In an era where social media marketing is used to create and promote a brand’s image, it is important to comprehend how the algorithms of various social media platforms work to accomplish these goals and help your business succeed.
The Top Platforms for Social Media Marketing
The top two platforms that brands are most interested in are Facebook and Instagram.
This guide will help you understand the algorithms of these platforms and how you can optimize your content to reach a larger audience.
Post Meaningful and Native Content on Facebook
The one thing Facebook prioritizes the most is meaningful content and engagement. The purpose is to create conversations, especially between friends and family. The more interactive your post is and the more engagement it gets, the higher it will rank. Another thing that Facebook prefers is native content. This means posts created directly on Facebook, rather than links that direct you to another site. For instance, if you want to share a video, it would be better to upload it directly to your Facebook page rather than sharing a link that takes users to another website like YouTube. So, posting original and interactive content is the key to Facebook’s algorithm.
Black Cat has one of the fastest growing Facebook pages in Pakistan. If you take a look at their content, you’ll understand why. They create and post Urdu comics with Pakistani characters. This helps create engagement amongst the local audience as they can relate to it. Black Cat’s content is both native and interactive, this may be the reason for its success on Facebook.
How to Optimize Facebook’s 20% Rule on Ad Images
If you’re posting an ad that features an image, one thing to keep in mind is the Facebook 20% Rule. When it comes to sponsored posts, Facebook doesn’t allow more than 20% text in an ad photo; this also includes logos and slogans. It is to ensure that people only see high quality content and Facebook recommends using the text field to get the message across instead of including it in the image.
How to Increase Post Engagement on Instagram
Like Facebook, post engagement on Instagram is also important. The posts most likely to appear on your feed are determined by how relevant they are to you. This is determined by many factors, the most important one being your relationship with the user. You can build relationships by leaving comments, on posts of relevant users and brands, that are interactive and involved. This can get you more profile visits and catch the eye of that brand’s followers, ultimately increasing engagement on your own posts. Keep in mind that comments that are of less than four words don’t count as post engagement in Instagram’s algorithm so try to post more interactive content that can bring comments that are of four or more words.
Best Time to Post on Instagram
Timeliness is also a factor that contributes to getting your posts being shown higher in the feed, so it’s good to post on Instagram when your followers are most active. For someone who uses Instagram a lot, the posts that appear on their feed are more likely to be based on how recent they are. However, for someone who doesn’t use it as much, posts appearing on their feed are more likely to be determined by their relevance.
The timing of your post should depend on what type of brand you are trying to promote or what category your Instagram profile fits into, to reach your target audience. Generally, it is best to post during off-work hours or between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Posting on weekdays is usually better than weekends. You can take a look at your analytics to see what time your followers typically engage with your content and post according to that.
Posting your content at the right time would ultimately boost your post engagement thus, building relationships with your followers and making your content more relevant. It is kind of like a cycle and if done right, it will make your content more credible in the eyes of the algorithm.
Social media algorithms are constantly evolving. If you have understood how these platforms work and why they function the way they do, you can now go ahead and optimize your content to get higher rankings.