Understanding Social Media Algorithms

The word “algorithm” is thrown around on the internet at a speed that would baffle the mathematical engineers and coders who are more familiar with the term. However, in the burgeoning world of social media marketing and internet ranking, businesses live and die by the algorithms that dictate different platforms.

The algorithm for ranking your business organically on search engines is vastly different from the vaunted TikTok algorithm that is so well-tailored it’s been accused of reading your mind. All this is to say that understanding the way algorithms work can be a huge boon for your marketing team and can ensure that your marketing strategy works on multiple levels.

AI and Targeted Audiences

As mentioned previously, TikTok has gained incredible fame for its AI algorithms, covered in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Unlike other social media platforms that always show you profiles you’ve followed, TikTok uses AI processing to ensure that you are always seeing new and interesting content. Their algorithm is made to prioritize user engagement. As the New York Times noted, “[TikTok] has chosen to optimize for two closely related metrics in the stream of videos it serves: ‘retention’ — that is, whether a user comes back — and ‘time spent.’”

One of the ways TikTok keeps you coming back for more is its three-pronged AI system that analyzes video, spoken word, and written clues. While it may seem mindboggling that AI is capable of analyzing these many factors, the TikTok algorithm relies heavily on what is “perceived” by their system, and then in turn these perceptions are shown to users.

For example, if someone makes a video about dog grooming, the AI will ideally categorize the video as interesting to dog lovers, and any spoken words about dogs, training, or grooming will also push the video further toward the audience. Hashtags and comments are also factored in by the AI, according to a review of TikTok’s algorithm by Towards Data Science.

What this means for social media accounts is that while captions and hashtags are important, they are not the cornerstone of engagement they once were, instead of becoming a way for users to find content, rather than a way to streamline content toward customers.

Posting Times: Are They Impactful?

While in the past there have been heated debates about when to post your content for the best engagement, with the phasing out of chronological timelines across many social media platforms, and a shift toward AI-generated feeds, the time you post your content has become less and less impactful.

Instead of forcing yourself to adhere to a scheduled posting time, tailoring your videos to work within the algorithm can offer more dividends in video interaction and viewer retention, than trying to be sure you post at a certain time of day.

While having a regular schedule can be useful for your marketing team, and can set up certain expectations in your viewership, it is more important to create quality content than it is to churn out low-quality content at a regular time.

The Importance of Quality Content and Engagement

At the end of the day, quality content will win out over bulk content every day. Being sure to plan your videos, posts, images, and more before uploading them to your social media account is more likely to show a positive impact than trying to stick to a schedule.

Thanks to the development of AI algorithms and non-chronological news feeds, it’s important to properly tag and caption your content, as well as make sure your products are center-stage and recognizable.

However, just because captions are important does not mean hashtags still hold the same level of sway as they did in the early 2010s: tagging is more for user convenience than it is for algorithm boosting, so use hashtags sparingly and instead target key niches for your products.

Thankfully, while understanding social media algorithms may seem daunting, a quick breakdown of the programs used on each platform can provide insight into how to engage with users, and no matter the platform, quality content will always win the day.

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