What are the best ways to incorporate social media algorithms into your strategic planning?

2 Research your audience and competitors

Another key factor that influences social media algorithms is the behavior and preferences of your audience. You need to know who they are, what they want, and how they interact with your content and your competitors. You can use various tools and methods to research your audience, such as surveys, polls, analytics, social listening, and user-generated content. By understanding your audience, you can create content that resonates with them, appeals to their emotions, and solves their problems. You can also research your competitors and see what kind of content they are producing, how they are engaging with their followers, and what gaps or opportunities you can exploit. By analyzing your competitors, you can learn from their best practices, avoid their mistakes, and differentiate yourself from them.

3 Optimize your content and profile

Once you have a clear idea of your goals, metrics, audience, and competitors, you can start creating and optimizing your content and profile for each social media platform. You need to consider the format, style, tone, length, keywords, hashtags, captions, and calls to action of your content, as well as the frequency, timing, and consistency of your posting. You also need to optimize your profile by using relevant keywords, images, links, and descriptions that showcase your brand identity and value proposition. You should also use the features and tools that each platform offers, such as stories, reels, live videos, carousels, polls, stickers, and filters. By optimizing your content and profile, you can increase your chances of being seen and ranked by the algorithms, as well as attracting and retaining your audience's attention and interest.

4 Engage with your audience and influencers

Creating and optimizing your content and profile is not enough to succeed on social media. You also need to engage with your audience and influencers in a meaningful and authentic way. Engagement is one of the most important factors that social media algorithms consider when deciding what content to show to users. Therefore, you need to encourage and respond to comments, likes, shares, mentions, messages, and reviews from your audience. You should also seek and build relationships with influencers who have a large and loyal following in your niche or industry. You can collaborate with them, feature them, or ask them to promote your content or products. By engaging with your audience and influencers, you can boost your social proof, credibility, and authority, as well as increase your reach and exposure.