Understanding Social Media Algorithms

Contributed by Gina McCafferty for Klik Marketing

One of the questions I am often asked by business owners is “How can I get my social media posts seen by more people?” Sometimes they refer to the proprietary and ever-changing “algorithm” and they want to know how they can use it to their advantage—working with it to increase their visibility to, and engagement with, new and existing customers, without wasting time creating posts that won’t get seen.

While the algorithm is proprietary and ever-changing, it will be helpful for business owners to remember that it is just a set of rules that “predict” what a user will want to see in their feed. The post is given a score, and the higher the number, the higher it will appear in the feed of your audience. There are several factors involved, and we’ll look at a few of them here.

1. Is it meaningful to your audience? Social media, and especially Facebook, wants to connect users with the content most important to them. It weighs a person’s interests, the type of content they engage with (video, or photography for example,) the groups they belong to, and it also prioritizes posts with a lot of engagement from people and businesses they already interact with. When creating content, consider the meaning that the content has for your customers.
2. Will your customers find it informative? Content that your audience will find new, interesting and informative—and will want to talk about with family, friends, or the online community, will also score higher, placing it higher in a feed. If you’re one of those business owners who really knows their customers, you’ll be perceived as both a knowledgeable friend and a trusted expert.
3. Is it authentic and accurate? People want to see content that is real and considered genuine. The algorithm is working to reduce the ranking of anything that appears spammy, clickbait-y, misleading or sensational. When creating content be sure to use clear headlines and tell the truth.
4. Do you respond to engagement? If someone takes the time to respond to your post, be sure to respond back. Replying to posts will cause your post to repopulate in some feeds. Can you reply with a question to keep the conversation flowing?
5. How is your timing? While the timing isn’t exactly part of the content you develop, social media platforms like Facebook give more weight to the most recent posts. While engagement times vary for different industries and users, research shows that, in general, users are online more between 8 am and 12 noon.

Meaningful, informative and authentic posts that are timed right will have the best chance of being seen by your ideal customers—going a long way toward building engagement and customer/brand loyalty for both new and existing customers.

If you’re a business owner who wants to have more of an online presence but you’re short on time, consider outsourcing this aspect of your business to a locally based digital marketing company like Klik.