Engagement rates are a commonly used benchmark for success on social media, as it can determine if your brand is connecting with its audience. Plus, highly engaging content with many likes, shares, etc. often stands a better chance of organically appearing in Facebook’s feed,. Perhaps part of your social media strategy is to increase engagement on Facebook. That sounds like a worthy goal, however – working toward increased engagement is only truly successful if you first understand how engagement rates are defined and calculated.

According to Facebook, “Engagement rate is the percentage of people who saw a post that reacted to, shared, clicked, or commented on it.” This is the amount of people who are interacting with your content vs. the amount of people who are simply fans of your page. It can change on a regular basis, increasing and decreasing depending on your page activity throughout the week. Keep in mind that with a larger audience, engagements rates can be relatively lower in percentage than a page with a smaller audience.

You can find your current engagement rate for posts in your Facebook Insights at the top of your business page.

Now that you have a stronger understanding of engagement rates and what they mean, here are some tips to help improve them.

• Keep your page updated frequently. The more your update your followers, the more potential you have to engage them and encourage responses. (Keep in mind you don’t want to overdo it with content sharing either).
• Be aware of when your audience is online and active. In order for them to see your content they need to be in front of it.
• Use content that is visually stimulating. Images, videos, and informative links will do far  better than plain text updates.
• Remember that engagement goes both ways. You’ll see improvement in interaction when you respond and engage your audience as well.
• Create a call-to-action for your content. Ask a question, drive conversation, encourage a response by simply asking for one.
• Create ads for increased engagement to ensure your content is reaching your target audience.