The Algorithm is an important part of having our content reach an audience. Within the past few years Instagram changed their feed organization so that content no longer is featured on a time-based system. Content now comes through with an algorithm so that content shows up in a “relevancy based” system. In this situation, the way that we post content now requires us to game the algorithm so that our posts get optimal views. Luckily our tools as content creators can help us with this.
This week we heard from Nitin Goyal. Nitin used to work for Hootsuite who is a social media analyst house, Hootsuite provides tools and insights that can help us level up our content. They will give you a personalized time that is the best time to post to our feeds. We learned that posting at 9am on a Monday compared to 3pm on a Monday can change the number of impressions and likes that our content could get. These insights are particularly important if you are an influencer as your entire brand relies on your impressions. Nitin explains that algorithms are trying to do 2 things for consumers. He says that they are trying to provide personalized content over brand content, and passive content like Instagram reels. My key takeaway from this was that brands should be utilizing influencers to market their content since an influencer is more personalized than a brand account. Brands should also incorporate reels into their marketing if they haven’t already as Nitin said that the algorithm favours this type of content. The algorithm really interests me as my specialization is in the Media Management and Analytic stream at Guelph-Humber, I have already heard of and used Hootsuite for work from my previous classes so it was interesting to hear from someone who used to work with Hootsuite.