Are Impressions The New Form Of Engagements In Social Media?

Is your business working toward improved brand awareness? Are you doing everything that you can in order to grow and influence your audience on social media? If so, it’s crucial for you to know the difference between reach and impressions.

Marketers usually encounter these two terms however it’s not always clear as to what makes each metric so critical. Many know the importance of social media engagement. However, when it comes to strategy, it’s all about correctly measuring your metrics as well as finding areas to increase efforts.

Various social media terms are often misunderstood and some are even thought to mean exactly the same thing. While it’s very easy to group terms such as reach and impressions together, they do have their own definitions.

What Is Reach?

The term ‘reach’ is utilised in order to define who sees content. This figure is the total number of people who see a tweet that you make, an Instagram story that you post, or a Facebook event page. Let’s say that you have an ad which was displayed 500 times on social media pages. If 200 individuals clicked on your ad, your reach would be 200.

What Is The Definition Of Impressions?

The term ímpressions’ refers to the total number of times social media browsers who have been showed your content. Impressions are different than reach as it doesn’t count individuals who click or engage with your content, only those who are exposed to it. If your ad was shown 500 times on social media, your impressions would be 500.

Food For Thought

Many new social media platforms, as well as functionalities, are predicated on reach vs. engagement. Think about Stories. Or, really, even Twitter these days. There is not much meaningful engagement going on there these days, is there? However, that doesn’t mean your customers aren’t seeing – as well as consuming – your content. They may be! However, you don’t know unless you’re tracking those impressions.

In a number of audits for bigger companies in 2020 and 2021, it was found that their engagement scores were very heavily influenced by the “like.” Brands are also seeing fewer comments, and far more likes. And, as we all know, the like is, by far, the most passive format of social media engagement.

We’re not saying engagement is dead. Not by a long shot. However, maybe we have been over-valuing engagement the last couple of years. Not to mention, it almost feels as if engagement levels across social might plummet in the next few months as we ease away from the pandemic. That’s just a guess, but we see a lot of people pulling away from social as well as re-engaging with actual humans face-to-face the next few months as opposed to gazing at their phones.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

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