A Guide for All Networks

A social media algorithm is a set of rules and signals that rank content on a social platform. It organizes content on social feeds based on how likely each individual social media user is to like it and interact with it.

A social algorithm’s purpose is to create a good user experience by making individual user’s feeds interesting and engaging. Algorithms are the reason why no two users will see exactly the same social content, even if they follow all the same accounts.

As you can see from our algorithm definition, social media requires algorithms because they determine what you see out of the incredibly vast potential content pool. For brands, this means algorithms influence how likely your content is to be seen – both by your followers and by people who don’t yet follow you.

And the algorithms can have exponential power. Social media algorithms are designed to serve up content they think a user will like, based on the history of past ranking signals (more on those later). If the user likes, interacts with, or follows any of these posts or accounts, the algorithm quickly learns to serve up and suggest even more of the same.

That’s why following a couple of new accounts, or even liking a few posts from accounts you don’t follow, can create an influx of related content in your feed. After all, what is an algorithm in social media for if not to deliver exactly what you’re looking for to your social feed? Brands, you want to be part of that influx of content.

We can never know all the details of a platform’s algorithm – social media networks guard that recipe like a secret sauce. But social platforms have become more open in recent years about their ranking signals, and how their algorithms work in general.

That information can guide meaningful adjustments to your content strategy so the algorithms work for you, rather than against you.

Here are the most important known ranking signals for each social platform.

Instagram revealed last year that each part of the platform is powered by a different algorithm. Here are the known ranking signals for each.

• Your activity: We’ve talked a lot about this above – it’s the content you like, share, save, or comment on.
• Post info: Post popularity is first here, including not just how many people interact with the content but how quickly they do so. Other factors like date, time, and location come into play here, too.
• Poster info: This signal aims to determine how interested you might be in the account that posted a particular piece of content, using signals like how often people have recently interacted with their account.
• Your history with the poster: You’re more likely to see content from people you follow, message with, or otherwise engage with. For brands, this means it’s critical to encourage and respond to follower engagement.

Note that Stories don’t include posts from accounts you don’t follow, except for ads. So for Instagram Stories, the algorithm social media context is all about sorting the priority of content posted by accounts you follow.

For brands, that means you won’t get new eyeballs here, but you still need to understand the algorithm to extend your organic reach.

• Viewing history: If you always watch an account’s Stories, it will move to the front of your Stories list. If you tend to skip that account’s Stories, it will move to the back of the line.
• Engagement history: Watching is good, but engaging is better.
• Closeness: This is similar to your history with the poster for the Feed algorithm, except in this case the algorithm is specifically evaluating how likely you are to be friends or family. This is a tough one for brands, so focus on the first two.

Instagram says the Explore algorithm is specifically designed to show you the types of content you are likely to “do something with.” The most important actions here are liking, saving, and sharing.

Your own personal Explore Page is practically a personality statement in one screen.

TikTok’s algorithm is especially important to understand because unlike most social platforms, TikTok is designed to surface new content rather than showing content from people you already follow. Here are the known ranking signals:

• Previous interactions. This includes signals like accounts followed and hidden or content you’ve engaged with or marked not interesting.
• Behavior on the Discover tab. This factor analyzes content characteristics like captions, sounds, effects, and trending topics.
• Location and language. Content from your own country or in your own language may be preferenced.
• Trends. Using trending sounds and effects can help make your content more discoverable.
• Follower count does NOT matter. TikTok’s real distinction is that follower count is NOT a ranking signal.

Known Facebook ranking signals:

• Facebook connections. Your Feed will primarily be filled with content from people and Pages you follow and interact with. All the more reason to encourage your followers to engage with your content!
• Content type. Users who watch videos get more videos. Users who interact with photos get more photos, and so on.
• Likelihood of user engagement. This is a prediction of your likelihood to comment on, like, or share a post, based on your past activity.
• Relevancy score: This is a guess at how “meaningful” you’ll find a post. It includes factors like whether a post appears to be clickbait or link to a low-quality webpage, both of which reduce exposure through the algorithm,

X allows users to choose between a For You timeline and a Following timeline.

Pinterest works a little differently from the other social platforms. It’s much more focused on search.

Threads is still a baby of a social platform, but it’s up to 130 million monthly active users as of Q4 2023. For brands wanting to get in during these relatively early days, here are the known ranking signals:

• User interactions: How many times you’ve liked a user’s posts (both as a straight number and as a percentage of their posts that you’ve seen), and how often you’ve viewed their profile on Instagram.
• Popularity: How many other people have viewed or replied to a particular post, and how many times other users have clicked on the author’s profile.

You now know why social media algorithms exist and how they differ across platforms. Here are some overarching tips for scoring points with social media algorithms in general.

Wait, aren’t we talking about algorithms here? Now you have to understand search engine optimization too?

Here’s the thing. As we mentioned in the Pinterest algorithm section above, even search engine results are driven by algorithms, so the two topics are absolutely interrelated. To succeed with either one, you really need to understand both.

And remember how popularity was a key ranking signal for so many of the social media algorithms we outlined above? Social SEO is an important way of getting your content in front of more people, increasing your popularity and feeding good signals back to the algorithm. Like we said, it’s all connected.

Content relevance is a ranking signal for all the social algorithms. That’s because the entire point of algorithms in social media is to show people high-quality content they’re likely to be interested in.

Spoiler alert: People are not generally interested in content that can be deemed irrelevant.

Many of the algorithms include recency and early engagement as key ranking signals. That means you need to know when your audience is most likely to be online and actively engaging with each social platform.

As we just said, engagement – especially early engagement – is a key ranking signal for all the social media algorithms. One easy way to get more engagement is simply to ask for it.

We’re not suggesting you plead with followers to like or share your posts. Instead, create content that naturally encourages followers to engage, both with your content and with each other.

Working with the social media algorithms is part science, part art, and a tiny bit of magic. While we can give you tips to help send the right signals to the algorithms, there’s no universal formula for success.

That means you need to try new things, see what works, and refine your strategy over time. All good digital marketers know the manta “Always Be Testing.” It’s the only real way to learn what’s working right now, for your brand, in real time.

And don’t let the idea of running complicated experiments discourage you — testing doesn’t have to be complicated. Keep an eye on trends you notice in your own social media feeds to look for inspiration.

Social platforms are leaning hard into video – especially short-form video. Posting more video content aligns your brand’s social strategy with the direction the platforms are headed.

In particular, Meta platforms provide lots of opportunities for users to discover short-form video content (i.e., Reels) from brands and content creators they don’t follow. Reels are an important way to reach new users and send relevance signals to the algorithms.

Trending topics keep people scrolling and engaged, so the social platforms want to serve up more of that content.