Definition: Twitter Engagement Rate

 in Digital Marketing Analytics / Social Media / Social Media Advertising by (updated on )

Twitter Engagement Rate is the number of times a tweet was loaded into someone’s feed, divided by the number of engagements that tweet received. It is a measure used to show how interesting an individual tweet is, with a higher engagement rate meaning it is more interesting.

Twitter’s algorithm will use this engagement rate to work out whether to show a Tweet to more people than usual or not – as it aims to show the most interesting tweets to as many people as possible.

This same engagement rate calculation can be used to work out the engagement rate of a whole Twitter account – with all impressions and engagements being added up and used in the calculation.

 

Calculator IconWork out the ER of your Tweets and Twitter Account with our Twitter Engagement Rate Calculator >

 

Twitter Engagement Rate Formula

The engagement rate equation used by Twitter is:

Twitter Engagement Rate EquationClick to enlarge

Twitter Engagement Rate = (Engagements ÷ Impressions) x 100

 

Average Twitter Engagement Rate

According to our polling, the median Twitter Engagement Rate for a page is about 1%. The distribution of engagement rates appears as follows:

Twitter Engagement Rate Benchmarks

Here are some key takeaways:

  • Over 1/3rd of Twitter users have an Engagement Rate of under 0.5%
  • Over half of Twitters users have an Engagement Rate under 1%
  • Almost three-quarters of Twitter users report an Engagement Rate under 2%

 

7 Things To Know About Twitter Engagement Rate

  1. According to our polling, only 27% of Twitter accounts report an engagement rate of over 2%. If you can beat that, you’re doing well.
  2. Engagements are defined by Twitter as ‘Clicks anywhere on a Tweet, inc. Retweets, replies, follows, likes, links, cards, hashtags, embedded media, username, profile photo, or Tweet expansion.’
  3. Twitter measures how interesting something is. Facebook measures how many people were interested in something. Neither measure is “better”, but they aren’t directly comparable.
  4. An impression is counted on Twitter when a tweet loads in a feed *NOT* when someone sees it (because a feed loads many Tweets at once, and you have to scroll down to see them all).
  5. According to our polling, the median engagement rate for a Twitter account is about 1%. [48% report over 1%, 52% up to 1%]
  6. Engagements on Twitter include “detail expands”, meaning that a high engagement rate could simply be lots of people zooming in on a Tweet before deciding they hate it!
  7. On Twitter, Engagement Rate is calculated as total engagements divided by total impressions. This measures how interesting a tweet or Twitter page is *NOT* how many people were interested

 

Summary

Twitter Engagement Rate Definition

 

Glossary Index