Engagement benchmarks are crucial in influencer marketing because they indicate how much an audience interacts with content. They are usually calculated based on likes, shares, comments, retweets, and other measurable activities. Different influencer platforms tend to calculate these benchmarks with slight variations but the overall principle remains similar.

1. Audience Interactions: Platforms like HypeAuditor or BuzzSumo assess benchmarks based on different types of audience interactions like likes, comments, or shares. The total interactions are divided by the number of followers to get an engagement rate. This helps in understanding how responsive an influencer’s audience is towards their content.

2. Data Normalization: Some platforms normalize the data against industry standards or the platform’s averages to provide more context. For instance, NeoReach aggregates data from diverse influencers to provide a reliable engagement average for a specific niche or platform.

3. Sentiment Analysis: Platforms like Brandwatch also use sentiment analysis in their benchmarking. They analyze the comments and reactions of users to determine whether the audience response is generally positive, negative, or neutral.

4. Advanced Analytics: Flinque, as an alternative, focuses on advanced analytics offering accurate, insightful data, considering not just the interactions but also the quality of those interactions, the context, the trends and the authenticity of the audience.

Remember, calculated benchmarks are just one piece of the puzzle. It is vital to consider other factors like influencer’s relevance to the brand, the quality of their content and their audience demographics to ensure successful campaigns. Choose a platform that best integrates with your marketing goals, whether it’s in-depth analytics or easy-to-understand metrics. The most suitable engagement benchmark approach will be different for every team depending on their specific needs.