Social Media Algorithms 2021

2 min read

Social media algorithms – love them or hate them, they’re something every business has to contend with when trying to establish a successful social media presence. The problem is, every social media algorithm is different and composed of various evolving factors that aren’t necessarily prioritized equally on each. This can make it confusing to try and understand them all. Luckily for you, we’ve delved into each social media algorithm below, highlighting their list of priorities and how to be successful on each platform.

What Are Social Media Algorithms?

Social media algorithms are automated calculations that determine the order in which social media posts appear on peoples’ feeds. They’re a way of organizing posts according to relevance. Generally speaking, engagement and recency are factors that play into all social media algorithms. Engagement refers to both the amount of engagement on a particular post and the amount a user generally engages with the profile behind that content.

It makes sense that social media networks want users to spend as much time as possible on their platform and to stay engaged. That’s why it’s important for them to highlight the content users will want to see first based on the suitability to that user.

It wasn’t that long ago that social media posts appeared in reverse chronological order, where the newest posts were displayed first and scrolling down a feed was like scrolling down a timeline of posts. However, all platforms switched to an algorithmic approach to give users more of what they want to see based on their behavior and what their platform is mostly used for. Facebook doesn’t always prioritize the same content as LinkedIn because Facebook is primarily used for keeping in contact with friends and family where LinkedIn is intended for professional networking.

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