Making Social Media Algorithms Work for You

Introduction

If you've watched The Social Dilemma, it becomes apparent that the goal of social media giants is to keep you on their platform for the longest time. Based on your likes, interests, engagements, time of the day and so many other factors, the intelligent computers running complex algorithms are able to show you more content that you might find interesting and keep you active by giving you regular dopamine shots. Well, with over a million users very actively using social media daily, it's fair to say that these algorithms are working just fine.

But what if we could use this algorithm to our advantage? These algorithms work great to cater to you rather than being a one-size-fits-all approach, so why not make the most of your time on these platforms while you're at it? Here's an experiment—

The process

Step 1: Seeding the initial data

The goal of this stage is to tell the social media platform what you're looking for now. This might be in the form of what posts or pages you like, the accounts or pages you follow, and in some case, even what you do outside of the platform. For example, if you're wanting to buy a house, you would want to start following some key real estate agencies in your area and engage with a few posts that might be about a house for sale. Heck, maybe even ask your friends via the platform's messaging tool for guidance on the buying process.

For an existing account, since you've already been liking and following a lot of things, it might take a while for your new interest to show up. It's not that the social media platform isn't recognizing your new likes and interests — it does — it's probably just storing it as another dimension with a relatively lower weight against your profile at the moment. What you really want to do is get it to surface your new interest right at the top and let it know that this is now your primary interest and/or something that you're actively looking for.

This stage might be a bit of a challenge and/or might take a little bit of time but it aligns with the platform's goal of identifying your interests and showing you relevant content, so eventually, it will work.

Step 2: Affirmation

Once you start seeing advertisements that are in-line with your new interests, click on them to engage with the posts and to affirm the algorithm that it's doing a good job. This will indicate that you're interested in what the algorithm is showing you and because of this, you're going to stay on the platform for a little longer. This will cause the platform to keep showing you more similar posts.

Note: Even when you open a sponsored link in an incognito browser window, there is a possibility that it can be linked back to your profile and register as something you are interested in. It can do this using methods like click tracking or IP address tracking.

Step 3: Refinement

Now that we're getting posts on our feed that's in-line with what we're intending to see, we need to start refining them. For example, if you're looking for a 1-bedroom house under a given dollar value then engage with only those posts. This will cause the algorithm to slowly stop showing you million-dollar mansions! Where geographical context matters, without much effort, the content should already be filtered down to the city you live in (or at the very least, the city you entered in your profile).

Step 4: Iterate

It's time to enjoy the fruits of your labour. Keep repeating the steps above to continuously get refined results. Once you've completed what you're looking for and you now want to move onto the next big thing, start with step 1 with your new interest in mind.

Word of caution

• Use this strategy to aid your search but not replace it. Think of this as a personal assistant working for you trying to show you different options of something that you might like. You still have to do your due diligence before finalizing on anything.
• Remember, for sponsored posts to appear on your feed, brands pay a lump-sum to the respective social media platform. This means that you might come across an average opportunity just because a brand has paid for social media advertising but miss out on a fantastic opportunity because they don't advertise on social media. Your goal is to stay as objective as possible. Don't develop a bias towards what you see on a particular social media platform over what you see in real life and vice versa.
• Your engagement with other brands might affect this experiment. You would want to try and keep it to one clear goal per domain. For example, if you're intending to buy a general-purpose sedan but you also engage with content around vintage cars, sports cars and automobile racing, your feed will be diluted.
• If you're taking a break from social media or using any of these platforms sparsely due to the negative effects it's having on your personal life, please avoid using this strategy. Although you're getting the algorithm to personalize your feed for your benefit, it might still be addictive in nature, and in the long run, you might find yourself checking social media more often than before the experiment.

That's it. Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I'm neither a social media expert nor have I worked on algorithms for any of these companies. However, I've personally used the above strategy to get the most of my time on social media (aside from general entertainment). The intention of this article is to present this theory in a comprehensible format so that reader's may explore this idea and adopt this strategy if it works for them.