Some of the biggest celebrities have the worst Instagram engagement

We all know that celebrities have thousands, if not millions of followers on Instagram, right? And we know that in this day and age, the amount of followers you have can be directly proportional to the ad campaigns, magazine covers and jobs you book, right?

Good.

Now, here’s something you probably didn’t know.

For all their followers, most celebrities don’t have good Instagram engagement. In fact, some of today’s biggest global superstars actually have bad engagement.

Allow me to explain.

READ ALSO: How to tell if your Instagram feed sucks

As I’ve previously noted, unless you work in media or are especially psychotic about social media, you’ve probably never used the word “engagement” to describe your Instagram posts.

Well, Instagram engagement describes exactly what you’d think it would mean. It describes how many people “engage” with your post, which on Instagram means how many people are liking and commenting on it.

And where Instagram engagement really becomes important is when brands are looking for talent to sell their products. As you’ve probably heard over and over, young people don’t watch TV anymore, which is why social media is now filled with ads.

But normally, brands don’t just look at the number of followers you have to determine whether they want to hire you. They look at your engagement. Because if you have 11,000 followers but your posts are only getting 111 likes… well, it’s pretty clear to anybody paying attention that you bought those followers.

Of course, it’s a little different for celebrities a. because they’re not just Instagram famous, they’re actually famous and b. because people treat celebrity Instagram accounts differently.

I know plenty of people who would never think of liking or commenting on their posts. Why? Because they don’t see the point. It’s not like Kim Kardashian is gonna comment back to you saying “OMG thanks girl.”

Still, even if people aren’t liking or commenting on their pictures, they’re definitely seeing them. Which explains why advertisers haven’t completely turned to micro-influencers to run their campaigns now.

But that’s a different story.

So what exactly is good Instagram engagement?

Andrea Angarica, the marketing manager for Galore’s model and creator agency Kitten, told me that the average rate for good engagement is 2%. Anything over 7% says to an agency that people really love you and anything under 2% says, “ouch, girl.”

And even though lots of celebrities have lots of fans, this doesn’t always translate to good Instagram engagement.

In fact, if you did the math, you probably have better engagement than all of the celebrities I’m about to list. I know I do. At the time of writing this, I had 328 followers and a 16.7% engagement rate. And I’m not even spectacular at Instagram.

So which celebrities have good engagement and which really, really don’t?

To investigate, I crunched the numbers on all of the celebrities on the 100 most followed on Instagram chart who are young and relevant enough to have a rabid IG fanbase.

The formula I used is the same one Galore’s modeling and creator agency uses to track Instagram engagement. For each celeb’s 50 most recent Instagram posts, I added up the amount of comments and the amount of likes each photo got and divided that by their number of followers. Then I added all those numbers together and divided it by 50.

Prepare to be surprised, because you’ll literally not be able to believe who’s #1.

READ ALSO: Why Miley, Lady Gaga, and Victoria’s Secret are all pivoting country right now

-WOW PPL REALLY LOVE YOU ENGAGEMENT-

7.5%, Louis Tomlinson
7.4% Harry Styles

-GOOD ENGAGEMENT-

5.6%, Shawn Mendes
5.2%, Zayn
4.5%, Bella Hadid
4.4%, Emma Watson

-OK ENGAGEMENT-

3.6%, Gigi Hadid
3.5%, Niall Horan
3.2%, Lucy Hale
2.9%, Kendall Jenner
2.9%, Shay Mitchell
2.8%, Kylie Jenner
2.8%, Zendaya
2.6%, Selena Gomez
2.4%, Justin Bieber
2.4%, Ashley Benson
2.3%, Rihanna
2.1%, Adele
2.1%, Beyonce
2%, Bella Thorne
2% Cara Delevingne

-BAD ENGAGEMENT-

1.8%, Lady Gaga
1.8%, Vanessa Hudgens
1.7%, Demi Lovato
1.6%, Ariana Grande
1.5%, Drake
1.3%, Kim Kardashian
1.3%, Taylor Swift
1.2%, Khloe Kardashian
1.1%, Britney Spears
1%, Miley Cyrus
.8%, J. Lo
.7%, Nicki Minaj
.5%, Katy Perry

So what can we learn from this list?

Being in One Direction gives you a leg up on the rest of your fellow celebrities. The only two celebs I could find with stellar engagement were Louis Tomlinson, which feels so random to me, and everybody’s favorite heartthrob, Harry Styles.

For good engagement, boys seemed to have a bit of a leg up on the girls. Although the category was evenly split, the boys had about a 1% lead on the girls. Surprisingly, Bella Hadid has better Instagram engagement than her sister Gigi, which might partially explain why she’s been getting so many Vogue covers recently.

READ ALSO: Bella Hadid broke the record for most Vogue covers in a single month

Most of today’s most relevant celebrities have okay engagement, with Gigi Hadid at the top of that bracket and Cara Delevingne and Bella Thorne at the bottom. Kendall has the best engagement out of all of her sisters, but Kylie Jenner is only .1% behind.

But a lot of today’s biggest pop stars don’t have great Instagram engagement.

Although Selena, Justin, Beyonce, Rihanna and Adele have okay engagement, most of their peers weren’t so lucky. Lady Gaga, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry all have bad engagement. Lady Gaga is doing the best with 1.8% and Katy Perry is doing the worst with .5%, which might explain why all her recent attempts to make people care about her music haven’t been successful.

READ ALSO: Something’s up with Katy Perry

Granted, these women have a lot more going on for them than just their Instagram engagement and it’s not like any of them are really struggling for relevance or money at this point, but still, it’s probably not the greatest sign for their bottom line.

Besides, isn’t it nice to know there’s at least one thing you can do better than the majority of celebrities out there?

Cherish your superior Instagram engagement, fam.


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