There is a common misconception about optimizing social media that everyone truly understands how it works. Even with over 10 years of experience as a full-time social media manager, I can say that social media algorithms are beyond human understanding, and anyone who claims to know how they function is likely not being honest. While there are tips to enhance algorithm performance, they often fall short, especially when a random video, like a Joe Rogan podcast with Subway Surfers gameplay, goes viral and gets millions of likes. These algorithms are always changing, and trying to keep up with them is usually a waste of effort. Instead, focusing on one clear metric can be a more effective strategy than chasing the algorithm.
Engagement rate: the most important metric
The key metric that matters on social media is your engagement rate. Other factors like views, likes, and shares don’t matter as much. A video with 10 million views and only a 5% engagement rate can actually harm your page. Steady growth comes from improving your engagement rate. Many platforms don’t track this for you, so you’ll need to calculate it manually by dividing total engagements (likes + comments + shares) by total followers x 100. The best way to grow socially is to track engagement rates rather than just copying and repeating popular post formats every few weeks. Note: This applies to short-form platforms, not YouTube or other long-form ones.
engagement rate:
(Total Engagements/ Total Followers) x 100%
Engagement rate is prioritized in algorithms
A video with 10 million views and a 5% engagement rate can harm your account. The algorithm sees this as “only 5% engage when I show it to 10 million people,” and may stop promoting your content. Although we don’t know the exact workings of these algorithms, they’re meant to keep users on the platform to sell ads. To achieve this, they prefer engaging content, and the engagement rate is their main measure of what is engaging. While a video with 50,000 views and a 30% engagement rate may not seem impressive, it demonstrates to the algorithm that your content deserves more visibil
How to achieve a high engagement rate
It actually is quite simple, stimulation. How can you stimulate your audience as best as possible? It is widely known that visually appealing content helps, but what are you doing for audio? High quality sound design is JUST AS IMPORTANT as appealing visuals. Here are some specific things you can add to achieve a high engagement rate.
Sound effects
- Whooshes
- Risers
- Ambience
- Film Emulation SFX
- Glitches
- Machine Sound Effects
Visuals
- Fast cuts
- Overlays
- Animated Text/Captions
- Color correction
- High-quality export settings
- Highly Unique 3D Software Visuals
💡 TIP: Here are my export settings
Edit in 24 fps, export to Apple ProRes Raw 4444 HQ, download a program called handbrake and upload to there, and convert it to H.264 with a Constant Bitrate of 15-25 depending on how much visual information is in the video. Also, if for Instagram, export your 24 fps video in 48 fps. This prevents Instagram from auto-converting 24 fps to 30 fps, which is what it does. Your video will look awful as every frame plays twice, but once uploaded to Instagram it will convert it to 30 fps and it will look like true 24 fps.)
If you constantly push high-engaging content, you simply will grow. It won’t be flashy or quick, but the growth will come. Focusing on any other strategy is a waste of resources. It will be frustrating and easy to give up, but if you keep grinding and perfecting your craft, the results will come.
Teaching Social Media 