Calculate Engagement Rate of Creators Quickly (Tool inside)

Hello Reader,

I’m teaching a 2-Day Workshop for creatives and people in the entertainment industry, having them consider using their talents to create content for their own brand, other brands, and in-house.

One of the things I want them (and you) to understand is that alignment matters.

If you are a Shein shopper and you post about your hauls, I’m likely not going to add you to the YES list for a client that focuses on sustainability and using less plastic.

If you are a bartender and recipe creator, I’m likely not going to add you to the YES list for a client that focuses on babies and postpartum depression.

You could have 100,000 followers and still it wouldn’t make sense to see you publish content about pregnancy while mixing drinks.

This applies to any business looking to hire a creator to create user-generated content (UGC) or an influencer to create sponsored content. In addition, we are looking at engagement rate. I used to say 2.5% engagement is great. I really would like to see it somewhere in the 2.5-3.5% range. (Over 3.5% is pretty fantastic.) It’s going to suss out some winners, so human eyes also need to review profiles and posts.

One tool you can use to look up engagement rates is Not Just Analytics. Bookmark this site.

There’s no manual calculation, which is what I would do.

Enter the username and see what that account’s engagement rate is, averaged from the last 12 posts.

Check out one of my favorite accounts @fatbearweek. Their engagement rate is 1.43%. (I did a rough manual average and got 1.32% without weighting comments.) They can definitely do better by engaging and commenting and replying. They’re also a seasonal account so they’re not super active during winter or summer, so it is understandable that their rate is lower.

There are other factors to consider, if you are hiring creators or influencers. Number one is alignment. Two is engagement. Three is their content – does their voice and content make sense for your brand?

Other factors to consider:

• Professionalism – Do they run their creator/influencer business like a business?
• Likability – Are they even likable?
• Their audience – does it make sense to “borrow” their audience, if you are paying for sponsored content?

What else do you look for in creators and influencers?

• Annie Mai interviews someone who is visually impaired, and the simplest fix is put your alt text descriptions for every image you post online.
• ​Miss Kansas calls out her abuser on live TV. Noiiiiiiice. I love when horrible people get what they deserve.
• How did TikTok’s Sale compare to Amazon’s Prime Day(s)? Spoiler alert: Meh.
• An influencer sued another one for copying her. Get the popcorn ready. I have a feeling we are going to see a few more of these cases bubble up in the coming years.

As we start to wrap up July, you will need to start thinking about holiday, especially if you are B2C and sell a product. If you haven’t built out a Pinterest account yet, do it now. Sign up, add your info, start thinking about content creation on Pinterest as well as your usual online channels.

More on Pinterest next week!

Chris

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