Brian Dean engagement report
@BrianEDean - 125K followers on X
Measured over 19 original posts from a 30-day window, last computed on October 3, 2026.
Engagement
A typical post picks up 43 interactions against 125K followers, an engagement rate of 0.034%. Measured over 19 original posts, its engagement rate beats 34% of 16,409 tracked accounts of a similar size, which puts it in the middle of its size range rather than at either end. Posts are seen about 3.8K times each, and 1.12% of those impressions turn into an interaction. That is about 3.07% of the follower count, which is the gap between an audience on paper and an audience in a timeline. Posting runs at about 0.63 post a day over the last 30 days, with activity on roughly 63% of days. Most posts go out around 11:00 UTC, and Monday is the busiest day of the week. Of the 19 posts sampled, 63% carry an image or video. The account's strongest tracked post pulled 375 interactions, about 8.7x its own typical post.
Measured over 19 original posts from a 30-day window, last computed on October 3, 2026.
Compared with accounts its own size
Brian Dean's engagement rate beats 34% of the tracked X accounts closest to it in follower count (16,409 accounts, accounts of similar size (decile 7 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 43% 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 0.034%, Brian Dean sits above the 25th percentile of the 166,780 accounts in this comparison. That places it in the below the median band, which runs 0.022% to 0.13%.
Show the percentile table
| Percentile | Engagement rate |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | 0.003% |
| 25th percentile | 0.022% |
| 50th percentile | 0.13% |
| 75th percentile | 0.612% |
| 90th percentile | 2.35% |
| 99th percentile | 82.6% |
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 Monday 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% | 89K |
| 01:00 UTC | -2% | 90K |
| 02:00 UTC | -3% | 88K |
| 03:00 UTC | -4% | 94K |
| 04:00 UTC | -5% | 76K |
| 05:00 UTC | -4% | 75K |
| 06:00 UTC | -5% | 86K |
| 07:00 UTC | -5% | 93K |
| 08:00 UTC | -4% | 108K |
| 09:00 UTC | -4% | 124K |
| 10:00 UTC | -3% | 129K |
| 11:00 UTC | -3% | 141K |
| 12:00 UTC | -3% | 154K |
| 13:00 UTC | -3% | 167K |
| 14:00 UTC | -4% | 173K |
| 15:00 UTC | -2% | 176K |
| 16:00 UTC | -3% | 171K |
| 17:00 UTC | -3% | 159K |
| 18:00 UTC | -2% | 149K |
| 19:00 UTC | -2% | 141K |
| 20:00 UTC | -1% | 131K |
| 21:00 UTC | 0% | 116K |
| 22:00 UTC | -2% | 100K |
| 23:00 UTC | -1% | 90K |
Show engagement by day of week as a table
| Day | Vs author median | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | +5% | 393K |
| Monday | +1% | 483K |
| Tuesday | -2% | 520K |
| Wednesday | -3% | 472K |
| Thursday | -2% | 430K |
| Friday | -3% | 447K |
| Saturday | +2% | 393K |
Formats this account uses
Its own posting mix on the left, and what each of those formats does across every account we track on the right. Only formats where the effect clears our publish test appear here, so an empty row is a format we could not measure rather than one that does nothing.
| Format | This account | Catalog effect | 95% interval | Accounts behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image or video | 63% of posts | +111% | +108% to +115% | 34K |
| Outbound link | 0% of posts | -41% | -42% to -40% | 32K |
| Typical length | - | +15% | +14% to +16% | 32K |
- 63% of this account's sampled posts carry an image or video. Across the catalog, posts with an image or video run 111% above the same accounts' other posts.
- 0% of its posts carry a link off X. Across the catalog, posts with an outbound link run 41% below the same accounts' other posts.
- Its average post runs 784 characters, which falls in the over 280 characters band. Across the catalog, posts over 280 characters run 15% above the same accounts' other posts.
These are catalog-wide differences applied to this account's own posting mix, not a measurement of how each format performs for this account specifically. We keep one median per account, not one per format per account, so the second thing is not something this data can tell you.
Best tweets
- Aug 3, 20268.7x their median
I've been slinging so much at the wall for the past 5 years. Keep feeling like I'm right on the cusp of SOMETHING. But it's been so hard to turn anything into a real viable business. An issue of focus? On some level, sure. But maybe it's something else? I don't know.
- Aug 7, 20266.0x their median
Everyone's suddenly an expert in "AI SEO." Well, I've been testing this stuff on a real site for the past year. And the biggest thing I learned is: Nobody clicks on sources! The CTR from AI tools is basically zero. The real upside from getting MENTIONED. So when someone asks "what's the best [product] for [use case]"... you want to get mentioned somewhere on the list. (Preferably first) So how do you actually get mentioned? Three things worked for me: 1. Get on "best of" lists "Best of" lists are like red meat for LLMs. When LLMs answer "best tools for X," they rely on the lists they trained on. At Exploding Topics, we appear on literally dozens of "best of" lists. Which is exactly why we show up for (basically) any prompt related to trend research software. 2. Be consistent LLMs predict the next word based on what they've already trained on. So if your homepage says one thing and your LinkedIn says something else... the model gets confused. You want every page, profile, and mention to reinforce the same thing: "we are the best X for Y." The more the model sees it, the more likely YOUR brand is the next word. 3. Don't abandon traditional SEO LLMs need to crawl and index your site, same as Google. Plus, AI answers draw heavily from what already ranks. So yeah, old school SEO fundamentals are actually huge for AI SEO. 👍🏻
- Sep 7, 20264.3x their median
When Semrush acquired Backlinko, there was one final issue with the deal. The problem was... my bedtime. Here's what happened: Semrush is a public company. So when the deal closed, they told me: "We're announcing tomorrow at 5pm Eastern." That's 10pm my time in Portugal. So I asked if we could move the announcement of this life-changing acquisition to earlier in the day. Because I'm usually in my PJs by then, getting ready for bed. They explained (very patiently!) that no. Public companies have to make announcements like this after the market closes, per SEC rules. Ah. Right. The SEC 🤦♂️ I was super embarrassed. As I told Tim Ferriss when I shared this story on his podcast: I forgot the league I was playing in. One side of that call: a public company coordinating a market-sensitive disclosure with regulators. The other side: a grown man in pajamas asking to wrap things up before 10. I'd love to end this with a lesson about humility or "staying grounded." But honestly, I just wanted to tell you this funny/embarrassing story. 👍🏻
- Aug 19, 20263.7x their median
Everyone in marketing is panicking about AI slop. Me? I'm CELEBRATING it. Please, keep going. Generate cringe sales emails. Auto-write fluff blog posts. Publish 587 articles a month. Slopify everything. Everyone publishing slop is clearing the way for people who actually care. When everything sounds the same, the premium on sounding like an actual HUMAN goes through the roof. Example: I spent 25 hours on a single post. I dug through patents, conference talks, interviews. That post has brought in over a million visitors. In an ocean of slop, that kind of effort becomes even more valuable. So no, I'm not worried about AI flooding the internet with content. I see this flood as an opportunity. Everyone is using in the same tools to produce the same output. Which only makes weird, high-effort, HUMAN stuff get noticed. At least that's the bet I'm making. Ask me in two years if I was right. 👍🏻
- Sep 9, 20263.0x their median
Hot take: Google is still one of the best marketing channels on the planet. Yup, zero-click searches keep growing. But "fewer clicks" doesn't mean "Google is dead". That conclusion is way too extreme IMO. Case in point: I run a side project in the online degree space. That site gets around 20,000 visitors a month. Mostly from Google. And I'm not even optimizing for traffic. I'm going after a small set of high-intent keywords. If I went all in on traffic volume, that site could EASILY be at 50k a month right now. And that's from a so-called "dead" channel. So yeah, Google isn't as good as it used to be. But it's still one of the best traffic sources out there. (I mean try getting 50k visitors per month from LinkedIn or IG) "Not as good as before" and "dead" are two VERY different things. 👍🏻
- Jul 24, 20263.0x their median
I'm kinda known as an SEO guy. So this is a little painful to admit: Our best marketing channel at Exploding Topics is... a weekly email. Here's the story: When we asked customers where they learn about trends, we expected them all to say "social media!". But we noticed the same channel come up again and again: newsletters. A huge amount of trend content is sent out via email. In fact, a lot of the top Substacks are focused on trends in ecommerce, tech, and investing. The bad news? We were a trend company.... without a newsletter. So we started a weekly newsletter ASAP. It's called Exploding Topics Tuesday. Nothing fancy. Every Tuesday we send out a handful of interesting trends and why they're growing. That newsletter has grown to over 155,000 subscribers. And at one point it was driving approx 25% of our total MRR (!). The funny thing is, you don't need an MBA for this sort of insight. Our customers were reading newsletters, so we started a newsletter. Sometimes business really is that simple. 👍🏻
- Aug 3, 20262.9x their median
The biggest deal of my life almost didn't happen because I thought it was spam. One day I get an email from someone at Semrush. The subject line was SUPER generic: "let's connect to collaborate." Now, if you've ever run a website that gets any traffic, you know this email. It's the opening line of basically every link exchange pitch ever sent. So I did what any reasonable person would do: I ignored it. The company that wanted to acquire my business, and I ghosted them. Luckily for me, they tried again. The second email skipped the small talk and said something like "we might be interested in buying your company." I obviously replied to that one 😉 That email turned into the sale of Backlinko. A deal that changed my life. But it's crazy to think: if they didn't follow up, would I be writing this right now? Two lessons in here: If you're reaching out to someone, GET TO THE POINT. "Let's connect" almost cost Semrush an acquisition. And if you're on the receiving end… maybe skim your spam-looking emails before deleting. One of them might be trying to buy your company. (Most are still spam though.) 👍🏻
- Aug 28, 20262.9x their median
Is AI killing freelancer writers? Or are freelance writers killing freelance writers? Well... I just hired 5 writers for a test assignment. I told each of them: "We have a strict no AI policy. Please don't use AI to write." And FOUR of them sent AI slop. (The fifth person sent me a so-so piece. But at least is wasn't AI generated) I just don't get what these writers are thinking. They have a HUGE opportunity to stand out. Instead they're copying and pasting outputs from Claude. (And no, don't tell me that they have some magical prompt or an "expert" method to edit an AI output. They don't) So attention freelance writers: You have a chance to charge MORE than ever before. And get it. In fact, I'm paying great writers 2x what I paid just a few years ago. But to earn that rate you have to: 1. Spend time really understanding and researching the space (AI is fine for this) 2. Use your keyboard to write 👍🏻
- Aug 17, 20262.8x their median
Backlinko took me 9 years to build and sell. Exploding Topics only took 3 1/2. Here's why the second exit happened so much faster: When I started Backlinko, I had to learn everything from scratch. Writing. Copywriting. Hiring. Firing. Email marketing. You name it, I didn't know it 😄 So it took me forever to get the business really moving. But when I started Exploding Topics, I had those skills the day we launched. Sure, SaaS forced me to learn new things (pricing, churn, customer discovery calls... lots of learning there). But the two most important skills: Creating a great product Getting it in front of people I had on day one. That's the one thing that sort of surprised me about entrepreneurship: your skills compound. Your first business is slow because you're learning everything for the first time. After that, everything moves A LOT faster. So... why no third company? Honestly? There's nothing left to prove. When I sold Backlinko, part of me wondered if it was a fluke. Selling a second company answered that. As they say: Once, you're lucky. Twice, you're good. I don't need a third time to prove anything. These days the itch gets scratched by a small side project I run mostly to stay sharp. But another startup? A third exit? Nah. Twice is plenty. 👍🏻
- Jul 24, 20262.6x their median
AI made content a commodity. What's left? Experience. Perspective. Receipts. Taste. Skin in the game.
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 43 interactions against 125K followers, an engagement rate of 0.034%. Measured over 19 original posts, its engagement rate beats 34% of 16,409 tracked accounts of a similar size, which puts it in the middle of its size range rather than at either end. Posts are seen about 3.8K times each, and 1.12% of those impressions turn into an interaction. That is about 3.07% of the follower count, which is the gap between an audience on paper and an audience in a timeline. Posting runs at about 0.63 post a day over the last 30 days, with activity on roughly 63% of days. Most posts go out around 11:00 UTC, and Monday is the busiest day of the week. Of the 19 posts sampled, 63% carry an image or video. The account's strongest tracked post pulled 375 interactions, about 8.7x its own typical post.
- What is Brian Dean's engagement rate on X?
- Brian Dean (@BrianEDean) has an engagement rate of 0.034%, based on the median interactions across 19 original posts from the last 30 days against 125,148 followers. Replies, reposts and quote-posts of other people are excluded from that sample.
- Is that a good engagement rate?
- At 0.034%, Brian Dean sits above the 25th percentile of the 166,780 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 @BrianEDean have real engagement?
- Its engagement rate beats 34% of the tracked X accounts closest to it in follower count (16,409 accounts), which puts it in the middle of its size range 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 @BrianEDean post?
- Most posts go out around 11:00 UTC, and Monday is its busiest day, at roughly 0.63 posts per day across the measured window.