Much Ado About Engagement Rate

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Engagement rate [noun]: a metric that measures the level of interaction that a piece of created content is receiving from an audience. ~ Trackmaven.com

In the wake of digital marketing, especially with the use of social media by marketers as a tool for connecting with customers, the term engagement has become the Holy Grail for every content creator and community manager worth his/her salt. In simple terms, engagement refers to how people interact with your content. The more original and interesting the content, the more likely its target audience is to interact with it. This interaction is measured in the form of ‘likes’, ‘comments’, ‘shares’, ‘retweets’, ‘favorites’ etc.

While it’s apparent that engagement is a big deal, what however is not apparent is the value (or the lack of it) that the engagement contributes towards brand building. Many brand managers love to see the numbers on their platforms go up without much thought to how much value is being added by those numbers. Here is what I mean; suppose a hair products company wants to up its engagement on a social platform like Facebook. It may decide to put up a post about the ongoing match between Manchester and Chelsea (it’s not ongoing), asking them to predict the final scores. This action is bound to increase engagement in form of likes, comments and shares. But does the increased engagement necessarily translate into increased value for the brand? I’d say No. Here’s why:

Even though the numbers in terms of likes, comments, shares and retweets are increasing , it doesn’t necessarily mean that the customers or fans are engaging with the essence of the brand. A post asking fans on a Toothpaste Page to choose between two celebrity outfits will generate a lot of conversation on the page and will probably help with EDGE RANK but will it be of any benefit to the brand to continually post celebrity photos that are unrelated to its product offering? Once again, I think not.

The point is that brand managers need to look beyond numbers on their social platforms to interpreting the kind of engagement generated and asking questions. Are the conversations the types that benefit the brand directly or indirectly? What posts are generating the most engagements: are they posts promoting brand awareness or just lifestyle posts with no relevance to the brand? These are the questions that must be answered by the community manager as well as brand manager.

All said and done, I guess the challenge for content creators and community managers is finding the balance between engagement and brand value.

The End..