How to Make Your Social Media Algorithm Work for You
What is an algorithm? How you affect your social media algorithm and how to use the algorithm for good
Algorithms, for better or worse, are part of our lives. I am keenly aware of this because my career as an author ebbs and flows with how often book-selling website algorithms recommend my work to readers. The same is true for my career as a digital content creator. An algorithm probably showed you this very article, in which we’ll answer your burning questions: What is an algorithm? How do I make algorithms work in my favor?
What is an algorithm?
If you’re not selling books, articles, or funny content, you might have consigned algorithms to high school math class. In the online world, an algorithm determines what content you, as a user, see. It creates a personalized online experience and can influence choices you make. Whether you realize it or not, the algorithm is with you all the time, collecting data on what you search, watch, buy, and stream, touching every aspect of our digital lives.
The dark side of the algorithm
Algorithms are everywhere and can be as annoying as a little brother who won’t scram. Once, I searched online for a flan pan. For months after, every digital space I entered included flan pans. Don’t search it, I’m warning you. The algorithm can be a window into your soul. Or, it can be a fun-house mirror into your deepest insecurities.
No two ways about it—my algorithm is onto me. A quick scroll through my social media ads reveals hair-thickening shampoos, menopause supplements, and the latest news for Outlander on Starz. Fair.
If you interact with content you aren’t interested in, the algorithm might think it’s all you want to see in your feed. You watch one funny video about Meghan Markle’s lifestyle brand and bam—all Markle, all the time. My advice is to scroll away from that content as fast as you can, or else you, too, could be haunted by content you don’t want to see.
How to use the algorithm in your favor
The good news is the algorithm does show you things that you might not find without it. The bad news is sometimes you get flan pans and endless Meghan Markle.
Luckily, there are workarounds for most social media. For instance, if you’re on Instagram, click on the word Instagram, and you’ll see a little drop-down. It says “Following.” Click that! And then, suddenly, your feed will be filled with people you followed and liked. Until you realize you don’t really care what they had for dinner and rather prefer royal gossip, oops.
But seriously, the key to training your social media algorithm to work in your favor is this: engage with content you like. If you see a great story about a puppy who saved a town, click on it! If a chart on how to create a container garden appears, don’t scroll past it. If it is gossip, politics, or misinformation, scroll on by. I am in the process of training my social media algorithm to understand I’m very deep, like vegetables, and love my droopy old face. The algorithm thinks I’m posing, but I persist.
The other option is putting down the phone and taking a walk. Don’t worry, I’ll let you know if something happens with the royal family. You can let me borrow your flan pan, and we’ll call it even.