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Instagram Radio Rankings methodology

Bybenoit

How does SoMeMe.fm analyse the social performance of European radio stations every week?

Objective

Every week, SoMeMe.fm’s Instagram Radio Rankings measures the activity and performance of the Instagram accounts of European radio stations (music, news and general interest).
The aim is twofold:

  1. Observe editorial and visual trends in the sector (formats, storytelling, temporality).
  2. Identifying the weak signals of successful social media strategies on a European scale.

🧩 Scope of the study

The barometer currently covers 32 radio stations in 4 European countries: 🇫🇷 France, 🇪🇸 Spain, 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇮🇪 Ireland and 🇬🇧 United Kingdom.

Discover the most viewed videos of the week from 32 European radio stations

Over 1 Million Likes on a single post from BBC Radio 1 – Instagram Radio Rankings #03 by Benoît Lebreau

Weekly review of Instagram performance across major European radio stations. Trends, analysis and the standout posts of the week.

Read on Substack

The accounts analysed are as follows:

Nameuser name
LOS40@los40spain
RTÉ Radio 1@rteradio1
Capital@capitalofficial
Radio DEEJAY@radiodeejay
BBC Radio 1@bbcradio1
Radio Nacional de España@rne
CADENA 100@cadena100
Radio Italia@radioitalia
radio1rai@radio1rai
Onda Cero@ondacero
Cadena SER@la_ser
RTL2officiel@rtl2officiel
NOSTALGIE@nostalgie
BBC Radio 6 Music@bbc6music
NRJ@nrjhitmusiconly
franceinfo@franceinfo
Heart@thisisheart
BBC Radio 2@bbcradio2
BBC Radio 4@bbcradio4
Classic FM@classicfm
Smooth Radio@smoothradio
RTL 102.5@rtl1025
RTL@rtl_france
France Inter@franceinter
Radio105@radio105
FUN RADIO@funradio
Today FM 💛@todayfm
RMC@rmc_off
KISS@playkissuk
SKYROCK FM@skyrockfm
Chérie FM@cheriefm

⏱ Frequency

The analysis is carried out every week, from Saturday to Saturday.
The results are published the following Friday on SoMeMe.fm and in the Substack newsletter.

📈 Indicators monitored

The barometer is based on four key indicators:

  1. Total interactions: sum of likes and comments recorded for each publication.
  2. Engagement rate: (Likes+Comments) / Number of subscribers×100 → Calculated publication by publication, then aggregated by brand.
  3. Content format: distinction between Post and Reel
  4. Type of subject: manual categorisation (Music, News, Culture, Humour, People, Other).

🧠 Sources & processing

The data is extracted via :

  • the Metricool application, which provides data on Instagram publications.
  • manual verification of the best-performing publications
  • automatic reprocessing in an internal dashboard

Each week, the most engaging posts are :

  • classified according to the total volume of interactions,
  • weighted to obtain the actual engagement rate,
  • enriched with an editorial summary and a direct link to the publication.

⚖️ Limitations of the analysis

  • For technical reasons, the barometer does not take into account :
    • views, shares or backups (not publicly available),
    • interactions on Stories, Boosted Reels or ads,
  • The figures represent the organic activity observed on the accounts and not a certified audience.

🧾 Credits & usage

Data compiled by SoMeMe.fm.
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is clearly acknowledged: Source: Instagram Radio Rankings – SoMeMe.fm. All citations must include the corresponding measurement period (e.g. Week of 1 to 8 November 2025).