Bringing together multiple resources, studies, and experience we covered: The importance of understanding ever changing algorithms Facebook's Algorithm Twitter's Algorithm LinkedIn's Algorithm Instagram's Algorithm YouTube's Algorithm Questions and Answers

1. What You Need to Know About the
Social Media Algorithms in 2020
January 30, 2020
Starts at 1pm EDT

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Finding the most common and relevant questions and phrases of your target keyword.
AND MORE!

3. Facebook
Organic Reach Continually Declining
Source: https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/facebook-sponsored-posts/

4. Facebook
“We’re Making a major change to how we build
Facebook. I’m changing the goal I give our product
teams from focusing on helping you find relevant
content to helping you have more meaningful social
interactions.”
-Mark Zuckerberg
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104413015393571

5. Facebook
https://www.marketingcharts.com/charts/facebook-referral-traffic-declines-2018-across-popular-content-
categories/attachment/parse-ly-facebook-referral-traffic-declines-in-2018-apr2019

6. Facebook
Use of News Feed
Declining
Use of Stories
Increasing

7. Facebook
What does all this mean?
Commenting or liking another person’s photo or status
update
Reacting to a post from a publisher/brand that a friend shared
Multiple people replying to each other’s comments on a video or
article
Sharing a link over Messenger to start a conversation

8. Facebook: 2020 Algorithm
Native Content Takes Precedence (Video and Articles)
• Links to articles and videos on other sites don’t get the same exposure
Credibility of User is a Ranking Factor
• Completeness of page, sharing, comments, history, etc..
Facebook Prioritizes Posts that Starts Conversations
• Content that is shared. Links shared over Messenger receive more weight
• Post with lengthy comments
Live Video Takes Precedence
• Typically receives more interactions
Posting 5 Times a Day
• https://coschedule.com/blog/how-often-to-post-on-social-media/

9. Facebook: 2020 Algorithm
Don’t Use False and/or Sensational Headlines
Don’t Ask People to Like, Comment, or Share
Engagement
• Post will be shared with a very small percentage of audience within a few seconds of
posting. If has high engagement will be showed to more of your audience.

10. Facebook: Moving Forward
Video, Video, Video
• Facebook has left no question to the fact that they prioritize live video, it drives higher engagement.
• If you can’t do live video, do native video.
Be Picky in What You Share
• No Engagement = Decreased Credibility
• Decreased Credibility = No Engagement
For Organic Reach Your Content Needs to Start Conversation
• This is the name of the game in 2020. Whether it is video or copy if it doesn’t generate shares and
comments it will not gain exposure.
Facebook Wants Your Content On Facebook
• Facebook needs content that is exclusive to them. Be a valued content contributor to the
platform and sharing a small percentage of content that links to your site will gain the
benefits.

11. Twitter
The Death of the Bot and Automation
“The use of any form of automation (including scheduling) to post identical or substantially similar
content, or to perform actions such as Likes and Retweets across many accounts that have
authorized your app (whether or not you created or directly control those accounts) is not
permitted.”
-Yoel Roth (Head of Site Integrity – Twitter)
https://blog.twitter.com/developer/en_us/topics/tips/2018/automation-and-the-use-of-multiple-
accounts.html
Algorithmic Timelines
• Designed to provide you with the most relevant
content first based upon your previous use of the
platform.
Change from 140 character limit to 280
• Tweets with more characters typically have higher engagement
• The average tweet is still only 35 characters

12. Twitter
Dantley Davis, Twitter’s vice president of design and research, tweeted a
list of five features he was “looking forward to in 2020”

13. Twitter: 2020 Algorithm
Credible Profiles are Favored
• To make your profile look credible to the algorithm, fill out all of the details such as your profile photo, bio,
location, graphics, etc..
The More Characters You Use the Better
• There is a direct correlation between using the 280 characters available and
engagement rate.
Timing of Your Tweets is Heavily Weighted
• Because of the pace at which content moves on Twitter finding the optimal time to tweet to gain
engagement is extremely important.
• Tools to find the best times to tweet for your audience https://www.shoutmeloud.com/3-twitter-tools-to-
determine-the-best-time-to-tweet.html
The Time Someone Spends Reading Your Content is Important
• The longer the time someone spends reading your content or profile, whether they engage (like, retweet,
reply) will increase likelihood of you showing up in their feed.

14. Engagement is King
• The more likes, replies, and retweets a piece of content gets, more people see it.
Twitter Wants Your Content On Twitter
• Twitter needs content that is exclusive to them. Be a valued content contributor to the platform
and sharing a small percentage of content that links to your site will gain the benefits.
Twitter: 2020 Algorithm

15. Twitter: Moving Forward
Timing is Everything
• Find out when your followers or usually on. Tweeting at the optimal time increases
your chances for engagement which increase your exposure.
• Here are some tools to find optimal time for tweeting to your audience.
https://www.shoutmeloud.com/3-twitter-tools-to-determine-the-best-time-to-
tweet.html
Develop Followers Around a Specific Topic / Found Out What Your
Followers Are Most Interested In
• To create tweets that receive engagement you have to have followers that are engaged. To have
followers that are engaged, you need to have tweets that they are interested in.
• Twitter Analytics has a ton of data on your tweets and the demographic make-up of your audience. Use
it!

16. Twitter: Moving Forward
Engage with Your Followers
• By engaging with other Twitter accounts (@reply) the algorithm will see you as a valued contributor to the
community.
• Don’t wait for people to engage with you.
Tweet on a Regular Basis (Preferably Daily)
• If you provide valuable and engaging content to your followers everyday, Twitter’s algorithm will
reward you for it.

17. LinkedIn
“A Look Behind the AI that Powers LinkedIn’s Feed: Sifting through
Billions of Conversations to Create Personalized News Feeds for
Hundreds of Millions of Members”
https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2018/03/a-look-behind-the-ai-that-powers-linkedins-feed--
sifting-through
“Spreading the Love in the LinkedIn Feed with Creator-Side
Optimization”
https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2018/10/linkedin-feed-with-creator-side-optimization

18. LinkedIn
Identity
Who are you? Where do you work? What are your skills?
Who are you connected with?
Content
How many times was the update viewed? How many times was it “liked”? What is the update about? How
old is it? What language is it written in? What companies, people, or topics are mentioned in the update?
Behavior
What have you liked and shared in the past? Who do you interact with most frequently? Where do you
spend the most time in your news feed?

19. LinkedIn: 2020 Algorithm
To Go Viral Your 2nd and 3rd Degree Network Needs to See Your Content
• If a 1st degree connection likes or comments on a post of yours the algorithm will then share your post with
your connection’s connections.

20. Content Will Be Shown to the Most Relevant People in Your Network
• Matching skills, industry, and connections
LinkedIn Wants Your Content On LinkedIn
• LinkedIn needs content that is exclusive to them. Be a valued content
contributor to the platform and sharing a small percentage of content that
links to your site will gain the benefits.
LinkedIn: 2020 Algorithm
Content Will Be Shown to People that Have Engaged with In the Past
• Individuals who have liked, commented, or shared your content are more likely to have the content
appear in their feed.

21. LinkedIn: Moving Forward
Engage with People in Your Network / Start Conversations
• Be a valued community member by liking, commenting, and sharing your contacts’
content and the LinkedIn algorithm tends to reward those members.
• Your LinkedIn business page will now suggest content for you that it believes is of
interest to you. Great way of finding third-party content that you can then share on
your own feeds to spark that all important conversation.
Create a Relevant Network on LinkedIn
• The person with the most connections doesn’t necessarily win if they are all from different industries and
sectors.
• The lower the percentage of your connections engage with your content the lower exposure your content
gets.
Produce More Native Content than Owned Content
• As with the other platforms LinkedIn needs content that is exclusive to them. Be
a valued content contributor to the platform and sharing a small percentage of
content that links to your site will gain the benefits

22. Instagram: 2020 Algorithm
Relationship
• If a person often leaves comments on your posts, or if they have notifications
enabled for your account, or you DM each other, or you tag each other in your
posts, then the algorithm recognizes that the two of you are “close.”
• According to Instagram, user will see 90% of posts from “friends and family”.
Timeliness
• The Instagram algorithm prioritizes the most recent posts.
Interests
• The algorithm also predicts which posts are important to users based on their past
behavior.
• This is very familiar to how other platforms operate.
The Time Someone Spends Reading Your Content is Important
• The longer the time someone spends reading your post, regardless if they engage, will increase the
credibility of your content

23. Instagram: 2020 Algorithm
Posting Regularly Will Place You Higher in Timelines
• Whether you receive engagement or not posting more often improves your position in timelines.
• Frequent posting without engagement does not have any negative effects algorithmically.
Comments are Weighted More than Likes
• As with Facebook a conversation is valued.
• Frequent posting without engagement likely DOES NOT have any
negative effects algorithmically.
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/does-posting-more-often-
on-instagram-reduce-reach-report/525082/
Using Stories or Going Live Doesn’t Matter
• According to Instagram, the feed’s algorithm doesn’t discriminate
based on how often your account makes use of other tools within
the app.
Instagram Does Not Prioritize Video
• According to Instagram, the algorithm doesn’t prioritize video unless your audience
prioritizes video. Someone who never pauses to watch videos will see fewer of them on

24. Instagram: Moving Forward
Post Regularly
• If you post irregularly Instagram won’t prioritize your posts to followers.
• If you regularly post and contribute you will be rewarded.
Publish Your Content at the Best Time
• One of the key elements of the algorithm is timeliness
• Use Instagram’s Insights to optimize posting time.
Engage with the Same Type of Content You Post On
• Engage with content and users that are relevant to your own.
• The more you engage with other users the more Instagram will show your
content to them.
Don’t Forget the Hashtags
• If you can get to the top of the Explore page it can garner thousands of new
followers.
• Explore page offers the chance for exposure to a new targeted audience.
• Research Hashtags your audience and competitors are using.

25. YouTube: 2020 Algorithm
Upload Frequency is Important
• As with all the other social platforms, consistent participation in the
platform is an important factor to the algorithm when deciding to share
your content.
Total Watch Time is Important
• How long someone watches your video even if they don’t like or comment impacts your content’s
exposure to users.
• Optimal video length seems to be 7-12 minutes. Important shift in algorithm from popularity to depth.
• https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/3-quick-tips-to-increase-your-youtube-ranking-
this-year.html
• https://www.slideshare.net/MattGielen/cracking-you-tube-in-2017
More Subscribers, Views, Likes, Comments = Higher Priority
• The larger your subscriber base the more exposure your video will receive to users who are not your
subscribers.
Title, Description, and Keyword Tags are Important Ranking Factors
• These elements impact relevancy. Relevancy is an extremely important factor in the YouTube algorithm.
“We consistently observe that users prefer fresh content, though not at the expense of relevancy.”
Deep Neural Networks for YouTube Recommendations
https://ai.google/research/pubs/pub45530

26. YouTube: Moving Forward
Optimize your title and description
• YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. If you want to have your videos rank highly, use
keywords.
• Place keywords at the beginning of our video title and description
Create Longer Videos
• Videos with longer watch times are ranked higher than videos with millions of views by YouTube.
• Create more in-depth videos that offer value to your viewers and your efforts will be rewarded.
Consistently Post Videos
• Publish videos consistently and at the same time(s) and day(s)
Build Your Subscriber Base
• Add sub confirmation to all your YouTube links ?sub_confirmation=1

27. YouTube: Moving Forward
Encourage Discussion and Engage with Your Audience in YouTube
Comments
• YouTube rewards channels with high engagement which includes your like / dislike ratio, and comments
on your video.
• Try to respond to every comment you get; not only will this help your video engagement, it’ll help you
mold your community
• The more engaged users are with your channel, the higher the likelihood that your videos will make it
into their emails and notifications.

28. Bringing it All Together in 2020
Native Content is Preferred
Need to be Actively Engaged with Your Audience and
Your Audience Needs to be Engaged with You
You Have to be Active On a Regular Basis
Focus On a Specific Topic and be Relevant to Your Audience
Get a Video Strategy Together