14 tips for beating social media algorithms
When it comes to social media algorithms, Instagram seems to get most of the attention. But your brand is probably on a few social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
What about their algorithms?
Even if you’re producing stellar content your target audience is sure to love, algorithms will make or break your social media strategy. Luckily, you can learn to make Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn’s algorithms work to your advantage. Keep reading – your social media KPIs will thank you.
Here’s how to beat the social media algorithms:
In 2021, Facebook doubled down on machine learning (ML) to perfect its algorithm.
Facebook says, “We use ML to predict which content will matter most to each person to support a more engaging and positive experience.”
Basically, Facebook inventories every post you could potentially see, and ranks them based on your interests, behaviour and more. From there, they’ll show you the content you’re most likely to interact with.
Learn to work with the algorithm by:
- Avoiding overly promotional content
- Appealing to your target audience’s emotions. According to Harvard Business Review, viral content often stirs up admiration, amazement, astonishment, curiosity, interest or uncertainty.
- Avoiding comment baiting (a.k.a. directly asking your followers to like, tag, share, or comment on your posts).
- Posting more video content.
- Investing in paid advertising. Facebook ultimately wants your business’ cash – and the algorithm will reward you for boosting posts and/or running ads.
Do you suspect Twitter’s algorithm is messing with your marvelous tweets? Here’s how to deal:
- Timing matters. Twitter is all about up-to-the-minute content. It’s essential to post when your audience is actually online.
- In the same vein, pay attention to what’s trending. But don’t be late to the party – it’s no secret that Twitter trends can burn out in a matter of hours.
- More is more – the more high-engagement tweets you post, the more your account will be favoured by the algorithm. Twitter rewards users who consistently create amazing content.
- Twitter favours videos and other forms of rich media.
Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn ranks your posts based on quality – are they good to go, or total spam? From there, LinkedIn adds your post to your followers’ feeds, and you have about an hour to earn engagement. If the post is a hit, the algorithm will continue showing it to users, even for weeks to come.
- LinkedIn prides itself on being the social network “where business is done”, so ensure your content is work or industry focused.
- Encourage employees to interact with your page’s content.
- The bigger your network, the better. A little outreach won’t hurt.
- Don’t post at the same time every day. LinkedIn prefers a more “natural” posting schedule.
- LinkedIn encourages hashtags, so give them what they want. Three hashtags appears to be the magic number.
Algorithms play an increasingly large role in social media marketing, and it can be hard to keep up. That’s why we’ve got tons of social media tips and tricks on our blog – make sure to keep checking back!
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