Algorithm Anxiety Is Real
- Mah Weng Kit
- 53 minutes ago
- 3 min read
While scrolling the feeds, you looking for recipes on baking some cute cupcakes, keep scrolling and your feeds probably full of it. Then you stumble upon a cute cat reels, you clicked on it. Unbeknown you turn the algorithm to cat’s videos and now your feed are full of it.
That’s what algorithm get to you, it constantly changing depends on your interest (sometimes just too much). It’s a silent code behind where it keep feeding you with whatever. Neither do social media managers trying to capture the audiences, hoping the ads will be able to hit right through the right audiences that been advertised.
The Rules keep Changing
Each platform are having their own rules which could constantly changing and there’s no written on the walls. Most just figuring it themselves. Let’s have a quick journey through memory lane of some memorable rules throughout the recent years:-
Instagram prioritized on saves/bookmarks over simple likes
TikTok pushing for longer video
Verified accounts appear more prominently on X than unverified accounts.
Adapting to the changes are what everyone been facing to dominate the feeds of their audience. The rules are not all written and left it to figure it out yourselves.
The Pressure to Perform Never Ends
The unpredictable algorithm pushing social media managers to think of every possible way to beat the unbeatable and gamble on the uncertainty just to get the post viral. Lies hours of efforts with a lot of brainstorming, thinking of suitable keywords/hashtags, timing. Making to live in a performance cycle where competition are fierce with constant comparison and constant refresh. Every posts trigger anxiety to find out whether it’s work or.. flop
Data Tell No Lies (is it?)
No one know bout the past research data are truth or can even be referred nowadays. The same formula will no longer effective to tackle on today’s algorithm. Some even sadder truth when all previous posts no longer able to reach the previous “viral” status when there’s shift on algorithm, no matter what platform it’s on. Throwing in an example where a fast food company promoting on free coffee with every meals but having a lower turnouts than expected. Little did they expect, the platform’s algorithm preferring a quick ads while the particular fast food ad is a full on video.
Finding Calm in the Chaos
While we probably can’t master the algorithm but we can shift the focus on being resilience and adaptive to every changes. A simple but effective ways and here’s how :-
The Evergreen Content: The posts that could withstand for long time like how-tos or behind-the-scene.
Diversify platforms: Keep the voice consistent but post it on different platforms.
Prioritize human connection: Don’t fall for the trend-bait, create contents that actually feel-related and meaningful
Track quality metrics: Focus on comments and shares, more than likes. Check for the quality comments.
Algorithm may keep on changing through all different platforms but adaptive measures can be applied to all. Soon may able to learn the patterns unless a very drastic changes.
What in the Future of Algorithm?
AI slowly taking over, it can predict what you’re looking for before you even type a words to search for it. Analyzing the behavior of the users and based on their interests, it slowly understand what you’re looking for. A lot of platforms slowly training their systems to forecasts what users like and based on that even the ads are suit to what’s the users looking for. So the rules slowly changing now to not just simply post more but to understand how the systems actually learn. With a lot of AI-generated contents flooding around, every platforms are filtering those and favoring authentic and genuine contents.
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