How do I judge whether content helped beyond attracting views?
Views and new followers don't always move together. Evelyn Parker described examples of that from her own content, and they aren't a universal conversion benchmark. I'd treat them as a reason to ask what a piece is supposed to accomplish.
Pick the next action before you judge the result. For a teaching article, that might be a reader trying the exercise or moving on to the next guide. On an event page, it's a completed registration. For a creator, it could be a follow from someone who wants more of that work.
Then look at the signals you can observe. A save may suggest someone wants to return, but it doesn't prove they finished the exercise. A click may show interest and still fall short of a completed registration. Say what you measured in the report, and what remains unknown.
Use the result to improve the work. Maybe the opening attracts the wrong reader, or the next step is unclear, or the content delivers exactly what a smaller audience needs. The view count belongs in that investigation as one part of it.
What to try this week
Pick one piece you published recently and write down the action you wanted from it. Then find the one number that shows whether anyone took that action, and put the view count beside it.