Two jobs, two numbers
A view means someone stopped. A share means someone thought of a friend and sent it. Both are good. They’re different jobs, and in a real Arcus content report for a hard seltzer brand, the posts that did one were rarely the posts that did the other. See the content report.
On Instagram the account averaged 8,148 views and 36 shares per post across 39 posts. Here are the top four posts by each measure.
| Top four by views | Views | Shares | Top four by shares | Views | Shares |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slushie how-to | 32,910 | 49 | Friends back at work after the tournament | 8,000 | 409 |
| Tournament carousel | 29,864 | 46 | A sign held up from a balcony | 16,713 | 201 |
| Expiration-date photo | 25,657 | 34 | The can as a character | 22,834 | 138 |
| The can as a character | 22,834 | 138 | Foil fruit | 11,640 | 69 |
Only one post is on both lists.
That post is the exception that explains the rule. The can was the character, on screen the whole time, with the joke happening to it. It was watched like a trick and sent like a joke. The report found the same thing in the next two most shared product posts: the can doing something on screen, not sitting in a hand.
The hosting hack pattern
The group that got watched was hosting hacks: a trick with the can you could copy tonight. On Instagram its median was 19,188 views, 2.36 times the account average. It led on Facebook too, at 1.4 times. The three biggest hosting posts showed the can frozen, disguised or turned into dessert. Each showed a step you could repeat at home.
Now look at its shares. The median was 26, below the account’s 36. People watched the trick and mostly didn’t send it. That’s fine. It’s the reach engine. The report’s call was to keep it and make more: a physical trick with the can that someone could copy tonight.
Shares came from somewhere else:
- A joke about the viewer’s friends. A guy in a team shirt mopes from couch to stoop, can in hand, with one line of text about his friends going back to work. 409 shares.
- A moment people were in. The sign on the balcony: one line of text, and the joke reads with the sound off. 201 shares.
- The can as the character. Product posts shared when the can was doing something on screen: 138, 69 and 43 shares for the top three.
The share-rate math
Share rate puts shares on the same scale as views. The easiest version to read is shares per 1,000 views:
shares ÷ views × 1,000 = shares per 1,000 views
Worked from the report’s numbers:
| Post | Views | Shares | Shares per 1,000 views |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friends back at work | 8,000 | 409 | 51 |
| Balcony sign | 16,713 | 201 | 12 |
| The can as a character | 22,834 | 138 | 6 |
| Slushie how-to | 32,910 | 49 | 1.5 |
The friends post was sent on at 51 per 1,000 views. Nothing else on the account was above about 12. That’s a different kind of post, and the rate shows it.
Why per 1,000 views and not shares alone? Because views and shares grow together. A post with four times the views can collect more shares without being any more shareable. Dividing by views takes reach out of the comparison and leaves the question you care about: of the people who saw it, how many sent it on?
When share rate misleads
A rate with a small number underneath it jumps around. Here are the median share rates by group on Instagram, next to median views:
| Group | Median views | Median share rate |
|---|---|---|
| 3D animation (2 posts) | 1,139 | 0.9% |
| Workday escape | 3,962 | 0.52% |
| Unusual hangouts | 2,415 | 0.49% |
| Can tricks and gags | 6,107 | 0.21% |
| Hosting hacks | 19,188 | 0.14% |
Ranked by share rate alone, 3D animation wins and hosting hacks comes last. Ranked by views, it’s nearly the reverse. The 3D group was two posts at the bottom of the account, and the report retired it. A few shares on a small post make a big rate. Facebook is the extreme case: with 24 of 29 posts at zero or one share, the report called share rate noise there. More on that in what to post where.
How to read both: a checklist
| High share rate | Low share rate | |
|---|---|---|
| High views | Rare. Make more, fast. | Watched. Keep it for reach. Test a friend-group frame on top. |
| Low views | Check the count underneath. Run more before you call it. | Stop or rethink. |
- Work out views and shares per 1,000 views for every post, per platform.
- Put both on the group scorecard, with the median for each.
- Ignore share rate where most posts have zero or one share.
- Check how many posts sit behind each group. Under four is directional.
- For your best reach format, write one version with the viewer’s friends in the joke and compare its share rate.
That last step is the report’s own test. Run hosting hacks and the can posts with a friend-group frame on top, the kind of setup where the next move is to send it to someone, and watch whether the share rate moves while views hold.
Questions worth asking your team: Do we track shares per 1,000 views, by platform? Which posts got watched and which got sent? What would we change about our best-watched format to make it shareable?
Common mistakes, and what this doesn’t prove
- Chasing the one viral share post. Name what it had, a moment or a friend, and test that on formats you already make well.
- Ranking groups on share rate alone. Small posts win on paper.
- Treating shares as sales. A share is a strong signal that someone cared. It’s not a purchase.
- Forgetting the platform. The friends post took 409 shares on Instagram and one on Facebook. Rates belong to one platform at a time.
Share counts here come from the brand’s social tool. Instagram exposes no share count to any tool, so they can’t be checked against the platform. The tournament group was three posts and directional, and the tournament is over: the real test is whether the next big shared moment does the same. None of this shows which posts sold. That takes lining posts up with your own numbers. To see that on your own posts, try it free with a question like “Which of our shared posts moved sales?”