“Why am I getting fewer likes on Instagram?”
“Why is no one viewing my Facebook videos?”
It’s probably because the algorithm of your social media platform has changed again. And it might be affecting your small business’ page. I’m here to give you a quick rundown of two of the most popular social sites that experience algorithm updates regularly—Facebook and Instagram—and how you can keep up with them.
Algorithm changes occur so user consumption habits can be analyzed. The frequent changes can make it challenging for businesses to keep up if you do not have a dedicated social media expert on staff. Social media platforms want to show users what they want to see more of, and for your small business to succeed, it is important to work with these changes and not against them.
Early last year, Facebook announced that it would be prioritizing “meaningful social interactions.” When attempting to lessen “fake news” and manage content overload, the platform served users with minimal publisher and brand posts, which unfortunately resulted in a huge drop in traffic and ad revenue. To see something on your feed, your friends and your friends’ friends would have to be reacting to or engaging with it. If that piece of content is coming from a respected publisher or your brand—great!—but there’s a good chance a majority of your personal feed will be an excessive amount of vacation photos and cute animal videos.
If you’re managing a business page, your strategy should revolve around these five things—which are known to be heavily weighted in Facebook’s algorithm:
- Comments: Create content that will spark conversations between users.
- Reactions: Users should be encouraged to respond with “love,” “wow,” or any of the other reactions.
- Comment replies: Conversations should not only be prompted, but continued with replies.
- Shares on Messenger: It’s easier to capture attention with a direct message (timeline shares don’t hurt either!)
- Engagement on shares: Engagement should be on the native post and its shares.
Because credibility will affect your page’s ranking, post consistently and make sure your page is filled out and up-to-date with correct business hours, a website address, and more. Facebook wants its users to remain on the platform as long as possible, so use external links sparingly. Choose to add photos and videos into the mix and don’t always link back to your website. We can ramble on and on about the pros and cons of Facebook’s chosen algorithm, but here’s one final quick tip: Make your content shareable and engaging, without pushing it… posting things like “tag your friend who needs this” (also known as engagement bait) is a no-no! You shouldn’t have to tell people to interact with your content, they should want to.
When Instagram was new, your feed was in chronological order. That was until they realized that in order to keep you on the application longer, high-engagement posts needed to show up first. It’s possible that this change adversely impacted your reach and impressions, but don’t fret! The current algorithm will show users what they like (literally) and focuses on these three topics:
- Interest: If a user has been consistently liking your content, they will continue to see it in their feed.
- Timely content: While you may see posts from a few days ago, newer posts are favored.
- Relationship: If you tag a person in a caption, photo, or comments, your posts are more likely to show up earlier in that person’s feed.
From a small business perspective, the easiest way to get your posts in front of users on Instagram (and all platforms) is to make engaging with your audience a top priority.
Next steps
Social media has helped grow businesses (small and large!) for over a decade and changes are inevitable. Knowing the latest on these algorithms, among others, is helpful for building and evaluating/reevaluating strategies. It’s rare for the platform to come right out and say what they’re changing so be sure to do your research. It’s no secret that paid advertising on the platforms will get your company maximum exposure and results, but if you don’t have the budget, you can still use sites like Facebook and Instagram to promote your brand for free… so don’t let your algorithm gripes get in the way!
What to do
- Measure the impact of the algorithm change
- Identify gaps in content strategy
- Analyze data and insights
- Run A/B tests (a randomized experiment with two variants to see which performs better)
- Continue to engage with your audience
What *not* to do
- Don’t make immediate adjustments
- Don’t assume the algorithm update is the problem
- Don’t give up and stay positive!
Need help?
Trillion is now offering Social Media Management. If engaging with your online community is a resolution for 2019 —and you don’t want to deal with unavoidable algorithm changes—let us do the heavy lifting for you. For more information, complete our contact form or give us a call at 908.219.4703.
