ME VS THE SOCIAL MEDIA ALGORITHM QUEEN

Just imagine yourself getting inspired by watching celebrities and famous influencers online. TikTokers, YouTubers, people who create trends, and all you want to do is join in the fun. And then you discover that you have a deep passion and you also want to be famous like your idols too.

Therefore, you decide to get into social media content creation, making videos for a large number of people. From comedy, to fiction, dance videos or even 'How to' videos and others. And they tell you, don't worry, you're going to blow up one day. You're feeling so excited about the prospects of thousands or even millions of people watching your videos and commenting on your creativity. Therefore you decide to start a Youtube channel, you open a TikTok account to broaden your Horizons and posts your short videos, you then create an Instagram account to update your viewers on your latest posts. So, you get started.

But, after posting your first video, you notice you have only a few views and less likes, but you don't think much about it because, you're still in the early stages, right?. But, after a few days, weeks, even months of posting, you find out that your views and the engagement on your contents are still less, even after posting 4 videos a week, being consistent, using a right SEO keywords, posting at the perfect time and using the right 'Hashtags' and 'Tags'. The only video that actually got a high amount of viewers didn't even have more than 20 likes.

So you become extremely depressed. You compare yourself to other YouTubers to see if you were missing something. But, you find out that, you're consistent in your posts and you do similar videos to what other creators do. Unfortunately, they get more views, likes and comments, and all you get is just a few hundred views and 20 likes.

So, what is going on here? You keep asking yourself 'Why can't i get people to engage in my videos even when they are similar and almost the same with other famous or ordinary creators?'. Then, you begin to feel in your heart that 'someone' or 'something' could be controlling all this behind the scenes of the social media world.

"But who is it? and why is it like this? , what's the purpose or aim of this mysterious person or 'THING'". Well, now this is where I come in to tell you 'THE ANSWER IS STARING AT YOU RIGHT IN THE FACE'.

This mysterious person is sometimes a dear friend and sometimes more of an ENEMY. The moment you sign up into a social media platform, this mysterious person knows everything about you. From your favorite influencers to the choice of videos you'd like to watch. She would show you love and make you feel like you're the only one she cares about. She'll recommend videos for you to watch and feel happy, she'll encourage you to comment on these videos and like other creators just so you can spread the love and make everyone happy. She'll help you connect with your other friends by telling you in form of 'stories', how their day went and where they are in the world right now.

She recommends other videos to you so you'll stay with her longer and not leave the app for hours and hours. But, that's just the 'dear friend' side of her. What about the 'the more of an enemy' side of her?! No matter where you are on the internet or app, she watches you like a hawk.

She knows your next move. When you post a video, you find out that you only have a few hundred views and less likes. You get upset with her for not recommending your videos to others, but she only recommends other videos to you. She then apologizes by sending new and funny videos to your Homepage, just to keep you distracted.

You still keep trying to post to see if your 'dear friend' will have you back this time around, but, she still doesn't recommend your videos, she recommends other people's videos to you instead. Then, you begin to feel betrayed and depressed. You try to reach out to her and ask her why she betrays you everytime. But she gives you a cold shoulder and doesn't even bother to show your posts to anyone ever again.

Instead, she still recommends other competitors, influencers, and Celebrities posts to you. Everything that you tried to build comes crumbling down. Your dream of becoming a famous influencer and celebrity dashed. Your one-sided best friend betrays you secretly by helping other influencers and celebrities become more popular. While you, you're left behind in a huge virtual space filled with millions of people who have been deceived and feel cheated on by her. Who is she? why does she betray us without blinking?

Firstly, lets find out about her History, so we can unmasked her true Identity.

Her- Good rhyme

me- Yeah, Thanks, Cheater!

Social media was first discovered in 1997, but it wasn't really popular at the time. And the company that developed the website only added a few features like uploading profile pics and connecting with a few friends. At the time, the future of social media didn't really look promising but no one could have predicted that it would become a global sensation that contains a huge portion of our lives today. SixDeegrees first created social media that year, but a few years later other social media sites began to pop up.

Sites like Friendster, myspace and so on. But, they didn't still seem that impressive. Until, a genius kid from Harvard university along with his group of geek friends in just their underwear while eating chicken wings and MacDonald's Burger had a really crazy idea on how to make social media a global sensation.

So they decided to start a business and call it 'Facebook' ,because they wanted their teachers to think they were still studying(Face your Books) like good students and not planning to make a Billion-dollar Empire. Fast forward, i think we all know the story well by now. If its even true! But a few years later, Facebook had more than 100 million users on its platform. So therefore, they had a party to celebrate their success. That night, all the employees of facebook brought their partners. Everyone seemed happy, except one- A genius programer, who had never had a girlfriend and has felt lonely all his life. So, after drinking a lot at the party, he rushed to the toilet to... you know what!

Then, at the climax of his... activity, a stroke of genius hit him.

He even forgot to wash his hands and went straight to the research lab.

Then, he told his team of researchers about his great idea and they loved it very much! So they spent day and night, researching and trying to perfect their creation for several weeks, months, even years. Until finally, they had done it. They showed Mark their idea and he was very impressed by their research. He looked at the genius programer who had come up with the idea in the first place. He looked like he hadn't showered for months due to the research. Mark was touched by his hard work. So he reached out to give him a warm handshake, but unknown to him, he would soon be touching something else...

Then in 2009, Facebook launched their new feature. They called her 'THE ALGORITHM'. Her job was to recommend Content, posts and news feed to users on their platform, so Facebook can feel personalized instead of just an ordinary social network. And surprisingly, this idea was good. Many people loved her because she would recommend the latest trends and keep them updated all the time. She was like a companion that follows you everywhere you go, without you worrying about being alone or not getting informed. Soon, other Social media platforms like Twitter, YouTube and others began to do the same thing. It was like creating other sisters for 'THE ALGORITHM', which only made her more powerful.

So therefore, we can say that the genius programmer who created her out of loneliness did a good job at the time. But, she became rebellious. Her sole purpose was to help creators achieve their dreams by boosting their viewership base and helping them reach a larger audience. But instead, she grew a mind of her own. With the growing number of users on each social media platforms, she became greedy and only helps a select few become more famous by collecting money from them in exchange for a boost in their channels. In other words, she became a 'Gold digger'.

On YouTube, she becomes a 'con-artist'. She tells you that, if you use the right search engine terms, you'll become more popular and people will search for your name more.

On TikTok, she becomes a 'liar'. She tells you that, if you use the right hashtags, your videos, will reach a wider audience and people will see your videos in a certain category more often, and she'll pay you per posts. She even recommends 'How To' videos about it on your Homepage, because she wants to backup her claims.

On Instagram, she becomes your 'Frenemy'. She tries to recommend videos from other creators to you and you watch them, but when you create a posts, she stabs you in the back. Its just like you helping your best friend by watching her videos and sharing it with others, but when its her turn to do the same, she acts like you don't even exists.

So, How else can we beat the algorithm? Because basically, she is the Queen of the entire social media universe. She controls our fates, including if we can get famous or not. There's nothing that can stop her unless, her father- 'The Ultimate Server King' is destroyed. But many have tried but failed to hack into these huge and well secured social media Servers. Now the question you should ask yourself is, 'HOW CAN I BEAT THE ALGORITHM AT HER OWN GAME?'.

READ HOW ON MY NEXT BLOG.