Facebook tests view count display for posts

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Facebook may become the latest Meta app to display up-front post view counts, with some users being alerted to a new post view count displayed on their posts.

As shown in this image from app researcher Radu Oncescu, Facebook is displaying post view counts on the main post display, although only the creator is able to view this number.

Which could either be encouraging or discouraging, depending on the count, but either way, it’s likely a better indicator of performance than many other social media metrics.

Indeed, Meta has been making a bigger push on views over other data points, and offering up views as the primary metric to ensure that content creators are focused on the right elements.

Traditionally, social media creators have used likes and follower counts to track post performance. But Meta has been telling creators for years now that the paradigm has changed, and these are no longer the best indicators of popularity or engagement.

That’s because, in the age of algorithms that detect user interest, the way that people engage with social media content has evolved.

Back in the day, both Instagram and Facebook’s feed displays were primarily structured around the people and Pages that each user had explicitly chosen to follow in each app. This ensured that updates from those users populated the feed, but it also meant that content from users outside of a user’s sphere of consciousness didn’t get as much reach and engagement as it could, purely due to lack of exposure. 

But now, increasingly intelligent algorithms have expanded on this, through recommendations of posts from the whole spectrum of platform users. As a result, the main feed is now largely populated by content from profiles that users don’t follow, based on each user’s usage and engagement behaviors in the app, as opposed to direct user signals.

Indeed, more than 50% of the posts users are shown in their Instagram feed have now been funneled to them by Meta’s artificial intelligence-powered recommendations. Which also means that the profiles users follow is no longer the biggest influence over their in-app experience, making follower counts less indicative as a metric.

At the same time, people are also liking things a lot less amid concerns that their likes will be broadcast to others, potentially revealing something they didn’t intend.

Views, then, are a much more important focus, which is why Meta has enhanced its view count data on Instagram, added view info Threads and is now trying them out on Facebook posts as well.

Will that prove valuable?

Well, Facebook usage is seemingly in decline and low view counts could further discourage users from posting. But at the same time, it will also provide a more accurate perspective on performance, which could be helpful in contextualizing response.

Meta confirmed to SMT that it is testing Facebook post view counts, with the on-post display now available to all creators using Professional Mode. It’s running a limited test for regular profiles.