If you want to grow your social media presence, one of the best ways is to optimize your posts to appear highly on social media news feeds. Remember that social media platforms try to match the content they show users to what they think they are most interested in. Besides, many other factors determine the content that social media platforms show to their users. If you want your content to appear in the newsfeed, you must understand how social media algorithms work.

However, since many social media sites don't disclose information on how their algorithms work and regularly update them, it can be hard to understand how they work. Luckily, this article provides a detailed guide on how social media algorithms work.

What Are Social Media Algorithms?

An algorithm is a set of instructions to solve a particular problem, decide, or perform a task. In computer programming, an algorithm can identify objects, locate data, and sort elements. Therefore, a social media algorithm refers to the rules, data, and signals governing a platform's operation. The algorithm determines the filtering, ranking, and selection of content for the user. That means it determines what social media users see on their newsfeeds.

You have probably noticed that no two users see similar posts even when they follow the same accounts. That’s because the algorithm aims to provide a good user experience.

Importance of Social Media Algorithm

Different social media platforms have different users with different preferences. With the millions of posts on social media platforms, a system is needed to decide what to show users. Without one, users must navigate through many posts, which can be overwhelming.

That's where the algorithm becomes useful. Social media sites use sophisticated algorithms to sort content and match it to the user's preferences. Here are some of the top benefits of the social media algorithm.

Filtering out the Noise

Whenever a Facebook post, Instagram image, or TikTok video is posted online, it competes for visibility with millions of others. The algorithm sorts and recommends the content according to the user’s preference. This ensures that the user isn't overwhelmed with content and enables them to find what they are searching for quickly. Social media users can, therefore, find valuable posts and connect with people with the same interests and values.

Recommend the Right Content to Users

The goal of any social media platform is to keep users engaged. The platform's recommendations, visibility, and data sequence depend on users' behaviors, actions, and interests. For instance, if you view weight loss videos, you will be shown more of them. Such personalization helps increase user engagement, resulting in a positive user experience.

Better Personalization

Social media algorithms use data to personalize the content they recommend to users. Platforms such as Instagram enable them to take their customization to the next level by filtering comments, hiding posts, and simply choosing “Not Interested”.

Increase Your Organic Reach

Understanding the social media algorithm is one way to boost your online presence. With more users finding your content, the algorithm can more easily target other people with similar interests. If you are a marketer or content creator, you can increase the visibility of your content by boosting its visibility on social media.

How The Social Media Algorithm Works

You will realize that the TikTok home page is known as the For You page. This means the content on that page has been specifically chosen for you, depending on your previous interactions. The same term is now being used on X, although, at times, it uses a Following timeline. These recommendations are not made by human beings but by algorithms.

As noted earlier, different social media sites follow different algorithms, but the common denominator is that they are all made by machine learning and several ranking factors. While the complete details behind the algorithm can be complicated, the overall function is simple. They go through the whole pool of available content and rank it to determine what appears in the user’s newsfeed.

Since the algorithm considers your previous interaction, the ranking signals are personalized. The aim is to keep you on the social media platform longer by providing you with the content you watch, like, and tap on. That means the algorithm focuses mainly on user behavior.

Facebook Algorithm

The Facebook algorithm aims to increase meaningful customer engagement. It focuses more on showing users posts from family and friends rather than business posts. That means its algorithm focuses more on four ranking signals. These are:

• User engagement. It considers your past activity to determine how likely you are to like, comment, or share a post.
• Relationship. Facebook will fill your feed with content from the people and pages you interact with and your followers. If you want to grow your social media account, you should encourage your followers to engage with your content.
• Content type. If a user likes watching videos, the Facebook algorithm recommends more videos. The same applies to those who interact more with photos and so on.
• Relevance. The algorithm also tries to consider how meaningful you will find a particular post. It considers whether a post has the format of a clickbait or it's a low-quality web page. These types of pages will not be highly visible on Facebook.

However, the Facebook algorithm isn't static and has changed over the years. This has often caused content creators and marketers to complain that the visibility of organic posts has been decreasing. Some studies suggest that currently, the organic engagement rate of Facebook posts is 0.25% and 0.08% for accounts with over 100K followers.

While Facebook ads are ranked separately, they also revolve around the same ranking signals of organic posts. To ensure that your account and posts work for the algorithm and increase Facebook reach and engagement, here are tips to follow:

• Focus on building connections. If there are comments or queries on your posts, reply to them.
• Encourage more than just likes. Facebook emphasizes reactions that are more than likes.
• Leverage Facebook stories. Since these aren't in the newsfeed, the algorithm doesn't affect them.
• Try live videos. Studies indicate that live videos receive higher engagement on Facebook, which suggests that the algorithm prioritizes them.
• Share only credible content. When sharing external content, be sure it's credible and authentic and does not mislead, as Facebook inhibits the reach of such content.

It's important to understand how to write shareable content for your Facebook page.

The TikTok Algorithm

With its recent explosion in popularity, TikTok is one of the most important platforms for understanding algorithms. This is mainly because the algorithm recommends new content instead of content from the people you follow, depending on factors such as TikTok engagement. Here are a few TikTok ranking signals you should know:

• Previous member interactions. It considers the accounts you followed or hid in the past. It also looks into the content you engaged with or marked as unattractive.
• Discover tab behavior. This factor analyzes the characteristics of the content, such as trending topics, sounds, effects, and captions.
• Language and location. The TikTok algorithm will prioritize showing you content from your country or native language.
• Trends. Another way to increase the discoverability of content is by using trending sound.
• Follower count isn’t a factor. The main distinction between TikTok and other social media platforms is that the follower count isn't a consideration.

If you want to find out if the TikTok algorithm likes your content, you can check the percentage of users who see your videos on their For You page. If this number is high, it means your content is being discovered by a bigger audience as your videos are placed on their home feed.

Ultimately, TikTok loves a good video; everyone can get their content noticed with a good TikTok marketing strategy. Whether you are a beginner content creator or marketer looking to create valuable content to engage their young demographic, TikTok is a great platform to enable you to do that.

The X (Twitter) Algorithm

When Twitter was created in 2006, it focused on ranking posts according to the timeline. It meant that most of the content was ranked based on the day and time rather than the quality of the content. However, according to the latest 2023 algorithm, X considers several ranking factors depending on demographic relevance and subject specialism. The main X ranking factors are:

• Recency
• Relevance
• Virality
• Personal Interest
• Geographical location

To succeed with X marketing, post relevant content in your niche. You should also consistently converse and connect with relevant users, accounts, or brands. Ensure you post your content on optimal days and times to increase social media engagement.

The Instagram Algorithm

Like X, the Instagram algorithm followed a chronological order in its early days to show posts. However, as it developed, it considered other factors, such as:

• Interest. Like other social media platforms, Instagram will consider the content you share, comment on, like, and save.
• Post info. The IG algorithm may recommend it if many people interact with a post quickly. However, other factors such as location, time, and date will also be considered.
• Information about the poster. The algorithm considers how likely you are to engage with an account based on how often other people are interacting with it.
• Relationship with users. IG will show you content from the people you engage with by following them, messaging them, or doing anything else. Therefore, if you are a brand trying to increase your Instagram following, you should encourage comments, shares, and likes. When users comment, be sure to respond to them.

It's important to note that Instagram carousel posts will likely get three times more engagement than other kinds of posts. Instagram also gives a lot of prominence to reels, as they are a relatively new feature. Therefore, you can try out these new features to grow your Instagram engagement.

The LinkedIn Algorithm

LinkedIn is considered the market leader in B2B marketing. Instead of getting followers, the platform focuses more on networking. That means its algorithm also focuses more on connection and engagement. Therefore, you can focus on building connections if you would like to receive more visibility on the platform. Here are a few things to know about the LinkedIn algorithm:

• Have three to ten hashtags in each post.
• While video content is more popular than other types of content, it isn’t prioritized in the user's feed.
• Comments have more weight than reactions and likes.
• Dwell time (the time someone spends reading a post or watching a video) is essential for engaging content.
• Engage with relevant people to build a network.
• Ensure that your employees are active on the platform.
• Try using LinkedIn ads to grow your audience and network.
• Check analytics to determine the kind of content that works.

You also need to understand the proven tips for LinkedIn marketing.

The Pinterest Algorithm

Pinterest's follower strategy and layout differ significantly from other platforms, but it is still considered a social media platform. The Pinterest algorithm considers four key factors. These are:

• Topic relevance.
• Domain quality.
• Pin quality.
• Quality of pinner.

The platform has a guided search method that uses data collected from the user’s past interactions to link with others. If you view home renovation videos, you will see more of such projects the next time you log in. Pinterest mainly focuses on an interest-based algorithm that shows users what interests them.

In 2020, Pinterest introduced the controllable distribution, meaning that users can only see a certain number of posts depending on what they have viewed in the past. That means people are more likely to enjoy and consume content. According to Pinterest, people’s intentions and searches are changing as they seek products that share their values. That means brands should focus on:

• Understanding their values.
• Testing ads that meet their values rather than just products.
• Help customers understand how purchasing from you will improve their lives and illustrate their values.

Pinterest is an excellent platform for brands that market products or services using great visuals. You can use these tips for Pinterest marketing.

The YouTube Algorithm

The YouTube algorithm is also more about the algorithm’s recommendations rather than who you follow. While YouTube has several ranking signs, the most important consideration when ranking on YouTube is the value you offer to your followers. Some of the YouTube ranking signals are:

• Your activity. YouTube will recommend videos to you depending on what you watched in the past.
• Videos you watch together. YouTube identifies the videos you like depending on the user's behavior.
• Topic and channel watchtime. If there is a specific channel you watch a lot, YouTube is likely to show you more of such channels.
• Video performance. How previous viewers interacted with the video will also determine whether YouTube recommends it to you. Therefore, YouTube considers factors such as the average percentage viewed, average view duration, the number of likes or dislikes, and the feedback from post-watches surveyed.
• Sample audio and trending songs. Regarding YouTube Shorts, the platform also considers the factors above to understand the trends the user is interested in and provide them with more relevant content.

We recommend you also understand how to get free Youtube subscribers.

Threads Algorithm

While Threads is a relatively new entrant to social media, it reached over 200 million users by August 2024. If you are a brand that wants to tap into this relatively new platform, you need to understand the following ranking signals:

• User interactions. The Threads algorithm considers the number of times you have liked a user’s post, either in absolute numbers or as a percentage of their posts.
• The number of people who have viewed or liked a post and those who have clicked the author's profile is crucial.

SoundCloud Algorithm

SoundCloud uses the autoplay algorithm to connect fans with their music based on their listening activity and history. For instance, fans who love Digicore will be shown more of such tracks in their autoplay. That means your new uploads will likely be demonstrated to listeners who are likely to listen to them. The aim is to ensure that your music is heard by the right people in the crucial post-release period. For your track to be shown in the SoundCloud algorithm, it must be:

• A public track.
• Music track rather than a podcast, spoken word, or ASMR.
• Have been uploaded or made public in the last 14 days.
• Be between 1 and 10 minutes.

Tips to Make Social Media Algorithm Work For You

While each social media site has its algorithm, there are some overarching tips to help you score high on different algorithms. These are:

Understand Social SEO

While algorithms determine website and social media sites' rankings, SEO optimizes them for search engines. Therefore, to hack the algorithm, you need to understand SEO. As noted above, one of the key ranking factors for most social media sites is popularity.

Therefore, social SEO can help increase the reach of your content, making our social media account popular and providing the algorithm with the key ranking signals. Social SEO uses tactics such as alt text and keywords to make your content to be easily found.

Understand Your Audience

One key factor affecting social media ranking is content relevance. Social media aims to show people the content they are interested in. If your audience considers your content irrelevant, they are not likely to engage with it. No matter your platform, you must understand your audience to create content that meets their needs.

Encourage Engagement

Most algorithms consider the engagement rate as a critical factor. If you want your page or content to be recommended by the algorithm, you should find a way to encourage engagement. When you post informative content, encourage your followers to share it with others who could benefit from it. However, instead of constantly reminding your followers to like, comment on, and share your content, focus on creating shareable content.

You can also use other methods of encouraging engagement, such as running a contest. However, you need to do so in an organized way and not in every post. Instead, use other tips like starting a debate or asking a question. When people comment on your posts, take time to respond to them. That way, you will keep your followers and the algorithm happy.

Understand the Best Posting Time

Since the algorithm considers the engagement rate of the first few minutes of posting, you must understand when your audience is online. By posting at such times, you can increase the engagement rate of your content. While this will depend on an individual account, there are some recommended best posting times for different social media accounts. These are:

• Instagram: Monday to Friday, 10 A.M. and 2 P.M.
• Linkedin. Midday on Weekdays. 
• TikTok. Tuesday to Friday, 2 P.M. to 6 P.M.
• X: Weekdays, 9 A.M. to 3 P.M. 

Conclusion

The social media algorithm works like an invisible hand determining if social media content will go viral. It consists of rules that rank content on the platform and allow users to choose what is shown. Therefore, you should understand how the algorithm grows your social media account. Following our guide above, you can quickly get started with social media algorithms.