Sowetan engagement report
@Sowetan1981 - 1.2M followers on X
Measured over 240 original posts from a 30-day window, last computed on August 31, 2026.
Engagement
A typical post picks up 1 interaction against 1.2M followers, an engagement rate of 0%. Measured over 240 original posts, its engagement rate beats 1% of 3,791 tracked accounts of a similar size. That is a reason to look at how the audience behaves - reply depth, saves, whether the followers are recent - rather than a conclusion about it on its own. Posts are seen about 1.2K times each, and 0.08% of those impressions turn into an interaction. That is about 0.106% of the follower count, which is the gap between an audience on paper and an audience in a timeline. Posting runs at about 8.5 posts a day over the last 30 days, though only 27% of days saw any activity at all. Most posts go out around 11:00 UTC, and Wednesday is the busiest day of the week. Of the 240 posts sampled, 26% carry an image or video and 84% link out. The account's strongest tracked post pulled 207 interactions, about 207x its own typical post.
Measured over 240 original posts from a 30-day window, last computed on August 31, 2026.
Compared with accounts its own size
Sowetan's engagement rate beats 1% of the tracked X accounts closest to it in follower count (3,791 accounts, accounts of similar size (decile 9 of 10)). A percentile is spread evenly by construction, so 50 really is the middle of that group and 90 really is its top tenth.
On engagement per impression rather than per follower it beats 6% of the same group. When those two numbers disagree, the gap is about how far its posts travel rather than how people react to them.
Where this sits in the catalog
At under 0.001%, Sowetan sits below the 10th percentile of the 36,654 accounts in this comparison. That places it in the bottom 25% band, which runs below 0.012%.
Show the percentile table
| Percentile | Engagement rate |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | 0.002% |
| 25th percentile | 0.012% |
| 50th percentile | 0.08% |
| 75th percentile | 0.433% |
| 90th percentile | 2.10% |
| 99th percentile | 160.5% |
This ruler is the whole measured catalog, not a size-matched group: it shows where the raw rate falls across every account we can measure, all of which are large. For a like-for-like comparison, read the size-band percentile above instead. See how the bands are built
Posting timing
This account posts most often around 11:00 UTC, and Wednesday is its busiest day of the week. The bars below are the catalog-wide pattern, with this account's own busiest slot marked. They do not show how this account performs at each hour: we keep one aggregate per account, not one per hour, so that measurement does not exist in our data.
Show engagement by hour posted, utc as a table
| Hour (UTC) | Vs author median | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC | -1% | 51K |
| 01:00 UTC | -2% | 52K |
| 02:00 UTC | -3% | 50K |
| 03:00 UTC | -4% | 53K |
| 04:00 UTC | -6% | 43K |
| 05:00 UTC | -4% | 42K |
| 06:00 UTC | -4% | 48K |
| 07:00 UTC | -5% | 52K |
| 08:00 UTC | -4% | 61K |
| 09:00 UTC | -3% | 70K |
| 10:00 UTC | -2% | 72K |
| 11:00 UTC | -3% | 78K |
| 12:00 UTC | -2% | 86K |
| 13:00 UTC | -2% | 94K |
| 14:00 UTC | -4% | 97K |
| 15:00 UTC | -2% | 101K |
| 16:00 UTC | -3% | 98K |
| 17:00 UTC | -2% | 91K |
| 18:00 UTC | -1% | 85K |
| 19:00 UTC | -1% | 80K |
| 20:00 UTC | -1% | 74K |
| 21:00 UTC | -1% | 66K |
| 22:00 UTC | -1% | 57K |
| 23:00 UTC | -2% | 52K |
Show engagement by day of week as a table
| Day | Vs author median | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | +4% | 231K |
| Monday | 0% | 288K |
| Tuesday | -2% | 278K |
| Wednesday | -1% | 251K |
| Thursday | -1% | 245K |
| Friday | -3% | 253K |
| Saturday | +3% | 227K |
Best tweets
- Aug 30, 2026207x their median
WATCH | A group of schoolboys allegedly pinned down a 11-year-old boy at Sinqobile Primary School in Soshanguve while a Grade 5 pupil illegally circumcised him at the school toilets. The incident has raised questions about learner safety, supervision, and the school’s responsibility to protect children on its premises. Sowetan sat down with the learner’s mother, who says she only discovered what had happened after noticing her son walking in an unusual way. Video: @MimieShana
- Aug 24, 2026111x their median
Sports minister Gayton McKenzie orders Safa to return R13m VAR allocation in 21 days. https://t.co/5KEtcTpYNe https://t.co/4P8eqrqjMA
- Aug 24, 2026101x their median
Tshwane Metro police officer Constable Peter "Gagash" Nonyane and his attorney wife Charlotte Tibana at Polokwane magistrates court for a bail application. The two allegedly stole money from deceased estates. Video: Sontaga Letshelele https://t.co/ToHtfASpHn
- Aug 25, 202691x their median
Eastern Cape police commissioner Lt-Gen Vuyisile Ncata says investigations into the murder of boxer Zolani Tete led to the recovery of three firearms believed to have been used by the suspected hitmen. As a result, they believe they have arrested the right people involved in planning and carrying out the murder, he said. Link in comments.
- Aug 30, 202661x their median
Barnabus Xulu’s law firm JG and Xulu is suing Jacob Zuma’s MK Party for R12.5m in unpaid legal fees after the party allegedly defaulted on a settlement agreement to pay off its debt https://t.co/5yPx9Xd17Y https://t.co/J6vBWB92he
- Aug 25, 202656x their median
The family of the late chief Hlengani Maswanganyi has joined a list of alleged victims of fraud committed by attorney Charlotte Tibana and her flashy metro cop husband. The Maswanganyi royal family in Giyani, Limpopo, have revealed that they were defrauded of millions of rand of funds from the deceased estate. Link in comments.
- Aug 24, 202656x their median
WATCH | Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie revealed that he has written to Safa to ask them to return the R13m he gave them for VAR [Video assistant referee] as the association has failed to implement it this season. McKenzie also said Safa asked for 21 grace period to try and pay back the money. Video: @RealNevilleK
- Aug 25, 202655x their median
WATCH | Samkelo Kuzani, the lawyer representing all three accused of killing 2 Reiger Park Anti-Gang Unit police officers, has asked the court to view video footage that he says will support the alibi of accused No. 3, Elvino Crafford. Crafford claims he was at home with his son and mother at the time of the alleged murders.
- Aug 25, 202653x their median
WATCH | Regan Collis (23), Jamal Meyer (24) and Elvino Crafford (27) are back in the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court for bail in the Reiger Park mass-shooting case. They face four murder charges among others, after two Anti-Gang Unit officers and two women were killed. Video: @Koena_xM
- Aug 30, 202638x their median
The MTN8 has delivered the cup final that everyone was hoping for. https://t.co/KOO0ADF5SF
Ranked by total interactions across everything we have tracked for this account, which is a longer history than the 30-day window the rates above use. The multiple compares each post to this account's own median.
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Reading these numbers
A typical post picks up 1 interaction against 1.2M followers, an engagement rate of 0%. Measured over 240 original posts, its engagement rate beats 1% of 3,791 tracked accounts of a similar size. That is a reason to look at how the audience behaves - reply depth, saves, whether the followers are recent - rather than a conclusion about it on its own. Posts are seen about 1.2K times each, and 0.08% of those impressions turn into an interaction. That is about 0.106% of the follower count, which is the gap between an audience on paper and an audience in a timeline. Posting runs at about 8.5 posts a day over the last 30 days, though only 27% of days saw any activity at all. Most posts go out around 11:00 UTC, and Wednesday is the busiest day of the week. Of the 240 posts sampled, 26% carry an image or video and 84% link out. The account's strongest tracked post pulled 207 interactions, about 207x its own typical post.
- What is Sowetan's engagement rate on X?
- Sowetan (@Sowetan1981) has an engagement rate of 0%, based on the median interactions across 240 original posts from the last 30 days against 1,178,144 followers. Replies, reposts and quote-posts of other people are excluded from that sample.
- Is that a good engagement rate?
- At under 0.001%, Sowetan sits below the 10th percentile of the 36,654 accounts in this comparison. Those comparison accounts are all large ones, because our scanning cadence is weighted towards big accounts, so this is a ranking among peers of similar scale rather than a ranking across X.
- Does @Sowetan1981 have real engagement?
- Its engagement rate beats 1% of the tracked X accounts closest to it in follower count (3,791 accounts), which puts it in the bottom 10% for its size group. Ranking inside a size band matters because engagement rate falls as accounts grow, so a raw rate would mostly re-measure the follower count. It is a starting point for a look at follower quality, not a verdict on it.
- When does @Sowetan1981 post?
- Most posts go out around 11:00 UTC, and Wednesday is its busiest day, at roughly 8.47 posts per day across the measured window.