YOUR GO-TO GUIDE FOR UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL MEDIA ALGORITHMS
Social media today has become synonym to ultimate business destination for many brands and an easier way to connect with your prospective audience or customers. With the pandemic and technological advancements, a sea shift has been observed in the way people go about shopping these days. This has encouraged customers to be present online and research about the product or service of their desire before purchasing the same.
Social media algorithms are ever-evolving, making it difficult for marketers to keep up with the pace. A seasoned social media marketing company understands that these algorithms in social media dictate where you rank in social media ads and content placement on a user’s feed. Gaining in-depth knowledge about the same becomes imperative.
What do we mean by Algorithms in social media?
An algorithm is a set of rules or calculations used to solve problems and deliver result. Algorithms used in social media are meant to deliver content to the user. Though not all social media platforms use algorithms, however there are many which have adopted news feed that are delivered via an algorithm. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat use algorithms, that shows you stories based on users you’ve interacted with most. Research by Global WebIndex shows that as per January 2022, 58.4% of world’s population uses social media and average daily usage is 2 hours 27 minutes. Leading social media marketing company in Gurgaon, Qwerty Brand Solutions and many others have realised this key algorithm factor affecting the credibility of their clients’ businesses and thereby conduct deep research before suggesting appropriate digital marketing tactic.
How Social media Algorithm works?
Social media algorithms work by customizing each users’ feed based on his or her past actions on the platform. Most social media feeds do not show updates and friends’ posts in reverse chronology. Algorithms gather and process metrics based on user’s browsing, liking, commenting and sharing history to present news the user will most likely want to see. For many years, social media algorithms did not exist. According to Pew Research Center, the majority of Americans are now on social media, Facebook and YouTube being the top contenders with 68% and 73% in the US respectively. Separating your message from the clutter can be difficult unless you utilize social media algorithms to your advantage, coupled with the expertise of a seasoned social media agency.
Why do they change?
As a fallible system, social media networks regularly tweak their algorithms to improve user experience. Ensuring the high quality of the content, keeping it relevant and appealing while keeping an eye on any algorithm change is a great way to see if you need to tweak your social media strategy.
Types of Social media Algorithms:
These can be divided based on different social media brands, like;
• Facebook Algorithm Facebook Algorithm determines which posts people see every time they check their Facebook feed and in what order those posts show up. It basically evaluates every post. It scores posts and then arranges them in descending, non-chronological order of interest for each individual user. This process happens every time user refreshes their feed, basis three main ranking signals- Who posted it, Type of content, and Interactions with the post. Facebook also provides users an option to customize their feed by- Favourites and In-feed options.
• Pinterest Algorithm When you share a new piece of content, the Pinterest algorithm first distributes your pin to your followers. The more users engage with your pin, the more exposure it will receive. Since, Pinterest is a search engine, the best way to gain traction and generate website traffic is to learn how to use keywords correctly on the platform. Track your performance with Pinterest Analytics to find out what type of content resonates with your audience.
• TikTok Algorithm The key ranking signals for the TikTok algorithm include- User Interactions, Video information, and Device and account settings. It excludes duplicated content, content you’ve already seen, content that the algorithm flags as spam and potentially upsetting content. TikTok does NOT base recommendations on follower count or on a history of previous high-performing videos.
• LinkedIn Algorithm LinkedIn algorithm is not the same as Facebook algorithm as it involves these steps for content distribution- Initial filter; Testing session; Avoiding Spam filters; Content scoring and Real people assessment. LinkedIn pushes the content based on our recent activities like our comments, who we follow, etc.
• Twitter Algorithm Twitter algorithm intelligently matches relevant content by analysing various factors such as engagement rate, relevancy to users and post type. It uses different ranking factors that determine whether a user will like the content or otherwise.
• Instagram Algorithm To determine which posts to rank, the Instagram algorithm first looks at posts you’ve interacted with in the past, finds out who else has interacted with those posts and what other accounts they’re interested in. this helps it to narrow down which posts to rank for your Explore page.
That’s the reason why these popular social media platforms use algorithms in order to provide an organic filter through a large amount of content that is available on each of these platforms.