A is for Algorithm
The word of the summer might be regulate. The Big 4 in tech — Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple — are facing potential sweeping anti-trust legislation in the U.S. that could reshape the way the companies operate. And while TikTok and WeChat don't have to worry about Trump's executive orders any more, the White House is still keeping the apps under investigation.
In today's news:
Instagram admits there's no "silver bullet"
Facebook rewards Creators
The answer to the best time to post
And one platform celebrates its Sweet Sixteen
Read on ⬇️
Is this thing on?
Last week was a busy one for Instagram and its CEO Adam Mosseri, who seemed to put on a bit of a roadshow with the goal of helping Instagram users better understand how the platform's algorithm works. The short answer: the Feed, Explore and Reels all use different algorithms that are tailored based on how people use the different features. Long answer: it's complicated. Here are the details...
The Feed and Stories
These posts are the ones that are most likely to generate interest from friends and family. Then the algorithm looks at thousands of "signals." According to the blog post by Adam Mosseri, the most important ones are:
Information about the post: How many people liked it, when it was posted, if location is included, and if a video, how long it is
Information about the person posting it: This includes things like how many times people have interacted with the poster
Your activity: This refers to how active and engaging you've been on the app in liking content
Your history of interacting with someone: For example, do you comment on each other's posts.
Explore and Reels
The Explore section and Reels use similar categories of signals. But unlike the Feed and Stories, where you're basically looking for information about friends and family, much of the content you see in these two sections is from accounts you don't currently follow. Explore is about discovering new things, so the algorithm looks at posts you've liked, commented on and saved in the past, and compares your account to others who've liked the same type of content to see who they are following. You'll then see "related content." And Reels is about entertainment, so the most important predictor is whether you watched a video all the way to the end.
A few tips
In an interview with influencer Karen X. Cheng, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri admits that there isn't a way for the platform to ensure stable reach, because what people are interested in changes. As well, more and more users are signing up for Instagram all the time, which means more competition for eyeballs. And while Mosseri emphasizes that there is no "silver bullet" to increasing reach, he did offer a few tips:
Experiment with different types/styles of posts to see what's resonating with your audience
Use video, and create a good "hook" in the first few seconds to get people's attention
Use hashtags
Maintain what he calls a "healthy feed" — in other words, post a few Feed posts/Stories a day
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SOCIAL SNACKS
Facebook hearts Creators
Following Instagram's first-ever Creator Week — a three-day professional development session for influencers and creators — the platform and parent company Facebook announced a number of new features aimed at helping Creators make a living. These include: affiliate and new Shop features, and more ways to earn badges and stars.
Pinterest has new features in store
Speaking of new features, Pinterest is expanding online shopping features to users in Canada, Australia, Germany and France. These new features make it easy to purchase directly from a Pin, on Boards, and from search. The platform is also launching a Shopping List so that Pinners can save their potential purchases in one place.
ICYMI
🔴 YouTube's TikTok competitor, Shorts, will soon let users sample audio from any YouTube video [The Verge]
🔴 Messenger introduces new chat themes and more [Facebook Blog]
🔴 LinkedIn bets on remote events, invests in virtual platform company [CNBC]
🔴 TikTok offers tips for small business owners [TikTok business blog]
TIP-LIKE
BTTP: This is a trick question, right?
So you've probably seen any number of articles on when the best time to post (BTTP) is. Some say during regular working hours. Some say on evenings and weekends when there is less noise to compete with. But the answer really is: it depends. It depends on when YOUR audience is on the platforms and engaging with you. So it's important to check to see when your audience is most active. You can do this by checking the metrics within the apps and platforms.
For Facebook Pages and Instagram (Business or Creator Accounts), you can find this info under "Insights."
LinkedIn also offers Visitor metrics for Pages.
It can be a bit harder to find this info on a platform like Twitter, but you can also experiment to see what days/times your posts get the highest engagement.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Happy Sweet Sixteen to Reddit
College roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian launched Reddit in June 2005, in Medford, Massachusetts. It was originally envisioned as "the front page of the Internet" fed by subreddits of user-generated content (essentially a bulletin board of content). But more recently, it's become well known for its role in the GameStop viral trading sitch. Happy sweet sixteen, Reddit 🎂.
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