This blog is the third part in a five part series we’re working on this month about trying to remain ethical in social media advertising in the current age of algorithms. If you missed the first two parts, make sure to go back and read those first to get the most out of this series.
This week, we’re focusing on the algorithms themselves – how they work and why they operate as they do, and how focusing on reach could be your downfall.
An algorithm is defined as a specific process or set of rules that are to be followed in problem solving operations or calculations. In the case of AI, an algorithm is the programming that tells the computer how to operate and learn on its own without human interference.
AI algorithms operate by taking in a massive amount of data and using it as training data that helps the algorithm learn. In the case of Meta, they set up their algorithms to find posts users would like to see to keep them scrolling in the app for longer amounts of time.
This new AI technology can be massively useful to social media platforms who make their money by keeping people entertained on their apps for as long as possible.
Do you ever feel like your phone is listening to you and knows exactly what you were just thinking about? Maybe you recently went to see a new movie and now your entire explore page is filled with edits and memes about that exact film.
Not to freak you out, but it sort of is listening. These AI algorithms can quickly and easily compile all the data available online about you and your recent activities to recommend you targeted posts that are meant to be relevant to you, your life, and the current situation you’re in.
The Meta AI algorithms analyze all the consumer data they can get ahold of from various sources and use that information to determine individual preferences, using that knowledge to tailor marketing messages in order to maximize engagement rates.
This is all to keep you engaged with what you’re seeing on your screen so you don’t leave the app. Ever open a social media app just to check one thing and end up scrolling for an hour before leaving? Yea, I think we’ve all been there. That’s all the proof we need that those algorithms are doing their job.
So how do these algorithms impact small businesses trying to advertise themselves on social media?
Well, one issue small business accounts are facing is that Meta has been pushing content that uses their new features so that their algorithms can get more information and data about how these updates are performing. This is a big reason why Instagram promotes reels more than normal photo and carousel posts.
Another problem is that the algorithms don’t really know the difference between someone actively seeing a post and looking at it with their eyeballs and the post loading on a user’s page without being seen. This messes up their analytical data and skews all those business statistics many users look at to measure the performance of their recent posts.
Yet another big problem is that these social media platforms are encouraging small businesses to pay for ads that are likely not going to be worth the money. We’ll talk more about paid ads on Instagram and Facebook next time, but for now it’s enough to say that these ads almost never pay off for small businesses.
All of these problems are making it increasingly difficult for small businesses to feel good about their social media strategies. A lot of business accounts are feeling like they have to cater every post to the algorithm to get their posts to perform, which can be a full-time job in and of itself.
Many small business owners feel like they don’t have time to work for the algorithm, but also can’t afford to hire someone to work on their socials because the posts aren’t performing well enough even when they’re trying to do what the algorithm wants.
This leads to really negative feelings and makes these business owners want to just give up on social media altogether. It doesn’t feel worth it to spend all this time and effort crafting the perfect post just for it to be “seen” by 1,000 people and get 25 likes.
We feel you. We’ve been there. We might be there again now.
If you feel like social media is a constant uphill battle, you’re not alone. Next week we’ll focus on how their ad system is only making things worse. Subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when we post the next part.
