What Is Engagement?

In a nutshell

Engagement is the number of times people who saw a post took some action beyond just looking. Pressing like, replying, sharing, saving, or clicking a link or image all count. While impressions, the number of times a post was shown, tell you "did it come into view," engagement tells you "did it move them."

Differences by network

In X's post activity, the engagement count is a total that includes "all clicks on the post." Besides reposts, replies, follows and likes, it includes clicks on links, hashtags, media, usernames, profile images and detail expands (X post activity). Instagram's developer documentation has a figure called "total interactions," which adds up likes, saves, comments and shares.

So the same word "engagement" has different contents, and you need to be careful when adding up or comparing across networks.

How to use it

Each type of reaction carries a different weight. In the recommendation system X has published, replies and shares count far more than likes. The numbers are given in What makes a post show up in X's recommendations. Looking not only at the total but at which type of reaction increased tells you what to write next.

Responding to the replies you receive is also an important job in growing engagement. The rules for replying are summarized in Rules for handling replies and DMs.

While your numbers are small, start by answering each reply with care.

In SNS TOWN

Analytics shows reactions such as likes and replies by day. Replies that contain keywords you set can be answered with auto replies, which reduces the number of reactions that are received and then left alone.