IDENTIFYING RESPONSIVENESS OF AN ENTITTY TO MESSAGES VIA AN ONLINE SYSTEM IN A CONTENT ITEM IDENTIFYING THE ENTITY

An online system allows users to exchange messages with other users, including entities such as businesses. The online system determines a metric describing measure of an entity's responsiveness to messages received via the online system based on a number of messages to which the entity responds and times for the entity to respond to messages. The online system displays an indication of the metric for an entity in connection with content identifying the entity. For example, the indication is displayed in conjunction with a content item identifying the entity, such as a content item including a link to initiate communication of a message to the entity.