Twitter has now introduced the ability not only to see the number of views on your own tweets, but on other people’s tweets as well.
But what if you view your tweets yourself? Are the views still counted, or is the view counter only made up of views from other people?
That is an excellent question. In this article, I’ll be covering exactly what Twitter counts as a ‘view’ or impression, whether or not your own views are counted in that number, and how you can get more views on your tweets.
Does Twitter Count Your Own Views?
Yes! Twitter counts your own views on your tweets as part of the view counter – even if you view the same tweet multiple times.
So, you will need to deduct your own views if you want to gain a true measure of how many times your tweet has been seen. Keep in mind, Twitter doesn’t tell you how many views are yours, so you will need to estimate.
You can verify that Twitter is counting your own views by scrolling way down your profile, back to old tweets that aren’t still being circulated around.
If you click the view counter on a tweet, then reload your profile and go back to the tweet again, you’ll notice that the view counter has gone up.
This proves that Twitter does in fact count the views, even if you are the one that posted them.
Personally, I don’t feel that this hurts the integrity of Twitter’s view counter or analytic systems in any way, since the number of views from others are likely so much higher. This is true even if the person who posted the tweet were artificially trying to inflate their views.
What Triggers A View, Anyway?
Now that we know that Twitter does indeed count views from the original poster, we’ve got to ask another question – what actually counts as a view on Twitter in the first place?
According to Twitter’s help center, anytime a tweet is viewed, regardless of where the view occurs at (such as search, the timeline, lists, or by visiting someone’s profile), a view is counted.
Presumably, all that has to happen is the tweet has to appear on somebody’s screen, for at least a moment.
Keep in mind however that seeing 100 views on your tweet for example, does not mean that 100 people actually read it.
Social networks like Twitter are incentivized to make you feel more popular than you actually are, and are reaching more people than you’re actually reaching.
If you scroll through your Twitter timeline, it’s possible you are having views counted for dozens or hundreds of tweets, even if you haven’t read a single one!
So, there are better things to pay attention to than just views, if you actually want to make an impact on Twitter.
Do Views Even Matter On Twitter?
As just mentioned, views are not a reliable or meaningful metric to track how your tweets are performing.
Instead, what’s far more valuable to focus on is engagement – likes, retweets, and comments responding to the tweet.
First of all, when somebody takes the time to engage with your tweet, it’s far more likely they actually read the message, and it resonated with them in some way.
Additionally, engagement helps the tweet get seen by even more people, including those that are not yet following you.
If your goal is actually to make an impact with your tweets – share your ideas, make an impression on somebody, or get them to take action, prioritize engagement over views. A tweet with smaller views but higher engagement will always have more of an impact than a tweet with a large number of views, but no engagement whatsoever.
How To Get More Views On Twitter
Seeing a large number of viewers on your tweets feels great, even if the metric is near-meaningless.
That being said, let’s look over some ways to boost your views on Twitter – which will result in higher engagement as well!
1. Grow Your Following
This is the obvious one.
With a larger following, there are more potential people to show your tweets to by default, which will directly result in higher views.
Because of the nature of Twitter however, this also allows your viewer count to compound faster as well.
If somebody retweets your tweet, it gets pushed out to their followers as well. Those followers are also given the decision whether or not they want to retweet it again.
With a higher pool of initial followers to push your tweet to, you increase the likelihood that it gets retweeted further, allowing your views to go up dramatically on each tweet that you publish.
2. Improve Your Overall Engagement
Engagement is the name of the game, especially in the modern age of Twitter.
This is because in the past, Twitter always showed tweets in chronological order, with the most recent tweets appearing first.
These days however, your Twitter feed is more algorithmic.
This means that an algorithm decides which tweets you should be shown first or receive notifications for. And as you might expect, Twitter wants to show you the most interesting and engaging tweets first, since those are the ones most likely to keep you on the platform.
So, if you can publish more engaging tweets that receive more likes, retweets and comments, Twitter will ensure more people actually seen it. Likewise, tweets that nobody seems to care about are more likely to be suppressed, as to avoid boring Twitter users (or wasting their time.)
3. Encourage Re-Tweets
Finally, the last thing you should do is to craft your tweets in a way that encourages retweets.
When it comes to growing your audience on Twitter, there are two primary ways to do it – by engaging with other Twitter users, or having your content pushed in front of them.
Because retweets aren’t tied to your time, they are the ultimate way to grow your following on Twitter, and increase your view count as a result.
Studies show that you have a 160% higher chance of receiving a retweet if you actually ask for it, and some people believe this percentage may be even higher.
So while you shouldn’t beg for them on every tweet that you post, asking for retweets occasionally may be a great way to grow your viewership on Twitter.
Conclusion
Twitter does indeed count your own views on your tweets, even if you view the same tweet multiple times.
However, since it’s so easy to amass views on Twitter, this is unlikely to affect your total numbers in any meaningful way.
I hope that you’ve found this article helpful, and that it’s answered all of your questions.
If you have any other questions about Twitter or how they count views, please ask them below and I’ll be happy to help.
Wishing you the best,
– James McAllister