To succeed in social media and gain followers with good engagement levels, it is recommended to try and negate some of the problems caused by social media algorithms.

When considering your social media management you should consider how to best engage with your audience on each platform. This blog will focus on Facebook and Instagram by considering how their algorithms currently work. 

Researching social media management and strategies can help your company understand which techniques will best help you engage with your favoured demographics. In the instance of Facebook, it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to have organic reach with their posts.

The Facebook algorithm evaluates every post, gives it a score, and arranges it in descending order of interest for a person based on their habits on the app. Part of the algorithm is designed to keep people scrolling so that they view ads as they view their organic content and posts from pages or people that they are following. A new feature for Facebook that has been developed over the last 2 years helps the algorithm to figure out what is a credible source or not. To be rewarded by the algorithm, consider posting content that is well-researched and respectable to different audiences. The importance of credible sources can help with a company’s reputation management. The Facebook algorithm benefits posts that are popular, recent, have consistent interactions with the page and that features diverse content such as text and image. 

Some of the ways to capitalise on the Facebook algorithm include: 

• Interacting with your audience.
• Interaction between users that follow your page. 
• Use Facebook stories, these are not affected by the algorithm and are one of the first things a user sees when signing in.
• Try to post content that will result in your page becoming a user’s favourite page. They can select this themselves and if you are added, you will be exempt from the algorithm. 

Instagram, on the other hand, uses multiple algorithms that are mostly based on interaction history. This considers how often you stop to view their posts, like their content, search their page or watch their story. This is used to generate a score of interest which Instagram uses to calculate how likely a person is to interact with the content. 

Some ways to make the Instagram algorithm work in your favour is by:

• Creating content and captions that will encourage users to comment on the post. 
• Include links in your bio as this will get users to visit your profile more often.
• If you can make content that a person is likely to save for later by either being informative or visually pleasing, this will increase your score of interest. 
• Consistently post on your feed and on your story. Sometimes users are more prone to view stories rather than their feed and vice versa. Posting in both ways will increase your reach in ways that suit a variety of individuals.

Growing your following can be difficult but by focusing on user engagement you can effectively combat the algorithm and use it to your advantage. Using paid ads can get you far but valuable and exciting social media content can keep users coming back to your page and more prone to sharing your socials organically.