Twitter engagement rate — what it is and how to measure it (+ how to improve it)

September 1, 2021
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Do you know what metrics give you the best idea about your account's growth? Just counting views or reactions isn't enough. In this article we will take a look at one of the most important figures: Twitter engagement rate.

Twitter numbers

As of July 2021, Twitter boasts 397 millions of global users, which means it has surpassed the estimates from the previous decade by over 50 million. The global distribution of the audiences on Twitter clearly shows that young adults between the ages of 25-34 (38.5% of users) comprise its main marketable audience. The statistics regarding the ages 18-24, and 50+ show that both groups oscillate around 17% each. Finally, 20.7% of users are 35 up to 49 years old. That means that only around 6.6% are literal children. Almost 95% of the platform’s users are therefore our potential adult viewers towards whom we can gear our posts.

Twitter is a popular marketing channel, and, moreover Google claims that 80% of Twitter users are mobile app users. Thus, if you treat Twitter as a marketing platform e.g. you are redirecting users to your website, blog or shop, remember that it must be mobile-friendly.

What counts as engagement?

Engagement, due to its name, is pretty self-explanatory, but we're going to dissect it further. When somebody engages with your post, it means they leave a trace that they paid attention to it. Thus, the following actions are counted as engagement on various social media:

  • reactions,
  • likes,
  • comments,
  • shares,
  • saves,
  • mentions,
  • clicks,
  • replies,
  • retweets,
  • quote tweets,
  • link clicks,
  • tapping/responding to stickers (Stories),

and many more (read here).

Twitter analytics

Twitter engagement rate: what is it?

Twitter is designed in a way to facilitate short and keen discussions. Therefore, it's not unusual to see 10 or more Tweets from the same account in one day. The platform allows the users to quickly share important news and links, and the Retweet function serves to amplify an individual's voice.

How is Twitter engagement rate defined? ContentCal puts it this way: "By rate, each social platform means the total engagements a post received, divided by the total number of impressions on that post. This is usually expressed as a percentage."

Hence, if you have 1000 views (impressions) and 5 likes, then your engagement rate would be 0.5%.

There are other methods to calculate your social media engagement rate, and this Hootsuite article describes some of them.

Where to find Twitter engagement rate

What is a good Twitter engagement rate?

Twitter is a very fast-paced platform and therefore you have to keep on Tweeting. The content has to be news-worthy and interesting. Just like sharing on Facebook, retweeting on Twitter gives your post a great boost and an additional audience, too. REQ and SocialBakers estimate that when it comes to the top 25 brands, their engagement rate is 0.07% per tweet.

However, Hootsuite says that SM marketing experts assert that a good engagement rate is between 1% to 5%. They don't specify for which platform, though.

Nevertheless, ContentCal states that: "Most would consider 0.5% to be a good engagement rate for Twitter, with anything above 1% great."

How to improve your Twitter engagement rate?

If you have just started your Twitter journey or you don't know how to grow your audience and gain retweets, we have some advice for you.

  1. Plan your posts. Your content has to be well-thought out and interesting in order to attract viewers and reactions. Remember to check your audience and schedule according to time zones.
  2. Give your audience something. The best gift for your followers and viewers is content, like a link to an article from your blog or another reputable source.
  3. Attach an image. According to Twitter's own intel, posts with photos "average a 35% boost in Retweets".
  4. Use relevant hashtags. The same article linked above claims that hashtags receive a 16% boost.
  5. Respond quickly. If you want viewers engagement, you have to engage too. Leave a heart for a response or a mention, and a comment when possible.
  6. Show some numbers. Twitter alleges that tweets with official stats get around 1/5 more retweets.

Still feeling a bit lost? Head to our article about planning your content strategy for Twitter for some great tips and tricks.

Social Tips Calendar from Postfity
Social Tips Calendar

Remember that Postfity has lots of post ideas and ready-made content you can use to improve your social media strategy. Be sure to try them out in your Twitter content strategy.

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