You might think that to get your social media posts noticed, all you have to do is simply post something and it will show up in your followers’ feeds. However, things aren’t this easy anymore. Today, what people see when they scroll through social media is largely up to what the algorithm decides to show them. Knowing that what users see isn’t solely left up to what time you post on social media anymore, it can feel like there’s no way of getting your posts seen.
Many people and businesses feel like their posts get lost on social media today, so what can you do about this? Learn more about social media algorithms and how they work.
What Are Social Media Algorithms?
Algorithms are sets of rules that determine how posts are sorted on social media platforms. This is unlike having posts show up in chronological order, starting with the newest posts first. When you scroll through posts sorted by these algorithms, you’ll notice that some may have been posted hours ago and show up way before more recent posts. Sometimes, it may also feel like you’re completely missing out on posts from some of the accounts you follow, while only ever being shown posts from certain accounts.
This can have both positives and negatives for personal use and business purposes. Many of us follow hundreds, if not thousands, of accounts on social media, and there’s a very good chance you don’t actually want to see posts from many of these accounts. This is similar to search engine algorithms that decide what the best results are to give you the best user experience.
However, while today’s algorithms are extremely advanced, they aren’t perfect. While algorithms try to be helpful by showing you what you might be most interested in, they can make it harder to see things you want if they don’t realize that you might want to. If a post is too far down because of the algorithm, users might not want to scroll that far, even if it’s something they might have enjoyed. In some cases, accounts your followers don’t even follow can show up in their feeds before yours because of the algorithm.
It might also seem like there’s no possible way of understanding how the algorithms for different social media platforms work, so there’s no way of helping your posts get more eyes on them. While algorithms constantly change and update, there are ways of learning more about them and how to give your posts the best chance of getting noticed.
How Do Social Media Algorithms Work?
What can make this aspect of posting on social media even more complicated is that algorithms vary depending on the platform. Because of this, you need to understand the best practices for posting on all the platforms your business uses. While all social media algorithms aim to show users the most relevant posts, the way they determine what the most relevant posts differ. Of course, many look into the same things, such as how often you post, how often you interact with other accounts, and how engaging your posts are.
Here’s a quick look at how a few different popular social media platforms decide how to rank posts.
Facebook’s algorithm is often one of the most talked about, and what it prioritizes has changed a lot over the years. Facebook provides a few different details regarding how it prioritizes posts in a user’s feed. This includes:
- The account that posted it. Facebook prioritizes accounts that you interact with the most.
- The type of content. If you engage with a certain type of content more often, such as videos, you may see more of this type of content prioritized in your feed.
- Interactions. Posts with more engagement, including likes, shares, and comments, may be prioritized.
Facebook also states that it favors posts that are meaningful, which includes looking at personal signals and overall engagement, and informative, which can vary from person to person and mean you need to understand your audience well.
Instagram looks at many details to decide how to prioritize a post, such as a post’s metadata and hashtags. However, there are three important parts of their algorithm to consider. These are:
- Relationship. What type of relationship you have with another account can affect how their posts are prioritized in your feed. This includes whether or not you follow one another, how often you engage with their posts, and if you message them.
- Relevancy. When you post something and how relevant that post is to trending topics can affect where it falls in a user’s feed.
- Interest. Based on the types of posts you interact with, Instagram can gauge what your interests are and prioritize posts based on that.
One of the ways LinkedIn helps determine what posts to show users first is by categorizing each post into one of three groups – spam, low-quality, and high-quality.
- Spam. Your LinkedIn posts may be seen as spammy when you post too often, use too many hashtags, or have poor grammar. This can happen to anyone by accident if they don’t understand how to create a good post.
- Low-Quality. While low-quality posts are above spammy posts, these posts are still lacking and aren’t seen as very valuable.
- High-Quality. High-quality posts show an understanding of the best practices for posting on LinkedIn. For example, your post is well-written, contains an appropriate number of relevant keywords, and encourages engagement.
Master Social Media Algorithms with ENX2 Marketing
Today, social media platforms want to show users the most relevant, well-crafted posts they’re most likely to enjoy. Knowing how to create the perfect post that gives algorithms what they want is a huge challenge, but it is something you need to do to be successful at social media marketing. At ENX2 Marketing, we understand what all the different platforms are looking for and how to get your posts in front of your audience. We can help manage your accounts and create posts that drive engagement.
Contact us for more information today!