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📊 Threads’ 5 new insights and what to change
Welcome back to TWISM!
Should you be posting on Threads at all? Or is it the account you post to and never check?
On Sep 8, Threads rebuilt Insights, its built-in analytics. Connor Hayes, head of Threads, said the old panel "told you what happened but not why" (Connor Hayes on Threads). The new one is built to show what drove each post's results.
Threads also just passed 500M monthly users in June. Zuckerberg says it's "either bigger than X at this point" or very soon about to be (Social Media Today).
One of the new numbers answers that in about 10 minutes. 👇
Last call for the social media reality check.
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After this, the survey closes for good.
🆕 What changed: 5 new numbers in Insights
It's rolling out now, so not every account has it yet. If yours has updated, open Insights from the icon at the top left of your profile in the app (Threads).
Here's what Threads added (Engadget):
Summary — an AI-written paragraph on each post and on your month, like "This post got about 8 times more views than your recent posts, and reach was higher too. Fewer viewers liked it compared to your recent posts."
Benchmarks — views, viewers, Likes and reposts each get a "higher," "typical" or "lower" tag against your recent posts
Reach split — how much of each post's reach came from followers vs. people who don't follow you yet
Communities — which Communities sent a post its views, and which ones your viewers and your followers belong to
Timing — your best days and times to post, plus your audience's age and gender
The reach split is the one I'd open first.
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🔎 The number I'd check first: how much of your reach is non-followers
For most accounts, most views seem to come from Threads recommending the post to people who don't follow you, even if you have a lot of followers.
Meta's own description backs that up. The main feed is "composed of content from people you follow and recommended content" (Meta Transparency Center). It ranks posts by how likely you are to like one, reply to it or open the profile. Eligible posts "can be recommended to people on Instagram and Facebook," which pushes your reach outside the app (Meta Newsroom).
So a post with a high non-follower share is probably a post the recommendation system picked up. That's probably the clearest sign Threads gives you that a post worked.
There's no published number for what a "good" share looks like, so your own posts are the benchmark. Here's how I'd read it:
Compare — open your last 10-20 posts and note which ones have the highest non-follower share
Pattern — look at what those posts have in common, like the topic tag, the Community they landed in, or a reply thread that kept going
Repeat — post more of that and tag the topic. (Meta's own data says tagged posts generally get more views.) Then post it in the Community that showed up in your summary
If Communities are new to you, they're the public topic spaces Threads opened last October, like NBA Threads and Book Threads. You join one by searching its name or tapping the community tag on a post (Meta).
One caveat before you chase a high non-follower share: In Nov 2024, Mosseri said Threads was "rebalancing ranking to prioritize content from people you follow." He called it "a work in progress" (Mosseri on Threads). So treat the split as a signal that can shift under you, and re-check it every month.
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🔗 The metric Meta deleted: link clicks
In May 2025, Threads added link-click stats to Insights (TechCrunch). Meta said at the time it wanted to help you grow your reach "even outside of Threads."
Today the stat is gone. Engadget reports it was removed sometime before this redesign, and a Meta spokesperson would only say they're "exploring" the feature. Engadget's take is that as Threads leans into Communities, Meta is "once again de-emphasizing off-platform content."
The link history makes the decision less surprising. Chartbeat, which tracks traffic for major news publishers, measured Threads at "less than one tenth of a percent" of referral traffic. Mosseri has said, "we don't place much value on" links (Engadget, July 2025). His reason: "people don't Like and comment on links much."
The fix: UTM-tag every link you post (utm_source=threads) and read the clicks in GA4 or your link shortener tool.
The honest read: don't build a Threads plan around link traffic. Threads seems to reward posts that keep people on Threads.
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🤔 Does Threads deserve a slot in your week?
If your Insights has updated, this takes about 10 minutes:
Monthly summary — is the views trend up, flat or down?
Reach split — are non-followers finding you at all?
Communities — did any show up, and are you in them?
If all three come back weak, there's a cheap test before you quit. Zuckerberg says he posts the same things on Threads and X. Cross-post what you already make for 3-4 weeks, then read the monthly summary.
The win? Threads now shows you exactly how much of your reach comes from people who don't follow you yet. That's the number I'd want on every post.
☝️ The one-sentence version
Non-follower share tells you whether Threads is working for you. So open Insights, find the posts where non-followers made up most of the reach, make more of those, and UTM-tag every link you post.
Hit reply and tell me: what share of your Threads reach comes from non-followers?
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📚 Sources
That's all for today. Thanks for reading. Now…
Go BIG or go home!
~ Josh from "This Week in Social Media"
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