You may heard about the social media algorithm. Watch any ‘how to gain followers’ or ‘get more business’ video. They will say algorithm so many times it no longer sounds like an actual word. What they don’t tell you is what it is and why it’s important. The Algorithm Explained, It’s complicated maths that powers who sees what on any social media site.
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All Social Media Sites Are The Same
That statement isn’t quite true, but at their basics they are the same.
Imagine 2 houses on Social Media Road. Numbers 3611 and 3609, at 3611 live Mr & Mrs PinkedIn while at 3609 live Mr & Mr PorkBook. Both houses are the same, built in 1955 using the same bricks, same windows, same everything.
When we enter each house, that’s when things change, the PinkedIn’s have a very fancy kitchen while the PorkBooks’ have a new bathroom and small extension. Though both houses are similar, each have their own unique differences to their algorithm that make them. They both have a kitchen, both have a bathroom, both have 3 bedrooms.
We will focus on the basics in this article, the bricks and mortar, so we can understand how we can work the algorithm to our advantage on any social media platform.
Need a quick refresh on SEO terminology? Have a look at our SEO Glossary.
Social Media Algorithm’s Main Goal Is…
Facebook doesn’t care that you and Mike have been friends for 35 years and Twitter doesn’t care that Phil and Lisa have just got married. The algorithm’s main purpose is to keep users on its platform so that users will see more ads and make them more money. Nothing else.
To do this, the social media algorithm will show you content it thinks you like. To work this out the algorithm looks at everything you do on social media, every time you.
- Message someone,
- Like a post,
- Comment,
- Scroll past a post quickly,
- Scroll past a post slowly,
- Open a link,
- Open a image,
- Swipe through a set of images in 1 post.
- Login with Facebook, Twitter buttons on 3rd party websites.
- What your friends and followers do who have similar interests,
- Our location.
The social media algorithm looks at what you said, who you interacted with and how often. It will even consider that as you messaged Phil about drums and Phil likes drums maybe you will too. The algorithm is guessing and grouping people together, that’s right it’s not an intelligent knowing spy. It has so much data on what we do, that the algorithm can just guess.
Think of it like this, we give you 45 recipes for beef in black bean sauce. You read every single one, if I then tell you there is one more recipe than you could take a guess at what’s in the recipe and get 80% correct. The algorithm is doing the same, it has data on millions of people (Facebook has 2.9 billion users or a third of the world’s population) if a million people who like drums all searched for ‘how to play Phil Collins In The Air Tonight’ after seeing a particular advert then at a guess there will be others, so give them what they want before they know they want it.
How To Improve Your Social Media Presence
Now we know the very basics,
- the social media algorithm wants you to stay on the platform,
- it does this by showing and guessing content it thinks you’re interested in.
We can now look at our company profile and our personal profile to see what we should do to get more business.
If we interact with people and companies with similar interests / industries, then our content might display on their feed and maybe even their friends feed. This is because as we comment, they comment or like; the algorithm says they interacted, they’re interested.
With this knowledge we can like, comment and repost content in our niche. Be genuine don’t comment for comments sake.
Remember 5,3,2
We have mentioned this before, use the 5,3,2 posting method to help gain customers. Out of 10 posts
- 5 Share other people’s content
- 3 Original Content
- 2 Work Life / Personal
By using this method, you will naturally interact with your employees on social media. The algorithm will see this and potentially put your post in front of your employees connection because they have similar interests.
LinkedIn does this regularly, you will see posts that someone has liked who you don’t know. The algorithm decided that you and the random share common interests so maybe you will like the same content.
Interact with the competition
This might not work for everyone but by interacting with indirect competitors you can help form relationships that may help in the future and tell the algorithm you are all interested in similar subjects
Imagine Linda who used to live in Scotland, they had a Smart Home installed by ‘AV Scotland’. Linda liked and commented on many smart home related posts especially ‘AV Scotland’ but now Linda lives in London and wants her new flat to be smart as well. The algorithm knows they have moved, posts about moving, new job and location data confirm that. The algorithm can also see Linda searching for AV companies in her local area, one of which liked and commented on the posts she did from AV Scotland. Who do you think the social media algorithm will show in Linda’s feed?
This works both ways, you may also form a relationship with an indirect competitor that will recommend you and vice versa.
What is an indirect competitor?
Anyone who isn’t local and selling the same products or services as you. An estate agent in Wimbledon, London, UK doesn’t see a Spanish estate agent as competition, they are too far away. Same goes for an estate agent in Manchester, UK. They are 215 miles away.
What Content Works
Every industry will have their own type of content that works, what works across the board is education. Teach someone something, it doesn’t have to be a degree course, just a short video showing how to perform a simple task. EG a plumber changing a U-Bend, a simple task with a video lasting 10 to 40 seconds.
And cats, education, and cats always works
Give insights to your industry, if you’re an estate agent give advice to tenants on how to improve their rental application or explain the most common landlord issues you see.
There is a lot you can teach people, start small. Don’t hand out company secrets left, right and centre just the basics. As people enjoy learning from your small snippets the likes come in. The algorithm then sees who liked it, when you next post about a sale the algorithm might show your content to the same people.
Conclusion
The algorithm takes data from everywhere and paints a picture of what you like, it then takes any similar picture and compares them. If Mr PinkedIn liked Content 12 and Mr PinkedIn & Phil have similar interests, then let’s show Phil Content 12.
There is no way for us to understand the algorithm, it’s changed so often I would be surprised if the people who create it know what the hell is going on. What we can do is to understand why it is doing something and how it makes conclusions.
The most simple of answers to the question how to understand the algorithm = interact with others.
We could say the same solution fits most of life, interact with friends and family to enjoy life.
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