What is reach?

Reach is the number of unique people who saw your social media content at least once during a set period.

Reach tells you how many different people your content actually got in front of. It helps you understand the size of your audience and whether your posts are spreading beyond your current followers. Growing reach is often the first step toward more engagement and sales.

Reach is different from impressions. If one person sees your post three times, that counts as one in reach but three impressions. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and others report reach in their analytics, though each counts it in slightly different ways. Reach is usually split into organic and paid.

Track reach over time rather than reacting to single posts. Compare reach across formats, topics and posting times to see what spreads furthest. Pair it with engagement to understand not just how many people saw your content, but how many cared.

Example

A craft brewery noticed reach jumped whenever it posted behind-the-scenes brewing videos, so it made them a weekly series.