Naughty or Nice: The Engagement Revolution and Why It’s Time to Ditch the Old Metrics
In the realm of online content, engagement holds immense value. However, not all engagement is created equally. In this blog post, we delve into the contrasting worlds of "naughty" (bad) and "nice" (good) engagement, show why not all engagement is created equally, and challenge the way we think about and measure online community health.
First, some definitions.
Good engagement builds community. Bad engagement destroys it.
Differentiating between good and bad engagement is crucial for understanding the quality of interactions within a digital community and the overall health of the community being measured. While good engagement involves genuine interactions and discussions, bad engagement may include spam, fake accounts or trolling, which can distort the true measure of audience interest.
Good engagement builds community. It:
Encourages meaningful discussions and provides valuable insights
enhances the overall user experience
contributes to a sense of community and collaboration
Bad engagement scares good engagement away. It:
Discourages community members from participating and disrupts conversations
Damages reputations
Puts your followers at risk for scams, finacial losses and identity theft
Creates a toxic environment
Negative sentiment is not necessarily bad engagement
In fact, as odd as it may sound, healthy engagement can include both positive and negative sentiments - as long as they're constructive, non-abusive and disclusionary. Genuine engagement creates opportunities for valuable conversations, meaningful connections, constructive disagreements and even learning experiences. Positive feedback helps you understand what resonates with your audience, while thoughtful criticism enriches the content and drives improvement.
Quantity over quality: The ugly truth about your engagement rate
Now let’s look at how engagement rate is measured.
Source: New Report Finds that 62% of Facebook Users Encounter Scams in the App Every Week, Social Media Today
Engagement rate measures the level of interaction and participation your content receives from your audience, so it's a great metric to measure how well your content resonates with your target audience. The more users interact with your posts or page, the more likely you'll gain their trust and loyalty, and convert them down the road.
However, engagement rate doesn’t measure the quality of engagement, it only measures the quantity of engagement. In other words, your engagement rate does not differentiate between good, brand building engagement and bad, brand damaging engagement.
The worst part is bad engagement can artificially inflate engagement metrics. This can mislead you into thinking your content is more popular or resonant than it actually is or your community is more healthy and vibrant than it is.
So now what?
Rethinking Engagement Rate
While engagement rate is a common metric and an important KPI, because it fails to capture the true health of an online community, simply relying on numbers without considering the quality of engagement can lead to a skewed perception.
As such, removing bad engagement is essential for obtaining accurate engagement metrics. By filtering out spam, fake accounts, and trolling behaviour and hate speech, you get a clearer picture of how real users are interacting with your content, leading to more reliable insights.
Join the revolution.
Avoiding digital self-sabotage
Genuine engagement from fans fuels growth and creates a loyal and dedicated audience. On the other hand, bots and abusive behaviour bring no value to the table and hinder true community growth.
Therefore, you may be causing your digital community more harm than good if you’re challenging your team or yourself to optimize your community based on your engagement rate. Why? Because measuring community health based solely on engagement rate disregards the quality and authenticity behind the interactions - it’s digital self-sabotage.
(Even if you layer in your sentiment score with engagement rate, you’re still not getting the full picture. Sentiment scores don’t tell you anything about brand-damaging spam, scams or illegal streams, and many “off the shelf” sentiment trackers that aren’t finely tuned to your community, are rife with errors.)
So let's focus on fostering meaningful connections, encouraging positive dialogue and keeping our online spaces free from bot traffic and trolls. You can do that by:
Removing bad engagement
Fostering good engagement
Measuring the right thing
Removing bad engagement
If you want a more indicative engagement rate metric, first you need to remove all bad engagement from your feeds. You can do that by deleting all spam comments and removing all abuse from your posts manually, or you can do that automatically using a software like Areto’s (like the New Jersey Devils’ did and moved to #2 in the NHL for engagement in 2022-23).
The good news is the time spent removing bad engagement actually boosts your good engagement and improves your community health. By actively curbing and filtering out bad engagement, you create a safer and friendlier space where meaningful interactions can thrive. Users are more likely to feel comfortable participating, knowing that their contributions won't be drowned out by negativity or harassment.
Another reason to remove bad engagement is that removing bad engagement can contribute to enhanced content visibility. Platforms often prioritize content that receives genuine and positive engagement, leading to better visibility and reach among your target audience.
Moreover, by eliminating the noise created by bots and trolls, you allow the genuine voices of our fans to shine through. When users see a positive and respectful atmosphere, they are more likely to increasingly engage in a productive manner. Removing bad engagement not only boosts the quality of the community but also enhances the overall experience, attracting new users who seek a supportive and engaging environment.
Fostering good engagement
Good engagement is powerful. Good engagement holds significant power in shaping the success of a business. Genuine comments and shares generate a sense of trust and loyalty with the audience. When users feel valued and heard, they become advocates for the brand or content, leading to increased visibility through organic sharing and recommendations, and increased opportunities for revenue in the future.
Good engagement also fosters a sense of belonging within the community. Users form connections with like-minded individuals, creating a supportive network that amplifies their positive experiences. These bonds lead to long-term engagement and can even result in user-generated content, testimonials, collaborative opportunities and increased sales.
Once you’ve removed bad engagement from your feeds, you can start to reassess your audience to understand what’s actually resonating with them, and then tailor your content accordingly.
Some of the simplest things you can do to foster good engagement are:
Post consistently: Maintain a regular posting schedule to keep your audience engaged and expecting your content.
Respond promptly: Interact with your audience by responding to comments, messages and mentions promptly. Show that you value their input and are eager to engage with them. (This is much easier to do when you automatically remove bad engagement from your feeds, freeing up more time for community interaction)
Ask questions: Pose questions to your audience in your posts to encourage them to share their thoughts and opinions. People love to give their input!
Measuring the right thing
By removing bad engagement and fostering good engagement in your digital community, your engagement rate will improve significantly. However, is it the right metric to measure community health?
As aforementioned, without accurate, finely tuned sentiment analysis and “clean” engagement scores, it’s difficult to truly assess how healthy your digital community is and whether your content is connecting and your community is thriving.
Our data analytics team is working on a top secret project to create a community health score that takes into account good and bad engagement, while analyzing sentiment using tools finely attuned to your digital community.
To quickly and easily remove bad engagement from your community in under 3 seconds, book a demo with our team or email hello@aretolabs.com
