By The Numbers

So you’ve started an Instagram account, but now what? Which numbers are important? How fast should you be growing? How do you measure success?

Although it’s easy to want to measure success based on follower count, that number isn’t as important as you would think. The number to focus on as your grow your social presence is your engagement rate—the percentage of followers who are interacting with the content you post.

en·gage·ment
/inˈɡājmənt,enˈɡājmənt/

Social media engagement measures the public shares, likes, clicks, and comments on your business's social media pages. Why does this matter? Engagement shows you how much of your audience is interacting with your content, instead of scrolling past your posts. It’s important to study your audience and update your content based on what resonates with them the most—AKA what they find most engaging.

Some people try to buy likes and follows. While this is possible, it doesn’t serve your business well. Fake likes and comments may look nice from the outside, but they don’t translate to more sales. Don’t let a small following scare you—if your engagement rate is high, you’re building a loyal audience that is more likely to use your product or service.

If you have questions about how to grow your social presence organically, reach out to us at hello@gradient-creative.com.