Understanding Algorithms: Facebook and Instagram
In the early days of social media, posts were displayed in chronological order — if Ashley posted a picture on Instagram 5 minutes ago, Ryan posted one 3 minutes ago and Katie posted one 20 seconds ago they would appear on your feed in that exact order.
Those simple times are over. Gone are the days of posting something on social media and being sure that everyone that follows you will see it. It’s 2018 and algorithms are everything.
In short, social media algorithms are a way of sorting the way posts appear on a users’ feed and they are what social media platforms run on. They prioritise the content that users see first based on the likelihood that it is relevant to them and that they’ll want to see it.
All of the main social media players that you likely use are run with algorithms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. It’s important for brands to understand how their posts will appear to users, or if they’ll even appear at all. This week I want to go into more detail on the algorithms on the two main social media platforms for businesses — Facebook and Instagram.
The year began with this announcement from Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg:
“I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.
The first changes you’ll see will be in News Feed, where you can expect to see more from your friends, family and groups. As we roll this out, you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media.
How often do you see brands posting ‘comment to win’ competitions or asking their followers to vote on something by reacting to the post? My guess is pretty frequently.
The reason these types of posts are so common from brands is that the new algorithm prioritises active interactions — comments, comment replies, shares and reacts — over passive interactions such as likes and clickthroughs. Facebook wants users to engage in conversations with each other rather than just mindlessly scrolling through their newsfeed and liking a post every so often.
Facebook admitted that this new algorithm could decrease reach and traffic for Pages if they do not tend to generate a lot of active interactions. This highlights the importance of effective advertising and amazing content on Facebook, as well as knowing which posts will generate active interactions and using them.
The content you see on your Instagram feed is produced from a very different algorithm. The Instagram algorithm is based on popularity, relevancy and relationship in order to show the best content to the most people. Instagram will reward you for spending a lot of time on the app engaging your followers.
The reward? Exposure on your followers’ feeds.
With so much content to compete with it can be difficult to keep people engaged. To help you out, the easiest way to keep followers engaged is by posting photos, videos and stories, replying to messages and comments and going Live.
Seems obvious, right? You’re already doing most of these things, or at least posting photos and replying to comments. The trick is — you need to be doing them all the time. Reply to comments and messages immediately, post a photo or video and a story every day and go live a once a week or more if you have a lot to say.
A great way to ensure that you keep on top of your Instagram content is to use a content calendar planner and plan out everything you’ll be posting for the upcoming week. If not, you could get caught with nothing to post and your exposure will significantly decline.
Algorithms make social media a lot trickier for small businesses, but the fact is — they’re not going anywhere. To stay relevant you need to stay on top of them, produce some amazing content and get your followers engaging. All that easy stuff ;c)
Don’t find it so easy? If you’re not even sure how to create an Instagram or Facebook account and how to use it for your brand to get more business, or you have any questions about social media marketing then jump online here or email us at team@startsocial.nz today and we’ll help you find the best course for you.
Have a fab week, everyone!
Wendy, CEO & Founder, Start Social
