Engagement rate is the number of people who did something with a post, as a share of the people who follow you. Add up the likes, comments, shares and saves on the post, divide by your follower count, and multiply by 100. Fifty interactions on an account with 1,000 followers is an engagement rate of 5%. If you would rather not do the sum, the free engagement rate calculator does it as you type.
A note on who is writing. WyreIt is our own product, so read our view of it with that in mind. The method on this page works whichever tool you use, or none.
The formula
Engagement rate = (likes + comments + shares + saves) ÷ followers × 100.
That is the version most small businesses use, and the one worth starting with, because every number in it is on the screen in front of you. Followers is on your profile. Likes and comments are under the post. Shares and saves are in the post's insights on a business or creator account; if yours does not show them, leave them out and be consistent about it.
A worked example
A café with 1,200 followers posts a photo of the weekend special. By Monday it has 48 likes, 7 comments, 3 shares and 2 saves. That is 60 interactions. Sixty divided by 1,200 is 0.05, times 100 is 5%. The same post from a chain with 120,000 followers and the same 60 interactions would be 0.05%. The like count is identical; the engagement rate tells you which audience is actually paying attention.
Per post or per month?
Work it out per post when you want to know what worked. Work it out per month when you want to know whether things are improving. For the monthly figure, add up the interactions on every post in the month, divide by the number of posts, then divide by followers and multiply by 100. That gives you an average rate per post, which is the number to compare month on month.
Use the follower count from the time the posts went out, not today's. If you grew by 300 followers during the month, dividing by the new total will make every older post look worse than it was.
Followers or reach?
There are two honest versions of this sum. Dividing by followers measures how much of your existing audience reacted. Dividing by reach (the number of accounts that saw the post) measures how well the post did with everyone who saw it, including people who do not follow you. Reach-based rates are usually higher and are the version most platforms show in their own insights. Either is fine; the mistake is comparing one against the other. If you compare your rate with a figure you read somewhere, check which one they used. There is more on the difference in reach vs impressions vs views vs engagement.
What counts as good
Published averages differ by platform, by account size and by who did the measuring, so treat every benchmark, including this one, as a rough guide rather than a standard. For a small business account, measured against followers:
- Under 1%: low. Common for large accounts and for accounts that post rarely. Worth looking at what you post and when.
- 1% to 3%: about average. Most small business accounts sit here.
- 3% to 6%: good. The post landed with the people who follow you.
- Above 6%: excellent. Look hard at what that post did differently and do it again.
Smaller accounts tend to score higher than large ones, because a higher share of a small following is made up of real customers, friends of the business and local people who care. A 4% rate on 800 followers is not a small achievement; it is roughly what the sum should look like when a local business is doing its job.
The most useful comparison is not against an industry figure at all. It is against your own average. Work out the rate for your last ten posts, find the average, and look at which posts sit above it and which below. The pattern in the top three is your answer to "what should I post more of".
When the number is low
- Check the format. On Instagram and TikTok, short vertical video usually draws more interaction than a still image. On LinkedIn, a plain text post with a point of view often beats a link.
- Ask for the interaction. A question in the caption gets comments. A useful list gets saves. A post that says something people agree with gets shares. Posts that ask for nothing usually get nothing.
- Reply to every comment. Each reply is an interaction, and it tells the platform the post is alive. It also tells the next person that someone is home.
- Post consistently rather than often. Two good posts a week beat seven thin ones. A scheduling tool makes consistency the easy option; see how to schedule social media posts for a small business.
- Prune the follower count. If you ran a giveaway two years ago, a chunk of your followers may never see your posts. You cannot remove them, but you can stop treating that number as if it were your audience.
Keeping track without a spreadsheet
You can keep the numbers in a notebook or a spreadsheet, and for a few posts a week that is fine. The point at which it stops being fine is when you post to four platforms and the numbers live in four apps. How to track social media performance across multiple platforms goes through the options.
WyreIt in brief
WyreIt publishes to Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube and Bluesky from one screen, and WyreIt Analytics shows the likes, comments and shares on every post you publish through it, across platforms, in one place. Plans are per account, not per user or per channel, from £19 a month on pricing. There is a 14-day free trial with no card needed. The trial does not include any AI.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?
Measured against followers, 1% to 3% is about average for a small business account and anything above 3% is good. Reach-based rates, which Instagram's own insights lean towards, run higher, so do not compare one with the other.
Does engagement rate include views?
Not in the standard formula. Views and impressions measure who saw the post; engagement measures who did something with it. Some people include video views as an interaction, which pushes the rate up a lot. If you do, say so when you compare numbers.
Why is my engagement rate going down as I gain followers?
Because the bottom of the fraction is growing faster than the top. New followers interact less than long-standing ones, and some never see your posts at all. A falling rate with rising total interactions is normal; a falling rate with falling interactions is the one to act on.
Is there a free engagement rate calculator?
Yes: the WyreIt engagement rate calculator is free, needs no sign-up and stores nothing. Type in followers, likes, comments, shares and saves and it gives you the rate and a plain-English read on it.
If you want to see how your rate compares with a competitor's, how to do a social media competitor check in 30 minutes uses the same sum.
WyreIt is a social media management tool for small business owners and sole traders. Post to Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and more from one dashboard — at a fraction of the price of Hootsuite.