What is applause rate?
The applause rate measures the number of likes or favorites your post received on social media, relative to your total followers. This metric indicates the percentage of your followers who applaud your brand or the content you are posting.
How to calculate applause rate?
To calculate the applause rate, first, add up the ‘total number of applause actions’ (favorites or likes) a post received in a reporting period. Now, divide this number by your ‘total number of followers’ and multiply by 100. You can calculate the applause rate for one post or piece of content at a time.
Formula for calculating applause rate
Real-life example of applause rate
Let’s understand the applause rate with an example. Say, you posted an industry-related meme on your brand’s Instagram page and the post got 15,000 likes. And assume you have 100,000 followers.
In this case, your applause rate for the meme post would be: 15,000 / 100,000 x 100 = 15%
What’s considered a good applause rate? (benchmark)
There is no set benchmark for the applause rate. You should aim higher or at least the same applause rate as your closest competitors. You can evaluate your results by comparing them against your industry standards.
If your applause rate is quite low relative to the number of followers, it means your audience isn't satisfied with your content and you need to focus on your social media strategy. For eg, 50 Likes per Post with 500 followers is an accomplishment, but 50 Likes per Post with 5 million followers is disappointing.
It is important to explore the underlying reasons for the applause rate scores. You need to dig deeper into your post to see why this post has received so much positive feedback. Are people interested in the valuable content you’re providing, the sale you’re offering, or your humor?
Ways to increase your applause rate
- Post content your audience loves: The biggest challenge marketers face on social media is creating engaging content. You don’t need to be promotional every time. You have to make sure to deliver useful, valuable, and engage-worthy content to your audience in order to gain applause actions.
- Post visually appealing content: Your fans and followers are 44% more likely to engage with content on social media that contains pictures, so be sure you focus a chunk of your effort on creating visual content like designs and photographs for these posts.
- Sprinkle a bit humour: 91% of people prefer brands to be funny and 72% would choose a brand that uses humor over the competition. But be aware to use humor only when its appropriate and aligns with your brand voice.