Threads has emerged as one of the best candidates to replace X, formerly known as Twitter, as the top microblogging social media platform in the world. It currently has 130 million active users, and brands are interested because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up providing them another avenue for marketing and engagement. Most brands are currently dipping their toes into Threads for now, but chances are that they will increase their investments moving forward.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Meta just provided some insights into the manner in which the Threads algorithm works at this current point in time. This is largely due to the seemingly random nature of engagement on the platform, with some posts receiving an excellent reception and others fading away without making all that much of a mark.
There are a few key factors at play here, starting with how many posts you’ve seen in your feed already. The number of posts you’ve liked as well as how many of a particular author’s posts you’ve clicked like on also get factored into the mix, along with the number you saw in your feed compared with the total quantity shown.
These factors determine the level of likelihood that you will like a specific post, but Meta also mentioned the probability of you following a particular author as well. Once again, the number of posts you’ve seen comes up as an important element, along with the amount of time that you’ve been active on Threads for so far. Threads also considers the authors that you have recently followed, how frequently you visit said a particular author’s profile, as well as whether or not the post contained language that violates community guidelines.
It bears mentioning that a lot of the details mentioned here are specific to Instagram, which might end up making them less useful than might have been the case otherwise. Viewing an author’s Instagram profile supposedly increased the chances that you would follow them on Threads, but that’s not necessarily going to be how things play out in some way, shape or form.
Certain things that are worth considering have to do with how reactions to your post can influence your place in the algorithm. If a user were to hide your posts, this would essentially indicate to the algorithm that they aren’t interested in your content which may lead to a lower ranking with all things having been considered and taken into account.
The algorithm is meant to customize the user experience, and based on the insights Meta has provided, it appears to be a boilerplate recommendation engine. However, the vagueness of some of the descriptions may actually raise more questions than they answer, and it will be interesting to see whether or not this impacts businesses that are considering checking Threads out. As of right now, Threads appears to be similar to the Wild West in that its algorithm is still untested and many aren’t quite sure of how they can use it to their advantage. An influx of more active users may help to demystify the way things work on the platform in the future.
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