The definition of Algorithm: How can you use it for your social media strategy?

Remember when you searched for NFTs on Google and suddenly ads from these cryptocurrencies started showing in your feed? Or that time when you talked with your couple about buying a new mattress, and suddenly, like a coincidence from destiny, different styles of bed started showing on Amazon?

What is happening here? Is it that the government implanted nanochips on our smartphones to spy on us and know every single move we make from day to night? Are those evil cookies that we accept every time we enter a blog? Do we have privacy? WHAT IS THIS?!?

Don't panic,  this is nothing but a technology called Algorithms that was invented to track and evaluate what we usually consume on social media platforms or search engines.

If you are into social media marketing, you may have heard this term a lot of times; it is almost everywhere on search engines and social media, but what is the meaning of algorithm? And, an even better question is how you can use it to crush it in your social media strategy.

Let's find out how we can get into the matrix of social media by figuring out how this technology works, and with that, using it to our business advantage.

But first, we must answer.

Source: Unsplash.

What is the meaning of "Algorithm"?

An algorithm is a set of instructions programmed to solve a mathematical problem or perform a function. Most computers and programs are full of these patterns to achieve all the activities we make with our computers or laptops.

When you look at programmers writing lines and lines of code, they are programming these computers to perform each task in a specific order or with a situational modality, where programs respond depending on the user's decisions.

Nevertheless, if we go back to the oldest times, algorithms have been used way before our existence. For example, Greeks invented the   Euclidean algorithm the greatest common divisor between two numbers, and mathematicians from Babylonia and Egypt used division algorithms 2.500 BC, and even Indian mathematics has been predominantly algorithmic.

Cool, so now that we know the core idea of an algorithm, as a digital marketing agency, we must answer...

Source: YouTube.

What is a social media algorithm?

Different from mathematical or programmatic algorithms, in social media, these programs are adapted to make users' experiences more fittable to their needs and tastes. These algorithms sort posts in your feed based on the likelihood you are going to interact with them.

So why do NFTs start showing in your feed after you search for them on Google? Easy because the algorithm perceived that you liked this type of content and sent it to you to make your navigating experience suited to your preferences.

But your search history is not the only thing in which algorithms take the info about yourself, close friends and accounts you interact more with will take a huge part in this analysis, and so they are more likely to be in your first spots on your feed. 

Chances are you’ve been recommended videos to watch on YouTube, right? This is again based on your behavior, digging into what you’ve watched in the past and what users like yourself are watching. Elements such as categories, #tags, and keywords also factor into recommended content on any given network.

Source: Unsplash.

But what is the goal of these social media algorithms?

Since the arrival of social media, creating and uploading content of all kinds has become much more accessible than when radio and Tv were the only communication platforms.

With so much content from such different niches, it becomes more difficult to reach your audience if no mechanism shows specifically what you want to see.

For this reason, the algorithm is excellent at selecting what you like and taking out what you don't.

However, the algorithm is not without controversy. Times were those in which Instagram photos were displayed chronologically, and overnight, the algorithm shocked us to start displaying photos according to our relevance.

This has made ads one of the most effective ways to reach our consumers and, in turn, the largest source of income for the creators of these social networks. Coincidence? No, we don't think so!

But algorithms are no obstacle for a digital marketing agency. In fact, in Codedesign, we have our algorithm, but before showing our best weapons, we'd like to teach you something.

How to use algorithms to your advantage?

It's time! We will decipher the great secrets behind each algorithm for the most popular social networks.  So, let's get inside the matrix of social networks and figure out how you can work with each platform's algorithm and make your posts seen by all your followers.

Let's start!

Facebook

Source: Unsplash.

Facebook's algorithm has a "personalized ranking" that determines what people see and what order content shows on feeds. Meta has a group of AI professionals working on the algorithm's capabilities to deliver relevant and popular content to their audiences. According to Facebook, they use their algorithm to: "Arrange all of the content you could see on [the feed, Search, Marketplace, Groups, and Watch] to show you the things we think you may be most personally interested in at the top of each surface."

Depending on their importance, this algorithm has ranking signals to add, remove or adjust any post or reel. By 2023, these are some of the recognized ranking signals:

• Facebook connections are the people and users you interact with most.
• Content type: Depending on what kind of content you like the most, it is what you'll get. If you watch more videos, you will get more of them; if you like photos more, it will show you.
• Engagement level: If your posts get more likes and engagement, Facebook's algorithm will boost your digital presence - even more if your engagement is from people you already have interactions with.
• Content quality: The social media platform is willing to give more protagonism to those posts that they describe as "meaningful," "informative," "accurate," and "authentic."

You can also "train" your algorithm to indicate what you like. To do this, you can:

• Choose favorites: You can select either pages or people you like more, so the platform will show you more of their content. Paradoxically, you can do the opposite and indicate to the algorithm those accounts you want to unfollow or snooze.
• In-feed options: With this option, you can click on any post to either hide, snooze the user or remove these from favorites. This process helps the algorithm better understand what content you want to see more and less.

Your business wealth must be updated with Facebook's community standards, as this can block your content. By today's standards, the platform is reducing distribution of "content that people find objectionable," like "misinformation, a sensationalized health claim, or clickbait," so you have to take more effort into creating less spammy or salesy content and more informational or valuable ones.

As for specific words you should avoid when working with Facebook, there are:

• Threatening or violent language: Harassing language,  sexist, homophobic, racist, ableist.
• Terms related to harmful stereotypes
• Slurs

2023 Facebook feed algorithm

For the latest updates, Facebook has other factors to determine the people, brands and groups you can see in your feed. The program uses a four-step process to define it:

• Inventory: This is all the content from people, pages and groups you follow, adding relevant ads and content based on your activity.
• Signals: These are the ranking signals we mentioned above.
• Predictions: With ranking signals data, the algorithm can make custom predictions about the content you enjoy most.
• Relevance: Depending on each post's relevance and how many interactions it has, they get the highest score and show up closer to your feed.

2023 Facebook Reels algorithm

As the newest Facebook feature, there must be more information about how this algorithm works. Nevertheless, there are some good practices to make it work to your advantage.

As a video format, there is one golden rule for you to succeed: creating high-quality content. This means you make visually pleasing videos with good illumination and clear sound. The content may offer valuable and insightful information in the shortest amount of time, as this is similar to TikTok's feed format. Some things to upgrade your reels strategy are:

• Be entertaining, show something worth watching and even re-watching, as the number of views is another ranking factor.
• Start a trend or challenge.
• Add music only if it doesn't take the focal point from your information. If you are going to show the features of your product, it would be great to put some music with it, but if it is an explanatory video avoid adding music as this can distract your viewers. In any case, music can be at a low volume.
• Record vertically

Things to avoid:

• Horizontal video
• Low-resolution videos
• Watermarks

Now, we offer more tips to make your account more liked by this algorithm.

Build your audience

The starting point for any marketing plan is always the audience.

Facebook's statistics allow you to check your users' demographics, including age, gender and countries.

Depending on each of these factors, you have to adapt your content strategy to adapt more to the audience's behavior. If they are young people, you can be more relaxed and close when talking to them, but if they are older, you should pick a more formal approach with them.

Then, depending on the countries they follow you from, you'll have to pay attention to events affecting them and how your brand could relate to that, or, in case of being a global business, be as multicultural as you can.

Study your audience enough so you can figure out how to approach them and what content they'll engage more with.

Create meaningful content

Rather than the old just selling, now it's important to deliver meaningful and informative content.

Facebook's algorithm doesn't want sales ads; it wants posts that move feelings in people, which can be expressed through Facebook's reactions. Your posts must:

• Evoke good emotions
• Answer your customer's questions, leaving a bit of suspense at the end.
• Generate a type of conversation in the comments.

We must emphasize making your users interact since it is the best way to show the algorithm that your posts generate real engagement.

Once your post receives more love from your customers, the algorithm will pick your publications to be shown on everyone's feed.

So, instead of writing a generic copy like "We are the best SEO agency," try something like "Three secret SEO tips you didn't know," and just at the end of the post, make a call to action to visit your website.

Leads and web traffic will grow like you couldn't imagine!

Schedule your posts to the best times.

Remember, we are not in the old days when posts were chronological. Nowadays, you have to post when your audience is more active. This is because Facebook's algorithm prioritizes posts with high engagement, which depends more on time than even the quality of them.

To do this, the platform has its statistics where you can find your higher audience hours, and platforms like Hootsuite or Sprout can help you schedule all your calendars.

Make video a huge part of your content.

Video is some of the easiest content to consume, which is why the popularity of networks like TikTok has exploded so massively.

So much so, that Mark was not going to be left behind, and like any good marketer, he has literally copied the TikTok format with his reels on Facebook, and obviously on Instagram. And it is that today, although it may sound worrying, people do not like to read. What is more, to a certain extent they do not like to think so much, and that is why these short videos in which capsules of information are condensed they are so addictive for consumers.

Adding this type of content makes it one of the most likely to grow on Facebook, so taking advantage of stories and reels is great for you to achieve a good relationship with the algorithm.

Include your work team in your sharing campaign.

The best advocates are already within your brand, so you can save quite a bit just by including them in your promotion strategy.

Let's see, Facebook tries to be more friendly to families and friends, and who are the closest friends and family of your brand? Exactly, your work team.

If your team is in charge of sharing more content about your brand in this network, the algorithm will see this as a topic that will trigger debate and activity within the network, which will make it more visible to the followers of your workers.

Prioritize photos and videos over external links.

Facebook's source of income is in the number of hours we spend using the network, and if you include many links that take users out of it, Facebook will not like that.

We are not saying that you eliminate external links, but if you want the algorithm to choose you, take advantage of placing valuable content that makes people stay longer viewing or reading your post. Check this guide on investor outreach process.

However, as we said, it is more about visual content, that is not only liked by Facebook, it is loved by all consumers today. Check this guide on investor outreach process.

Instagram

Source: Unsplash.

In this case, we see a difference from Facebook, as Instagram does not have a single algorithm but rather a combination of algorithms, processes and classifiers that build a personal experience for every user. The algorithm was chronological in the early Instagram stages - when everything was simpler. Nevertheless, in 2023 it is now a more sophisticated system to determine how to display content based on what each user cares about.

Instagram confirms that each app part has its algorithm, so the feed and explore page have different systems due to consumer behavior in the platform. For example, people will look at friends' stories, but they want fresh and new content on the discover page.

With this sophisticated ranking system, the platform ensures that every user will have a personal experience based on their preferences. This is great even if you manage multiple accounts, as all of them will have their preferences delimited according to your interaction.

How Instagram ranks feed posts and stories

Similar to almost every platform in this article, Instagram's algorithm will do its job to show you content from family, friends and brands you interact with the most. Nevertheless, ads will also be shown depending on what you look like. Returning to the example at the top of the article, if you look for NFTs, many ads will appear instantly in your feed, stories and even when you are checking someone else's profile. The ranking factors for Instagram to prioritize posts are the following:

• Post information: Instagram will check the popularity of your posts in terms of likes and engagement. It also considers other details like post timing, duration (in the case of videos), and location (if any).
• Information about the poster: To choose those accounts that will show up more on your feed, Instagram will consider those with whom you interact more constantly.
• User activity: The platform evaluates the type of content you consume or how many posts on a specific topic you a like to deliver more of.
• Interaction history: The platform can better understand your preferences by analyzing which accounts you interact with or comment on more - and vice versa. Then, like Facebook, Instagram will predict how likely you will interact with any post. 

How the Instagram Explore page algorithm works

The Explore page wants you to discover new things, so based on your interests, it will show you posts you could like but from pages you don't follow. Then, to organize content for your explore page, the algorithm will consider the same ranking factors as the previous one and will group accounts with topics and content that you might find interesting.

How Instagram Ranks Reels

 Reels are videos whose sole goal is to entertain you. To dispatch them to your account, Instagram will use similar processes to the Explore page to identify those reels you'll be willing to watch until the end. This format is an almost identical copy of the TikTok format; we will discuss its algorithm later. 

In the same way, as the audio is an essential factor in replicating videos on TikTok, Instagram will also consider your interaction with these audios to recommend some with which you can create your reels. Within the ranking factors for the reels, we get:

• User activity: The platform evaluates the reels you interact with to send you more relevant to your taste.
• Interaction history: Similar to the explore page, there is a high chance that you will see many accounts you don't follow on reels. So, depending on how much you interact with them, Instagram will send more or fewer videos from these.
• Reel information: The social media platform will include info like audio tracks or popularity to rank videos.
• Information about the poster: Regarding reels, Instagram tries to give an equal chance for any content creator to find their audience. Ideally, this is good for smaller creators or new accounts wanting to find their relevant audience. Like many platforms, video popularity is essential for any video reach.

What Instagram avoids recommending

While social media platforms try to give freedom of speech to their users, there are always guidelines you must follow to avoid getting punished by Instagram. These are some of the content that the platform doesn't like:

• The Misinformative content by third-party fact-checkers. 
• Upsetting or sensitive content, for example, consumption of authorized drugs like tobacco or alcohol.
• Political content that focuses on political parties as well as government officials.
• Low-resolution or watermarked videos.

Now that you know more about this topic, let's see how you can take advantage of it.

Create reels. This is the ultimate algorithm magnet.

Since TikTok became popular for short videos, all the other platforms wanted to join the game, so they copied this format. As the newest feature, the algorithm seeks to promote more of this type of content, which is why you should start creating content for it.

With reels, the recommendation is to create short videos - 15 seconds minimum, 1-minute max - giving exciting information about your company.

A tip that could help you is to take advantage of any popular audio within reels, as these reach more people on the platform. 

But be careful with songs with lyrics because they could distract the user from what you are saying.

Ultimately, more than audio or trends, the goal is to create a short format video worth repeating or commenting on, as engagement is one of the highest-ranking factors for this algorithm.

Schedule your posts at the right time for maximum reach.

Like Facebook, if you want followers to interact with your posts, you have to make them at the hours with more user interaction. You can check all of this on statistics if you turn your Instagram profile to professional.

Post consistently

You must constantly upload content if you want the algorithm to notice you. But understand us: constantly uploading content isn't about posting every day.

A few years ago, most digital agencies thought that making daily posts would generate more engagement for their publications, and in the end, they got just a few likes from people working within the agency.

Daily posting is a big no, as it can look spammy for users.

Rather than planning too many posts per week, try to get a few ones with a great hook for people to engage with.

Now, what's the right amount of publications per week?

As the  Instagram chief, Adam Mosseri, commented at Instagram Creator Week 2021 that the proper pace is 2 posts per week and 2 stories per day.

Source: YouTube.

Respect the community guidelines.

Whenever you make a post, follow the Community Guidelines of the app since the algorithm limits content visibility against these rules. To do this:

• Avoid upsetting or sensitive content
• Political posts
• Misinformation or fake news
• Low-resolution media

Write captions that generate conversations.

Comments and likes help you rank better on Instagram's feed, so what can you generate more of these?

Well, try writing engaging captions!

Like Facebook,  the idea is to create content that generates a debate or any type of conversation, so instead of a lame and simple caption, try to give extra information about your brand or your post's topic. Then, ask for your follower's opinions and see how they react. At the end of your caption make a call to action, which can be leading them to the link on your bio.

Information from Hubspot says that captions with over 500 characters get the most feedback from their followers.

Create a contest or giveaway.

Contests and giveaways are hugely popular, and this is because we'd all love to win a prize with the minimum effort. So whether it's a created hashtag or user-generated content, these posts generate a lot of engagement for your profile.

Study analytics

Finally, it's time to go to your analytics and evaluate which posts that have had the most interaction for your brand to replicate its success or renew certain ideas. If you want to access these, switch your Instagram profile to professional and then go to the Insights tab to see all your account activity.

The relationship with ads and shadowban.

Shadowban is what happens when the platform starts hiding your content. As we said before, you'll be shadowban when you go against Innstagram's guidelines, but another factor could shadowban your creations.

Instagram's business model is more around advertisement, and because of this, usually, after every nine posts, there'll be an ad. This ad takes the place of a post that is less interesting than the others.

Even more, if Instagram is having financial troubles, there'll be two ads after every eight posts, so two poor posts we'll disappear from the feed.

How do you avoid being the missing post?

As rough as it may sound, creating excellent and engaging content is the only way to figure out the top spots. There's no magical formula.

For guidance, you can check out what big brands are doing within your niche, then try to re-interpret it from your brand's personality.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn's algorithm goal is to bury any spammy content and highlight relevant and high-quality content.

In essence, the B2B social media platform punishes these types of content:

• Spammy: Poorly written (bad grammar), full of outbound links and any "bot-y" content. Also, avoid basic hashtags such as #follow or #like.
• Low-quality: While this is not spam, the platform perceives this content as irrelevant.

If you want to write great LinkedIn posts that will make your account more desirable for LinkedIn's algorithm, follow these tips:

• Make it easy to read: Offer valuable information, but don't make massive walls of text, as readers can get tired of it. In this case, redirect users to your blog if you want to offer more information.
•  Use around three hashtags: Try to mix your hashtags with highly popular and the ones belonging to your niche so that you can expand your reach.
• Don't include outbound links: As with any algorithm, the program wants users to stay on the platform, and if you put outbound links in your caption, the algorithm won't be happy with it. Nevertheless, experts say that if you put the link in the comments, it doesn't seem to affect your post's reach.

Now, let's see how you can build a better relationship with LinkedIn's algorithm.

Choose the right time to post

It sounds repetitive, we know, but this is 101 in social media management; you should always post when your users are most active. 

According to an article by The Balance Small Business, 50% of users connect more after hours, so if you post at 2 p.m. or during work hours, it will most likely take a long time to receive even one like. 

The article gives us more information and shows us that the best times for this platform are usually:

• Most clicks and shares: Tuesdays, 11 AM-12 PM.
• The worst time for LinkedIn: Sleeping hours (10 PM-6 AM) 
• Best Times to post: 7-8 AM; 5-6 PM.
• The peak time of use during an average day is noon; 5-6 PM.

Create the type of content LinkedIn likes

As we said before, LinkedIn is like Facebook's uncle, a businessman who is there only for B2B, no memes or dancing reels.

LinkedIn's algorithm craves two types of content:

• Job offers
• Information that provides value to your business or others

So, on this platform, you want to show your biggest accomplishments and how good of a business you are. When you reach many users in your profile, Linkedin's algorithm will shake your hand like the wolf of Wall Street.

Use LinkedIn's publishing tool.

If you don't have a tool to schedule your articles, don't worry the same social media offers it to you and gives greater momentum to the publications you make.

The Editor-in-Chief at LinkedIn says Publisher posts show up in the feed for your connections and followers based on time.

TikTok

TikTok's algorithm may be the friendliest of them all, and perhaps that's why it's so popular over its predecessors. But then, what is this algorithm about?

Everything revolves around the for you page, which is like the feed of this social network. Depending on the tastes and interests that you select when entering this social network, it sends you endless videos that are according to your tastes, and as you interact and follow more accounts, it refines it more, offering you only the things that you like the most. 

This is quite similar to the others, even the factors to show you or not are similar in terms of the amount of reach or likes, but there is something that makes it the friendliest of all. 

You'll ask us, what is it? 

Well, unlike the others, TikTok's algorithm does not give preference to the accounts with the most followers, instead, it does a great mix of popular accounts with others that may be just starting. Therefore, at one point in the feed, you can see a 15k likes video just below one with only 3, giving more opportunity to all kinds of creators. But this is not the only thing that makes it friendly to its users since the posts do not expire due to time.

When you post a photo on Instagram, it will peak in popularity and then be forgotten, where only your stalkers can give it a rather indiscreet like. Meanwhile, it does not matter if your video is 3 months old. The algorithm will be able to show it later, making it not lose relevance.

TikTok algorithm ranking signals.

• User interactions: Similar to most of the platforms, the algorithm will base its recommendations based on your interactions with content on the app. This evaluation goes from videos you liked and didn't, accounts you follow and interests you've expressed by interacting with organic content ads.
• Video information: This information is based on the type of content you seek out through discovery or search. This factor includes captions, sounds, hashtags, effects and trending topics.
• Device and account settings: your personal information from language preference, country, type of mobile device and categories of interests that you choose as a new user.

What is not included in the TikTok algorithm?

The algorithm will NOT recommend the following types of content:

• Duplicated content
• The content you've already seen
• Content the algorithm flags as spam (including videos "seeking to increase traffic artificially")
• Potentially upsetting content (for example, "graphic medical procedures" or "legal consumption of regulated goods")

So, let's see how we go about handling this algorithm.

Find your subculture

On TikTok, there is a niche for everyone, from those who like digital marketing to those who love collecting action figures. The idea is to identify which branch your brand specializes in and start sharing about it.

Unlike the networks explained above, where users tend to interact more with the accounts they follow, people on TikTok spend more time on the for you page, where they have endless content about what they usually enjoy. 

Do not seek to stand out in saturated markets. Instead, look for those subcultures in which your content and information can be appreciated and start researching what hashtags are related to these.

Don't sell. Instead, share and have fun.

Although selling is our ultimate goal, there are different ways to achieve this goal, and in a social network of funny videos and dances, a typical advertisement will not work.

TikTok users are interested in learning or having new information in the shortest possible time, without reading a book or watching a long YouTube video. Therefore, once you have defined your subculture, you must now share all your knowledge in short doses of information that position you as an authority within the platform.

Once the algorithm notices that your videos are successful, it will start to show you more in FYP, and as you grow in the audience, it is obvious that you will grow in leads and new clients.

Go Pro on TikTok

The main benefit of the pro account on TikTok is that it will give you all the information about your metrics and primetime, allowing you to evaluate which types of videos work best for you. To do this:

1. From your profile page, tap the three dots icon at the top right of the screen.
2. Tap Manage account.
3. Select Switch to Business Account and choose the best category for your business.

Use trend sounds and create yours.

Like what we said with Instagram reels, you should look for trends on TikTok and see how you can mix them into your content. Search among the most viral sounds and find out how you can associate them with the style of your brand; this will give you a good chance for the algorithm to start showing your videos even to people outside your subculture or public. This can be good for introducing new people to your kind of culture.

But, if you want to go even further, try creating your viral sounds because according to a TikTok article, 65% of users would prefer to see videos from brands featuring original sounds.

Interact with other TikTok accounts.

When you interact with your community, the algorithm will perceive you as more suitable for its platform since you generate more conversation for this social media.

Luckily, TikTok is one of the most varied platforms to interact with users because you have options like:

• Duets
• Stitch
• Video replies to comments

With duets, you can comment on other creators' videos or even interact with them in singing or acting challenges, it is pretty fun to do. Then, if you create video responses this allows you to create more content based on others' opinions, expanding your audience reach within this video platform. And if you want other creators to duet with your content just go to the privacy settings section and adjust to your needs.

Source: YouTube.

Use the FYP hashtags.

Any content creator wants their videos to be displayed on the For You Page, as this is where consumers spend the most time on this network. TikTok has seen a trend of for you hashtags, which many creators use, and although we cannot guarantee that this can completely manipulate the decision of the algorithm, it is still worth trying these tactics used by great content creators. These hashtags are: #fyp, #foryou, and #foryoupage.

X - Twitter

The new rebranding for Twitter took out the bluebird and put a big "X" on the app. Elon Musk plans to create a super app that would be an AI-powered platform "centred in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking." If you want all the information, check out what's new with X?

Nevertheless, we are not here to discuss Elon's plan but to talk about X-Twitter's algorithm, and this one is kind of funny as its working method is a mystery even for its creators. This is because, like the other social platforms above, Twitter uses "black box" algorithms, meaning its mechanisms are kept secret from users. From the top of the iceberg, we only know that this technology uses machine learning to sort tweets based on our interactions and preferences. As CNN explains:

"Even those who can understand the code that goes into an algorithm don't necessarily understand how it works…. The people who build these systems don't always know why they reach their conclusions, which is why they're commonly referred to as 'black boxes.'"

Elon Musk has said that he wants to make X algorithm open source, asking users on a poll if this should be the case, getting the approval of 1.1 billion users.

In 2023, Twitter has up to 353.90 million, sending up to 500 million tweets daily. Nevertheless, if you are using Twitter for advertising purposes, this platform has a big red flag, as more than half of Twitter's top 1,000 advertisers, like Coca-Cola or HBO, have pulled their ad dollars out of the app. The main reason behind this is that these companies are not sure of the way Elon Musk wants to take the platform. Besides, Elon has shown that he isn't a great fan of digital marketing. Also, if you want more information on advertisers abandoning Twitter, check out this CNN post for more information. 

Nevertheless, consider Twitter a viable channel for your digital marketing purposes. In that case, you are more than welcome to keep reading as we will show you how to take advantage of this to make your business as algorithm friendly as possible.

Let's study Twitter now!

X-Twitter's Feed.

Within your Twitter, you can look at content from two different timelines. 

• Home: These are the tweets that the algorithm deduces you will have more interactions with based on your previous interactions with accounts. In this section, you could also see tweets from accounts you don't follow but discuss topics you like.
• Latest tweets: This is the standard feed for Twitter and shows you publications from people you follow in a real-time, reverse chronological timeline.

Another part of your Twitter feed is the Topics, which lets you follow conversations on any subject you like, ranging from sports teams, musicians or general discussions without needing to follow those accounts.

Finally, similar to Instagram's Explore section, you get a explore tab where you can get tones of information from:

• Trending topics
• News, Sports, Fun, Entertainment
• The for you section Contains suggested Tweets, accounts, topics and other content that the Twitter algorithm has determined you might be interested in.

X-Twitter algorithm ranking signals.

We want to focus more on ranking signals to know where we should aim our focus within any social platform. In this part, we want to point out what signals will make our tweets more algorithm-approved.

Recency

Twitter it's more of a real-time feed where events, news, and trending topics are at the top of the meal. This means that this isn't a platform that can rely too much on nostalgia, throwback on tursday or any irrelevant topic for the time. In this case, you must be careful of any news or trend regarding your business field, so your company can enter into this conversation.

Relevance

Twitter evaluates a tweet's relevance based on your interactions with other accounts; the more you engage with them and vice versa, the more they will show up on your feed. 

Your location is also crucial for the type of tweets the platform will display, as it will try to show the most remarkable things about your city or country.

Engagement

This signal concerns the popularity of your tweets within the niche. The platform will evaluate how popular this topic is and how many users are tweeting or retweeting about it. 

Then those with more interactions will have a more privileged place within the platform. 

In this article of the Tweet's Hunters Blog, we get an appreciation of how much any interaction would be worth and which ones are a bad sign for your account, take a look:

• Likes: +30  
• Retweets: +20 
• Replies: +1
• Twitter Blu Verified: +2
• Image & video: +2
• Good account reputation: Boosted.
• New words or unknown language: Negative Ranking.
• Misinformation: Negative Ranking.
• Multiple hashtags: Negative Ranking.
• Interact with low-quality accounts: Negative Ranking.
• Request "show less often" on your Tweet/you, block/mute you, reports: WORST SIGNAL.

Rich Media

Twitter organizes posts on the type of media they show, like GIFs, images, videos or polls. The platform explicitly says its algorithm won't promote any content that is considered abusive or spammy.

We will now share practical tips to upgrade your Twitter strategy.

Maintain an active Twitter presence.

Compared to other platforms, you don't need many resources to write a Tweet. You need to use your characters, and that's it.

Of course, you can add videos or images to make it more interesting; nevertheless, the platform doesn't force you to be so fancy. Making a good opinion or a catchy phrase can get those retweets you want. 

As for how many tweets you should do per day, Hootsuite, a digital marketing automation tool, recommends at least 1-2 times per day and a maximum of 3-5 times per day. This amount of tweets is why we remember that you should be freer with your interactions rather than too much exhausting digital marketing planning. 

A good option could be one powerful Tweet per day and the others more interactive ones.

Get verified with Twitter Premium.

The blue check was something only influencers and big brands could obtain. But with X Premium , you can get this status sign just by paying $8 a month or $84 in available countries.

This subscription plan is part of Elon's plans for its super app, and among the extra features you can get there are:

•  Edit post 
• Half ads: an option that reduces ads by 50% (Yes, Elon hates marketers)
• Prioritized rankings in conversations and search
• Longer posts: 280 characters wasnt enough? Well how about 25,000. Yep, that's a lot.
• Text formatting: now you can bold words. That's pretty much it.
• Highlight posts
• Bookmark Folders
• Custom app icons
• Custom navigation
•  Top Articles 
•  Reader: Turn long threads into a reading experience. 
• Undo post
• Longer video upload
•  Themes 
•  NFT Profile Pictures 
•  SMS two-factor authentication 
•  Hide your checkmark: So, users pay to get a checkmark so they can hide it? What are your comments on it?
• Create a Community
• Access to Media Studio 

After this really long list of features we can say that some of them are useful while others are "questionable." In any case, only if Twitter is one of your best-performing channels, it would be a good idea to subscribe to X premium. 

Tweet at the right time

Although the Home Tweets algorithm can put out tweets after they were first posted, as with many other platforms, it is still essential to post when your audience is more active. 

According to Social Pilot, the best posting times for this platform are between 8 to 10 in the morning and 6 to 9 p.m. The reason for this hour range may be directly connected to the user's consuming habits. The reason is that 48% of users turn to Twitter to get the latest news, and usually, we check on news in the morning, before going to our jobs, and after employment, generally after six p.m.

Regardless, you can always visit your analytics to find the best times to post.

Use tags purposefully

While we put "Multiple Hashtags" as a negative ranking signal, it doesn't mean they are irrelevant. They still are, as this is a portal to any topic you want to talk about. This tool is even more important for advertisers as a Twitter ad gets almost 10% more attention when it includes branded hashtags.

The thing to avoid is to make a tweet with too many irrelevant hashtags. And, of course, please avoid those cringey hashtags like #YOLO or generic ones like #businesslife or #entrepreneur.

The idea is to study those trending hashtags in your niche well and look at creative ways to use them within your ports. Don't overdo them; this can be a negative ranking sign for your account.

Another great way to interact is to tag other users to encourage them to retweet or engage with your posts. When you mention other accounts, you can spread your reach to other users while getting the algorithm's approval. 

If you want to learn more about Hashtag Strategy, please read this article.

Use photos, videos, and GIFs.

It is a constant that in all social networks, audiovisual content is always the most engaging. The video or image will always be easier to consume, and on the other hand, if it's good enough, it increases your ability to be rewatchable. This raises your points with the algorithm that will qualify your content as valid for the platform since you make your users spend more time within the platform.

If you want to organize it well within your content strategy, you can save this audiovisual content for those days when you have a greater flow. Besides, Twitter recently made it possible to add up to four pieces of media per Tweet, so now you can add more content to your tweets.

Try a poll

Like Instagram, Twitter has its poll feature, and it's a great way to generate a conversation or debate among your followers. 

Even so, we must emphasize that polls are perhaps much more effective on Twitter since, unlike Instagram, Twitter is the land of debate. We can see how endless threads are formed about discussions, and although it is good to note that these debates are usually filled with somewhat toxic hate, it does not take away from how effective they can be for your brand's reach. Instagram is more visual, while Twitter is more about giving opinions.

As always, the options for the poll are endless, from questions about rebranding and asking for feedback to controversial questions that raise conflicting opinions within your audience.

Twitter is the site of multiple discussions and is almost polarized when giving opinions. So, if your poll is inflammatory enough for your users, be sure both sides could retweet your poll to seek "more support" for the opinion they support.

In any case, try to take advantage of any of Twitter's features since the algorithm rewards those accounts that know how to use it effectively.

Join relevant trends and topics.

As you have seen, Twitter maintains its daily conversation around trends. These can range from news to a holiday. Whatever the case, you must participate in those with which your brand can be associated.

It can be easier to post about Mother's Day or Christmas for the holidays, and you have an easy and guaranteed tweet for that holiday. Easy peasy!

Now, with the news,  you should be more cautious. Unless this news directly affects your niche, it is best not to share an opinion about what does not concern you. You see, social networks have given us all a voice, and that's very good, very friendly. However - and this can be controversial - not all opinions are valid, or at least not if they come from a business.

You see, maybe for us, a digital agency, it's easier to comment on a story about Elon Musk and Twitter or about AI and its capabilities. We have expertise; we know what we are talking about, so people could be interested in our opinion.

Okay, but now it's news about another topic. Elections in the United States, for example?

You see, it is unsuitable for a brand to give opinions left and right, especially on issues as sensitive as politics or religion. On the one hand, this can cause people with positions different from "that of the brand" to label you as an extremist or decide not to follow you simply because they think differently from you, and that is why it is better to stay on the sidelines and not jump into all the conversations get out on Twitter.

Retweet top content

This is another feature that makes Twitter more valuable to brands than its competitors, and that is its reusability.

On Instagram, your posts can lose their relevance as fast as hours. On Instagram, you post once, and then it has no further use than to decorate your feed.

Meanwhile, a good Tweet can be used daily and grab a little more fame at night. It's not a very long time frame, but it still has value.

If you have seen that a Tweet has performed well in the early morning hours, and you feel that it can have a second wind at night, just by retweeting it, you can increase the value of said tweet.

You can also pick that tweet and share it with a rewriting or a different approach. The idea is to find a creative repackage that could work with your followers.

For example, if you have a blog, you can re-share the post highlighting other aspects of the blog at different time frames. This strategy is like an A/B test where you can evaluate which approaches your followers like more.

YouTube.

YouTube is one of the favorite video platforms among users, and where YouTubers and brands make lots of money for video views. According to the MIT Technology Review, the algorithm is responsible for 70% of what people watch on the platform, which may be why many content creators are desperate to please this omnipotent technology. However, this shouldn't be your ultimate goal, as we'll explain further.

In its early stages, from 2005 to 2011, YouTube's goal was to get as many clicks as possible, bringing the "clickbait" epidemic with it. Many content creators at that time abused this tactic - which they still use from time to time -but the results weren't great, as users got mad when they didn't receive what they expected from the video.

Subsequently, another algorithm era came in 2012 when the platform paid more attention to watch time as the critical recommendation metric. Many businesses crave time spent on their websites or media. Still, after applying this alternative to their algorithm, YouTube realized a great truth: Spending more time watching doesn't necessarily mean they're enjoying. Nonetheless, creators started to adapt to these new guidelines, making longer videos, which ultimately let watchers get tired of so many "documentaries" on any topic.

In 2015, YouTube finally hit the jackpot and found a more effective way to recommend videos. In short, the platform-based video recommendations on:

• Likes and dislikes
• The "not interested" button.
• Comments

Based on these factors, together with the personalization from this algorithm, is the one being that dictates which videos most people will access. For personalization, YouTube considers the following data:

• Video's Click Through Rate
• User's video history
• How many videos do they watch from your channel
• Watch time
• How recently a user watched a video of yours
• User's search history
• User's demographic and location

It's now time to see how we can play into the algorithm's rule to get the most out of your YouTube strategy.

Also, if you want more information on how YouTube's AI works, check out Deep Neural Networks for YouTube Recommendations.

Be careful with bad words and dangerous content.

Before 2016, YouTube was a wild place. YouTubers, comedians and any other people could say the words they wanted, go all in with heavy jokes, and the list goes on. 

But now YouTube tries to be a safe place - although we don't recommend anyone going to the comments section - so content creators can now express themself so "freely."

These guidelines mean no bad words, don't talk about death or other "obscure" topics, no racism, and so on. Even by today's "social media standards," creators can say "pandemic" without getting demonetized.

That's a problem that has been bothering many content creators who feel they can express themselves so comfortably according to YouTube standards, and that's why they opt for platforms like Patreon to express themselves more freely and still earn some money.

Now, if you are more of a B2B type of business, chances are you are less bothered by bad words or any politically incorrect comment, as brands typically try to avoid problems. Whatever the case, be careful with demonetization.

Create click-catching thumbnails.

While YouTube chose to call it "appealing" thumbnails, we preferred to create the term "click catching" as this is your primary goal.

Your thumbnail is the face cover of your video, and similar to a book, if you create a catchy title and image, you know people choose you.

Now, within your thumbnail, there are three things you should focus on:

• Create custom thumbnails with a uniform style. As soon people look at your style on the recommendations section, they'll know it's a new video.
• Create interesting titles. Now, we would say that you should avoid clickbait, and while the obvious answer is "yes", the bitter truth is that everybody keeps using clickbait. Now, if you don't deliver what your title promised, that's a "punishable clickbait, but if you do, it's only good marketing. Find the balance.
• Focus on your description, as it's the first thing shown in searches.

To help you more with this critical factor, we'll give you more tips on creating click-catching thumbnails.

Put your face with an emotion.

This tactic works perfectly for YouTubers and gives more interest to followers to find out what that expression is about.

For movie and music reviewers, it works perfectly; as soon as users watch the name of the album with the YouTuber's unhappy face in it, they'll want to know more about it:

Now, this can also work for any type of video. Suppose we create a video on Is AI The End of SEO? and a face with a worried expression; you may want to find out if that emotion goes with the facts. If you want to find out, please read the article.

Add extra text to your thumbnails.

Don't leave your title with just the obvious; it's not just a keyword that interests people but a glimpse of everything.

Let's consider "Is AI the end of SEO?". Okay, this title can be great for articles, but look how we can make it more interesting for YouTube:

"Should marketers worry? - Is AI the end of SEO?"

"Will AI replace our jobs? - The end of SEO"

"AI vs Marketers - Is this the end of SEO?"

It's just a bit more, but adding a question or an exciting message can make your thumbnail more interesting and stand out from other videos about the same topic.

Branding thumbnails.

If you want your business to generate more brand awareness, it's good to brand your thumbnails and use them as an authoritativeness sign for your channel. In the end, YouTube also works as a search engine, so the platform gives credit to sources that are an authority within their niche.

Create videos for YouTube Shorts.

Create content for YouTube Shorts or repurpose content.

Yep, YouTube also copied TikTok, but whatever the case, these short format vertical videos are also a great way to get discovered and drive more subscribers to your channel.

In YouTube shorts, you can follow our guidelines for reels and TikTok videos: short format videos with valuable information. 

Another great use is to repurpose your long-format content and break it into short videos. This is a strategy that famous podcasts like Joe Rogan use by putting small segments of interviews with celebrities that go viral on many social platforms.

Drive views from other sources.

If you take it seriously with YouTube as a channel, then you should drive viewers from all your other sources to the platform.

So, you can put short videos on Instagram or TikTok and redirect people to your channel, or even put them on LinkedIn or Facebook.

The idea is to take advantage of every channel you have to catch the eyes and attention of viewers on other platforms.

Google

Of course, we had to talk about the algorithm of the biggest search engine, which coincidently had a core update recently in August 2023.

But relax, SEO marketers, it's not a big deal. In fact, these algorithm updates happen periodically from time to time. Still, within those changes, the essence hasn't changed: Google's algorithm goal is to deliver the best content for each query.

Google is a search engine full of every question users have. When someone has a medical doubt, they usually go first to Dr. Google and then to the actual doctor, which may not be the wisest decision, but still, it's the way users behave. 

And of course, you know that Google isn't just about medical questions, but every type of them, so the search engine has to take charge to deliver the best content or websites that answer queries most professionally and satisfyingly.

It's good to clarify that this update will not target specific websites or pages. So you can relax since your page won't receive any penalty or get your site de-indexed due to guideline violations.

Nevertheless, as this new change starts to work, some pages could affect their SERP rankings, but these effects could be for better or for worse.

Actually, valuable pages that didn't outshine before could benefit directly from this process.

As this update was announced on August 22, 2023, it's uncertain to determine how it will all change, but apart from that, you can take action to stay up to date with this algorithm update.

Let's see what are those things you should focus on more.

Focus on E-E-A-T

Previously, this acronym stood for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, but in December of 2022, during the update to Google's Quality Rater Guidelines, added Experience to the list of qualities.

If you noticed that some previous high-ranking pages are now lower, chances are that other ones with better content are taking the upper spots on SERPs, and because of this, you have to focus more on your content quality.

Google wants you to deliver clear and precise answers to users in an efficient way. This means creating content in your business area that is created by people who know what they're talking about, as the internet is full of beginners with no clear experience.

Now, showing expertise in your content doesn't mean being too fancy with JARGON, as probably most users won't understand all of these terms as you do.

It all depends on your audience, "who" is consuming your content, and the reason "why" they want answers for you.

Let's take a medical example once again.

Suppose you have a medical website, but your audience is patients. Ideally, most of your patients don't really know much about science and medicine, but still, they would want to find answers on specific "symptoms" or maybe just valuable articles on how to take care of themselves.

As an expert on medicine, you have to talk with them in their knowledge level and make content easy to understand for them. Of course, you have to put your knowledge on the topic by explaining why things work the way they do and why they should do A or B to feel better, but you won't be as deep as you could.

But if you are a medician who focuses on medical studies, and your audience revolves around doctors and other health professionals, this is the audience in which you have to outshine all your knowledge and expertise. In this case, your audience may not be looking for symptoms - as they should know them - but instead want your opinion on new studies or any other topic surrounding your business area.

And while you can talk more about JARGON and complicated topics with peers in your area, it doesn't mean you should overcomplicate content with too many fancy words just to show off. Even experts want to find quick and understandable answers on the internet. If not, they would go directly to a book.

Ultimately, the idea is to bring content that throws real light into user's queries, as they will keep attending to you as a valuable source of information.

Be original.

"Graving ideas" from other sources and then "rewriting" with your own words isn't original content. Even more, Google can detect you're copying.

But there's a problem with the term "originality," and it's that: It doesn't exist.

If you go to the side of screenwriters and artists, most of them will tell you that everything is created and nothing is original. And well, we're sorry to disappoint you; this is 100% real.

Now, different from the example of rewriting articles with your own words, you can still give your original twist on an already established idea. For example, "Avatar," one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, is practically the story of Pocahontas with Aliens. It is original, and although it's taking some inspiration, it was successful.

Now, with content, we always tend to look for popular keywords, and so do our competitors. Many other websites have written on social media algorithms, and maybe they share similar views with us. Nonetheless, in Codedesign, we write from our experience, making this article original from others.

You don't have to create something new to be successful and grab users' attention, but instead, share what you know about those topics from your professional Experience.

Then, studies and academic blogs can summarize your article to add more facts.

The idea is to go beyond what others have discussed on the topic so you can be the one who stands out from the crowd.

Avoid creating 100% AI content.

AI is all around us, creating everything we thought only humans could.

Social media is full of AI images from the Pope using Balenciaga to fake Donald Trump arrest images, and the list goes on.

If we talk about blogs and articles, ChatGPT is one of the AIs capable of generating articles with prompts in just seconds.

While it may look tempting to "agile" your content and copy creation work with this tool, the reality is that Google's algorithm doesn't like this shortcut and can even be punishable.

As a side note, even screenwriters are on strike fighting for their rights as Hollywood is trying to take them out of the equation by using this technology to replace them.

And while all this scenario may look like we are saying you should never use AI to create content, the reality is more complex.

AIs are tools that can help us move projects forward faster than before. Even in digital marketing, we have used it years before to schedule posts on platforms like Hootsuite or even to help us write better, like Grammarly.

The idea is not to make a war on AI but to use it wisely, not lazily.

In the title, we clarify 100% AI content, meaning: don't let all the work go to AI.

Instead, you can let the AI help you find better keyword ideas or rephrase some paragraphs or hard-to-read sentences. In this way, technology is helping you improve your work; if you want to learn more about it, check out how to detect if AI wrote an article.

Disclaimer: Don't please the algorithm; take care of your audience.

To wrap this article up, we have a disclaimer that could sound counterintuitive after everything we learned, but more so, it's the right way to address this topic.

Our marketing instinct sometimes leads us to want to take control over that "omnipotent being" that manages all the networks. We think that by controlling the algorithm, we will have the key to the matrix and all the success that it entails, but the reality is different.

Algorithms are programs that help social platforms please their users; in the same way, we should do brands.

Large companies are interested in creating content that your audience likes, and that makes them spend more time with it, but they are not interested in pleasing their algorithm; that is their task.

Although the algorithms are quite useful, they are not programs exempt from errors. We often give a content creator "dislike" or "I'm not interested," although the algorithm can understand it at first, it will likely show it to you again shortly after. These programs are moved more by what is working and attracting people, and for this to happen, you must put more effort into pleasing your audience than software.

In the meantime, understanding the algorithms gives you an advantage in understanding "the rules of the game," but from then on, what matters most is your talent and ability to grab your users' attention.

The Codedesign algorithm

Finally, we have arrived here! Our algorithm!

As a digital marketing agency, we are at the same paste with every new technology out there, because in business like this if you don't adapt to new trends you get obsolete. As we needed more data on customer behavior we decided to build our own AI tools, and so we have our algorithm to better understand your target audience and find what your business needs from a digital marketing perspective faster than anyone else.

Our Augmented Analytics tools enable trend technology advances like machine learning and AI to assist with data preparation, insight generation, and insight explanation to augment how your customers explore and analyze data in analytics and BI platforms. It also augments the expert and data scientists by automating many aspects of data science, machine learning, and AI model development, management, and deployment.

With a catalog of satisfied clients, we have been able to lead their businesses to financial success with our advanced technology tools and the high knowledge of our digital marketing specialists. If you want us to do the same with your brand, contact us and let's talk about business!

Until your algorithm returns us to your search, see you in a new article!

About CodeDesign

Codedesign is a digital marketing agency specializing in e-commerce and B2B online marketing. Our digital team utilizes the latest digital marketing tools and strategies to help clients reach their business goals. We offer comprehensive services such as website design, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, performance marketing, social media marketing, CRM and marketing automation, email marketing, and more. Our experts create and implement customized digital marketing campaigns to increase website traffic, generate leads, and drive sales. Our expertise in e-commerce and B2B marketing allows us to understand the nuances of the digital marketplace and create effective marketing solutions tailored to their client's needs.
CodeDesign is leading:
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Feel free to contact us to see the unprecedented growth of your business.

Author

Author: Bruno Gavino. CEO of Codedesign. Head of Digital. Board Advisor at GLC Group. Board Advisor at CCLI. Board Advisor at ILC. Board Advisor at Portugal Ventures. Digital Marketing.

Bruno Gavino has carved out an influential reputation, holding the position of CEO at Codedesign. In this role, he's at the forefront of shaping digital strategies and innovative solutions that drive the company's vision forward. Beyond his leadership at Codedesign, Bruno wears multiple hats, serving as the Head of Digital, a role that further amplifies his expertise and influence in the digital marketing sector. His proficiency isn't just confined to executive roles; he extends his insights and expertise as a Board Advisor for a range of esteemed organizations. These include the GLC Group, CCLI, ILC, and Portugal Ventures. Each of these advisory roles speaks to his versatility, showcasing his ability to provide strategic guidance across diverse sectors and platforms. Rooted in a deep understanding of digital marketing, Bruno's influence has had a ripple effect, enabling businesses to harness the power of digital transformation and innovative marketing strategies. His leadership and advisory roles, combined with his commitment to pushing the boundaries of digital marketing, solidify his position as a key figure in the evolving digital landscape.

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