Social media has evolved into a powerful marketing tool for businesses today. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even LinkedIn are some of the largest platforms online that can make a significant difference for your business when utilized the right way.
How is this possible? It is largely thanks to each of the platform's proprietary algorithms that have made them critical for use in a company’s digital marketing campaigns. How do these algorithms work? Let’s find out.
What Are Social Media Algorithms?
An algorithm is simply a set of rules. Algorithms exist throughout the online universe and not just in social media. They are a process or set of instructions for calculations, problem solving operations or task completion and decision making.
For social platforms, algorithms use data to affect the pages you see, groups to join, and posts from people you might know in your news feeds. Social media algorithms capture data and learn from it to customize your experience on that platform to your needs/interests and prioritize content you are more likely to respond to and want to see.
Why Do Social Media Platforms Use Them?
Algorithms are how social media customizes the content that you see on their platforms. Each person is unique and so they will have different likes and dislikes. Each platform uses that information via their algorithm to provide the user the content best suited to them.
Imagine all social media content flashing on your news feed without some form of a directive. That would be chaotic and inefficient, and not helpful or entertaining for the user.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning as well as algorithms are all used to collect data and customize what appears on social media platforms. These tools and processes can benefit businesses with their digital marketing efforts. Once your brand is relevant and linked to what someone wants, needs or is interested in, then social media platform algorithm can feed them your content and messaging.
Isn’t that a win-win situation for everyone involved?
Do They Affect the User’s Experience?
Social media algorithms impact a user’s experience, and possibly decisions, more than we might think as they control what a user does and does not see on their platform feed based on previous activity and interaction. When implemented properly this can be a powerful tool to yield a positive result for everyone involved, especially the users or a businesses’ target demographic.
Businesses can attract clients and, in turn, users find the right products or services that they are looking for.
Social Media Platforms and Their Algorithms
Facebook’s main goal is to have meaningful engagements with its users and this core principle has always governed its algorithms.
Local, friendly, and familial posts are always given importance and the four aspects they consider are popularity, content type, relationship, and recency.
Facebook’s algorithm is constantly changing, as it should be, to adapt to the growing needs of its user base.
LinkedIn has always been recognized as a leader in B2B marketing and so it’s only natural that its algorithms are centered around this approach.
This social media platform values networking more than followers and this has worked since it’s now used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.
Connection and engagement are at the core of its algorithm principles.
Twitter’s algorithms take into consideration engagement, activity, recency, and media type (GIF, photo, etc.).
For a business, you have to make sure to post relevant content that drives engagement - and consistency is key.
For Instagram, the platform’s main factors are relationship, interest, following, time posted, session time, and user session time.
Reels are becoming quite the new trend. Short-form content (not forgetting the popularity of TikTok) is the new go-to tool.
Wrapping Up
Online presence or visibility is a must for a business today and is crucial for your success. Social media is one of the key tactics needed to gain visibility. Connection Model has digital marketing expertise in a wide range of services, including social media and content marketing. Get in touch today for more information!
Written By: David Carpenter
