Social Media Algorithms: How to Increase Your Profile's Reach

Social media operates on algorithms. Each network has its own algorithms, and therefore, each ranks content differently, showing posts to subscribers or pushing them to the back of the news feed. Let's discuss how to adapt to these algorithms and increase your social media profile's reach.

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Social networks regularly change the rules for ranking content in feeds. Therefore, both companies and individuals have to adapt to attract customers from social networks to their sites.website.

Facebook's display algorithm

Facebook's display algorithm is very simple. If your post is liked or commented on, it appears at the top of your friends' news feeds. It then moves down a bit as other posts appear, ranking higher. If your post is liked again, it moves up again. Additionally, if your friends like your post, their friends will see it too.

Instagram has different algorithms. To see your updates in their feed, someone must follow you. But even then, they won't always see your posts.

Instagram Feed and Stories Algorithm

• If a subscriber follows you, views your publications, even without liking or commenting, then Instagram shows them your publications first;
• Like Facebook, Instagram prioritizes showing posts to users you interact with most often;
• Instagram gives preference to recently published posts;
• If you're actively communicating with someone in Direct, Instagram knows you're familiar with them and might be interested in their content;
• Instagram takes into account the time spent reading posts and shows the user more of the content they last viewed.

Interest-based display algorithm

The "Recommended" section contains recommendations based on audience interests. The algorithms for displaying "Recommended" content work roughly like this:

• track what the user has liked in the recent past;
• select similar accounts;
• hides accounts with controversial content;
• From the remaining accounts, the most interesting content, according to Instagram algorithms, is selected.

Hashtag display algorithm

The hashtag display algorithm is quite simple: if you have interesting content that your followers engage with, your posts are shown using the hashtags; if not, they are not shown. So, it's important to ensure that your followers engage with your posts, as Instagram will then show your posts using the associated hashtags.

The 30-minute rule

For Instagram to find your content interesting, you need active engagement from your followers within the first 30 minutes of posting. Therefore, it's essential to generate active engagement within the first 30 minutes: liking followers' comments, replying to them, and actively engaging in dialogue to increase reader engagement in the discussions under your posts.

Reach and impressions

Reach is the number of accounts, or people, who visited your profile, i.e., the number of unique users. Impressions are the number of visits to your profile. If one person visited your account 10 times, read 5 posts, and viewed 5 stories, the statistics will show 1 reach and 10 impressions. Your main goal is to influence the number of reach. Approximate reach figures that positively influence Instagram algorithms, including impression algorithms, are 10-30% of the number of followers. For weekly statistics, a good reach figure is 30-60% of the total number of followers. If your figures are lower, it's worth considering:

• It's possible that there are many bots among your subscribers that aren't active, i.e., they don't view your stories and publications;
• or you offer content that is not interesting to your target audience;
• or your subscribers are random people who are not your target audience.

Reach in Stories differs slightly from reach in posts. A good reach in Stories is at least 10% of your total followers. Personal blogs can reach up to 30%, but for sales accounts, services, and consulting, where there's little to hype, a reach of 10% is considered normal. If your reach is less than 10%, it's worth working on the quality of your Stories.

Follower engagement and activity in Stories greatly impacts post engagement. The closer you connect with your audience through Stories, the more relaxed and trusting you create, and the stronger the emotional connection you form with followers, the more actively your audience responds to your posts.

It's clear that engagement is a key factor on social media. If your posts are liked, commented on, saved, and stories viewed, then you're engaging and likely to be of interest to other readers. Study how your followers respond to your content, which influences your engagement, and offer this to your followers, and they, like social media algorithms, will reciprocate.