Twitter Engagement Independent of Follower Count

An influencer’s popularity on Twitter seems to have little or no effect on the rate of engagement they receive per post. Our research shows that regardless of the number of followers an influencer has on Twitter, the average expected rate of replies and likes stays the same.

To put it simply, the number of followers an influencer has does not make  their content any more or less likely to drive engagement.

We studied over 500,000 Twitter engagements – replies, retweets, likes – and normalised our data by comparing all content to a common baseline of engagements per 1,000 followers.

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The results of our study showed that Twitter is perhaps the most democratic social network, in that the number of engagements per thousand followers remains steady irrespective of the level of influence (number of followers).

Ten micro-influencers with 10,000 followers each, would receive the same level of engagement as one mega-influencer with 100,000 followers.

Chances are, brands will save a whole lot of money by working with a number of micro-influencers instead of a few mega-influencers. Considering the results achieved will be the same, Twitter marketers need to seriously reconsider whether celebrity tweeters are worth the premium prices they often charge.

Interestingly, the same influencers analysed on Twitter often got a higher level of engagement on other social media platforms such as YouTube. This was especially true when considering gaming influencers. The number of followers for a single influencer may cross-over from one social network to another, but the levels of engagement do not have the same effect.

To find out how the other social media platforms performed, download the full free Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report.