3 Things You Can Do To Withstand Any Algorithm Change
Today I got accepted into Facebook’s “Ad-Break” program. It’s a very prestigious program — only pages with 10,000+ likes can join.
Basically, they’re allowing me to put ads in my videos and make money.
It’s super great news, and it would be super easy for me to go all-in on Facebook and forget about every other platform I’m on.
But I learned my lesson recently...
You can’t rely too much on one platform.
Even if Facebook’s ad breaks paid me $20,000 per month, I’d still grow everywhere else as well. What if the CPM’s went down? What if videos stopped being so popular in the timeline? What if everyone decided to quit Facebook because of a big scandal?
See what I mean?
The point is, you never know what’s going to happen. It’s always best to make contingency plans and grow absolutely everywhere.
Social media influencing is a lot like investing — diversifying your portfolio is the only way to withstand economic breakdowns — and I have a couple tips for you that’ll help you do that. 😄
The first one is obvious because I just talked about it.
1. Grow On Every Social Media Platform
Okay so if I were you (I assume you’re a blogger), I’d do the following..
- Create a FB page.
- Create an Instagram account.
- Start posting small daily “status updates” to LinkedIn.
- Start tweeting every now and then whenever a cool thought runs through your mind.
I’ll leave Youtube out of it because I know everyone isn’t a video creator..
If you’re a writer, I’d post pictures on your Facebook page with a couple written paragraphs. Write there like you would write here. People will start to listen and look for your posts.
John Gorman does a great job at this.
Iva Ursano also does some pretty cool things over on her Facebook page. She has over 600,000 likes!
I’m not going to give you a comprehensive social media plan, but just get started. :)
Oh, and you can also direct people to these platforms via Medium with “embeds” like this:
Just copy the URL of the tweet or Instagram post you want to embed, then paste it into your draft. Then you get beautiful pop-ups like these 🔼.
2. Build A Facebook Group
When governments have been overthrown in the past, who normally overthrows them?
The people.
The people normally work together to overthrow the dreaded establishment and replace it with something they feel is better.
The same thing is true of social media platforms, friends.
After all, it’s not algorithms that are reading your stories, it’s people.
You need to start working together with groups of PEOPLE to get views, uplift each other, and “BEAT” the algorithm.
I’ve seen a couple amazing Facebook groups pop up recently where writers can post their stories on certain days and get dozens of fans within 24 hours.
In short, they’re taking the Medium gods out of it. They’re not letting the algorithm determine whether their posts get seen.
They’re quite literally using another platform to drive traffic to posts on a different platform.
This is how it’s done! 👍
So start forging connections. Start making private Facebook groups with other writers that write in your “niche.” Make a pact to try and read each other’s stories whenever they are published, and, if they feel like it, clap + comment.
Algorithms can change things, but it’s not the end, my friends.
Make connections and work together.
3. Build An Email List
Email lists and Medium aren’t exactly conducive right now. I tell people that locked stories are getting more pull than free ones lately. And it’s true — so that means we can’t put CTA’s in our stories if we’re optimizing for reach.
No more email list building (if you want to post locked stories to get the most reach).
BUT, you can grow elsewhere. You can once in a while post a free story and ask for emails. You can go to Facebook and theoretically post a link to your landing page there.
Same for LinkedIn and Twitter.
Instagram as well.
Email lists are sort of the only thing you really OWN as a writer. The rest? Well, you’re beholden to platforms to get your stuff in front of more people.
With an email list, all you have to do is write one up and press send. Then you’re rolling.
So, if you’ve read the entire article, I hope you do diversify. I hope you place your bets on people and other platforms — because these investments will help you withstand any algorithm change no matter what.
Your “tribe” is extremely important, and they will follow you to the ends of the earth and beyond if worse really came to worse.
Thank you for reading!
Want to make extra cash on Medium? I’m hosting a few free trainings this week titled “How To Make An Extra $900 Per Month On Medium” Get your free seat right here!
