Inside the Social Media Algorithms of 2020
For some marketers, social media algorithms are intriguing data puzzles waiting to be solved. For others, they’re the great unknown that’s holding their content down. Put simply, algorithms are at the core of the decision-making process for social media platforms.
The purpose of algorithms largely boils down to a profit-making mechanism. Personal feeds are created by advanced software that analyzes tens of thousands of data points in order to maximize the amount of time people spend on a platform. The longer a social networking service can keep you engaging with content, the more revenue they will likely earn from advertisements.
However, algorithms can present serious threats to a brand’s social reach. With massive heaps of content being shared by businesses across social media networks, there is increasing competition for newsfeed space. Brands have been forced to adapt their content strategies to cater to algorithms in order to remain seen.
In this article, we define algorithms and offer some helpful insights into the ever-changing algorithms for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
What are social media algorithms?
Social media algorithms are designed to surface the most relevant content for each user. Essentially, they are social media’s attempt to quantify user behavior. By recording user interactions, each platform presents content based upon what is determined, mathematically, to be of interest to the end-user.
Once upon a time, Facebook was a platform that brands could use to create their own audience, publish content, and reap the rewards. They could reach millions of fans organically without spending any money on paid media.
But as more social networks and brands entered the mix, more content was produced as a result. Sifting through all of this content on an account-by-account basis became nearly impossible for many users — which is how algorithms came to be.
The largest social networking site has long prioritized more meaningful interactions from friends and family, which is why business pages often find it difficult to gain organic reach. The average Facebook user has about 1,500 stories competing to appear in their News Feed upon logging in, from which only roughly 300 of those are surfaced based on relevancy to individual users.
Here’s a look at how Facebook’s algorithm has evolved over the past few years:
2018: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that users would start seeing less from businesses, brands, and media, and more from family, friends, and groups. Later that year, Zuckerberg announced the platform would demote “borderline content,” including misinformation, hate speech, violence, bullying, and clickbait.
2019: To get more context on what content matters to its users, Facebook began directly asking users questions via survey:
Who their close friends are;
What posts (links, photos, and videos) they find valuable;
How important a specific Facebook Group that they’ve joined is to them;
How interested they are in seeing content from specific Pages that they follow.
2020: Facebook wants to increase transparency and give people more direct control over the content that fills their feeds. They’ve even introduced a “Why am I seeing this post?” button. Clicking on it helps people understand why its algorithm surfaced that particular post.
Facebook’s algorithm uses these ranking signals to determine what content to display on your News Feed:
Relationship: Facebook highly prioritizes who users typically interact with, which means it will surface posts from friends, family, groups, and Pages they care about. Information from close friends lists, photo tags, location tags, and liking and commenting behavior are fed into the algorithm.
Relevance: Facebook prioritizes content from the Pages and groups they think you care about most, so you see them higher in your News Feed.
Type of Media: In 2019, a series of algorithm updates changed how videos are ranked in the News Feed. Facebook prioritizes video content now more than ever with the aim of bringing people even more relevant, meaningful content.
Engagements: Facebook surfaces posts with high numbers of likes, comments, shares, messenger shares, and replies to comments.
Here are our best tips to help you master Facebook algorithms:
Be A Conversation Starter: According to Facebook, one of the algorithm’s key ranking signals is whether a user has previously engaged with your Page. Create content that inspires meaningful, lengthy comments rather than just one- or two-word replies. Facebook will also reward you for replying to all comments.
Post When Your Audience Is Online: Facebook uses recency as a ranking algorithm, which means newer content will take priority.
Use Video When You Can: Facebook ranks for originality (videos that aren’t repurposed from other sources), video length and view duration (videos that people watch past the 1-minute mark, and that are longer than 3 minutes), and loyalty and intent (videos that attract repeat viewers). Facebook Live videos also averages six times more engagement than regular video.
Post Often and Consistently: Facebook recognizes that Pages that post frequently are more likely to be meaningful to users.
Leverage Facebook Groups: As the Groups feature continues to be one of the most valuable parts of Facebook, the algorithm surfaces posts from Groups users care about. Consider starting a Group for your brand page to foster discussion, education, problem-solving, or even just some good entertainment.
Because it’s powered by machine learning, Instagram’s feed ranking is constantly adapting to integrate the huge amounts of new data it gains each day. This means any new behavioral patterns or trends it recognizes will be factored into how the algorithm works.
In 2016, Instagram announced it would start ordering user feeds to prioritize the moments they care about. Since then, the platform has taken steps to prioritize engagement rate over number of engagements.
In other words, having a large number of engagements doesn’t matter as much as the engagement an account receives relative to its follower count. Instagram even eliminated public-facing likes in to ensure posts were being judged by their content rather than the number of likes and comments — something looked upon highly by micro-influencers and lesser-known content creators.
Unlike any other platform, Instagram has an entirely separate tab devoted to recommended content: the Discover Feed. This content hub also plays a huge part in the Instagram algorithm, as it displays content depending on users’ tastes and the type of content they engage with.
As of 2020, here are the six factors Instagram analyzes to rank content:
Interest: This is the likelihood a user will be interested in certain content based on past interactions. It prioritizes genres of content a user engages with most, whether that be fitness, inspirations quotes, pets, or memes. Users who have engaged with similar posts and accounts are more likely to see your content.
Relationship: Like Facebook, Instagram prioritizes content from your friends, family, and accounts that you care about. This factors in who tags you in photos, who you direct message, and people whose content you engage with (including stories and live videos).
Timeliness: While posts are not displayed in exact chronological order, Instagram still weighs recency as a relevant factor. It wants to show you posts that are recent and, consequently, more relevant.
Frequency: Every time a user opens up Instagram, the algorithm will try to show the best posts since their last visit. If you only open Instagram once daily, Instagram will show you what they deem as most relevant for that day — which means this content would differ for a user that opens Instagram once hourly.
Following: If a user follows thousands of accounts, Instagram will be choosing content from a wider breadth of authors — which means that person may see less from a specific account.
Usage: This is the average duration of time a user spends on Instagram. If a user often has short visits, the algorithm will ensure it shows the most relevant posts first — whereas a user with longer visits may receive a deeper catalog of fresh content to browse.
Here are our best tips to help you master Instagram algorithms:
Focus On Relationships, Not Just Reach: Audience loyalty and continual engagement from your followers is more important than ever. Comment on posts from relevant users and brands, respond to comments in a timely manner, and leverage direct messages to forge relationships with individual users. You can also build relationships outside of your own content by commenting on posts from relevant users and brands.
Post When Your Followers Are Most Active: Since recency is still a factor, sharing content at your peak posting times will help you maximize the potential of every post. Receiving a surge of engagement when your post first goes live doesn’t hurt either.
Post Consistently and Frequently: But be careful — the best posting frequency for Instagram is the posting frequency that you can consistently maintain for the rest of your natural life. You can even repost or repurpose old content to give it a second life.
Choose The Right Hashtags: Specifically, use branded and community-driven hashtags to reach active users. Instagram hashtags can help you increase your reach and connect to new followers. While community hashtags don’t have as many posts as popular hashtags, they are a great way to connect with users interested in a certain topic, movement, or community.
Use Stories: Stories themselves don’t have any influence on the algorithm. However, the popularity and high engagement of Instagram Stories — which have just passed the 500 million daily user mark — can indirectly influence your position in a users’ feed.
Like other platforms, Twitter initially arranged content in reverse chronological order. If you posted consistently, you could drive engagement by pretty much just showing up at the right time. However, with around 5,787 tweets every second, Twitter had to find a way to filter content in a more user-friendly way.
At the root of Twitter’s algorithmic changes has been striking the right balance between timely tweets and relevant tweets — relevant meaning tweets tailored to individual users’ specific tastes. With too much weight on relevance, algorithmic changes surfacing hours-old tweets are often criticized. Given Twitter’s nature as a medium for breaking news, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has remained adamant about sustaining a real-time platform.
In order to give users more control over their timelines, Twitter launched a feature in 2018 allowing users to switch between the latest tweets and top tweets. Since then, it has been testing ways to make users' feeds more customizable and relevant. Unlike other platforms, Twitter allows users to turn off its algorithm.
The primary sections on Twitter’s timeline now include these sections:
Top Tweets: You will see content from accounts you follow, as well as content from your followers and suggested accounts.
Latest Tweets: This section presents a reverse chronological feed containing tweets from your followers.
ICYMI: The “In Case You Missed It” section surfaces older Tweets from accounts you frequently engage with.
Happening Now: This section appears at the top of your timeline, featuring trending topics and current events.
Trends for You: Based on your past behavior, Twitter determines what trending hashtags may be relevant or interesting to you.
Twitter’s ranking signals include the following:
Recency: How recently was your tweet published? Timeliness plays a role in Twitter’s algorithm.
Rich Media: Twitter evaluates your tweet by the media it contains (GIFs, videos, images, etc.).
Engagements: This metric refers to how many impressions, favorites, clicks, and retweets a tweet has received.
Engagement Rate: This is the frequency at which people engage with tweets from an author.
Here are our best tips to help you master Twitter algorithms:
Tweet Consistently: It’s important for brands to maintain an active presence on Twitter to maximize the chances their followers see their content. Consistent engagements with followers resonate well with the Twitter algorithm.
Use Hashtags Wisely: Hashtags drive brand awareness and engagement — not to mention, you may even land your hashtag in the “Trends for You” section. They remain one of the best ways to get your content discovered by those who don’t follow you.
Focus On Content Types and Formats: Twitter stats show consistently show that rich media gets higher pick up. Tweets with a GIF received 55% more engagement than those without. Try to include videos, pictures, and links in your tweets when appropriate.
Reply to Followers: Since one of Twitter’s ranking signals is engagement, replying to customer mentions will help earn you credit with its algorithm.
Conclusion
Due to the large amount of data social networks gain each day, you’ll more than likely see algorithm changes in future years — or more likely, in future months. The key to mastering algorithms? Understanding which types of content each platform favors. Maximizing your position in users’ feeds largely comes down to knowing your audience, producing quality content, and consistently engaging with your followers.