This is a new feature that is similar to other social media platforms. Hopefully soon we will have an analytics dashboard. Bots are upvoting and that won't change. The key is to bring traffic to the platform from outside of Steemit to grab new eyeballs. It will take a while for me to figure out what counts as a view.
that's a really good point hilarski. I look forward to how it all evolves along with our understanding. Very exciting :)