Clear marketing objectives are key for building and measuring a successful social media strategy. When it comes to instagram, there are a few different ways that you can measure the performance of your campaign. You can look at your posts reach or it’s level of engagement. But which is better to track, reach or engagement? First, let’s look at what the difference between the two is.

What is Instagram post reach?

Instagram post reach is simply the number of unique people who have seen your post. If 100 people saw your post, this means that it has a reach of 100. 

It may seem weird, but influencers can sometimes have posts with reach higher than their follower count. This would mean that their post was shared frequently by followers, reaching many new people. 

What is Instagram post engagement?

Social media engagement is any interaction with a piece of content. If a user likes or comments on a post, that counts as an engagement. If a post receives twenty likes and five comments, then it would have twenty five engagements.

Looking at a post’s engagement rate can be more useful than just its number of engagements. A post’s engagement rate lets you know what percentage of the people who viewed it engagement with it. To calculate a post’s engagement rate, we need to factor in reach as well.

Post Engagement rate = (Number of Post Engagements / Post Reach) x 100

It is normal for larger influencers to have smaller engagement rates compared to micro influencers. A good engagement rate also differs by industry, so it’s normal for foodies and fashion influencers to have different engagement rates.

How can you find out an influencer’s reach and engagement rate? 

When looking at someone else’s post, you can see their number of likes and comments but not their reach. 

You can automatically find out an influencer’s average engagement rate as well as individual posts engagement rates by looking them up on Trendster.io

Should you target reach or engagement?

When you should target reach

Reach is ideal for increasing brand awareness.

If you are launching a new product, need to make an announcement, or are focusing on branding, reach is the way to go. This is especially true if you are just starting out. You need to make sure that as many people as possible from within your target audience are aware of your existence. 

The goal of your content would be the sharing of knowledge or information.

When you should target engagement

Engagement is ideal for building customer relationships.

If you want to increase your brand’s liking, want your customers to share their thoughts, or build trust, then aim for engagement. Once you have an online audience, even if it isn’t too large, it’s best to create content that resonates with them on a personal level. Audiences usually react to this with likes and comments. 

The goal of your content would be giving value to your audience.

What is the easiest way to measure influencer reach and engagement?

When running a campaign it can be tedious to track reach and engagement for multiple influencers each posting several pieces of content. 

If you want to automatically discover influencer’s reach and engagement, you can start browsing on Trendster today.