Beyond the Algorithm: What Social Media Platform Changes Mean for Your Brand

It’s easy to become overwhelmed with social media given the sheer number of platforms. And, the feeling that you should be on as many as possible to get your message to as many people as possible. This is not only an exhausting process, but unnecessary.

You cannot be on every platform anymore and you probably shouldn’t be.

So, how do you prioritize? The calculus goes far beyond a basic “X for written word, Reels for video, or TikTok for young people, Facebook for older demographics etc.” The need for strategic planning is more important than ever to ensure your message reaches and resonates with your target audience.

Let’s dive into some key trends and strategies and how you can use them to best amplify your messages.

Short-Form Video Takeover

Platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels are becoming synonymous with short-form video content (less than 15 seconds), but other platforms, like LinkedIn, are starting to see growth in this type of content as well, making it a key part of any content strategy no matter what platforms you choose.

On Instagram, users tend to spend a significant amount of time watching video content, particularly Reels and Stories. Interestingly, smaller accounts see the highest view performance on their Reels, but accounts of all sizes report a reasonable view rate, with users most likely to engage with short-form videos among brand content.

On TikTok, the best  performing content remains human-centric short-form video content (15 seconds is ideal, 30 seconds is the maximum) that follows the latest viral trends, such as including a popular song or phrase in your video. This is no easy task as there are 16,000 TikTok videos uploaded every minute. Be careful when trying to recreate trends, as videos on trend can  miss the mark and seem out-of-touch.  When in doubt or if you are unsure of how to recreate trends, content that is educational and/or entertaining reliably performs well.

On Facebook, video content is the second-most engaged with content on the platform after album and photo posts. Facebook also makes it easy to automatically share your content from Instagram to both platforms simultaneously, so it’s simple to repurpose the content.

One important thing to note. Ensure any short-form video is filmed in vertical (or portrait) format to match the size guidelines of the platform you are posting on.

Executive Personal Brands Are Your Biggest Untapped Resource

LinkedIn is more than just a place to host your resume and apply for new positions, it has become a powerful tool for building thought leadership and for organizations to connect directly with key stakeholders. While it may not be the largest social platform in terms of users, it is the 18th most visited website in the world, with an average of 1.7 billion visits each month and 1.15 billion users.

LinkedIn audiences are highly engaged, and the platform is projected for growth. With its business-friendly audience, LinkedIn is an ideal platform for thought leadership content from executives and spokespeople representing your organization, combined with amplification (like a repost) from your company page. The algorithm favours posts from personal accounts over company pages, so your executives’ personal LinkedIn pages are an untapped way to reach your audience more effectively.

Encouraging your executives and other team members to share what events and conferences they are attending, as well as their insights into relevant business or policy news on LinkedIn is a great way for them to build their professional profiles, while also building the profile of your organization.

Partisan Politics Complicates Platform Selection

On November 6, 2024, the day after the U.S. presidential election, more than 115,000 US web visitors deactivated their X (formerly Twitter) accounts. This was a largely political stance against Elon Musk’s ownership of X and Musk’s connection to President Donald Trump.

These users may have left X, but many were still looking for a similar platform.  In the U.S., Bluesky’s daily active users for iOS and Android increased 73% in the week after the election. Threads (Meta’s Twitter-like platform) also grew in popularity at this time.

When considering what platforms, it is important to consider how simply creating an account can be viewed as a political statement. If your audience is primarily a younger demographic that is more left leaning politically, Bluesky and Threads would be a good platform for this audience. If this is not your target audience, consider an X account instead.

X still has more active users than both Threads and Bluesky and many journalists are still active users making it a worthwhile platform to keep active. Perceived political affiliation should be considered not only in creating an account but upgrading your account. Although it can be tempting to pay for a premium subscription to avoid the 280-character limit on posts, a premium subscription adds a blue checkmark next to your username so anyone can see that you are spending money on the platform.

Creating a business account on Bluesky can also be seen as a political statement because its users tend to be left leaning and often only created an account as an alternative to X in protest of its ownership.

Users Crave Authenticity

Across all social media platforms, users are looking for content with a human element. For example, users love a behind-the-scenes look at your organization such as conference and event attendance. And users love to see the people behind the organization. Across industries and platforms, content that includes photos of people always perform better than generic graphics or stock photos.

On Facebook, albums and photo posts receive the highest engagement, offering the opportunity for organizations to showcase a larger number of photos following events. This also offers the opportunity for guests to access photos of themselves at your events and reshare them on their own channels. Likewise, Instagram users can now share up to 20 photos per carousel post, allowing organizations more opportunities to share photos.

Human-centric social media posts build trust and enhance loyalty in your brand. Repurposing generic, text-only content into a video of an employee sharing the same message allows your audience and consumers to feel more connected to your organization. Internal announcements can also be repurposed as social media content when appropriate. Consider sharing a recent project success and the people who worked on it to give your social media platforms a more human feel.

Conclusion

Strategic planning is important to ensure you are getting the most out of the opportunities that social media offers. It is important to remain nimble and adaptable so you can take advantage of the latest trends, as well as review your strategies on a regular basis to ensure they are resonating with the platforms you are using and the audience you want to reach.