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Social media for companies: No, not everyone sees that!
Series, Part 5: Expert Gergely Teglasy explains how the algorithms determine what we see on social media channels.
Social media for companies: No, not everyone sees that!
Let's say you didn't read the last episode of this column and bought followers for your social media channel. Well, we all make mistakes sometimes. Let's say you have 1,000 followers on your channel. 500 real fans and 500 bought, i.e. fake, followers. Now, with a lot of effort and love, create a posting and publish it. Of course, you have read the first few episodes of this column and know that your post tells a story, that (moving) images work better and that you offer added value. So there is nothing wrong with the content and presentation of your post, it is perfect.
But here’s the problem: There’s too much content for too short a time. Every minute, 150,000 photos are uploaded to Facebook and 350,000 Instagram stories are created. Please read the beginning of the previous sentence again: every minute!
So it's clear: not everyone can see everything. The social networks therefore introduced algorithms years ago that filter the content for users (regardless of whether you want it or not). Because the operators know: If all the content is played out, there will be too much that you don't like. And if content is irrelevant to users, the social network will not be used. Then the users leave the ship and it sinks.
The algorithms of the social networks do not show your post to all of your followers. You first show it to a small number, test and learn (in a matter of seconds, by the way).
So your post will initially be shown to 100 followers. Let's assume all of these 100 are fake followers. Of course, these do not interact with their content. Why should they, they are bots or employees of click farms. The algorithm immediately learns: Okay, no one is interested in this posting. So I show it to fewer followers. You will have already recognized the problem: you run the risk of your posting not being seen by a single (or very few) of your real and actual customers. So they would have done work for the garbage can. But of course you haven't because you're reading this column.
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.