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Social media for companies: Can I influence the algorithms?
“Definitely no!” says expert Gergely Teglasy with a wink and explains why.
Social media for companies: Can I influence the algorithms?
You know that social network algorithms determine how many and which of your posts are seen by your followers. Now the question arises as to what determines the visibility of your posts. It's the news feed algorithms. This is artificial intelligence programmed by hundreds of developers, psychologists and other experts, which ensures that content relevant to users is shown in the “news feed” on the homepage. None of the networks reveal which factors influence this and how. Facebook says there are over 100,000 factors that determine what we see. This should signal to us: too many to understand. But we know a few things from research and practice.
Quick response
Interaction (= engagement) is one of the most important factors. The more users react to your posts, comment on them and share them, the more important the network considers this post to be. Speed also plays a role: the faster this happens after posting, the more often the post is “played out” to others. By the way, the average engagement rate on Facebook is 0.18%. This means that out of 10,000 people who see your post, 18 will react. The good news: Less is often better. If you have fewer than 10,000 fans, the average increases to 0.52 %. This is also a reason not to buy followers or collect them wildly.
What you can do
Friends count in life - and also in social media. The more friends interact with a post, the more likely you are to see it. Also the same location means increased visibility. Age, gender and interests (yes, the networks know these) also determine the news feed. Of course, the past also counts - from this the networks learn which pages and content are important to you. So if you watch a cat video, Facebook knows it - and shows you even more cat videos.
So can we influence our news feed? Limited, but still. Interact (quickly) with content that interests you and that you want to see more of. And invite your employees to do the same with your company's contributions.
The author:
Mag. Gergely Teglasy / TG teaches at the University of Vienna, the FH Vienna and the FH Burgenland. He is the winner of the Innovation Award, advises international organizations and companies on their digital communication strategy and wrote “Zwirbler,” the world's first Facebook novel.