ALGORITHM

What is a social media algorithm?

Algorithms are the formulas that social media platforms use to decide what content gets shown to which users. These algorithms have gotten smarter and smarter over time, learning your interests and hobbies through the content you interact with in order to serve you the content that you are most likely to engage with.

Why are social media algorithms important?

1. Algorithms help content creators by placing their content in front of users that are most likely to engage with it and
2. Algorithms help users by showing them content that fits their interests.

How do algorithms work?

Algorithms are designed to learn your interests in order to make sure that the content you are seeing on your feed is the type of content that you enjoy and that you are most likely to engage with. The more accurately that the content you see fits your interests, the longer you will stick around on the platforms (which is of course, the primary goal of every social media platform).

To accomplish this, the algorithms focus on three things:

1. Relevance

Algorithms take into account every single one of a user’s interactions (views, watch time, likes, comments, shares, etc) to determine which topics and types of content you are most interested in. They then use that information to create a formula for showing you new content that you are most likely to take those same actions with.

Algorithms also prioritize  content from people that you follow or are friends with because you have already indicated that you enjoy their content and are more likely to interact with it.

2. Filtering

Because there are millions of social media posts published daily, it’s important that social media platforms filter out “low quality content” in order to keep the overall quality of the app experience high. 

Algorithms also constantly change and update to emphasize certain types of content over others. Some may view the algorithm as a sort of “boogeyman” that is suppressing their content from being shown to broader audiences, but the reality is much simpler:

The algorithm’s only job is to service content to its users that they are most likely to engage with. If the content you are sharing is not receiving engagement, the algorithm will stop promoting it to new audiences. Which is why it’s important to make sure that your content is something that users will actively engage with if you want to see continued growth and reach. 

3. Sponsored content and ads

All of the information that the algorithm has learned about its users also provides a valuable opportunity to advertisers on those platforms.

Because of the algorithm’s ability to match users with content that fits their interests, they also allow advertisers the opportunity to leverage that information to target users with ads that fit their specific needs and interests.