Social Media Algorithms Exposed: 4 Platforms Uncovered

Have you ever been scrolling Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or whatever social media app it is and all of a sudden an hour has gone by? Or even longer. This is because social media’s main goal is to keep you on their platform for as long as possible, and thanks to their intuitive algorithms, they are able to do that. These algorithms know you better than you know yourself. They know your interests, likes, dislikes, what you will share, what you won’t share, and so much more. Let’s dive into social media algorithms and all there is to know about them.

I am the most familiar with Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, so throughout this, I will be talking about that, but for the most part, all algorithms are one in the same. They understand the content that is posted, they understand you and what you like, and their aim is to put it in front of you. We have been dealing with social media for years, and have a wide range of experience in this realm and want to best share our knowledge with you.

What Are Social Media Algorithms?

The best way I can describe what a social media algorithm is, it is an artificial intelligence (AI) which is constantly learning and adapting to every single user to feed that individual content that it will like and find engaging. Whether it’s a picture or video, AI will scan this piece of content to learn and understand what is in the post, what it’s about, and collect information about the post. It will then filter it in a category (or potentially multiple categories) and send it out to the users, who are also categorized and have shown the algorithm their interests in these specific categories.

When it comes to algorithms, we all have “our own” algorithm. What I mean by this is that every single persons algorithm is specific to them and their interests. So there technically is an “algorithm” for every individual user on the social media platforms.

It is basically a bunch of “if” functions. For example, if the video or post is of Steph Curry, send to this group of people who watch Steph Curry videos. It could also go a layer deeper and could have categories of people who like basketball. It will then send it out to people who enjoy basketball content.

Every move and decision you make on the app, this AI takes note of it. This is how it is able to understand you so well and curate an algorithm that will keep you glued to your phone for hours. If you watch a whole video, it takes note, if you comment, like, share, it takes note of everything. If you like to share videos of beautiful scenery, then guess what? Your algorithm will show you more of this content because it knows and understands this.

Each Platforms Social Media Algorithm

Even though they all have the same goal – to keep you on their app – I find that the algorithms can vary a little bit from each platform. Let’s dive into each platform and what you can look out for and how you can better understand them.

TikTok’s Algorithm Explained

In my opinion, TikTok has the best algorithm. Even though they are all very similar, I have found they do the best at keeping someone on their platform the longest. These are all of the things that I have noticed with TikTok’s algorithm.

Post Engagement

Although you often hear that likes, comments, and shares matter (they do, but maybe not as much as you might think), at the end of the day, the most important metric that TikTok’s algorithm tracks is view time/duration. What I have seen, it doesn’t matter if you like, comment, or share, their algorithm is mainly just tracking how much of a video you watch and the type of videos you tend to watch.

I never liked, commented, or shared TikTok videos but the algorithm was able to keep me on for hours. How? Because it knew the videos that I watched and what they were about. The even crazier thing, AI crawl pictures and videos, so they are able to understand who, what, where, and more of what’s going on in the video. Ever see the facial recognition in your photos album? Very similar to that.

There was this one account that I never followed, but would always get the one type of video they posted. They also posted other types of videos, but I never saw those on my For You page. It understood who was in the video and what it was about and the algorithm knew that I always watched those videos.

Video Shares

TikTok is a rather unique platform and somewhat started the movement of the ability to share with outside apps or for people to be able to view TikTok’s without having an account. Honestly, I find this to be a very smart strategy, but that’s a different discussion. Sharing videos is just another metric for the algorithm to use in whether to show someone a video. You may get videos that you might not even like or watch the whole thing, but if you share this type of content a lot, especially with users who don’t have TikTok, TikTok and the algorithm loves this. You’re bringing new eyes to their platform and helping their ultimate goal of keeping people on the platform.

TikTok Algorithm Summed Up

This will be a recurring theme throughout as they all have very similar goals, but the main metric the algorithm is looking for is what you watch. If you spend lots of time watching Donald Trump videos, you bet you’re going to be seeing a lot more of that content on your For You page. Even if you don’t like Trump or that content, if the algorithm notices that it grabs your attention and you spend time watching those videos, looking through the comments, sharing those videos, you’ll be receiving a lot of that content.

Instagram’s Algorithm Explained

Instagram and Facebook have a lot of similar features, along with most likely the same or similar algorithm, so there may be some overlap between the next two, but Instagram has several different variables that go into their algorithm.

For starters, there is your story algorithm, then there is your home page feed, then there’s the explore page, and then when you scroll on your main feed, everything that gets recommended to you there.

How Instagram Stories Get Recommended

This all depends on whose stories you consistently look at. Other metrics include time spent viewing stories, your engagement with them, so whether you share, comment, or react to the stories all play a role in being recommended at the front of the pack.

I believe that the algorithm is constantly running tests and will put certain people’s stories at the front competing with other top accounts you click, just to see which one you click first. Every little detail, the algorithm will take into consideration.

How Instagram’s Home Page Feed Works

This has changed over the years, where it used to only recommend the people you followed, and the recency in them posting (you’ll see the most recent content posted), to now, you will receive almost anything and all here. The goal here is similar to that of TikTok as TikTok just has an endless scroll of any account and Instagram used to be only people you follow. Now, you have an endless scroll of any account, which the algorithm has taken into consideration of the type of content you want recommended on your home page.

The users on Instagram were a bit different, as there were already options for Instagram to have an endless scroll, but users typically didn’t use the platform for this. So what Instagram had to do, was adapt to TikTok stealing their users and their time. They sent it all to your home page, now you will see a mixture of people you follow, along with ads, and recommended stuff that the algorithm has picked up an interest for you.

How Instagram Reels and Posts Get Recommended

This is very similar to TikTok, the algorithm is constantly tracking everything the user does to best feed them content they wish to see. The main metric that will be tracked would be watch time or how much you’re watching a specific video. This will be a common theme throughout all of them, as at the end of the day, this is the most important metric platforms really care about.

Other metrics that the algorithm will be tracking is if you share it, comment or are looking through the comments, if you decide to follow a creator, which may in turn end up feeding you more content similar to that account. Every little action you take, get taken into consideration.

Facebook’s Algorithm Explained

There are several crossovers between Facebook and Instagram as they share the same or similar AI, along with having a lot of the same features. Compared to other platforms, Facebook stories tend to get significantly less views.

Facebook News Feed Algorithm

Facebook is a bit different than Instagram, where they have historically only had one main page for users to scroll on and it would be endless. They include any and all posts, typically pushing the ones that you frequently engage with, whether that be liking, commenting, or viewing, then the others that get pushed more on your page are ones with a lot of engagement. If a post is getting a lot of shares, comments, likes, or even views, you could potentially see it, especially if it’s from someone you don’t typically see their content. The reason I believe this to be true is because people tend to have a bigger audience or friend group on Facebook, and their feed gets filled up a lot more and faster. Facebook’s algorithm needs to filter out all or as much of the stuff that you don’t want to see. Another factor is that Facebook has made it where they want you to pay them for people to see your content.

In addition to your friends showing up on your feed, Facebook has had sponsored posts, along with recommended videos. These could range from a variety of topics, but they are typically longer form of videos, as this keeps you on their platform consuming for a long period of time.

YouTube’s Algorithm Explained

YouTube is a bit of a different algorithm as it is long form content, at least that’s what it primarily focused on in the early days. Since, it has recently shifted to include short form content as well, and users have to specifically choose the content they want to watch. It’s not an endless scroll, you have to physically click and choose. There is a lot more that goes into YouTube. Such things include topic, thumbnail, title, and much more.

How YouTube’s Home Feed Algorithm Works

From all of your recent videos that users have watched and viewed, this is what will begin to populate on their home page feed. Any new channels that someone subscribes to, those older videos will most likely be recommended as well. If you watch some credit card videos and subscribe to a channel that creates this content, you will begin to see credit card content more often.

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again, the most important metric is watch time and that’s the majority of what the algorithm cares about. Some people may think that it’s percent of the video watched, but if you have a 2 minute video and everyone watches the whole video (so the max is 2 minutes of watch time), and you have another video that is 60 minutes long, but people only watch 1/6 of the video, that’s 10 minutes. YouTube will show the longer video more often as people will be on their platform for a longer period of time. At the same time, it has the potential for people to watch the full 60 minutes, whereas with the 2 minute video, the max potential is only 2 minutes.

I am not 100% certain of this, but I believe that YouTube’s algorithm also takes into consideration the following actions after watching certain videos. If someone watches a video, what are they most likely to view afterward. In addition to that, do they leave YouTube after watching a certain video? The algorithm is constantly learning and adapting to user behaviours.

How You Can Best Optimize Your Social Media Content

There is so much that goes into social media, gaining views, and expanding your reach. At the end of the day, if you want to improve your social media, create better and more engaging videos. Remember, the ultimate goal for social media platforms is to keep users there and scrolling, so create a video that users actually want to watch and will watch the whole thing or a good chunk of it or share it with others to watch. This could be done in several different ways.

Create Controversial Content

I’m not saying to just create controversial content to create it. Have a firm belief on what you believe to be true and speak your truth. If you believe that milk should be poured into a cereal bowl before the cereal, own it. If it’s political, have a belief or viewpoint, and own it. This will also help create loyal followers that have the same or similar beliefs and it will make them feel like they belong to a community.

Spend More Time On Your Social Media

This could be done in several different areas. You could spend more time doing research for your videos, editing them more and better, coming up with a script and working on pre and/or post production. There are multiple ways to spend more time creating better content and people just want to take the shortcut and post mediocre content, competing with millions of other mediocre content.

These are only a few of several different ways that you could improve your social media presence. If you are interested in growing your social media and coming up with more and better content, reach out to us and see if we would be a good fit to help you improve.