Unfolding Social Media Algorithm
Social Media is a great platform to watch engaging and entertaining content. The marketing agencies take the help of the algorithm and optimize their content to reach the maximum audience.
What is Social Media Algorithm?
The algorithm is a set of rules and data that signals the social media about what content is relevant to which user.
We see that every user’s feed is different than others. How? Because social media detects the choice of content, the user likes to watch. Every user has their own unique choice of content and different individuals to interact with; hence, the feed user gets is different from others.
The different feed credit goes to the social media algorithm. How does it work? How does this help the marketers to enjoy the benefits of social media marketing? We will share in this blog post.
The Facebook Algorithm:
Facebook started the trend to be on social media and be fun, to socialize and flaunt the activities, to find old mates and celebrate with strangers. Facebook started to place ads in 2006, and since then, social media marketing has been a huge part of digital marketing. Marketers highly use every social platform to achieve their business goals.
Facebook is the most popular among social media users. Therefore, it has an immense amount of content. And the highest number of users, 3 billion people monthly. The algorithm works to show the most relevant content to all these users. Let’s dive into how it works:
The Engagement: The like and sharing buttons are evidence of users’ preferences. The time spent watching a video, how long the user watched it, and how many times they watched it indicate the user’s preferences.
The Time Relevancy: How the users interact with the content and how they interact with the entire Facebook is also taken into account. The algorithm sees how much time users spend on Facebook, and based on their app usage time, it displays the most relevant content to the user.
Quality of Content – The Facebook algorithm also checks if the content is informative and engaging for the user and shows high-quality content on top of the feed.
Friends and Followers Post:- Primarily, the posts are of the friends and followers. Then, users’ followed groups are preferred.
The Description: The algorithm checks the descriptions of the content and shows the content with a similar description.
What Marketers need to do for Facebook Marketing:
One thing that Facebook gives preference to is quality. People spend a portion of their time on Facebook. Hence, social media tries its best to engage the user.
Marketers need to build high-quality and engaging content to enhance visibility online. Set clear marketing goals and refine your audience accordingly. After the targeted audience is set, analyze what kind of content can engage them.
If you are focusing on Facebook ads, then there are two aspects that you need to take care of which are relevancy score and bid.
Instagram Algorithm:
With two billion monthly users, Instagram is less crowded and offers a sense of privacy. Instagram uses machine learning to filter out the content relevant to the users.
Instagram features an amazing search page where users can discover engaging and relevant content. Instagram notifies the user when the feed has no more new content from the followers. At that point, the user can visit the search page to view content that piques their interest.
This content is ranked and arranged according to the user’s preference. This is how the algorithm finds the users’ preferences:-
The content the user watches and engages with: In addition to liking, commenting, and sharing, the time a user spends watching particular content also assists Instagram in understanding the user’s preferences. If a user skips a video after watching 50% of it, the algorithm will refrain from showing similar content to the user.
The account that posted it: If a user shows interest in a video even without following the creator, Instagram will show the content by the same content creator. Many people follow the same accounts. The algorithm checks the account the user follows or the content you watch, and then it shows you the content of other accounts whose followers are similar to the accounts the user follows.
The Interaction History: How much users are interested in a particular topic, music, or content type decides the occurrence of the post.
What Marketers Should Do:
- Create engaging content while keeping the target audience in mind.
- See when the target audience is active on Instagram. Post content at that time to receive maximum engagement.
- Indulge in Influencer marketing. The influencers have a broad reach on Instagram. As mentioned, people who follow influencers.
- Make small and impactful videos. People like to watch short videos, and it is hardly a case that the user spends more than a minute watching a video that is not engaging. Shorter and more entertaining videos receive more interaction and reach on social media.
YouTube Algorithm:
YouTube is the most popular online video-sharing social media platform. There is no text or options to socialize on the platform. Still, people engage with it as it provides many interactive videos. YouTube is best for people who do not like to socialize, stay aware of their surroundings, and want to get entertained.
Like Google’s Algorithm, YouTube has also been updating its algorithm with the increase of content on the platform.
This is how the YouTube algorithm works:-
Analyze Watched History: Future content is based on the past content you have watched. If you have watched a cooking video, be prepared to watch cooking or food videos on your way.
Relatable Description: YouTube checks the description of the videos the user engages with. It shows the content with similar descriptions and hashtags.
The User Watched Channels: YouTube shows the content of the channel whose one or more videos the users have watched.
The Music: Music also plays a significant role in the algorithm. If a user watch videos with the same sound, the videos with similar sound will appear on the user’s YouTube.
What Should Marketers Do?
- After setting clear marketing goals and knowing the target audience, marketers should do research on audience preferences.
- Find the keywords that are trendy among the audience. Add those keywords in the descriptions and in hashtags.
- Create short and engaging content.
- Share the videos on every social media account.
- Write an interactive and engaging title for the video.
- Create an attractive thumbnail that can intrigue a user to click on the video.
