Why the algorithm doesn’t like you and what to do about it

I'm sure we can all relate to feeling personally victimized by any of the social media algorithms and sometimes all of them, at some point in our business. The thing about the algorithm is, there's a very specific way that it works.

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How to stand out in the algorithm

We see this happen every time there's a new platform or there's a new format on that platform, when it comes out and suddenly everyone who's posting… For example, Instagram Reels. We'll use that as an example. Everyone who's posting an Instagram Reel is getting amazing engagement. So then people start talking, “Oh, great. You've got to be on Instagram Reels and it's a great way to reach new people.” To your audience who hasn't seen many Reels before, any Reels content is exciting, because it's brand new. But as more and more people start to use it, as more and more people start to create content for this new platform or this new medium on this platform, there's more noise and the content becomes boring.

 

It becomes harder to stand out. People are posting content just for the sake of being on that platform or creating that type of content, without asking if they should be doing it. It ends up being content for content's sake. So then what happens is, the algorithm has to find a way to distil this noise. It has to find a way to make sure that users get to see what they want to see. Otherwise, they would leave the platform and they would go elsewhere. If you were just seeing all of these Instagram Reels that were not relevant to you, probably you wouldn't keep watching Reels. Would you? As a result, your content starts to be shown to fewer people than before and it becomes really easy to blame the algorithm. It's easy to say, “Oh, they changed the algorithm. Now, I don't see… Nobody sees my posts anymore.”

 

But what was really happening was, your content that you were creating was just noise. The good news here is that you can still stand out. You can still reach more people. You can get out of that cycle of gaining one follower and losing two, but you can't do it by just sharing content for content's sake. You can do it by sharing remarkable content. Honestly, you can keep chasing that short-term approach of always trying to be on that new platform as soon as it's launched, always be the first on to do Instagram Reels and make the most of the algorithm when it's fresh, or you can commit to creating remarkable content, regardless of what platform you are on. Now, I know that can be such a tough truth to swallow, but the algorithm isn't broken.

 

People just aren't interested in the same content regurgitated a million times, which is I know tough, because it means you have to think slightly left of field. But it's good, because it means that if you think slightly left of field and you post content that's not regurgitated, you can still stand out.

 

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