Likes, comments, and shares are engagement metrics used on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and others to measure how users are interacting with content. Brands, influencers, and regular users care about these metrics because they give insight into how well received and impactful their content is.
On platforms like Facebook and Instagram, liking a post is a way for users to show approval or acknowledge seeing content without having to leave a comment. The number of likes indicates how many people enjoyed or appreciated the content. Comments allow users to leave feedback, opinions, questions, or reactions to the content. A high number of comments signals the content prompted discussion. Sharing means reposting someone else’s content to your own profile or feed, which helps increase the content’s reach. More likes, comments, and especially shares means the content resonates with users enough that they engage with it and spread it further.
Tracking these metrics helps content creators improve their strategy. Seeing which types of content gets more traction through likes, comments, and shares tells creators what their audience responds to best. These metrics also help businesses identify influencers and advocates who engage highly with their branded content. For individuals, likes and comments can validate that the content they’ve shared was meaningful to others. Overall, these metrics are key to understanding audience sentiment, engagement levels, and content performance on social platforms.
Why Do Likes, Comments and Shares Matter?
Likes, comments, and shares matter because they help determine the success and reach of content on social media. Here are some specific reasons why each metric is important:
Likes
– Indicate content is resonating with your target audience
– Boost visibility and credibility through numbers
– Help content appear higher in algorithmic news feeds
– Trigger the bandwagon effect where more users also like the content
– Require minimal effort yet show appreciation for content
Comments
– Provide qualitative feedback on how content is being received
– Spark conversation and engagement between creator and audience
– Signal that content prompts strong reactions or opinions
– Help improve future content based on responses
– Can be shared by commenters which expands reach
Shares
– Drastically expand the reach of content to new audiences
– Indicate content is valuable, interesting or entertaining enough to share
– Increase traffic and discovery of content and brand
– Improve SEO with inbound links and exposure
– Enable content to spread organically with no additional effort
The more likes, comments, and especially shares, the further the content’s overall reach. This generates buzz around the brand and creator.
How Platform Algorithms Use Likes, Comments and Shares
Social media algorithms analyze likes, comments, and shares to determine the quality and relevance of content. This affects how often and prominently platforms show the content to users. Here’s how it works on some major platforms:
Facebook’s News Feed ranking algorithm uses “meaningful interactions” as a strong signal for quality. This includes reactions, comments, shares, and more. Content with more of these signals gets ranked higher and gains more reach. Comments and shares especially influence rankings.
Instagram similarly ranks content in the feed based on typically interactions. Posts with higher engagement in likes and comments get shown to more users through hashtags and the Explore page. Instagram especially values comments for engagement.
Twitter measures user interest based on likes, retweets, and time spent viewing tweets. More popular tweets get elevated for greater visibility. Retweets have the highest weighting since they indicate users finding content valuable enough to reshare.
YouTube
User engagement metrics like likes, dislikes, comments, and shares factor into YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. Videos with more interactions, watch time, and traffic get recommended more and rank better in search results.
Best Practices for Getting More Likes, Comments and Shares
To gain more likes, comments, and shares on social media, here are some proven best practices:
Create Quality Shareable Content
Great content encourages engagement and sharing. Produce content that provides value, entertainment, or an emotional connection for your audience. Infographics, listicles, how-tos, and videos tend to be highly shareable formats.
Know Your Audience
Analyze your audience’s preferences and habits. Create content that speaks to their interests and aligns with what they react to best. This varies across different demographics and platform algorithms.
Use Engaging Language
Write compelling headlines and captions that prompt reactions and discussion from followers. Ask questions, use emotive language, include calls-to-action, and incorporate hashtags where appropriate.
Post at Optimal Times
Learn when your audience is most active on each platform and schedule posts during those high traffic time windows. This varies by industry, location demographics.
Leverage Influencers
Partner with relevant influencers to share your content with their engaged follower base. The right influencer endorsements can drive huge amounts of traffic.
Reply and Interact with Followers
Being responsive in comments and participating in conversations leads to higher engagement levels overall. Humanizing your brand leads to stronger connections.
Run Contests and Giveaways
Sweeten engagement with prizes and rewards. Contests and giveaways that encourage social sharing or participation will produce more likes, comments, and shares.
Analyze Performance
Use social media analytics to identify your top performing content formats, topics, and posting times. Double down on what works to continually improve.
Common Metrics Derived from Likes, Comments, Shares
Various engagement and performance metrics can be calculated from likes, comments, and shares. Some key metrics to analyze include:
Engagement Rate
Engagement rate shows the percentage of followers who interact with content. A high rate signifies an engaged, interested audience. Calculate it by dividing engagements (likes + comments + shares) by your number of followers.
Social Conversion Rate (SOCR)
SOCR measures conversions from social channels. Count how many desired actions (email signups, purchases, etc) stemmed from social and divide by fans/followers to see how converting your audience is.
Virality
Virality indicates how much content spreads organically through shares. Measure it by dividing shares by overall reach or impressions. Higher virality means your content resonates enough to be passed on.
Social Share of Voice
Share of voice shows your brand’s piece of the conversation versus competitors. Calculate it by comparing your engagement metrics against competitor totals.
Sentiment
Tools like social listening track sentiment across conversations happening around your brand. Monitor for positive, negative or neutral sentiment based on comments.
Benchmarks for Each Metric
Since engagement levels vary greatly across industries and platforms, aim for benchmarks relative to your niche. Here are some average benchmarks for 2022:
Metric | Benchmark |
Facebook Engagement Rate | 0.5-2% |
Instagram Engagement Rate | 2-4% |
Twitter Engagement Rate | 0.5-1% |
YouTube Engagement Rate | 3-5% |
Facebook SOCR | 0.02-0.35% |
Instagram SOCR | 0.5-2.5% |
Twitter SOCR | 0.075-0.5% |
YouTube SOCR | 0.15-0.6% |
Facebook Virality | 0.5-5% |
Twitter Virality | 0.3-1.5% |
Monitor your metrics against these industry benchmarks to gauge your performance. Maximize your strong channels and improve on lower benchmarks.
Tools to Track Performance
Here are some top tools to help track likes, comments, shares, and derived metrics:
Built-In Analytics
Utilize the free analytics within each social media platform. Facebook Insights, Instagram Insights, Twitter Analytics, and YouTube Analytics all provide engagement data.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a popular social media management system that tracks comprehensive analytics for multiple networks including engagement rates.
Sprout Social
This social media management and analytics platform measures virality, advocacy, audience engagement and more.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo analyzes engagement data and identifies key influencers around any content.
Keyhole
Keyhole tracks hashtags and keywords across platforms to monitor performance and compare metrics.
Socialbakers
Socialbakers provides social analytics and competitive benchmarking. Compare your performance to competitors.
Mention
Mention monitors brand mentions and sentiment across social channels to optimize engagement.
Conclusion
Tracking likes, comments, shares, and derived metrics is crucial for optimizing social media strategy. These indicators of engagement and sentiment measure how well content resonates to expand reach. Benchmark against competitors in your industry and niche. Keep experimenting with content formats, topics, and platforms to maximize these metrics. Consistently engaging social media followers through strategic use of likes, comments, and shares will amplify brand exposure and p