Solutions for teams
Social Marketing
20,000 brands use Emplifi to power their social media marketing
Social Commerce
Achieve 4x the revenue in half the time
Social Customer Care
Meet the customer in their channel of choice
Service & Agent Case Management
Customizable consumer service
Product Modules
Comprehensive insight on social media analytics
Unified Analytics
AI-driven social content publisher
Publisher
Strengthen customer relationships
Community
Integrated social listening
Listening
Influencers
UGC
Care
Chatbot
Ratings & Reviews
Live Advisor
Agent
Emplifi Fuel
The only unified & scalable customer experience platform
Learn more about Emplifi's social marketing platform Explore the CX Platform
Customer Success Stories
All stories
Benefit Cosmetics
The beauty brand’s audience-first approach to content
Toyota
Driving customer engagement with deep insights
Kimpton Hotels
Why UGC is a critical part of their guest experience
Stanley
How the iconic brand increased product reviews and engagement
Freshpet
Streamlining customer interactions across channels
Hardee’s
Using social listening to capitalize on trending moments
Bath & Body Works
How the retailer is growing their community
Aeromexico
How the airline became one of the most loved travel brands on social
Industries
Agencies
Consumer Packaged Goods
Higher Education
Media & Entertainment
Restaurants
Retail & eCommerce
Sports
Travel & Hospitality
Outpace your competition
We’re recognized as a market leader in innovation and for our drive to give brands all the tools they need.
Get a demo
Insights
Resource Center
Your resource center for everything social marketing, commerce and care
Blog
Get up to speed on the latest trends, tips, and best practices to power your strategy
Webinars
Latest insights on marketing, commerce, and care, straight from the experts
Product Tours
Explore our product tour library and interactive demos to see Emplifi in action
Quarterly Industry Benchmarks
Compare your social media performance with global and regional industry benchmarks
Key Terms Glossary
Explore our key term definitions
Customers
Learning Center
On-demand learning space for product training and best practices
Documentation
Learn how to get the most out of your Emplifi products
Support
See the real-time status of Emplifi platforms and submit a technical support request
Trending insights
Report: The state of social media marketing 2026
Read more
Company Information
About Emplifi
Emplifi provides brands with insights needed to empathize with customers and amplify the right experiences.
Pricing
Explore our plans and pricing for social media marketing, commerce, or care.
Careers
Learn about working at Emplifi and find the perfect role for you.
Events
Discover upcoming events to inspire your social media and CX strategy.
Leadership
Learn about our team of experienced executives driving innovation at Emplifi.
Media & Press
Keep up to date with news and insights from our newsroom.
Agency Partners
We partner with industry-leading marketing and advertising agencies to deliver unmatched client success.
Technology Partners
Our marketing technology partners are the world’s most trusted platforms, tech solutions, and service providers.
Security, Privacy & AI
Trust Center
How we innovate with trust, security, and privacy.
Legal
Your source for security, privacy, and platform transparency.
Contact Us
Get in touch with Emplifi.
Get in touch
Blog
10 min read
Feb 24, 2026

Social media engagement: Everything you need to know

Digital Marketing Social Media Management
Michelle Wong Social Media Marketing Manager at Emplifi
Take a product tour
Engagement on social media platforms

Product tour: How to simplify reporting with Unified Analytics

Take a product tour

How to do a social media audit: A step-by-step guide

A social media audit helps establish the effectiveness of your social media strategy. Learn how to conduct an audit with this step-by-step guide.
Read more

Key Points

  • Social platforms prioritise content that sparks interaction. The more meaningful engagement you generate, the more reach you earn, without increasing paid spend.
  • Likes are surface-level. Comments, shares, saves, and response time signal stronger intent and deeper audience connection. Focus on quality interactions, not vanity metrics.
  • Posting regularly isn’t enough. Brands that ask better questions, respond quickly, and analyse performance systematically see stronger, more sustainable engagement.

Social media engagement is what turns passive followers into active customers. It drives visibility, strengthens trust, and directly impacts growth.

Whether you’re managing social, leading marketing, or running a business, understanding how engagement works, and how to improve it, is essential.

In this guide, we’ll break down what social media engagement really means, how to measure it properly, and practical ways to increase it across platforms.

What is social media engagement?

Social media engagement refers to users’ interactions, reactions, and connections with content on various social media platforms.

While the core of social media engagement involves actions such as likes, comments, shares, and clicks, its true value lies in the quality of these interactions.

Meaningful engagement occurs when users actively participate in discussions, share personalized experiences, or contribute user-generated content (UGC). It’s a two-way street where brands not only broadcast their messages, but also listen and respond to their audience.

This sort of social media engagement is essential for brands to stay relevant and connect with their target audience, as it’s a powerful tool that can increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, and ultimately lead to conversions.

What are some examples of social media engagement?

Here are some ways brands engage with their customers to build trust and loyalty:

  • Delivering social customer care: Monitor brand mentions and respond quickly to questions or complaints using social listening tools. Fast, visible support builds trust and improves customer satisfaction.
  • Running interactive contests and giveaways: Encourage users to post with branded hashtags, join challenges, or submit entries. Engage with their content to strengthen community and increase reach.
  • Hosting live and immersive experiences: Use live Q&As, behind-the-scenes content, and product demos to answer questions in real time and build authentic connections.

Social proof funnel from awareness to advocacy

How does social media engagement differ across social media platforms?

Engagement isn’t one-size-fits-all. Each platform has its own rules, and brands that adjust their approach accordingly see stronger results.

  • Facebook: Engagement comes through likes, comments, shares, group discussions, and Live sessions. Use polls, Stories, and real-time video to spark conversation and build community.
  • X (Twitter): Fast-paced, real-time interaction driven by reposts, replies, likes, and hashtags. Best for timely updates, trending topics, and direct conversations.
  • LinkedIn: Professional engagement through comments, shares, and industry discussions. Ideal for thought leadership, company updates, and credibility-building content.
  • TikTok: Participation-driven engagement through likes, comments, shares, duets, and hashtag challenges. Creativity and community momentum drive visibility.
  • Instagram: Visual engagement powered by likes, comments, shares, Stories, Reels, polls, and quizzes. Strong performance relies on interactive and save-worthy content.
  • Snapchat: Measured through views, replies, screenshots, and story interactions. Content that feels immediate and personal performs best.

Why is social media engagement important for brands?

Social media engagement is essential for brands across all industries, playing a pivotal role in building and sustaining a positive brand image, building a strong and engaged online community, as well as collecting and deploying social proof.

  • Authenticity: Active social engagement humanises your brand. By responding promptly to customer inquiries, concerns, and comments, you demonstrate transparency and a genuine commitment to customer satisfaction. This creates a more relatable, trustworthy connection with your audience.
  • Credibility: Regularly participating in industry discussions, sharing valuable insights, and thoughtfully addressing feedback positions your brand as an authoritative voice. Over time, this strengthens trust and establishes your brand as a reliable source of expertise.
  • Customer loyalty: When brands actively listen, respond to audience needs, and foster a sense of community, they cultivate long-term loyalty. Engaged customers are more likely to advocate, recommend, and contribute to positive word-of-mouth that can’t be replicated through paid promotion alone.
  • Brand awareness: Meaningful engagement increases reach and visibility. Sharing relevant content and leveraging user-generated content encourages audiences to amplify your brand within their own networks, attracting new followers organically.
Screenshot of Unified Analytics interactive demo

Click the image above to see how Emplifi can help your team measure and increase social media engagement. 

How is social media engagement measured?

Social media engagement is measured through a range of metrics that provide insights into the depth and effectiveness of interactions between consumers and brands. Key social media metrics include:

  • Likes and reactions: The more likes and reactions, the higher the engagement level.
  • Comments: Meaningful conversations contribute to a higher engagement score.
  • Shares: Sharing content amplifies its reach. The more users share your content, the broader the impact and higher the engagement.
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): CTR measures the percentage of users who clicked on a link within a post. It indicates the effectiveness of content in driving further engagement.
  • Follower growth: An increase in followers indicates a growing audience interested in the brand’s content, contributing to long-term engagement potential.
  • Impressions and reach: These metrics provide an overview of how many users have seen the content. High impressions and reach suggest broad visibility, but engagement metrics reveal the quality of that visibility.
  • Conversion rate: For brands focusing on specific actions like sign-ups or purchases, tracking the conversion rate from social media interactions is crucial in understanding the impact on business goals.
  • Time spent on page or post: Monitoring how much time users spend engaging with content provides insights into the level of interest and its ability to capture attention.
  • Sentiment analysis: Understanding the sentiment expressed in comments and mentions helps gauge the overall perception of the brand and the nature of engagement.
  • User-Generated Content (UGC): The amount and quality of UGC can be a powerful indicator of brand affinity and active community engagement.

By analyzing these metrics collectively, brands can gain a comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness of their social media engagement strategies and make informed decisions to optimize future efforts.

Image of Emplifi's unified analytics dashboard

How do you calculate a social media engagement rate?

Social media engagement rates measure the level of interaction between a brand and its audience on social media.

They’re calculated by dividing the number of interactions (likes, comments, shares, etc.) by the number of followers. The resulting percentage is a metric that can be used to track the success of a social media campaign and identify areas for improvement.

Social media engagement rate formula

The most commonly used formula for calculating ‌engagement rate is:

Engagement Rate = (Total engagements on a post / Total followers) * 100%

Definitions

  • Total engagements on a post: This includes all interactions your content receives, such as likes, comments, shares, saves, etc.
  • Total followers: The number of followers or subscribers on your profile at the time of measuring.

Instructions for calculation

  • Gather data: First, identify the post for which you want to calculate the engagement rate. Collect the total number of engagements for this post.
  • Total engagements: Add up all forms of interactions on the post (likes, comments, shares, etc.). Some social media platforms provide these analytics directly in their insights or analytics sections.
  • Total followers: Note the number of followers or subscribers you have. This should be the current count at the time of your calculation.
  • Apply the formula: Plug these numbers into the formula.
  • Calculate: Perform the division followed by multiplication to get the engagement rate as a percentage.
  • Interpreting results: A higher percentage typically indicates better engagement. However, remember that what constitutes a “good” engagement rate can vary by industry, platform, and audience.

Example

Suppose you have a post with 250 engagements (likes, comments, shares, etc.), and you have 5,000 followers. The engagement rate would be:

Engagement Rate = (200 / 5000) * 100 = 4%

This formula gives you a clear and quantifiable way to measure how well your audience interacts with your content relative to your follower base. It’s an essential metric for evaluating the performance of your social media strategy and understanding your audience’s engagement level.

While it’s important to understand the process, it’s considerably easier to utilize a social media engagement tool to gather, calculate, and visualize your engagement rate.

You’ll even be able to automate certain activities over time to support improvement and connect your rate to other customer data.

What is a good social media engagement rate?

A good engagement rate is one that signifies a meaningful and active relationship between a brand and its audience.

Typically, anything between 1%-6% is considered good social media engagement, depending on platform, industry, and other factors like organic versus paid engagement.

High-quality interactions, such as thoughtful comments or shares, are more valuable indicators of engagement than mere likes. It’s also important to consider the context of your specific audience, as well as industry benchmarks for a more accurate assessment.

Ultimately, the best way to determine what a good engagement rate is for your business is to track your own results over time and compare them to your industry peers through a social media engagement tool.

Which social media channel averages the greatest engagement levels?

The platform with the greatest engagement levels often depends on the target audience and content type. For example, TikTok has emerged as the leader in post engagement, but tends to be stronger with younger demographics.

Instagram, combined with Facebook, has the largest available audience, while YouTube and WhatsApp follow closely behind. For B2B interactions, LinkedIn is notable but doesn’t have the overall reach of the other platforms.

Engagement levels shift annually, so evaluate your social media benchmarks to understand where your audience lives and where to engage them.

Tracking these types of shifts and benchmarks can be the difference between effectively deploying your resources and reaching your audience.

4 steps to increase social media engagement

Social media engagement isn’t just about going viral; it’s about building and nurturing a relationship with your audience. To do this successfully, you need a smart, consistent strategy that aligns with your brand’s voice and your followers’ interests.

1) Know your audience and what they want

The foundation of any successful social media strategy is a deep understanding of your audience. This goes beyond simple demographics. You need to know their interests, needs, and online behaviors.

Use social media listening to understand what they’re talking about, the topics they care about, and how they interact with brands. This helps you create content that is not only relevant but also resonates on a personal level, boosting authenticity and encouraging real engagement.

2) Craft a strong social media content strategy

Your content should be consistent and high-quality. Prioritize visuals and interactive features like polls, quizzes, and videos, which are proven to be highly engaging and shareable. Embrace authenticity by featuring user-generated content (UGC), which builds trust and strengthens your community.

Remember, it’s not about posting what your brand wants to say; it’s about creating content that your audience wants to hear. This is the key to moving beyond a one-way broadcast and into a genuine conversation.

3) Actively engage your community

Social media is a two-way street. To boost engagement, you must actively participate. Respond to comments and messages, join conversations about your industry, and encourage your followers to share their own content.

By fostering a lively and responsive community, you make your followers feel valued and heard, which in turn inspires more interaction.

4) Measure and refine your efforts

Never guess what works. Use a social media analytics tool to measure the performance of your content. Track key metrics like your engagement rate, follower growth, and post reach to understand what content types and topics are performing best.

This data provides the insights you need to refine your strategy, ensuring your efforts are always aligned with your goals. By consistently measuring and optimizing, you can ensure your engagement efforts are paying off.

How do you create engaging social media content?

There are a few key elements to creating engaging social media content:

  • Relevance: Your content should be relevant to your audience and their interests. This means understanding what they care about and what kind of content they’re looking for through developing personas or tactics like social listening.
  • Value: Your content should provide value to your audience. This could be in the form of information, entertainment, or inspiration.
  • Engagement: Your content should encourage engagement from your audience. This could be through likes, comments, shares, or even clicks through to your website.
  • Consistency: You need to be consistent with your social media content. This means posting regularly and on a schedule that works for your audience.

Once you plan for those considerations, there are specific tactics that help brands increase engagement:

  • Encourage UGC: Engage your audience by featuring their content or creating campaigns that encourage their participation. Your audience likes hearing from and engaging with people like them.
  • Utilize storytelling: Share stories and content that reflect your brand’s values and mission authentically. The more human, the better.
  • Create visually appealing media: Use high-quality images, videos, and graphics to capture attention. This is where UGC becomes particularly powerful.
  • Deploy interactive elements: Incorporate polls, quizzes, and questions to encourage audience participation.
  • Deliver value-driven content: Provide content that educates, entertains, or solves problems for your audience.
  • Share timely and trending topics: Stay relevant by posting content related to current events, trends, or seasonal themes.
  • Partner with influencers: All levels of influencers bring ‌established trust and expectations from your audience. By including them in your social media marketing mix, you’ll find immediate boosts to your engagement rate.

Ready to track your social media engagement?

The fastest and easiest way to collect, analyze, and react to your social media engagement is through a social media engagement solution. With custom dashboards, you can pull all of your social media data into one place and track all aspects of engagement through automated reporting.

Combined with AI, a social media solution with unified analytics will allow you to quickly identify opportunities to improve social media engagement and turn disparate data into actionable insights. If you would like to learn more about how Emplifi can help improve your social media engagement, book a demo today.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

    Social media engagement refers to all the ways users interact with your content, including likes, comments, shares, clicks, and user-generated content (UGC). These interactions show how interested and involved your audience is with your brand. Engagement is more than just numbers, it reflects meaningful participation and connection. It helps brands build relationships and foster community online.

    Social media engagement is crucial because it increases brand awareness and helps build trust through authentic, two-way communication. Engaged audiences are more likely to become loyal customers and advocates for your brand. Analyzing valuable insights through social media metrics and feedback that brands can use to improve their products and services. Ultimately, engagement drives business growth and long-term customer relationships.

    Engagement rate is calculated by dividing the total interactions on a post—such as likes, comments, and shares, by the number of followers, then multiplying by 100%. This gives a percentage that reflects how actively your audience interacts with your content relative to your follower count. It’s a useful metric to gauge the effectiveness of your social media efforts. Tracking this rate over time through regular social media audits helps identify trends and areas for improvement.

    A good engagement rate generally ranges from 1% to 6%, though it can vary depending on the platform, industry, and audience. Higher rates usually reflect a stronger and more active connection between the brand and its followers. Meaningful interactions, such as thoughtful comments and shares, often carry more weight than simple likes. Creating a social media marketing plan and comparing your results to industry benchmarks will help you set realistic goals and effectively evaluate your strategy.

     

    Yes, AI-powered social media tools can streamline how you collect and analyze engagement data by unifying metrics across platforms. They help automate tracking, identify patterns, and offer actionable insights to optimize your content strategy. AI can also suggest the best times to post and highlight emerging trends to keep your audience engaged. Using these tools can save time and improve your overall social media performance.

    Insights from Emplifi

    Explore our latest blogs and comprehensive guides designed to help you master customer experience strategies and drive growth.

    Winning Ramadan on social 2026

    Learn how to translate core Ramadan values into authentic content pillars that build trust and credibility.
    Read more

    Social media engagement: Everything you need to know

    No social media strategy is hitting the mark without frequent engagement. We're answering all your engagement questions here.
    Read more

    How to create a social media strategy for non-profit organizations

    For NGOs, charities, and mission-driven organizations, your social media channels can be a vital window into your impact. In this guide, we look at...
    Read more

    Top 10 Brandwatch alternatives for social listening & customer intelligence

    Brandwatch is one of the most recognized names in social media management and consumer intelligence. Over the years, it has built a strong reputation...
    Read more

    Salomon’s social CX playbook: how to scale fast, personal support across 80+ accounts

    From "screen juggling" to unified view. How Salomon unified data to scale Social Care, turning Social Service into a loyalty engine
    Read more

    Top 10 Hootsuite alternatives for social media management

    Hootsuite has been a staple in social media management for over a decade. It’s widely recognized for helping teams schedule content, manage...
    Read more

    Ready to fuel your CX and social media marketing?

    Discover how Emplifi boosts efficiency, increases revenue, and scales your social media management — whether you have a small team or a complex product. Let’s talk today.

    What can you expect?

    • A partner who cares about your strategy and objectives
    • Live demo showing how we differentiate from the pack
    • No pressure, just advice
    Get a demo