Why track ER
Each social network assesses the relevance of posts and promotes them in the feed according to its own algorithms. This is necessary to show users the most interesting content possible, not limited to a timeline or random selection.
Display in the feed is based on engagement. The priority is the quality of the content and the interest which the publications provoke in people, but not the number of subscribers in the account. Therefore, the engagement rate metric is very important for the algorithms and affects how many users will see your content in the feed, and therefore the effectiveness of SMM.
However, you shouldn’t consider engagement in isolation from your marketing goals and objectives. By itself, this metric doesn’t guarantee whether or not there will be conversions to sales and how much value it will bring to the brand:
- If subscribers to a machine-building plant account engage with content about new equipment, inquire about prices, save the publication to a selection to return to after a while – that’s good for business.
- If the same machine builder posts fashion news that has nothing to do with the main product, and attracts people who are far from buying equipment, then even maximum engagement of all readers will not help sell a single machine.
Engagement rates are an indicator of audience reactions to content, but the content itself must then be aimed at:
- consumers who need the product;
- Paying audiences who can purchase the product;
- the benefits of the product and motivation to buy;
- retention of interest in the company’s products and services.
Then the ER quotient will be a really important metric and will help make the right marketing decisions.