One metric to rule them all, says Meta

“How did our social posts do this week, Timmy?”

Thanks to the Facebook product team’s latest enhancements to performance tracking metrics, Timmy’s answer is now less confusing.

This past summer, Instagram switched all their performance tracking metrics to ‘views’ to make reporting easier. Now, Facebook is following suit in an effort to “simplify reporting”.

‘Views’ will be the default metric for all posts (texts, images, reels, etc.) — although some are measured slightly differently. A ‘view’ in the context of a reel, for example, is the number of times an individual has watched the reel, including replays. A ‘view’ in the context of a text post is the number of times the text post appears on a user’s screen.

More confusing than you’d think

Poor ol’ Timmy may now have an easier time explaining his Meta performance to his boss, but that’s about it. Performance metrics across social media platforms have been notoriously confusing.

For example, since Elon took over Twitter/X and released a public view count on every post, the metric has been at the centre of controversy. Videos from popular accounts frequently boast millions of views which seems dubious:

This is a product challenge

Social media has become about more than just entertainment. Entire businesses and brands are made through social media, making the ability to accurately and reliably report on the performance of a post extremely important.

Yet, it’s unlikely the social media giants will end up using the same metrics (and the same definitions) any time soon. Will someone think of Timmy!?