Social media algorithm

Roughly, a new post is shown to a small sample of the audience and its behaviour decides whether it travels further. The system watches time spent with the content, video completion, saves, shares and comments, with a comment weighing more than a like. Networks do not publish the exact rules and keep changing them, so treat any guide older than a year with caution.

Why it complicates planning: you cannot rely on last year's recipe working now. We watched a page built on photography for two years lose two thirds of its reach after the network shifted priorities, without changing anything itself. The only defence is not building all your marketing on one network and keeping a channel you own, such as a website or a newsletter.

What you can influence: the opening seconds, because that is where staying or leaving is decided. Then format, because networks naturally push whichever one they are currently promoting, today vertical video. And replying to comments in the first hour, which raises activity under the post exactly while it is being judged. Those three things are in your hands.

What not to believe: recipes about the perfect posting time and exact hashtag counts. That advice has circulated for years and usually comes from other people's data in another market. It is equally untrue that links are banned, they reduce reach, which is a different thing. And no algorithm rescues content with nothing to say.

So we keep a table of what we changed and what happened, instead of guessing how the algorithm thinks. After a few months you have your own data, valid for your own audience. Try it today: check the average view duration of your videos in your stats and compare it with their length.