Social Media Algorithm: How to Be Successful With It?

Of the largest social networks, the ones we know using algorithms are:

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest.

If a social network grows so much, it will begin to adopt a content algorithm. But what do social networks gain from it? Many are justified by bringing up the discussion about the user experience on the network.

Ad Profits

This first motive is the most remarkable. With organic reach declining, brands need to increasingly invest in ad platforms within social networks to be noticed by the crowd. The result we already know: the more investment in ads, the more profit for the platform. This is not to say that these social networks are villains. We can`t forget that they are also businesses and businesses need money to survive in the market.

The future of social networking for business shows more and more this increase in the use of ads to reach its audience. This is not the end of the world. Social networks are extremely competitive and one benefit of the ads is to reach exactly your persona and not any online user. The important thing is to know how to use these tools so you do not waste budget with something without results.

We all remember what happened to Orkut. The network gradually lost users until it died. The lesson we have is that a social network can`t survive without an audience. According to the social networks themselves, these algorithms seek to improve the user experience within the site by showing only content that would be interesting, so that they do not get annoyed by spending time looking at bad content and of little relevance to it. By improving the user experience on the network, they increase the time spent on the site and ensure that the audience does not leave the social network.

Facebook and Instagram are the best examples of this. Facebook, in the beginning, was just a content-sharing network. Gradually it has been adapting and now you can post videos, news and do livestreams with Facebook Live, all without having to leave the site.

Instagram is going the same way with the Instagram Stories, increasing its functionality so that users stay more and more inside the site without abandoning it to use other social networks. This is to centralize content distribution channels on a single platform.

What does this have to do with algorithms? Algorithms increase a user's downtime on the network and make creators more and more invest in relevant content within the social network to get people's attention. And one way to get that attention is to use the various features of the social network. Facebook, for example, prioritizes videos that are posted within the site, rather than videos shared by a Youtube link.

How to succeed in this reality? The algorithms do not go away. It is your responsibility as a brand or as a marketer to adapt to this reality and invest in alternatives to overcome this challenge.

Some tips that will help you in this:

- Create extraordinary content. Yes I know. You've heard this tip hundreds of times.

Engagement: with the algorithms, engagement is the most important metric for you. It will dictate whether your content will be displayed to users. So, as cliché as this advice sounds, it is the truest truth.

- Extraordinary content is content that will grab the attention of your audience and engender engagement - driving you out in front of other competitors.

- Research and understand what your audience is consuming. This is what will guide you to produce content of value to it.

- Choose your channel well and have a strategy.

- It's better to be an expert and have amazing results with just one channel than being median on multiple channels. It is better to have a consolidated strategy on Instagram, for example, than to constantly strive for the attention of the user on Facebook. It is very important that you understand well who uses each social network, what kind of content is consumed in there and what your goals are as a brand when using that social network.

With all of this in mind, you can create an effective social networking strategy that you choose for your business. The golden rule here is: do not shoot everywhere!

Although the three social networks have responded in different ways to the need to create more complex algorithms for the development of their users' experience in terms of Digital Marketing, these modifications lead to the same conclusion: the quality of content and advertising will be decisive for the organic reach and paid within the social networks. As important as recognizing good marketing strategies, minimizing the spread of low quality content and information is critical to retaining users on social networks. The algorithms are, after all, an incentive to good practices of target audience segmentation and the creation of campaigns and relevant content, essential for ensuring good results with Digital Marketing.

Many companies are desperate to realize that the organic reach of their content on social networks falls every day. Look at algorithms and changes as a chance to grow, experiment and connect more with your audience. They are not the apocalypse: they are an opportunity. Whoever is able to adapt to this and succeed is not forgotten in the future. 

Research, understand all about it and good luck!