Episode 4 – Find the number of views on your Nextdoor posts

UPDATE: WOW stuff changes so fast. I released the podcast this morning, go to login on my MacBook and VOILA, you can now see POST INSIGHTS on the desktop version as well. So, if you see me roll my eyes in disgust that you have to use the mobile app, just know that now I am beaming with satisfaction that my comments were so quickly addressed!

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You create posts to promote your small business on Nextdoor, but nothing seems to work. Sure, you get some leads, but nothing like you want, or need, to grow your business.

How do you know if your Nextdoor posts getting any action?

First, Nextdoor frowns on you promoting your business using either your personal profile or your business profile. When the pandemic hit, Nextdoor took pity on small business owners and they let any infractions go unchallenged. Now, those rules are beginning to tighten up, but the general consensus is that you are permitted two business posts each month, from your business page, that you don’t have to pay for.

Now before you get all mad at Nextdoor, just realize that they’ve got home field advantage. It’s their house, they make the rules. As far as the audience, it would be difficult to reproduce that audience on other platforms, so Nextdoor really has a captive audience.

To comply with Nextdoor’s terms of use, you really need to be running an ad campaign, and of course, that’s Nextdoor’s goal as well. The ad campaigns are really quite affordable, and when used in conjunction with my personal branding techniques, I believe that the two compliment each other well.

That being said, being a content leader on Nextdoor builds your personal brand among your connections. Will they figure out that you’re Clark Kent, personal content leader? And looking at your business profile, will they connect that you are the real Superman? Sure, they will.

First, you need to understand post distribution. This is how the algorithm decides what posts it will display in the users’ newsfeed. On Nextdoor, one factor is your connections. 

When you create a post, it will first be displayed to your connections. The next factor that drives post distribution is engagement. Having your post receive likes and comments within the first hour, is critical to being promoted to a wider post distribution level. 

When it comes to post analytics, Nextdoor doesn’t make it easy for content creators to understand just how much activity you’re getting. To view this, you’ll need to view your post using the Nextdoor mobile app as the VIEW option is not available using a desktop browser. It’s kind of a pain because you have to go through each post, get the numbers of views, and add them up. The real kicker is that is only will show VIEW counts for posts within the last two weeks. Bummer, right? Well right now, we’ll deal with what we have and continue to ask for more! 

In the mobile app, go to you profile icon. Scroll down and you will see your posts within the last two weeks. At the bottom of the posts, you’ll see a panel labeled POST INSIGHTS, click VIEW. You’ll see a graph, that shows number of views for the first 48 hours and a total views listed at the top.

I added up my posts over the last week and ended up to 18,587 views! I think that pretty strong numbers for Nextdoor. Add up your number of views and post them to comments. Let’s see what everyone else is getting for their social posts!