Facebook Stories allow businesses to share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. Stories are displayed at the top of the Facebook news feed, so they provide high visibility for your business. A common question for businesses using Facebook Stories is whether you can see who has viewed your stories.
Can you see story viewers on Facebook business pages?
Unfortunately, Facebook does not provide analytics on who has viewed your Facebook Stories to business page admins. So if you post a story from your business page, you cannot see a list of each individual user who viewed the story.
This differs from Instagram Stories, where you can view a list of accounts that have seen your story. But for Facebook Stories, no viewer data is available.
Why doesn’t Facebook show story viewers?
Facebook has not provided an official reason for why they do not show Facebook Story viewers. However, there are a few potential reasons:
- Privacy – Facebook prioritizes user privacy, so they may limit data sharing to avoid exposing who interacts with business content.
- Feature differences – Facebook and Instagram have separate product teams, so features don’t always align between apps.
- Limit ad targeting – Restricting viewer data reduces the ability to target individuals who have engaged with branded content.
What Facebook Story metrics can you see?
Although individual viewers are not shown, Facebook does provide analytic metrics on Stories posted from business pages. You can see the following data:
- Reach – The number of unique accounts that had your story enter their screen.
- Impressions – Total number of times your story was viewed.
- Exits – Number of viewers that exited the story before completion.
- Replies – Comments left on the story.
- Taps forward and taps back – How often viewers swiped to the next story or returned to the previous one.
These metrics provide valuable insight into how well your story performed and how engaging it was. High reach and low exits are positive signs. You can compare metrics over time to see how changes impact performance.
How to increase views for Facebook Stories
Without viewer data, optimizing your Facebook Stories may seem challenging. However, there are some best practices you can follow to increase views and engagement:
Post at optimal times
Pay attention to when your followers are most active on Facebook and post your stories during those high traffic windows. Typically the morning, lunch hours, and evenings see higher engagement.
Use eye-catching visuals
Creative images and video will make your story stand out in the newsfeed. Use colors, graphics, and text overlays to grab attention.
Promote your story
Let your audience know when you have a new story. You can share the story URL in a post or use Facebook and Instagram ads to drive views.
Engage your viewers
Ask questions, run polls and encourage reactions in your story. This increases interactivity and time spent viewing.
Analyze performance data
Review reach, impressions, exits and other metrics to identify what story types, topics, and timing drive the best results.
Be consistent
Posting stories regularly keeps your business top of mind and trains followers to check your stories.
Third-party analytics options
While native Facebook analytics don’t show you story viewers, there are third-party analytics tools that can provide more visibility. Options like Iconosquare and Facebook Insights offer Story viewer data related to:
- Viewer demographics like age, gender and location
- When viewers watched your Story throughout the day
- Which viewers watched the full Story vs exiting early
However, these tools require connecting your Facebook account to another platform which not all businesses feel comfortable doing.
Should Facebook add Story viewer analytics?
The ability to see Facebook Story viewers is a commonly requested feature from business users. There are valid arguments on both sides of the debate:
Pros of adding viewer analytics
- Help businesses optimize content based on audience interests.
- Enable more precise ad targeting and retargeting.
- Incentivize business investment in producing Stories.
- Provide parity with the viewer analytics offered for Instagram Stories.
Cons of adding viewer analytics
- Viewer privacy concerns and potential less organic content reach.
- More avenues for personal data collection by businesses.
- Feature parity issues and added complexity for cross-platform product development.
Facebook will weigh these factors along with strategic priorities, user feedback and market demand when considering enhancements. As Stories become a bigger focus, analytics access could potentially change.
Conclusion
Facebook currently does not provide business page admins the ability to view users who have seen their Facebook Stories. This differs from Instagram where Story viewer lists are accessible.
Without individual viewer data, optimizing Facebook Stories can be more difficult. But general performance metrics along with best practices like visual content, promotions and analyzing data can help increase views and engagement.
Third-party analytics tools offer more visibility into viewers at the expense of connecting external platforms to your Facebook account. There are valid arguments around the pros and cons of Facebook adding native viewer analytics in the future.
For now, focusing on producing captivating Stories and leveraging available data will allow you to maximize the impact of Facebook Stories for your business. Consistently posting quality Stories is key to building reach over time, even without specific viewer analytics.