Let’s take a minute and talk about why we may be losing engagement on our social media posts. I’ve had this discussion with a couple of people over the past few days and it looks like the trend has affected a lot of us. Well, turns out there is an element called Instagram algorithm or Facebook Algorithm which has been implemented by Facebook and prioritizes social posts from friends rather than public pages. This means that when you open your timeline today, you’ll see more content from your friends other than public pages of products, services etc.
So first of all, why are you really on Social Media? You could either be to make friends, create new contacts and see what other people are doing for fun; or you could still be doing all the mentioned to improve your business rankings or ratings online. Social Media can be a wonderful representation of your business online and many people have discovered this and set up great pages which gain frequent visits, allowing growth in terms of likes and reach. Facebook realized this and would certainly aim to cash in to the maximum by creating an Algorithm.
How to beat the Social Media Algorithm
So the Instagram Algorithm and Facebook Algorithm may be here to stay so all we can do is discover ways to beat it as much as we can. I’ve done some research about it and can even attest to having been helped out by some of these methods. Remember, us beating the algorithm simply means finding other ways for our posts to gain exposure
1.Use of Hashtags #
Remember, us beating the algorithm simply means finding other ways for our posts to gain exposure and hashtags are very special right now. On Instagram, you can now ‘follow’ a hashtag as opposed to just following a person or a page; this helps you see posts from different people who are using that hashtag. The other day I used the hashtag #onlineshopping on my Instagram video and I got views from almost 200 people who don’t even follow me but they saw my content because I used that hashtag. So if we post content good enough, we could get these other people using the same hashtag to follow us
- Use of adverts
Here you’d have to spend a little bit of money, which is ok because then you decide on your audience and the demographics as well. So on your preferred social media platform and depending on your budget, you’re advert will reach a good number of people which is good for your brand. However, the number of likes i currently got from a recent advert of about 5dollars, is only half the number of likes i would get 4 months ago! Shocking but very true and we have to accept that change is a daily thing
- Post consistently and use Insta stories
Posting regularly may help you to show up on many different timelines where you may not have appeared if you were only posting once a week. So posting every other day or even everyday depending on your plan is quite helpful to beat the algorithm. Of course it helps to have extra good posts and backing them up with the insta stories is also helpful. Insta stories are fun and so interactive, they always show up at the top of the page and there are people who don’t even scroll far to the bottom of their timelines, so it would be great to draw their attention up there
4.Consistent theme and commenting
Build a theme which is unique to you, such that you create a consistent image in people’s mind. A theme can be in terms of background colour, angle and space, you are free to create your identity! Also comment on other people’s posts so that anyone who visits that post sees you.
http://sharonsnotebook.com/6-must-haves-for-effective-social-media-marketing/
Sharon is a writer who creates content touching on daily life – including Lifestyle, Technology and Entrepreneurship. She is the Founder and Lead Editor of Masisha.