X/Twitter Glossary

What is Impressions?

Impressions are the total number of times your post was displayed on someone's screen, including multiple views by the same person.

Full Explanation

Impressions count every time your content appears on someone's screen—in their feed, search results, or when viewing your profile. If one person sees your post three times (scrolling past it, seeing it retweeted, then visiting your profile), that counts as three impressions. This is different from reach, which counts unique viewers. Impressions are a measure of total exposure, while reach measures unique audience size.

Why It Matters

Impressions indicate how much visibility your content is getting. High impressions mean the algorithm is distributing your content widely. However, impressions alone don't tell the full story—a post with 100,000 impressions but 0.1% engagement rate performed worse than a post with 10,000 impressions and 5% engagement rate. Use impressions as one data point, not the only metric.

Examples

  • Your post appears in 5,000 people's feeds = at least 5,000 impressions
  • If those people scroll past it twice on average = 10,000 impressions
  • A viral post might get millions of impressions in hours
  • Most posts from accounts under 10K followers get 500-2,000 impressions

Tips for Creators

  • 1.Post consistently to increase total impressions over time
  • 2.Engage with larger accounts to get your replies seen by their audience
  • 3.Use relevant hashtags (sparingly) to appear in searches
  • 4.Focus on engagement rate, not just raw impressions
  • 5.Analyze which posts get the most impressions and identify patterns
Related Poaster Feature:Poast Metrics

Poast Metrics shows impressions alongside engagement rate so you can understand both reach and resonance.

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