When you’re marketing online via search or social media, you’ll hear about algorithms.  In fact, they control much of what we see.

Algorithms are sets of rules that govern the way software operates.  Engineers at Google write algorithms to create search result pages, and engineers at Facebook write them to control what is seen on your timeline.

Algorithms for these platforms are complex, often involving hundreds of thousands of calculations.  However, the end result the engineers are shooting for are actually fairly simple.

They want to provide useful, interesting, entertaining content that is shown to be popular with other users.  The more others like and engage with your content, the more it gets shown/ranked.

Facebook demonstrates this principle clearly.  When a post gets a lot of likes, it gets shown on more people’s timelines.  Pages that have many popular posts will get their new posts exposed to more people.

On the other hand, a post that doesn’t get liked or a page with many posts that show little engagement will have a hard time getting exposure for their content.  The algorithm recognizes the content’s poor showing, and doesn’t show it as frequently.

Google search algorithms have similar goals.  It analyzes a host of engagement metrics to determine how people interact with content, and seeks to rank content that appears to engage users.

The underlying purpose of these calculations is clear:  the platforms want to show content people will approve of.  Underneath all the mathematical calculations, a popularity contest is happening.

Search engineers have dialed this in pretty well.  There is little you can do to game the system.  The way to win in search/social media marketing is to create unique content people use, enjoy, and share.

That statement, however, has many online marketers wishing for the days when they could cheat.  In many ways, it was easier to stuff keywords into content than create something engaging enough people really use and welcome it.

Today, the best way to understand algorithms is to understand the human intent behind them.  From the engineers side, and – very much – from the user’s side.

The challenge is to create content that satisfies the human equation, which as it turns out, is more difficult than trying to beat an engineer’s algorithm.