaborated with several well-known influencers to help clients communicate their campaigns. One such example is Sinka, a Media Buffet consultant who has experience managing influencers from start to finish. According to her, it’s crucial to pay attention to the engagement rate because it will serve as the foundation for our future analysis and the basis for why we chose that particular influencer.

That is an explanation of the engagement rate used in digital marketing strategies to measure content performance on social media platforms. Therefore, calculating the engagement rate is highly recommended to gauge the success of our future campaigns.

Written by Raya Mahesa, Public Relations Intern at Media Buffet PR