With social media platforms adopting algorithms to generate user-specific content, PR practitioners face the issue of getting their content seen. Check out this article to learn how to increase your content visibility and reach by working around the algorithms.
Any active Instagram user knows the struggle of the elusive “algorithm”. As a Gen Z who basically grew up with Instagram, I remember when posts changed from simply being in chronological order of when your followers posted them, to being seemingly organized at random due to the algorithm. However, it’s a lot more complicated than that. These algorithms are highly complex and strategized to provide users with content that the platforms believe the user wants to see. Of course, with anything related to social media there are both pros and cons. This week, I took a deeper look into what algorithms are, and how social media users can get around some of the challenges that come with them.
What’s and Algorithm and How Does it Work
To learn how to work around social media algorithms, its important to have an in-depth understanding as to what they are. An article for forgeandsmith.com, Social Media Algorithms: What They Are and How to Improve Your Research by Pam Berg does an excellent job of simplifying what can at times be hard for the average user to wrap their head around. She explains, “An algorithm is a clearly defined and calculated repeatable process, most often used by computers to solve problems. Social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest use algorithms to attempt to predict what their users enjoy and want to see more often, based on how they engage with similar content within their platform”.
Essentially, the algorithm takes into account the users’ interactions with content on their platforms and attempts to replicate and fill your feed with posts that it believes you want you to see. The goal of the algorithm is to show you content that you enjoy and is specific to your interests so that you will have incentive to spend time on the platform and keep coming back.
An Imperfect System
Although in theory the algorithm sounds amazing for providing a customized and enjoyable social media experience, it can actually cause issues regarding visibility of content, especially for those who use media in a professional manner. Due to its mathematical nature, the algorithm assumes that users use social media in a perfect way. However, this is not necessarily the case. With anything, there is always human error. As Berg states, there are many reasons as to why a person may click on an article without reading it, or choose whether or not to like a post. This doesn’t necessarily dictate whether they like that kind of content or not. Because the algorithm can’t read your mind, it can only base the content it provides you from your actions on social media. This may prevent you from having the opportunity to see content that you actually would have been interested in.
This is inconvenient even for casual users who may be missing out on content, but on a larger scale this can be a huge issue for those in the public relations and journalism fields. Algorithms may prevent users within their publics or target market from ever seeing their posts, which reduces the visibility of their content, and therefore effects the success of their outreach.
Strategies to Increase Content Visibility
Although social media algorithms can be a hindrance, there are ways to get around them. In her article, Bergen provides some helpful tips, including having strategies for hashtags and encouraging shareability and engagement of your posts. Another helpful article, What You Need to Know about Social Media Algorithms from the blog Arianne Online by Arianne Smart, showcases how algorithms can actually be an asset, if you learn how to use them as tools, rather than viewing them as an obstacle to get around. In her article, Smart breaks down the algorithms for various different social media platforms and provides tips on how PR professionals can get their content seen. For example, because the Twitter algorithm places tweets that they think you will care about first on your timeline, and therefore are more likely to be seen, it is important for a PR professional to research and be aware of the content that their publics is engaging with, and attempt to foster engagement with their own followers.
What I’ve learned this week is that although algorithms can be frustrating to work around from a public relations perspective, they are not the end of the world. Like anything else, it just takes time and research to understand what social media algorithms are, and learn how to use them to your advantage. As the articles proved, there are so many ways to get around the restrictions of algorithms, and actually use them to your advantage. The main takeaway I gathered was that if you want your content to be seen, make engaging with your audience a priority and you will go far.
Maria's Musings 