Social media algorithms have taken over almost all of social media. The more prominent ones have some sort of algorithm in effect and it’s really causing a lot of shops to suffer.

I don’t think I’ve met a maker or creative who runs or is starting their own business that doesn’t know what this algorithm is about, so you probably know what I’m talking about.

But just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about here’s a quick explanation. If you have a Facebook fan page or Instagram profile and if you have, for example, 100 followers and you’re posting once a day, these algorithms that are in place cause your post to not be seen all 100 of your fans. In fact, it’s just a small percentage but that’s a variable depending on a lot of different things.

For some people, there’s 0% engagement so none of your posts are being seen, but other people are doing quite okay with it and they actually have a system how to combat these algorithms.

There are different ways you can look at it. A lot of people look at it as a way of social media to prevent your posts from being seen by all of your fans. I choose not to look at it that way.

Let’s go back to when these algorithms took the world for a crazy spin.

It really started with Facebook. There are probably quite a few other social medias out there, but I don’t know a whole lot that are still around today besides Facebook. I think it’s one of the oldest that is also the most used and the most popular.

Then Instagram also started having an algorithm and so did Pinterest. Almost all the prominent social media platforms out there have some sort of algorithm in place that prevents all of your fans from seeing your post.

Why do algorithms matter and why were they set up by the “social media gods?”

It just simply boils down to that there is just too much content for any human being to consume. Just think about it.

You’ve probably liked quite a number of Facebook pages on your personal profile, you probably have several hundred of your friends added, and each person on your friends list, each page you’ve liked, each business, and everyone on Facebook is creating multiple pieces of content every single day.

There is no way you can read what everyone is saying or look at everyone’s pictures, so algorithms exist and are helpful because this is the social media platform’s way of curating content and it’s only choosing to show you things it believes you’ll like. But how does it know what I like? This is where computer programming code can be very smart.

I don’t know if you ever think about robots taking over the planet, but it’s kind of scary how much technology can learn about you, your behavior, and your personality. Based on your past behavior Facebook knows what you like, what you don’t like, what you respond to, and so on.

It’s just Facebook’s way of making your experience smoother, because if it was not smooth and people didn’t enjoy using Facebook, they would go to other social media platforms. The algorithm serves the end user. Yes, I know you’re a shop and you have a business page, but ultimately you are also the end user.

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s all just a matter of perspective and how you want to view this whole algorithm thing. A lot of business owners I’ve talked to view this as a bad thing. You’ve probably heard people say that Facebook has now become “pay to play.”

My belief is that that’s partially true, but not entirely. If you’ve got a dead page even though you have tens of thousands of followers, then you will have to pay a little bit of money to revive your page. But once you get your page back to healthy engagement levels, Facebook will actually start to favor your page and posts and start showing your content more and organically for free (and even their friends).

Several years ago, it used to be so that we could get away with just talking about our products all the time. It would be one product picture after another, talking about a sale, a promotion, or being at a craft show, but you can’t do that anymore.

The reason being that there is just so much competition and so many businesses, brands, and websites out there creating amazing content that entertains and engages their audience. You have to compete with these people. You have to compete for your customers or for potential customer’s attention.

Those brands who are doing a good job at creating content (and it doesn’t even have to be content you create, it can just be content you’re curating and sharing from other pages) and are serving their customers and their audience well, those are the brands who get to make money from their efforts.

If you want to beat the algorithm, you just need to get into the mindset of you’re a business and you really need to build a community and relationship with your followers.

Just like if you were making a new friend for the first time, you wouldn’t meet her and then talk about how great and awesome you are. It’s the same thing when it comes to building your business. Talk about things you think your audience will be interested in and that’s when they’ll be interested in you and that’s when social media will favor you and help you out.

Just like with everything else in life and business, I believe that when change happens you can choose to look at it as a bad thing and feel like you’re cornered and give up. OR you can see it in a different light and maybe this algorithm is a really good thing in disguise.

I believe it’s better for everyone and it’s a change that needs to happen anyway. Adapt your routines and systems to take on those changes and that’s how you stay relevant.

If you are looking for ways to grow and market your business I would love to invite you to join thousands of other creators and makers in my free 30-day “a sale a day” challenge. You can find that at www.creativehiveco.com/challenge/. That’s a 30-day email course, completely free, and once you sign up for that you will get the first step in your inbox right away.