Tom Nichols engagement report
@RadioFreeTom - 678K followers on X
Measured over 31 original posts from a 30-day window, last computed on October 3, 2026.
Engagement
A typical post picks up 613 interactions against 678K followers, an engagement rate of 0.09%. Measured over 31 original posts, its engagement rate beats 69% of 21,185 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 59K times each, and 1.04% of those impressions turn into an interaction. That is about 8.68% of the follower count, which is the gap between an audience on paper and an audience in a timeline. Posting runs at about 4.3 posts a day over the last 30 days, though only 20% of days saw any activity at all. Most posts go out around 10:00 UTC, and Saturday is the busiest day of the week. Of the 31 posts sampled, 65% carry an image or video and 26% link out. The account's strongest tracked post pulled 28K interactions, about 46x its own typical post.
Measured over 31 original posts from a 30-day window, last computed on October 3, 2026. Recurring tag: #notallmedia.
Compared with accounts its own size
Tom Nichols's engagement rate beats 69% of the tracked X accounts closest to it in follower count (21,185 accounts, accounts of similar size (decile 10 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 48% 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 0.09%, Tom Nichols sits above the 25th percentile of the 212,805 accounts in this comparison. That places it in the below the median band, which runs 0.025% to 0.146%.
Show the percentile table
| Percentile | Engagement rate |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | 0.004% |
| 25th percentile | 0.025% |
| 50th percentile | 0.146% |
| 75th percentile | 0.697% |
| 90th percentile | 2.61% |
| 99th percentile | 83.1% |
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 10:00 UTC, and Saturday 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 | 65% of posts | +111% | +108% to +115% | 34K |
| Outbound link | 26% of posts | -41% | -42% to -40% | 32K |
| Typical length | - | no effect | -2% to -1% | 42K |
- 65% 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.
- 26% 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 223 characters, which falls in the 180 - 280 characters band. Across the catalog, posts of 180 to 280 characters match the same accounts' other posts almost exactly.
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
- Oct 3, 202646x their median
This is absolutely priceless. Tucker just states as fact that Russia has a much larger economy than the UK, is completely wrong and gets schooled. https://t.co/I5QPdZoZc6
- Aug 31, 202623x their median
So in the past 36 hours, the Washington Post has published articles based on: 1. Illegal leaks of highly classified military planning data, obtained by someone who almost certainly knew they were committing a serious felony with possible punishments including death. Do you think the Washington Post cares? Do they have a conscience? 2. Illegal access by WaPo's Dastardly Dam Lamothe of sensitive personnel data on the "Pentagon system" (Dastardly Dan's words, not mine) of former temporary federal "Special Government Employees" who were and are now private citizens. I'm guessing the person who granted such illegal access has no idea he or she committed a criminal misdemeanor. Do you think Dastardly Dan or anyone else in the WaPo warned that stooge of the possible consequences of what he or she was doing? Probably not. Do you think the Washington Post cares? Do they have a conscience? Do you understand now why it is that the Pentagon needed to shut off unaccompanied Pentagon access to cretinous "journalists" who care not one bit about national security, or the lives of our dedicated service men and women, or statutory privacy rights of private citizens? Does it finally make sense?
- Sep 10, 202621x their median
TRUMP ON IRAN: “If they had a nuclear weapon, I'd be calling the Supreme Leader and I'd be saying, ‘Mr. Supreme Leader, how are you, sir? Is there anything we can do for you?' as opposed to bombing the crap out of him." “It's very simple. We cannot let them have a nuclear weapon."
- Sep 12, 202611x their median
The people of Dublin, Ireland, are protesting Trump’s visit with an inflatable Netanyahu having his way with Trump. 😂 https://t.co/2D1YfPnLwE
- Sep 11, 20269.1x their median
one of the great front pages of all time. https://t.co/bj3HjqdGUB
- Sep 1, 20267.5x their median
Jack Reed, ranking member on Armed Services, West Point grad, former Army officer: Hegseth has to go https://t.co/aDRKNvPiIp
- Sep 1, 20266.7x their median
"Hegseth has banished another enemy, Driscoll, from the Pentagon. But as the saying goes: play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Hegseth, more than ever, now owns every aspect of the Pentagon’s dysfunction." https://t.co/xGlcD3mUNi
- Aug 31, 20266.4x their median
The number of people in the Guard/Reserve that have reached out to me have grown quickly after this article was published. Our strategic reserve is going to have a major retention problem and is being burned down. https://t.co/W4zFgif0Fq
- Sep 11, 20266.0x their median
“I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States,” Trump began, as the audience repeated his words, “that loves us so much he can’t even breathe…” I assure you that I am not making any of this up. There is video. And it's weird. https://t.co/rv3KixvtLj
- Sep 12, 20265.6x their median
Q: Are you considering withdrawing from the USMCA deal? Trump: What does that mean? Q: Are you considering withdrawing from the USMCA deal with U.S., Mexico and Canada? Trump: No, I get along great. We're going to have a great relationship with Mexico. We actually have a good one with Canada. Canada wants to make a deal very badly
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.
Recurring topics
The most frequent hashtags in the sampled posts. They describe what this account writes about; they are not a performance signal, and the catalog-wide breakdown on the hub shows how little hashtag count moves.
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Reading these numbers
A typical post picks up 613 interactions against 678K followers, an engagement rate of 0.09%. Measured over 31 original posts, its engagement rate beats 69% of 21,185 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 59K times each, and 1.04% of those impressions turn into an interaction. That is about 8.68% of the follower count, which is the gap between an audience on paper and an audience in a timeline. Posting runs at about 4.3 posts a day over the last 30 days, though only 20% of days saw any activity at all. Most posts go out around 10:00 UTC, and Saturday is the busiest day of the week. Of the 31 posts sampled, 65% carry an image or video and 26% link out. The account's strongest tracked post pulled 28K interactions, about 46x its own typical post.
- What is Tom Nichols's engagement rate on X?
- Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) has an engagement rate of 0.09%, based on the median interactions across 31 original posts from the last 30 days against 678,442 followers. Replies, reposts and quote-posts of other people are excluded from that sample.
- Is that a good engagement rate?
- At 0.09%, Tom Nichols sits above the 25th percentile of the 212,805 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 @RadioFreeTom have real engagement?
- Its engagement rate beats 69% of the tracked X accounts closest to it in follower count (21,185 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 @RadioFreeTom post?
- Most posts go out around 10:00 UTC, and Saturday is its busiest day, at roughly 4.33 posts per day across the measured window.