Social Media has taken over the world! What started as a place to catch up with old friends and share your life with families has now become much more. These days, social media is a career, a marketplace, a news stream and so much more. Influencers on many social media platforms can make six-figure salaries thanks to the power and reach of these platforms. However, one aspect of social media that many influencers and rising influences struggle with is the social media algorithms. The algorithms that run these platforms are continually being improved and updated to improve user experiences and stop those who try to manipulate the system. While this may sound good, it can make the process of creating content and growing your reach an extremely difficult task, unless you understand how the algorithm currently works. Here are some ways to conquer Social Media Algorithms.

Diversify!

Diversifying on both content types, content strategy and across multiple platforms is key to ensure a constant reach. This allows you to offer a wide range of entertainment through your content. This means when one type of content is not doing as well you are still covered, since you have more than one to rely on. While text and image posts are so 2008, it does not mean you should get rid of them completely. However, you should mix them up with multi photo posts/ carousels or make use of video posts, which have been shown to have enormous reach.

While Instagram may seem like the biggest platform and TikTok may seem like the new kid on the blog, it is still best to diversify your content across multiple platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and even Tumblr. More platforms can lead to more reach.

Learn How the Algorithms work

You cannot expect to master something or be ahead of the game when you have not taken the time to study it. Taking the time to learn about each social media platform and how their algorithms work is a vital part of mastering the social media space. Reading social media blogs, following those who share about algorithms and running constant social media tests are all part of mastering the algorithm.

Act Fast!

No matter how good your content is or how captivating your story is, timing can make or break your reach. By acting fast and efficiently as something happens or at the right time is the best way to reach the most people. It is also the best way to join trending #tags and climb to the top of these #tags. Act fast and post at the right time.

Pay to Play

You may think that running ads is going to hurt your organic growth strategy, but you could not be more wrong. By paying for ads, you will get more exposure that could lead to more followers. More followers leads to more engagement that in turn can lead to reach that is more organic. Try experimenting with some paid ads to see what works best for your brand. Another option in the pay-to-play space is to sign up with a platform that assists in increasing the social media metrics that matter most to that network usually by improving engagement.

Be Consistent

While each social media platform is different and each algorithm works differently, consistency has been shown to be crucial. Posting high quality content consistently has been shown across the board to be a great strategy. However, posting consistently across multiple platforms can be time consuming. This is why many social media influencers use social media scheduling like Buffer or Hootsuite. These systems allow users to design and plan content ahead of time. It allows them to schedule it to post at a specific time, allowing more freedom and flexibility in their schedules.

How to create high value content?

High value content is what social media platforms are trying to push through their algorithms. This is content that users want to see, but how do you create it?

Here are four tips to creating high quality content:

• Be Real – Authenticity has been shown repeatedly to be rewarded on social media. By being real and honest with your followers, you can create a more engaged audience.
• Post Good Quality Imagery – High quality imagery and video content are vital in dominating the social media world. With billions of people using social media, you need to have good content to stand out. It has been shown that poor quality imagery actually is penalized by social media platforms leading to less reach and less engagement.
• Be Relatable – If you are not speaking to where your followers and audience are at, you may as well give up. Stay up to date with news and the happenings that are affecting your audience so you can celebrate and sympathise with them.
• Make Your Content Captivating – Sharable, captivating content is often the content that goes viral. Why? Because it is so, captivating that everyone wants to see it! Make your content captivating and shareable to reach a broader audience.

While social media may have once been “just a hobby”, it is now a business and a world of its own. While good content is key, that alone is not enough in 2021. To get to the top of the social media trends you need to understand the algorithms of various platforms. Spend the time studying the algorithms to work out the best ways to increase your reach in 2021.