Understanding Social Media Algorithms

Has your social media reach on Facebook and Instagram been declining this past year? 
You’re not alone, social media algorithms are constantly changing to better serve users and platforms. This means your post will not be shown to your entire audience. This spells difficulty for business trying to get their message out. 

 

There are numerous ways to improve your reach. Below are some methods to improve social media post reach.

1.     Pay to boost your posts to reach a guaranteed number of people (this shows up as a sponsored post). The overall social media trend is moving towards encouraging business pay for social media reach.

2.     Post more videos! Reels are on the rise and an easy way to capture a larger audience (both Facebook and Instagram). A lot of users are viewing short videos that pop up in their feed. This can be accredited to the rise of Tik Tok and the appeal of short, entertaining videos. Reels are Facebook and Instagram’s way to combat users changing platforms to Tik Tok. Reels typically have larger reach and the more views.

3.     Ask users to engage with your posts. This can be through a giveaways or a caption like “Leave a comment about your favorite winter activity.” Posts that have more user engagement are categorized as better content and thus shown to more users. Likewise, posts with less engagement are shown to fewer users. There is a bit of trial and error in using captions to engage your audience. Try a few different types of engaging captions and see what works for your business.

4.     Use hashtags to help categorize your content (see hashtag user guide blog post). Social media algorithms (except Facebook) utilize hashtags to help categorize your content so that it can be shown to the correct audience. Using appropriate hashtags is an easy way to increase your social media reach.  Instagram does not dock your post for using multiple hashtags, but Facebook only allows 1-2 before ranking the post as spam and showing it to fewer users. Hashtags on Facebook are not as effective as other platforms.

5.     Post often. The more content you have on a platform the more your followers are going to see your message. Make sure your posts are thoughtful, on brand and engaging.

6.     Respond to your comments and DM's this is all about engaging your audience. The algorithm ranks you higher if users are engaging with your posts and you respond to them.

7.     Post Facebook and Instagram stories to stay relevant in the algorithm. Stories are a good way to make sure followers view your content. Stories are shown to everyone who follows you, not just who the algorithms deem worthy. If you utilize stories to highlight events, posts or other things then you know it will reach your audience.

If you’re struggling to create content or social media posts get in touch with The Brandstalk team and start spreading your message.