Are you worried that your marketing content will suffer even worse reach and engagement than it did in 2022? You’re not alone. 80% of social media videography/video marketers say that their top strategy is to increase engagement across all channels.

Don’t fret — In this blog post, we analyze the different algorithms for all the major platforms in 2023 (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube) and we provide actionable tips on how to get the algorithm to work for you, instead of against you.

We’ll be keeping this article updated all year with news, tips, and tricks to help you master organic reach in 2023 and beyond.

Paid social media traffic is critical for many businesses and brands, but organic traffic is the white whale: it’s free, fosters loyalty, and builds community. Since you spend so much time on your content, you want as much free reach as you can get.

What are social media algorithms?

A social media algorithm is an automated calculation that decides which social media posts make it to the top of your feed and which don’t. In that sense, the social media algorithm actually makes sure you only see posts that would interest you at the top of your page.

Overall, the top factors in most social media algorithms in 2023 are:

• The amount of engagement that piece of content has received (especially within a short time frame)
• How much you tend to engage with that creator’s content in general

Let’s dive into the social media algorithms of 2023!

1. Facebook Algorithm

With 2.5 billion active monthly users, Facebook is still the top social media platform in terms of users. However, this social media giant takes a lot of heat from businesses because of how difficult it is to get organic reach with a business page (versus a regular user profile).

Let’s look at how business-related content can make it into users’ organic social media feeds without utilizing a business page to post content.

Posts by users’ friends in groups show up far more often in the newsfeed than ever before. You can build up friendships and a following to discuss business, right from your personal account.

How the Facebook algorithm works

Here are some of the defining factors of this social media algorithm:

• Prioritizes content from friends and family members over businesses
• Heavily prioritizes content from people you engage with (people whose posts you comment and like on, or whom you message)
• Prioritizes number and length of comments
• Prioritizes number of reactions and variety of reactions
• Shows both recent content from your top friends and highly engaged content from friends that you personally engage with less often
• Content types you engage with most frequently will be shown most often. If you engage with video more, you will see more video in your Feed

Updates for 2022 & 2023

The most significant updates for 2022 & 2023:

• The Facebook algorithm prioritizes posts in Groups and Events. Their redesign puts more emphasis on these, as they are “the two biggest reasons people visit Facebook every day.”
• Hashtags: Facebook has implemented recommended tag listings for when you’re composing a post.

Tips for winning on Facebook in 2023

Here are some ways to get the Facebook algorithm on your side in 2023 (aside from running paid ads).

• When applicable, use your profile as a business owner or start an employee advocacy program.
• Set posts to ‘public’ to gain traction with followers.
• Ask questions to inspire engagement.
• Post content that encourages meaningful, lengthy comments (not just “Nice shot”).
• Utilize Facebook video (doesn’t have to be live!).

2. Instagram Algorithm

When it comes to engagement, Instagram is light-years ahead of Facebook. Brands’ content on Instagram gets a 1.6% engagement rate. Let’s take a look at how business owners utilize Instagram.

In these examples, a fitness coach asks her audience for shopping decision advice, and a marketing education site offers a mini-tutorial in a carousel post.

How this social media algorithm works

The Instagram algorithm has the following characteristics:

• Prioritizes posts with the highest number of likes
• Favors very recent posts (created within minutes of a user logging on)
• Prioritizes posts from profiles that the user engages typically with
• Favors posts from hashtags that the user follows
• Occasionally shows posts with great engagement from a profile and using hashtags that the user does not follow
• Is believed to treat brands’ content and consumers’ content equally
• You can ‘Favorite’ users and creators to make sure you never miss their updates

Updates for 2022 & 2023

While there’s always a concern that Instagram will start to downgrade content from business profiles, there’s still evidence of this being true. In 2023, even more users see content by profiles that they don’t follow (not in the Discover tab but their main feed). To increase your chances of that happening, focus on getting engagement from your core followers.

Instagram has announced on what basis they decide whether they recommend your content or not. The most important points are:

• Posts with clickbait or engagement bait don’t get recommended
• Contests or giveaways don’t get recommended
• Repurposed content from another source without added value doesn’t get recommended

Also, Instagram has enrolled Reels, their very own version of TikTok. Some Instagram accounts have exploded since using this new feature, so it may be worthwhile to invest some time in this type of content.

Tips for winning on Instagram in 2023

How can you master one of the most challenging social media algorithms in 2023? Let’s see:

• Experiment with Instagram Reels to engage and captivate your audience.
• Engage with followers’ content during the first hour after you post something.
• During the first three hours after you post something, immediately respond to every comment.
• Write meaningful captions.
• Ask questions in your captions to engage with your audience better.
• There’s no one way to apply hashtags, so experiment with different hashtags and hashtag strategies.
• Utilize Instagram Stories to get more organic reach with your audience without affecting your feed’s cohesive style.
• Stay consistent! This algorithm will downgrade you if you post randomly. You should post once a day, once every other day, or two times a week (whatever you can manage).

4. Twitter Algorithm

With 330 million monthly active users and 152 million daily active users, you can’t completely ignore Twitter. Twitter is still vital in the B2B space.

If you’re not sure if it’s worth your time, spend some time there — check out competitors, other companies, and popular hashtags — to see if your target audience is active on Twitter and what type of posts tend to perform well in your industry.

Let’s take a look at some example posts that will score well given the social media algorithms in 2023.

Getting retweets is still one of the best ways to increase your reach on Twitter.

Creating highly visual content on Twitter matters now more than ever.

Same goes for Twitter threads. A thread on Twitter is a series of connected Tweets, used to provide additional context and information on a given topic. This is what they look like on Twitter:

How Twitter’s social media algorithm works

Of all the social media algorithms, Twitter factors in recency more than any other. But there are other characteristics too.

• Prioritizes recent content (last 24 hours) with the highest amount of engagement from users you follow
• Favors content posted recently (within minutes)
• Prioritizes content with retweets and comments over likes

Updates for 2022 & 2023

Twitter will continue to prioritize tweets with high engagement and recent tweets, so volume and frequency still matter on this platform.

We’ve also seen higher engagement rates when:

• Tweets contain up to two hashtags and 100 characters
• Tweets contain an image link
• You specifically ask your followers to retweet

Tips for winning on Twitter in 2023

• Tweet 2 to 8 times per day for the best results.
• Utilize all 280 characters only in specific posts (when sharing something informative).
• Ask questions to get engagement.
• Create a Twitter poll once a month.
• Immediately respond to all comments within the first 2-3 hours of sending out a tweet.

5. TikTok Algorithm

Let’s start by setting the record straight. TikTok really isn’t about dances anymore (if it ever was). If you provide value, the platform is a goldmine to foster brand awareness.

When it comes to TikTok, hashtags and posting time will not matter. The only thing that matters to the TikTok algorithm are watch time metrics. Essentially, if you want to influence your watch time metrics, it all boils down to how good and qualitative your video is.

Great and engaging videos will garner longer watch time and will therefore end up on people’s ‘For You’ pages. This For You Page is a highly personalized feed unique to each user.

The TikTok algorithm is hyper-skilled in picking up the likes and dislikes of its viewers based on how you interacted with other videos previously. The platform continues to show highly targeted and relatable videos the more time you spend on TikTok.

How TikTok’s social media algorithm works

When you post a video on TikTok, it is first shown to and tested with a few hundred viewers. Do the viewers get bored and scroll to the next video, do they watch your video until the end, or even, watch it multiple times?

After your video performed well in the first round, TikTok will continue to test it with larger audiences. If your video performs well on all or most fronts, it is pushed to the For You page. The following about its algorithm has been revealed by TikTok:

A strong indicator of interest, such as whether a user finishes watching a longer video from beginning to end, would receive greater weight than a weak indicator, such as whether the video’s viewer and creator are both in the same country.

These factors, in this particular order, decide how much your video will be shown:

• Watch time
• Shares
• Saves
• Comments
• Likes

Tips for winning on TikTok in 2023

• Strive to jam-pack your content with value. Either educate, inspire or entertain your audience to get to that desired For You page.
• TikTok is an extremely high-speed platform that lives on trends and trending sounds. Generally, a trend surfaces on other social media platforms days, weeks, or months after it started trending on TikTok. To leverage this and maximize views for your account, try making use of trending sounds that can be found on the platform.
• Focus on very niche content. If your videos are good, they have a natural way of founding their target audience.
• Younger generations are using TikTok as a search engine. Browse the TikTok trending keywords by typing queries into the app’s search bar. Add these keywords throughout your bio, say them in your video, add them as subtitles, etc.
• Making videos for TikTok can be a time-consuming practice. Batch create them and schedule them with a third-party scheduling tool such as StoryChief.

7. YouTube Algorithm

While YouTube is still somewhat underutilized in the B2B space, it’s still an important platform. 73% of all adults in the US use YouTube.

The YouTube algorithm is notoriously tricky, and there are several ways that it shows users’ content.

One of the most common ones is after you watch something, you’re shown a related video to that topic or by the same content creator.

How this social media algorithm works

YouTube is complicated. And it’s one of those social media algorithms in 2023 that stays complicated too. It has the following features:

• Recommends video content related to what you previously watched.
• Recommends video content by the same content creator as what you once watched.
• Favors viral videos (getting mass amounts of engagement and watch time in a short period), even if it’s not relevant to you.
• Lets you toggle to your subscriptions and shows videos from your subscriptions in reverse chronological order.

Like Pinterest, YouTube also has an algorithm, which means that SEO-optimizing your YouTube content is essential.

Updates for 2022 & 2023

The YouTube algorithm will continue to factor in a user’s likelihood of engaging with your channel and the type of content you post. In 2023, your relationship with your subscribers will be far more critical than your number of subscribers. Make sure that your subscribers understand the theme of your channel and know what to expect from you.

Tips for winning on YouTube in 2023

• One to two minutes into your videos, ask viewers to “hit the like button or comment” if they’re enjoying the video, so you increase engagement.
• SEO optimize all of your YouTube videos.
• Post consistently so your content makes it to the top of the subscriptions feed.
• Write meaningful comments on videos in your niche (without asking people to check out your channel).
• Use other marketing channels to get views and engagement on your videos within the first few hours of posting. Use other social media channels and your email newsletter.
• Make the first few seconds and the first few minutes of your video very engaging and to-the-point. Don’t ramble, or you’ll have high bounce rates and low watch time.

These were the social media algorithms 2023 updates!

Ready to take your social media management to the next level? With StoryChief you can automate and analyze all your social media accounts, so you can focus on creating great content. We support scheduling to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram (Reels), TikTok, Pinterest and many more.

About Our Video Marketing Agency

Modus Film is a video production company based in Kent and London. Our services are nationwide and our video marketing agency can help you make some ground breaking content. If you want to discuss this further contact us or better yet see how video marketing can transform your current marketing mix. We are now fully PPE compliant. Plus we carry on working!

Do You Need to Talk to a Marketing Expert?

As video marketing experts we are specialists in all forms of video marketing. Here at Modus Film, we have completed many projects for our clients that have required us to define a digital strategy with really great results. If you want to speak to a specialist email hello@modusfilm.com or call us on 01233 273 273.

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