What is engagement?

Every platform counts engagement a little differently, so the same post can show different totals depending on where you look. These are the definitions each platform gives in its own help centre.

• Instagram: Insights reports Interactions, which Instagram defines as actions such as likes, comments, saves and shares. A separate metric, Accounts engaged, counts the unique accounts that interacted.
• Facebook: Insights in Meta Business Suite reports Content interactions, with Link clicks shown as its own metric in the Results tab.
• LinkedIn: Page analytics counts clicks, reactions, comments and reposts. Its engagement rate divides those interactions by impressions.
• X: X's business help defines engagements as clicks anywhere on a post, including reposts, replies, follows, likes, links, embedded media, the username, the profile photo or expanding the post.
• TikTok: the posts list in TikTok Studio shows likes, shares and views for each post, and per-post insights open from More insights at the bottom of a post on your profile.
• YouTube: each video's Analytics has an Engagement tab, but on YouTube that tab is mostly about watch time and average view duration rather than likes and comments.

Total engagement on its own grows as your audience grows, so it is most useful when you compare posts of a similar type over the same period, or turn it into a rate.

1. Pick a period, such as the last 30 days, and export or note each post's engagement from the platform's insights.
2. Decide which actions you count and keep that list the same every month. If you add link clicks one month and not the next, the trend means nothing.
3. Divide total engagements by reach (or impressions) and multiply by 100 to get an engagement rate you can compare between posts.
4. Sort your posts by engagement rate and look at the top and bottom five. Note the format, topic and hook of each.

Engagement is easy to inflate and easy to misread. Watch out for these:

• Treating every action as equal. A comment asking for your price list is worth more to a small business than a quick like.
• Comparing totals across platforms that count different actions.
• Chasing engagement with giveaways or questions that have nothing to do with what you sell, which brings in people who never become customers.
• Ignoring the content of comments. Read them: they are free customer research.