What is an overperforming score?

An overperforming score shows how much better a post is doing than that account's typical post. SocialWire calls it ×normal: a post at 6× normal has six times the interactions that account usually gets.

Updated October 2026

To confirm How "typical post" is calculated (which recent posts count, and whether it's an average or a median) needs to be confirmed with the product team before publishing.

A worked example

By raw interactions the national outlet is first. By ×normal it's last, because 7,500 is an ordinary night for an account that size. The local paper's post is the real outlier. Sample accounts.

How to read the score

• Around 1×: an ordinary post for that account.
• Above 3×: unusual. Worth a look.
• Above 10×: something is happening.

These are rules of thumb, not hard cutoffs. A quiet account can jump to a high score on a modest number of interactions, so check the raw count too.

Why not just sort by likes?

Sorting by likes always puts the biggest accounts on top, so a list that mixes local pages and national outlets turns into a list of national outlets. Engagement rate (interactions divided by followers) helps a little, but it ignores how each audience actually behaves. Comparing each post with its own account's history answers the question an editor actually has: is this unusual?

Is this the same as CrowdTangle's overperforming score?

It's the same idea. CrowdTangle compared a post with what that account usually got, and SocialWire does too. SocialWire applies it across Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, YouTube and Bluesky in a single list.