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Take Your Timeline Back

Make the algorithm work for you.

By Ariauna DaviesPublished 2 years ago 4 min read
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Every like, every comment, every retweet is money. You read that right. If you haven't realized it by now, it's time to learn: your engagement online is currency. Every action you take online is recorded and targeted for money.

What can you do about it?

I'm but a mere layperson, but here's what my experience in and knowledge of digital marketing has taught me: everything about the way you behave online is recorded. The time you spend on a webpage, how long it takes you to click elsewhere, the people you follow, the hashtags you use - all of it is tracked. That data is used largely by marketing agencies to make informed digital marketing campaigns. This may sound daunting. I know I was taken aback when I had a chance to access just the tip of the data iceberg.

After learning that my social media activity was one small piece in a much larger advertising scheme, I chose to be more careful about where I give my attention and how it's given. I'd like to advise you to do the same.

With the understanding that your data and engagement is currency, comes a level of authority over how social media engages you. If you're aware that every action you take feeds an ever-evolving algorithm, you can adjust the way you behave online to "train" the algorithm, for lack of a better word. This means taking every online engagement into careful consideration.

When you follow someone, you're saying "Hey, I like this person. I like their content and I'd like to see more like it." Following someone is one of the kindest gestures you could make online. People make money when they have a large amount of followers because that number of followers is essentially a promise of engagement. When you're making informed decisions on social media, it's important to choose accounts to follow that you:

1. Genuinely want to support or engage with

2. Benefit from their content

3. Want to see similar content or accounts

The accounts you follow set the tone for the content that is fed to you. The content that you engage with (like, comment, retweet, etc.) optimizes the algorithm by providing insight into your interests and behaviors. If you like a lot of Instagram posts with bright colors, or with imagery of clothing, you may see an uptick of Instagram ads that are brightly colored and advertising clothing! Of course, algorithms aren't as cut and dry as that example, but hopefully it helps you get the idea.

Why should you care?

Again, I'm not an expert on this subject, so I can't load this story up with technical terms and metrics. I'm making this story as a message of awareness. Everyone writing on Medium is a content creator, and algorithms are either content creator's best friend or worse nightmare. With greater understanding of how your online data is used and recorded, content creators and casual users alike can take some power over the machine and make the algorithm work for them. By engaging with social media more consciously, we can teach the algorithm to share content that we benefit from, rather than force feed what's popular and trending. We can set the trends with the way we engage online.

Taking meaningful actions on social media will reduce the likelihood of being shown content you either don't like or don't care to see and instead, boost the content that is very similar to what you've expressed interest in before. Small businesses and content creators may find more success if there is a collective shift in how we engage online, because their content will be shown to those who want to see it. It's not uncommon for people to interact with the popular content that is shown to them simply because it is already popular. This may suppress the content made from others with smaller platforms. By being aware of how the way we engage online ultimately decides what we're shown in the future, we can build each other up and organically engage with each other despite what is already popular.

Think about how you interact with social media now. Why do you follow the accounts you do? Why are you on social media at all? Is the content you're shown aligned with what brought you to that platform?

If you're unsure of the "why," that's the place to start. Then, keep that in mind whenever you're engaging online. Eventually, you'll have a fine-tuned, tailor-made algorithm that will boost the content you already like and introduce content that is similar to it.

If you've taken the time to read through this, I'd love some insight into what your experience on social media is like. Thanks for reading! ☁️✨

This story was originally published on Medium on November 29, 2021

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About the Creator

Ariauna Davies

She/Her. Writer and content creator.

⋆┈┈。゚❃ུ۪ ❀ུ۪ ❁ུ۪ ❃ུ۪ ❀ུ۪ ゚。┈┈⋆

Vocal is my creative outlet and sometimes I share things that I learn!

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