How does the social media algorithm work exactly?

If the word algorithm sends you into a spiral of overwhelm when it comes to social media, this episode is going to feel like a deep breath.

In this solo episode, Amanda finally demystifies how social media algorithms actually work in a simple, human, “ohhh that makes sense now” kind of way. 

Inside her mentorship community, Get Seen Get Sales, they call the algorithm “Big AL”… and once you see him as a person doing a job, everything clicks.

You’ll learn:

• What the algorithm really does (hint: it’s not out to get you)
• Why your post is shown to a tiny test group first
• How SEO, keywords and on-screen text help Big Al understand your content
• Why user behaviour shifts more often than the algorithm itself
• What content is performing well right now
• The simple mindset shift that will change how you show up online forever

If you’ve been feeling stuck, frustrated, or convinced the algorithm hates you, this episode will calm the noise and give you back some control.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, hello, welcome. I'm Amanda Hughes, your host of Small Business Growth Addicts. I escaped the corporate world after 12 months of a side hustle which turned into my full-time income. Fast forward 10 years and I'm running not my first but my second small business, and this time around it's with a passion to share all that I know, all that I've learned and all that I'm still learning with fellow small business owners. As the title of the show suggests, I am addicted to growing my business and I know you are too. Growth means different things to different people though, and that's why we talk about a whole host of subjects on growth addicts. Whether that's in a solo episode, just me or with one of my many awesome guests. Between us we share advice, tips and real life entrepreneurial experience. So grab a pen, a puppet and a biscuit, obviously, and get ready to grow that small business of yours. This is Small Business Growth Addicts. Hello and welcome to another episode of Small Business Growth Addicts. Thank you so much for joining us today. I see us, it's just me today actually. It's a solo episode today, and I'm hopefully going to take the fear of the algorithm away for you today. Now I know that the algorithm has become a really scary word, a really scary thing for small business owners who are using social media. Any social media platform, every social media platform has an algorithm behind it that decides how it works and who sees what and whatnot. And I read a lot of posts from small business owners saying, you know, sick of trying to please the algorithm, sick of the algorithm changes, they're just fed up dancing around with the algorithm and not knowing how it works and a cloak and dagger around it. So today I want to strip all of that away and break the algorithm down. Tell me if you agree with me in the comments at the end of this episode, leave a review, come find me on Instagram, amandahues.uk and let me know if I'm just completely delusional here or if this is the best explanation of the algorithm ever. And although I'm being quite generic, most of the algorithms on social media platforms do work the same, so I feel that this could be a one-size fits all. If you know me by now, you'll know that I love social media. It's how I've grown my businesses, and now I want to help you do the same. That's why I created Get Seen Get Sales, my mentored group for small business owners who want to get seen online and actually attract followers that convert to customers. Inside you'll get weekly content prompts, live workshops, and support on everything you need to grow confidently on social media. If you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or just ready to do things differently, I've got you. Head to smallbusinessgrowthaddicts.com to join us. First off, I want you to think of the algorithm like a person. And in my small business community, GetSeen Get Sales, which is a whole social media mentorship group, where we learn, like it says in the name, to get see and get sales on social media. We like to call them Big Al, the algorithm. I want you to think of the algorithm like a person. And Big Al has got a job to do, and he will simply get into trouble if he does it wrong. He doesn't want to lose his job, he wants to get it right. Now, when we put our content out there onto whatever platform it might be, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, you name it, the algorithm's job is to match it with the people who are going to enjoy seeing it. So he knows all of our ideal clients and he knows the type of content that they enjoy and that they interact with daily, regularly. So when he sees a new post like yours coming into the social media world, he picks up on the information that you give him in that post, keywords, things that your ideal client are searching for. He will pick up on keywords, key phrases to understand firstly what your post is about. And that's why SEO is so important, search engine optimization. So when Big Al sees a post coming in to the social media world, his job is to understand what that post is about. He does that by using all the nice juicy keywords and phrases that you include in your caption or on your text on screen and your hooks and all of that. So he's only as good as the information that we give him. When he sees that post coming in, he has to understand who will like and who will interact and who will enjoy seeing this type of post. So your reels entered Big Al's world and he thinks, okay, I understand what this post is about, and I know a group of folks who interact with this kind of content usually. So what I'm going to do is just show a small amount of them this post first and see how it goes. Now, emphasis on the small. So if your ideal client, your target audience is busy women over 40 who are looking for midlife wellness tips and advice, relaxation, breathing exercises, that kind of thing. And you've put lots of juicy keywords and phrases in there. But don't think that Big Al then shows that post to every single woman over 40 who fits that description who's using that platform. He will show it to a tiny amount of them at first because of course he doesn't want to get into trouble. He has to test the water first to make sure that he's got it right, make sure that he's understood what your post is about and that he's shown it to the right people. Emphasis on the small group that he will show that to first to make sure that he's got it right, to make sure that he's understood fully what the post is about and that he's shown to the right people. Now, when he shows him this post, he has to then assess if he's got it right. Has he got the right understanding of what your post is about? And is he showing it to the right people? If for when that small amount of people that he's shown it to first who he thinks will like this content, if they start to like and interact and share and comment and send it to other people, then he thinks, okay, Jackpot, I've got this right. I'm matchmaking perfectly here. And so therefore, he will start to show up to more people. Quick pause from our conversation because I'm wondering how you'd feel if I told you I could give you a free £50 today. Yep, if you've been thinking about moving your business bank account or perhaps you don't have a business bank account yet, I can highly recommend Monzo. And if you open an account with them via the link in today's show notes, you get a free £50. Monzo are free to bank with, I bank with them personally. It's so easy to use, and also they won Best Business Banking Provider in the UK in 2024. So if you don't have a business bank account yet or you're looking to change from where you are just now to free business banking and £50 in your account, head over to spawbusinessgrowthadicts.com for the link and enjoy. So, you know, if it's a real, for example, he's shown it to a small amount of non-followers, you know, then he might start to show it to some of your existing followers, see how they interact, and this is when it all comes together. The more people that are liking it and interacting with it, the more people that will get to see it. If the small test pool that he sent it to are not interacting, they're not responding, they're not liking, they're not commenting, you know, it's it's not, then that will just start to dwindle. He will think, okay, I've got this wrong, they're not responding, no one's watching this to the end, no one's scrolling through this carousel. He'll think, oh my god, I've got that wrong, I'll need to pull back on that one. I've either not properly understood what it's about, or I'm not showing it to the right people who are interested in this type of content. Can you see how that's as simple as it is? The algorithm is there to match make our content with people who want to see it. Like, of course, there's the the algorithm is not personally out to get you. It doesn't want you to fail. If it did, these platforms wouldn't work. They wouldn't exist, they wouldn't be growing, they wouldn't have billions of users, they wouldn't be making money because no one would use them if it didn't work. But the key here is knowing how they work and understanding how they work. Now, the algorithm itself doesn't change that often. Like I think in March 2025, there was only a few, like maybe two or three sort of major shifts in the algorithm. What changes most is user behaviour, but that's what changes most. So we constantly are told or think that it's the algorithm is out to get us, it's getting harder and harder to get seen on the likes of Instagram, Facebook, etc. etc. But it's user behaviour that changes, and you'll know that yourself if you are a user of these platforms that you know you're maybe not following quite as quickly now because your feed's so full and you've been becoming a bit more curated about who you follow and who you want shown up in your feed. So your ideal clients are just in the same mindset. So content creation shifts into that. Before, at one point, you know, brandied slides were really good for carousels. You know, you had your brand colour on there, some nice old text, boom, that was it, the job was done. Now, as I say this in the 2nd of December 2025, or quite enjoying carousels as just casual images. I mean, my the carousels that are taking off for me recently, and I mean really taken off, bringing in tons of followers. So they're being shown not only to my existing followers but non-followers as well. Loads of engagements on them. The images are just images I'm taking while I'm out walking the dog, like crop trees, and even like a mushroom ring that I've seen. Like, I mean, they're nothing special or out of the ordinary. But what's different on these is my messaging. What's standing me apart is my messaging bold text hooks gateway that are just acting as a gateway to my story. I'm telling my story in there, I'm being honest, I'm not using AI as well, you know. So we had a period there where AI was doing brilliantly for creating captions for us, and we were all really into it, but quickly people got sick of that and wanted more than ever right now to have that human connection. So it's user experiences that change more than anything, and that's one of the major reasons why I created the community that I have get seen, get sales at its core. It's a social media mentorship community, but it's so much more than that. And if you caught our previous episodes where our members are actually chatting about what it's like in there, but there's collaborations and friendships and all sorts of relationships building in there out with us, growing and learning how to grow on social media. But what I do in there is keep our members up to date with what's working on social media right now, not last year, not even last month. You know, at one point I remember seeing in there brandied slides for carousels, this is the way to go, get yourself set up in Canva. And then, like, you know, maybe six weeks or so later, okay, I'm noticing a shift, this is changing. And without that, you know, how on earth are you going to keep up with this? Because the big major algorithm changes are announced. Like Adam Maseri as the head of Instagram, he's very vocal on Instagram, and he's often announcing that something has shifted and telling us how to get reaching, etc., using the algorithm. It's not really algorithm changes that are the problem here. We're aware of them, it's user behaviour. And that's where someone like me, who's a social media mentor, comes in to keep you up to date. So I hope that I'm not entirely delusional and I hope that thinking of the algorithm as a person, call him Big Al within our mentorship group, we have actually created an avatar of him. So, yeah, and we like to think, what would Big Al do? When I'm creating this content, is there enough information here for Big Al to fully understand what it's about? And of course, we've always got our ideal client in mind. Every post is a post with purpose, it should be a one-to-one conversation with your ideal client. So when we're posting, we're thinking, is there enough information for the algorithm to understand what this post is about? And also, is this something that my ideal client would find interesting based on what's working on social media right now? And if that just feels completely overwhelming to you, come and join us. If you join GetSeen Get Sales in December 2025, you are getting your first month half price, making it only £20. That is GBP to join us. So honestly, it's a steal. I'm gonna link to that in the show notes, including the exclusive code that you need. Come and join us. Come and join us and take away all of this guesswork because I'll do it for you. Come and join me, who is a proper social media geek and a data geek and studies this sort of stuff so that you don't have to. Okay, I'm gonna leave that there, short and sweet today. I hope that was enjoyable. Please come and tell me if that is a good explanation of the algorithm or if I've completely lost a thought. Okay, speak soon. Thank you so much for joining us today for another episode of Small Business Growth Addicts. I hope today's episode has given you inspiration and tangible tips that you can use to grow your small business in a way that feels right for you. If you love today's episode, please head over to smallbusinessgrowthadicts.com and check out today's show notes where you can find details of our wonderful guests, sponsors, discounts, freebies, and so much more. Please also don't forget to leave a review today. Reviews are invaluable to us to help us get the show out there. Every single one is read and very much appreciated. Until next time.