#PHEW finally a real update with a timeline and everything!!

[khttrpg]

V0.2 Release Schedule

Hey all! Apologies for the long period on hiatus. Amongst other things I am now back on The Good Meds (fingers crossed no allergic reaction this time) and have gotten through the worst of several sudden tragedies in a row. So we're finally back on track to talk really seriously about KHTTRPG V0.2! (Sorry for the long wait!!)

Right now, the plan is to have the entirety of 0.2 released by May 31st, 2023 - about a month and a half from today. Whether I will release these in modular bits and pieces up to that point or if I will wait and release it all in May is currently tossed out to the voting populace, but regardless, this will be the final release date for all involved text!

I've compiled a list of all the updates under the cut so you can see what exactly took me so long! I've also included a few of the things I'm hoping to start working on after V0.2 comes out, life permitting. Examples of some of these will be posted in the next couple days to give a sense of what's coming, but feel free to ask any questions you may have! and keep in mind this isn't everything, just the big things! (:

Core Rules Changes

Major change to how Reducing a CR works, inspired primarily by Caltrop Core.

Addition of Memory mechanics.

Trading out and removal of certain redundant Talents for more useful ones.

Simplification of the Light/Darkness rules.

Less complex and more balanced levelling.

Addition of many, and better integration overall of, Abilities as a core part of the gameplay.

The return of EXP, but in a much simpler, easier to account for format.

Combat Changes

A pretty large, sweeping combat change – trading out of the “Attack Stat” for specific attack abilities that follow a code of Union Cross-inspired Power, Speed, and Magic Attacks; a generally more Ability-oriented combat system.

Complete rehaul of building enemies and how to run combat itself.

General attempts to find a middle ground between “my stats determine I lose this fight no matter what” and “this combat takes 7 full hours and 8 dice.”

A guide for how an MM can “map out” a battlefield to keep track of relative locations without losing the flow.

A specific list of damage types, and minor changes to the list of conditions.

More organized and elaborate options for combat rewards.

Classes

Adding passive abilities to the Keyblade class such as “able to open locks with a visible keyhole.”

Major changes to every class to account for the shift to a more Ability-oriented combat system.

A full recreation of the Witch class based on new Memory mechanics.

Magic

Adding an option to recharge MP through actions on your turn in addition to its passive gain over time.

Changes learning and upgraded spells to AP instead of stat-reliant.

Other

General language changes, typo corrections, addition of flavor text or examples to clarify unclear rules, etc.

Things that Won’t be in V0.2, but are on the docket for the future!

Weapon classes (as of right now, I have over 10 of these on the list to work on! These will likely be first priority after V0.2.)

Expanded shops/items

Gummi Ship rules, Synthesizing rules

NPC Ally rules

Further job classes (currently on list: Engineer, Berserker, Summoner, some sort of class based on Light/Darkness scores and neutrality)

Design updates...making it look pretty......making a functional pretty character sheet...........Art TM (maybe)

A new official name for the system, for "wait a second. this is kind of rude to the KH ttrpgs other people have made" purposes! (The URL will stay. I'm not giving up this prestige.)

[thewebcomicsreview]

Homestuck 2 Liveblog, Part 3 

(See older parts here or on Tumblr here)

Chapter 3: How Are your feelings

We’ve got a new ship, which appears to have sails for some reason, and it’s either rocketing forward with determination, or crashing. Presumably, this is the ship containing the Meatworld Crew, who set out to rescue Rose from Dirk’s mind control. God, this plot is so complicated.

In anyone else’s hands, this is just a microphone. In my hands it’s a pipe boat. 

The one spoiler I had for this chapter was that the ship design was stupid, and...yes. That says “Grandpa Harley” a lot more than the Theseus did, though I don’t think Canon Jake ever smoked.

Oh boy, the narration text is in the first person. It’s also lowercase, so one presumes this is Calliope, in Jade’s body? I thought Calliope was trying to maintain the role of invisible narrator, though, and she’s calling attention to herself more obviously than any of the other narrators.

Me on my way to steal your girl by possessing her and floating around all creepy for three years

JADE: the prince’s power grows.

KARKAT: JESUS CHRIST!

Heh. This art is really nice. Jade’s speaking in Calliope’s red text, so she is indeed possessed by Calliope. Poor Jade. Homestuck proper is 8,192 pages. The epilogue is 100,000 words, and we’re 100 pages into Homestuck 2. Jade has been stuck on a boat, possessed, unconscious, dead,possessed again, or otherwise out of the story since Cascade, all the way back on page 4,109. No wonder she became a hedonist. Of course, who’s fault is it that Jade missed the final battle.

(From Homestuck 1). 

I always read this as foreshadowing that Jade would get a big moment, and it never happened. Hopefully someone on the writing team remembers that Jade is supposed to roar to life and show everyone who’s the real master. But for now, alas, the real master is Calliope, hypocritically fighting for the free will of all by taking Jade out of the story again. Anyway, that was a long tangent and a lot of search (give me back the .txt file of the whole comic, Viz!) back to Homestuck 2.

Oh hey, DaveKat is canon now, I forgot. It’s mildly annoying that Dave and Calliope are in the same scene with the same text color, but whatev.

Aww, Karkat’s wearing Dave’s shirt. How cute. Less cute: Calliope’s added her red to Jade’s outfit, including her logo. She’s really just as evil as Dirk, isn’t she?

Also, I don’t know if this sprite style quite works for a “leaning up in bed pose”

This just looks odd. Probably doesn’t help that we’re see Dave without shades for I believe the first time ever.

KARKAT: OH, PARDON THE FUCK OUT OF ME FOR OVERREACTING A LITTLE WHEN MY GOOD FRIEND "POSSESSED JADE" BUSTS INTO MY RESPITEBLOCK AT 5 AM!

Aw, I missed this, a Karkat tantrum.

I like this dynamic. But if they’ve been on this boat as long as Dirk has been on his, Jade’s been possessed for three years.

Why are Dirk and Calliope’s powers growing, though? Especially Calliope, shouldn’t she be maxed out by now? She literally ate Lord Engl-

....

Oh

Calliope is powerful enough to escape Candyland because she ate Lord English, and Lord English is partially comprised of Dirk, so there’s quite literally a little bit of Dirk inside Calliope right now. That’s maybe something to keep in the back of our minds, but now I’m theorycrafting. 

The only way twenty-somethings can afford an apartment this night is if they live somewhere with a killer commute, which is why it takes three years to get anywhere

Okay, phew. So this Roxy is trans, but the Roxy on Candyland isn’t. That’s something I’m going to have to be careful to remember lest I use the wrong pronoun for the wrong one and everyone gets mad at me.

Dirk, like the coffee, getting roasted here

So, has this crew not been chasing Dirk for three years, or has Dave just been all “I sure am comfortable with you being trans now” incessantly from age 23 to age 26? I guess that’s pretty in-character for him. Everyone seems to not be used to a situation they should be used to be now so far, but maybe that’s just for our benefit as readers who can’t remember all this nonsense? 

I love how Kanaya the Fashion Troll is basically the only character in the entire franchise to go “Fuck I haven’t been onscreen in over ten years I should change my look”. The big bow is Rose’s from way back when her and Kanaya first met, which is a cute nod. 

Okay I get that they want to remind these things to the reader, but Dave. Dude. She’s your sister-in-law. She’s been your sister-in-law for 7 to 10 years depending on how long you’ve been on that boat and she’s been a vampire that whole time. Someone give this boy a set of flash cards, Jesus Christ! 

OBVIOUS FORESHADOWING ALERT: This story is about a “young prince”, and this is going to be a metaphor. The young prince is Dirk, the Prince of Time, and the Rose is....Rose. 

Aww, this is cute. I should have put on Kanaya’s Theme while reading this, it fits the mood of the scene really well.

Oh man, none of these people know John’s dead

fffffffffffffffff

Okay, so that’s 7 years between the end of Homestuck 1 and the Homestuck Epilogues. Dirk’s been on his boat for three years, but we’re with the Meat Crew at the start of their journey, (which means Roxy only recently came out as trans, which I guess makes it less weird that Dave is still processing it).

But god, this is a lot of timelines to keep track of. I guess it’s fun in a way, being intensely convoluted was part of the fun of trying to piece together Homestuck 1′s plot, but I think I’m this close to busting out a white board where and how old everyone is actually fuck it

God as my witness, I will one day have a vague understanding of what the fuck is going on in Homestuck and I will die trying! 

This seems metatextual, in that the characters are more complete when they have like a goal and stuff. Or it might be the Homestuck 2 writers taking a subtle jab at the Epilogue writers, that everyone’s better off having left the epilogues behind and moving on to Homestuck 2. That might be reading too much into it. 

Of course, as soon as I say that we cut from Dave talking about how everything’s better to Karkat talking about how everything’s worse.

Wait, non-god Calliope is on the ship? UGH, the whiteboard already needs to be updated! The epilogues implied she was too scared of god-Calliope to leave her room, so I’d assumed she’d stayed behind. Damn it.

Heh. Also: Huh? Karkat is making a lot of assumptions here, given that Terezi, Sollux, and Aradia are all alive, he never saw Gamzee die, and Vriska dying just made her more powerful.

And that’s the update! I like these character interactions, even though they’re mostly just sitting around and naval-gazing like in Act 6 and the epilogues, because at least it’s got some jokes it feels like it’s all going somewhere. And starting next month, it’s going to be going there twice as fast

[moonraccoon-exe]

Episode Aranea Timeline In-Game + Loqi Survives Proof

Not going to lie, I’m writing this just to prove that Loqi Tummelt survives in the game lol, but if you want to read this just so you know when Episode Aranea takes place and how it was always show in-game before any of the multiple updates and long before any DLC, hence how the developers always knew the story and perhaps also always intended to include it, you go ahead!

That said, I’m going to add a keep reading here:

Needless to say, you need to either have read the Dawn of the Future novel, or at least a summary of someone who has. Personally, I’m basing myself on this post. 

Talking with @asoeiki, we were trying to make sense when Episode Aranea happens. At first, nothing seemed to make sense and I was scared the developers had fucked up on the timeline and it didn’t fit with the canon, but then, while brainstorming, I came up with the answer that later on seems to be 100% correct. 

As summary: Episode Aranea happens after the Altissia events, but before the main game’s chapter 12, Tenebrae.

Keep reading if you want further proof/explanation.

The story didn’t finish making sense time-wise because of two characters: Biggs and Wedge. They couldn’t be with Aranea and Noctis at the same time, so we all assumed it had to happen after Biggs and Wedge take us to Gralea. Perhaps because the novel was released so long after the game, and because they never stablish an exact date, so we all just assumed things happened after the chocobros infiltrated Zegnautus. No one mentions anything from Aranea’s episode’s events so it had to happen after the main story.

Wrong. We’ve been looking at it the wrong way. It all happens not only before the bros enter Gralea, but long before we reach Tenebrae.

Here’s what we know:

Altissia happens. We go straight to Nif territory, off to Cartanica, off to Tenebrae. We have to stop here to make an important note: none of this happens in a day or two.

We know the guys took days to recover from Altissia, and even if it’s just a few couple days, it’s still days. The map and whole game are, say, “reduced” to a more playable size that is enough for us to understand, but the real sizes are way bigger (you can’t travel across half the world in a couple hours, that’s only in-game time for us players). So, thinking about it real-sized, we’ve got to understand they’re traveling sea and a continent.

That said, we must count the days they spent to recover from Altissia, to the days/hours on the ocean, to the days on the train, the day(s) at Cartanica. Even if it’s just a week, it’s still a couple days, not just one or two. 

Acknowledging the time that passed before reaching Tenebrae is important to clear out Episode Aranea has time to happen between Altissia and Tenebrae: the summary says Aranea has spent “35 hours” oh duty at a flooded Altissia. 35 hours between the chocobros’ recovery or journey through Nif territory and before Tenebrae makes sense just fine. Biggs and Wedge are with her.

They fly to Gralea, where they find Diamond Weapon wrecking the city and Ardyn being an ass, but long story short, Aranea fights her way to the roof while Biggs and Wedge help children evacuate.

It’s mentioned here that Emperor Iedolas is still alive at this point, saying his last words.

Aranea fights Ardyn. Keep it in mind for later.

She sees Diamond Weapon being put in an aircraft, so she asks Ardyn what he’s doing, and he says that he plans to let it loose at Tenebrae. Biggs and Wedge radio her to tell her they put the refugees on a train to Tenebrae. Keep that in mind.

Here’s when she meets Loqi.

Loqi opens the cockpit of his MA-X Cuirass to show her his cargo: the Emperor asked from him to transport an 8-year-old girl to safety, and she’s with him. 

Now, the whole bit from the summary: 

“ -Loqi entrusts the child to her and quietly says thank you as a swarm of daemons approach. As Aranea heads for the train and Tenebrae, she watches him fight in his Magitek armor, and hears him announce “Glory to the Niflheim Empire!” Aranea tells her Airborne Unit that their final mission is to protect Tenebrae. “

SO, this bit sounds super spooky. If literally anyone reads this, it’s pretty clear that this is stating that he dies. Giving away the girl that was personally trusted to him so someone else can do his job feels like a way of saying he can’t do it anymore. Quietly saying thanks feels like he knows he’s going to die. A swarm of daemons approaching, Aranea turning back to see him (a common trope when “it’s a last time”/a character dies), him heading headfirst into the fight alone and yelling GLORY TO THE EMPIREEEEEEEEE...geez, well fuck, that boy is going to die!

Right?

WRONG.

FUCK YOU.

WE’RE ALL WRONG, WE ALL INTERPRETED THAT THE WRONG WAY. BOY AIN’T DEAD. HE’S JUST IN DANGER, and not only does he not die but he COMES BACK ALIVE JUST FINE! MECH INCLUDED!!!!!!!!!

We’ll get there, lmao, promise.

Proving that Episode Aranea happens before the chocobros arrive to Tenebrae is essential to understand Loqi’s fate, and how it is that he survives.

Now, let’s take all that we learned in this post, and watch the whole of chapter 12 make sense (I replayed the intro just for this post, but you can go check by yourselves):

When the bros arrive to Tenebrae, it’s already on fire. 

Aranea says hello. Noctis asks “Guess we’ve got you to thank for this mess?” and we follow her, etc.

Her answer: “Thank the daemons”.

Thank the daemons, Tenebrae on fire; clicks on you? Ardyn transporting Diamond Weapon and saying he’s going to release it on Tenebrae to destroy it?

“Thank the daemons” = Aranea is talking about Diamond Weapon.

If the bros arrived and Tenebrae is already on fire, Diamond Weapon was already there. If Diamond Weapon was already there, then the whole mess back at Gralea, with Aranea fighting Ardyn and the whole chaos of the city and the evacuation, it all had to happen before Diamond Weapon’s attack on Tenebrae, and hence, before the bros’ arrival.

This pretty much completely confirms Episode Aranea takes place before the main game’s chapter 12. 

And no, Aranea’s “Thank the daemons” is NOT a coincidence that just happens to fit in. There is WAY enough proof all over Tenebrae that the developers always knew all about Episode Aranea and always intended to include it.

Heck, they put clues of the aftermath everywhere. They just didn’t make sense because we didn’t have the info, but now that we do, allow me to give you more proof on how the developers made chapter 12 thinking on the aftermath of Episode Aranea and they didn’t just write Episode Aranea after the release of the game and searched for a way to make it fit in:

1. Aranea’s “thank the daemons” clears out a lot.

2. When you talk to Biggs and Wedge, they know a lot about Gralea’s current state. May not confirm anything, but it shows they were there just a few days ago/the day before.

3. There is an optional conversation that basically CONFIRMS Episode Aranea was written during the game’s production and not afterwards. I tried to look for an english gameplay to show you as a proof but all gameplays I found on youtube skipped the optional convo and went straight to talk with Maria, but you can go check by yourselves. Didn’t record mine because I didn’t know it would happen and I’ve got it in JPN with spanish subtitles & didn’t want to repeat the whole thing just to switch the language lol.

Basically, after Biggs and Wedge tell you they’ll wait at the train, and before you talk to Maria, you can try to talk with Aranea. She lets out a sigh and says something that more or less translates to “Phew, the Chancellor sure put up quite a show”.

HMM???? You see my point? What does she mean with that, if not everything from her Episode? The climax is basically when she finds out Ardyn is behind it all and he lets loose Diamond Weapon, he announces to the whole city “the empire ends today”, etc. THAT’S putting up “quite a show”. She’s talking about that, why else would she make the slightest mention of Ardyn?

4. Sol, the granddaughter of Emperor Iedolas. We meet her in-game. She was always there. 

@mogquicksilver sent me this tweet: https://twitter.com/macarath/status/1121250148846149636

The picture on the right is a concept art of Sol from the novel. The picture on the left is the little girl we meet after we talk to Maria. It’s the girl that asks Noctis if he was excited for the wedding and how Luna was excited for it. 

First of all, it always seemed sort of odd that they made up a whole model of a child just to have her in a small cutscene. Her approaching always felt important, but it turned out to never be. Until now.

First off, she’s at Tenebrae at the same time that Aranea is, clue 1 to her being Sol.

Clue 2, she speaks about how Lunafreya “looked so happy when the dress arrived”. 

“Oh! But moon raccoon, if she’s the granddaughter of the emperor, how can she know Luna? Why does she speak like she lived at Tenebrae?”

WELL, MY DEAR READER. There’s an important thing to remember!

See how no one in the world knows about Sol? Just Iedolas?

If no one knew about Sol, and it says so in the summary post, it’s because Sol is a secret heir of the throne. Her dad never said anything about her, the imperials think he died without ever having a kid. But how do you keep a child hidden from the entire empire and world for eight years? 

Easy. You send her away to grow up somewhere else, with someone else, not saying who she is.

If Sol grew up in the imperial palace, people would know about her, but no one does, so it’s clear she didn’t grow up in Gralea. So where could the prince have hidden her?

Well. Accordo is more or less independent. They’re enemies with Lucis. Can’t keep her in Niflheim. What’s the only other place in the world?

Tenebrae.

Tenebrae, more specifically, the palace, which is taken by the imperials, but not flooded by them. Controlled by Niflheim, but not so strictly as Niflheim’s inside itself. A perfect spot to hide an heir; imperial territory, but ironically also relatively safe from the empire itself.

That could explain how the child knows Lunafreya.

“Oh but then what was she doing at Gralea? If she was at Tenebrae, why was she at Gralea when shit went down?”

WELL, THERE’S A THING CALLED VISITING GRANDPA EVERY NOW AND THEN AND NOT KNOWING THE DAY YOU VISIT IS THE DAY SHIT GOES DOWN, YOU KNOW.

And it also makes sense because as Episode Aranea goes, Iedolas is dying. Wouldn’t you think he wanted to see his granddaughter a last time? Of course he would ask if they could bring Sol just so he can see her a last time. His son died, his wife died, he’s dying, his empire is falling...as evil as he is, he’s human, and he has a granddaughter. Of course he wanted to see her. Or see him as evil; still would have wanted to see her. As he dies, he claims “Sol....heim will raise again”. He must have told Sol to never forget she is the heir and to claim the throne when time comes, that sort of things.

Another thing that makes sense to Episode Aranea happening before the game’s chapter 12 is the fact that in Episode Aranea the Emperor is still alive. Aranea mentions to “see him dead from the Scourge at the throne”. She saw him, not his clothes like we see in chapter 13. If he was still a corpse, he had yet not transformed into a daemon.

So it’s possible that Iedolas turned into a daemon way, way before the chocobros arrive to Zegnautus, and he’s been wandering about, hence why we never see him transform & only see the clothes, whereas Aranea sees him as a corpse.

((”but Ravus transformed within minutes”, yes but that’s because it’s Ardyn’s doing, Ardyn who controls the Scourge and possibly how fast or slow it advances, plus, Ravus is only halfway turned, where Iedolas was a full daemon by then))

So basically Episode Aranea always happened and the developers put all of it to the naked eye on chapter 12, not even hiding anything or being subtle about it. We just didn’t know what we were seeing because we lacked the info.

Tenebrae on fire, the Nif ships, the girl, Aranea, nothing was there by mere coincidence, and they didn’t write the novel to fit what is in the game. Of course it didn’t. They always knew and always intended for it to be this way.

Another note to support the proof is that when we arrive to Gralea in chapter 13, it’s already deserted. Evacuation already happened. And as a note, the people on Tenebrae lamenting and crying are not the refugees Aranea saves, those are the people of the train Noct and co were on. The refugees Aranea saves arrived way earlier, and have no reasons to be around, not necessarily.

Now, you’re wondering, where the fuck is anywhere here proof that Loqi survived? Why did you make me read this entire bible and not say anything about Loqi more than what we already knew?

Well.

Remember...why Tenebrae was always such a famous and brain-breaking place for us Loqi fans?

Yep.

Because his mech is there.

Here’s a comparative just to clear out that it is his mech and not a random one:

The red...”shoulder” thing on the right arm, the letters SA on the right arm, the emblem on the right leg, same colors, same “hands”. It’s Loqi’s mech, not a single doubt.

Now, here’s the only question that you need to see how Loqi survived to Episode Aranea:

If he died at Gralea, and Gralea happened before Tenebrae...what is his mech doing at Tenebrae?

I think it’s pretty clear now, but I shall go a bit deeper into it if you need to be more convinced lol

Okay, so the last we see of Loqi is that spooky scene where he seems to say bye forever before throwing himself headfirst into a hoard of daemons, so it’s very easy to assume he died. 

But isn’t it the exact same situation than the game’s ending itself? The last we see of Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto is them turning around to face a hoard of daemons to hold them back while Noctis does his stuff, almost a parallel to Loqi turning around and yelling for Niflheim’s glory as he holds the daemons back for Aranea to escape with Sol. 

For a very long time, a lot of people assumed the bros had died, and with the Royal expansion it was cleared out that they survived. The scene is super dismal (?) and it can easily make people think it’s meant as a message that says “they died heroically”; them turning to face daemons alone. It’s the same for Loqi!!

Just because the last we see of him is him fighting a hoard of daemons alone doesn’t mean he necessarily died there. And the proof? The fact that his mech appears at Tenebrae during chapter 12, which we’ve cleared out happens a day or more after all of Episode Aranea.

So, I highly doubt that Aranea, Biggs, Wedge, or anyone else returned to Gralea, knowing the state it was in, just to retrieve Loqi’s mech. Maybe his body, if any, but the mech? Too big, too much, too...unimportant, unnecessary, even stupid. Why save somebody’s mech to honor them? Plus, it’s Aranea. As kind and warm as we know her heart is, I doubt she went back risking her life to save a mech just to honor him. Heck, she considers him annoying, if she was to mourn him at all she still wouldn’t go as far as to recover his entire machine, it’d be with anything else, or without a material something, I don’t see anyone, let alone her, retrieving a mech from a daemon-swamped place just...as a tombstone?

Hence, no one retrieved the mech. Someome piloted it to Tenebrae.

And we all know the MA-X Cuirass has only one pilot. (˘⌣˘)❤

And if we want to add a bit more to the theory, remember there’s a few implicit possible winks to Loqi in Comrades, minor things really, but that we would talk about here long ago and hope they meant Loqi, such as the men talking about befriending a ��former mech pilot’ and one of the mission’s descriptions saying something along the lines of “a former imperial general reports...”.

That being said, I hope that I could help to clear out the timeline of FFXV storyline and how Episode Aranea fits in it, and I hope that I’ve proved that Loqi Tummelt survives the events of Episode Aranea, and hence, possibly survived the whole thing.

Thank you for reading! 

[let-us-shine-starlight]

Time Travel Manager - BTS X Doctor Who Fanfic

Title: Time Travel Manager Rating: Mature (Swearing, Mature Themes such as mental health issues and trauma) Characters: MC, The Doctor, All of BTS. No Pairings as of yet. Description: Lyra is a time traveller who travels through time and space with the Doctor. She's been doing it for many years now and nothing much surprises her anymore, until they crash land in Korea 2012 and she discovers her future self has given her CV to a company called Big Hit. She now has a job to bring a boy band together and get them to their debut. It just so happens that band is BTS. Can she manage BTS? Can she do the job her future self seems to think she can? THIS IS BTS WORLD INSPIRED MULTICHAPTER FANFIC.

“Oh come on, Doctor, let me choose when and where we go this time!” I said, hovering over the TARDIS’s control panel.

“I guess I have done a lot of the choosing recently…” she said, tapping her chin.

“Exactly, this one time?” I begged a little more.

She stared at me seriously, almost as if she was staring into my very soul, something she did an awful lot of the time…but grinned from ear to ear suddenly. Of course she didn’t mind me choosing. The doctor was a kind and generous girl, I adored travelling with her. The past several years had been the best I had ever experienced. So many times and places I had visited, yeah sure a lot were extremely dangerous, but some had sheer beauty that I would never forget. I had made memories I would treasure for the rest of my life. The Doctor had become like a best friend to me.

“Alright, but make it a good one!” She said, jumping aside from the control panel, almost presenting it to me.

“I will!” I wiggled my fingers and began to press in a random date in the future for Earth. I was about to type in 3,788 when everything suddenly lurched backwards, sending me and the Doctor flying. Thankfully, we both managed to stop ourselves from getting hurt, grabbing onto the nearest railings we could get. I glanced to the Doctor.

“Where the heck did you pick?” she asked, smirking slightly “easy girl!” she said to the TARDIS.

“I hadn’t even finished typing in the number…” Alarm bells began blaring through the spaceship at a deafening degree. Still at an angle, and clinging onto the railings, I struggled with the intensity of the sound. I couldn’t cover my ears, causing my grip to falter, just as the TARDIS lurched the other way. There was no way I could have stopped myself and the last thing I remembered was the Doctor shouting my name.

Ok ow. Pain. Pain in head. Pain all up in my head. Aw jeez. Was that someone calling my name? Was that the Doctor? I kind of recognised her voice. It just seemed so far away. If only the pain could stop. I heard her use her sonic screwdriver…what the… what was she using it on? Ok ow ow ow that was loud! She was using it on me!

“Ugh, stop…” I managed to finally say.

“Ah, good, you’re awake, never good to sleep for too long” she said, smiling when I could finally open my eyes.

“I wasn’t sleeping...” I said, rubbing my head.

“Unconscious, same thing, only minor concussion, give yourself a minute and you’ll be fine” she smiled more, standing up to investigate the TARDIS console.

“What the hell happened?” I asked, slowly sitting up. Wow, ok slower…world spinning is not a good idea.

“Something bumped us” she explained.

“What? So we’re travelling through space, this large open wide space area and someone rear ends us?” I asked.

“No, not rear ended us, full on ploughed into us!” the Doctor said as she danced around the control panel, attempting to get the TARDIS to wake up also.

It dawned on me how bad the hit was, when I realised there weren’t any lights on. The TARDIS must have taken on a lot of damage. Everything inside seemed alright, fine, just dandy, no real issues, but it wasn’t responding to the Doctor. No matter how many buttons she pressed, how many times she cooed to her spaceship, it wouldn’t wake up. Worry started to creep into me.

“Is the TARDIS ok?” I asked, feeling ok enough to stand up.

“Oh, she’ll be fine, she’s been through much worse, probably just being a drama queen, want to go check out where we’ve been forced to land?” she gestured to the door and I nodded.

I carefully walked to the front doors, ever so slightly opening them in case it was too bright. Thankfully, it wasn’t, so I opened the doors more but noticed something a little off with my view. The angle. It was a little…skew whiff. There was a lot more sky than I originally anticipated. That is, until I looked down. Ah. The TARDIS had literally crashed into the ground at an angle. Great. But I couldn’t see any outside damage so that was a plus.

“Erm, we landed at an angle, but otherwise she’s a ok from outside” I shouted back to the Doctor.

“Ah that’s good!”

I glanced back around outside. It was definitely Earth, modern…ish I thought.

“Earth, my time period, 2000’s, that’s all I can guess from here” I said.

“Ok, well she’s not waking up, fancy going on an explore yourself to get a bit more info while I try and get her up and running? Then maybe we can find out who bumped into us” she asked. I smiled and nodded.

“Sure! I’ll be back in a bit” I said, carefully navigating the drop with the difference in gravity.

Now fully outside, I could see the extent of the damage the TARDIS had caused all around. Thankfully, we seemed to have crashed in an incredibly secluded area, so the main issue was the ground. No buildings or people had been hurt, and mainly, no-one seemed to have noticed. The Doctor must have managed to put a perception filter on before we crashed. Thank God. Last thing I wanted to do was explain to strangers what was going on with the random police box.

I reached over and pulled the doors up to close them, then began to make my way down a random street. I internally made a note of where we had landed, and promised myself not to go too far so I didn’t get lost. Pulling out my phone, I checked a couple of things. First thing was signal. Could I get it? I could. But my phone was not interested in updating quickly. The date kept changing, the time also. Nothing was solid yet. Great. Meant I had to ask someone.

I kept walking until the streets became a little busier and I saw signs, in Korean? Wait. Why wasn’t the translation circuit not working? I had a quick panic for a second until all the signs began to translate into English for me. Ok, that was a good sign, the TARDIS was alright, it was my slight concussion causing the delay with translation in my head. Right, so I was in Korea. Fair. But I still had no idea when.

I spotted someone I could ask and I quickly rushed over, making sure my phone was hidden and playing up my headache which was now passing.

“Hi, hi, excuse me, sorry, I had such a heavy night last night, you know, us young people do love a party” I laughed “I seem to have lost my phone so I have no idea what time it is, or even the year! It was that wild a night” I laughed again, causing the lady I had asked to also chuckled and smile a bit.

“You should take it a bit easier next time” she brought her phone out to check the time for me, but I also saw the date, 2012. Phew, I was right, my timeline, but just before I met the Doctor. “It’s 10:02, did you need to call someone?” she offered me her phone kindly and I shook my head.

“Oh no no, thank you though” I bowed briefly “just needed to know the time, meeting a friend in a bit who can help, thanks again!”

“No problem dear, maybe stick to water next time” she smiled and left.

“Definitely” I smiled, watching her go.

I took a deep breath and looked around the city I was in. Korea, 2012. It was pretty. I knew I probably still had a little time to explore, so I set off in a random direction to have a look around.

It didn’t take me long to deduce I was in Seoul, the signs and the people around me talking gave me enough to figure that out. It was cool, I had never been to Korea before, well, modern Korea anyway. Me and the Doctor had made a visit during the 70’s and the 1920’s for a bit of fun, modern Korea was so different. It was beautiful. The smells were my favourite part. I promised myself to grab some food before me and the Doctor left later.

As I walked I came across a street performer. I couldn’t help myself from stopping. He was young, but extremely talented at dancing, that was easy to guess. He had drawn in quite a crowd so it was easy to blend into the background to just watch for a bit. His moves were slick, polished; he clearly had done a lot of practising over the years. His energy was exceptional too, he even managed to encourage some really young kids to try and join in. It was so cute. I smiled to myself, but decided to keep walking, even if I could have watched him all day.

When I reached a certain point on the pavement, I thought it was probably best I went back to the Doctor. She may have managed to get the TARDIS back up and running, and we could leave, and I had been walking for 20 minutes. As much as I loved exploring new places, there was nothing more I hated than staying in one place. That’s why I loved travelling with the Doctor so much, no one place for longer than a day or two, maximum. It was perfect. I felt like I had seen enough and just wanted to get moving.

Turning to head back, I literally bumped straight into someone.

“Oof” Ok ow my head “Oh my God I’m so sorry!” I said, rubbing my face, apologising to the person I had just face planted.

“Ah good, you’re finally here!” the woman said, stepping back, regaining her posture.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“Thought you’d be here at 9 sharp, guess now will have to do for you to start, come on, follow me” she said, heading into the building behind us.

“Erm…wait…what the hell you on about?” I asked, stopping her.

“Hmm, I didn’t believe you when you said you may be confused on your first day but to be patient, but hey, you were right, just follow me” she said and I couldn’t help my curiosity to follow.

The lady led me to the lift and up to the third floor. The office building wasn’t big, but they did have a sign for their brand, Big Hit, plastered large on their wall. Where had I heard that before? I ignored it, pushing it to the back of my mind and followed the lady to her desk. She shuffled some papers and stuffed them into a folder, even put her thick diary into it too. She didn’t speak. Just sorted stuff. Leaving me standing awkwardly like a lemon. I coughed.

“I’m sorry but…” I was trying to talk.

“Right so I’m leaving you information on the boys I want you to find and recruit, my diary which has important numbers, dates and such for you to use, it even has an ideal timeline for you to follow because I’m nice like that” she explained, piling everything into my arms.

“Erm…” I was so confused.

“My number is in there, but you promised you would never need it, I mean with your experience I can see why” she said, about to continue.

“Wait, wait, wait” I said, putting the files and folders down “Why the hell are you giving me all of this?” I finally managed to ask.

“For your new job, you start today, I want you to form the next big boyband since I’m leaving for a better job” she explained, my jaw dropping.

“Ya what?” I said, my accent coming out.

“You gave me your CV last week” she pulled it out of her desk and handed it to me. I firmly grabbed it, and checked over. My stomach flipped, my heart sank, it was my CV, everything I had done, my signature, except it said I had managed boy groups before, which I had not. How the hell had she managed to get this? She said I gave it to her? I felt dizzy and sick. “You look a little pale…”

“Telling me” I said, trying to steady my breathing “I gave you this last week?” I asked.

“Yep, came to my office, practically begged for the job! Couldn’t say no to you, don’t think you would have taken a no to be honest” she said.

Time travel. So topsy turvy and timey wimey.

[mediacalling]

A Marketer’s Guide to Decoding Social Media Algorithms in 2019

Social media algorithms play a very important role in the ability for marketers and business owners to make an impact online. And although algorithms are often difficult to understand, we need to learn to work with them and not against them if we want to find success.

Luckily for us, big social networking sites often share updates on exactly what their algorithm prioritizes.

For example, Facebook recently shared that meaningful conversations are one of the most influential factors on the platform. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is looking to status updates from professional users that share more openly.

We’re fortunate to have an inside look at the various algorithms that power the world’s biggest networks. Today we’re covering everything you need to know about decoding social media algorithms in 2019 and what brands can do to thrive.

Let’s dive in!

A marketer’s guide to decoding social media algorithms in 2019

What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of the Buffer Podcast episode for your reading pleasure.

Table of Contents

Part I: Inside the Facebook algorithm

Part II: Inside the Twitter algorithm

Part III: Inside the LinkedIn algorithm

Part IV: Inside the Instagram algorithm

Brian: Hi everyone! I’m Brian Peters and this is The Science of Social Media, a podcast by Buffer. Your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and learning.

Hailley: Welcome to episode #123, I’m Hailley Griffis and this week we are talking all about social media algorithms 2019. Now, I know these can seem quite mysterious, and they really are, but there are certain things we’ve been able to figure out when it comes to algorithms and in this episode we’ll be giving you everything you need to know in a guide to decoding them for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Brian: I love a good mystery! Let’s kick it off.

As many of us have come to realize, social media algorithms play a very important role in how we as marketers and business owners are able to make an impact online.

Algorithms are often difficult to understand but they are always on and we need to learn to work with them and not against them if we want to find success.

Hailley: When you think of it, for many of us the way that we are discovering news and information is coming directly from these algorithms. When we use Google or any of the social sites like Facebook and Twitter, there’s an algorithm involved.

Brian: Luckily for us, big social networking sites do share updates on what their algorithm prioritizes.

Facebook has shared in the past that meaningful conversations are most powerful on the platform, and LinkedIn is looking to status updates from the professional users on the site that share more openly.

Hailley: The overall trend we’ve been seeing as we researched this episode is that social networks are prioritizing real connection between their users and that knowledge can truly help us make a big impact online.

For example, influencer marketing has been doing really well for this reason, as has user generated content because they are both types of content that connect people really well.

Brian: There’s a clear shift away from promotion and building purely a following on social media, to now creating community. So today we’ll look at the things we know about the algorithms for four major social networks.

Part I: Inside the Facebook algorithm

Hailley: First up is the biggest social network on the block, Facebook.

Let’s start with what we know about the Facebook algorithm. We already mentioned that meaningful interactions are a priority for Facebook and successful Facebook pages. This means that they look for content that creates interactions between friends and family.

Those interactions can be things like, a person commenting or liking another person’s photo or status update, a person reacting to a post from a publisher (or brand) that a friend has shared, and multiple people replying to each other’s comments on a video they watched or an article they read in the news feed.

Brian: It also includes when someone shares a link over Messenger to start a conversation with a friend or group of friends, and that link ends up prioritized in the algorithm after that.

The overall theme for what we’ve mentioned so far is that Facebook wants content to create more conversations and if your content is doing that between friends and family on Facebook then it will do better in the algorithm.

What’s interesting is that the length of the comments on posts has weight as well, long form comments on a post help that post receive a higher weighting.

Hailley: While more engagement on your content means it will be ranked higher, the tricky thing is that if you ask people to like, comment or share your post, that makes the algorithm mark it down.

The other thing about your content is that Facebook prefers native content over content that will take a user to another site, which does make sense since they are trying to keep people on Facebook.

Brian: The other thing is that your credibility as a brand page affects your ranking so make sure that you keep posting consistently and have all of the information about your page filled out.

And finally, we’ve talked about this before but when you post to Facebook they show your post to a smaller group of users at first to see how it holds up for engagement before it shows it to a larger group.

Hailley: Phew! That’s a lot about the Facebook algorithm . Now, we’ll go through a few changes you can make to your Facebook marketing now that you know a bit more about the algorithm.

You might have figured this out, but your new priority is creating conversation on Facebook for the people you’re trying to reach, it’s not about you, it’s about creating a place for your audience to communicate.

Brian: Along the same lines, remember to be extra conscious with your content. Avoid asking people to like it and remember that Facebook prefers native content so use links back to your own site sparingly.

If you keep these things in mind, post consistently and keep your profile up to date, we have full confidence that you’ll be staying on the right side of Facebook’s algorithm.

Part II: Inside the Twitter algorithm

Hailley: Next up, the Twitter algorithm,! I love Twitter. And if you use it, you know that there are three different sections and they play a role in how your Tweets will be categorized on Twitter.

The sections are, ranked tweets which are recent and relevant, in case you missed it which is for older but relevant tweets, and then the remaining tweets which are in reverse chronological order.

Brian: Now the tricky thing is that users can choose to remove the feature to have Twitter show them the best tweets first, which means their timeline is simply in reverse chronological order.

For this reason, one of the main things we know about Twitter’s algorithm is that timing is critical. If you time your tweet properly and it gets engagement soon after being shared then it is more likely to be seen by others.

Hailley: A few other things we know about the Twitter algorithm are quite similar to Facebook so I’ll go over these quickly since we just chatted about them. Your tweets will be served to a smaller group of users first to measure engagement.

Engagement is key, likes, replies, and retweets weigh heavily in the algorithm and so does native content. And the credibility of the person posting is of course, also a big factor here.

Brian: How a user engages on Twitter also impacts the algorithm. Users see more from the people they already engage with and if they spend time reading a tweet or on someone’s profile they will see it even if they don’t engage with it.

Now, this information gives us so many ideas for how we can be better marketers on Twitter. To start, timing is so important. You should be aiming to tweet when your audience is online and if you aren’t online at that time then it’s really easy to schedule a tweet for then.

Hailley: The next thing is to take advantage of the fact that users see more from people they engage with and engage with your own audience. Be a member of the community and interact with others and Twitter’s algorithm will start placing your tweets in other people’s timelines as long as they are following you.

Brian: Just like on Facebook, make sure your profile is all filled out and up-to-date on Twitter to help with your credibility. Also avoid posting broken links and remember to be a human. Tweeting every minute will get you flagged as a bot in no time. And finally, stay consistent. The algorithm recognizes people who are adding value and if you’re online, posting and engaging with your follows then your content is more likely to be prioritized.

Part III: Inside the LinkedIn algorithm

Hailley: Onto the LinkedIn algorithm! As a fun side note we also talked a lot about LinkedIn in episode 111 so go back and check that one out if you’re a big LinkedIn fan.

Brian: Like the other two algorithms, there are a few things here that are really similar. So I’m going to skim over those so we don’t sound repetitive and then we’ll focus on what’s different about LinkedIn’s algorithm.

Once again the algorithm prioritizes, native content, engagements in the form of likes, comments, and shares and your post is shown to fewer people first.

Hailley: What’s different about LinkedIn?

Well, if you’ve been poking around there recently you’ll have noticed that a lot of personal stories are doing really well on LinkedIn and that’s a part of the algorithm.

Part of that is that if a story or another type of post is doing really well within your own network, LinkedIn actually has a staff member look at it and then open it up to a wider audience. This is unique because it’s the only algorithm where there is a human involved in choosing which posts to show to more people.

Brian: We should find out who that person is and add them on LinkedIn.

The last thing about LinkedIn’s algorithm is that the key isn’t just getting your post seen by your own network, but by people in your 2nd and 3rd degree network. So now that we know all these things about LinkedIn, let’s talk about how to make this work for you.

To start, as you might imagine, the network on LinkedIn is extremely important. Whether a brand page or a personal profile you want to make sure that your connections are relevant to the type of content you are posting so that they’re more likely to interact with it.

Hailley: Next, capitalize on the personal story sharing that is doing so well on LinkedIn right now. Focus on being open and writing content that will appeal to your community on LinkedIn and it stands a way higher chance of being seen by people outside of your network. And finally, as with the other networks, focus on native content. Don’t always link back to your own website. For LinkedIn in particular, they have been really focused on creating a great platform for video and they’re even testing out Stories for college students, so we recommend trying to play around with native images and video on LinkedIn.

Part IV: Inside the Instagram algorithm

Brian: The last social network on our list today is the Instagram algorithm! And we have so many good Instagram episodes from recent weeks so go back and check those out if you’re interested to learn more about Instagram and Stories.

Now, Instagram’s algorithm does have one main similarity to the others and that’s that a post is shown to a smaller group first.

But other than that we have a whole lot of differences! To start, the content category that a user tends to interact with the most by liking, commenting, viewing or sharing will be shown higher in their feed. So genres of content can be things like memes, fitness posts, quotes, pets, etc.

Hailley: One great thing to note is that if you’re working hard on creating great hashtags, that is a part of the algorithm for the Explore pages so more people will find your content that way.

People are also more likely to find your content if you post consistently and what’s neat is that the longer someone spends looking at your content, the more the algorithm likes it.

In fact, the more people engage with your content, the more each of your following posts will be more credible in the eyes of the algorithm.

Brian: Sort of similar to Facebook but if your post is shared via people’s direct messages then that will get your content ranked higher by the algorithm, and finally, if you’re putting in work and engaging with your audience via likes and comments, that will help drive views and engagement to your Instagram profile.

So let’s talk about what to do with all of this. Again, a big thing here is making your content engaging and engaging with others. If you can hold people on your post or profile, it will help your ranking and credibility.

Hailley: Plus, if you can make sure the types of posts you’re engaging with fall into the same content category as your own posts then that will only help drive people who already engage with that kind of content your way.

Last but not least, keep posting consistently and regularly since that does help with the algorithm as well. We do allow you to schedule posts to Instagram right through Buffer so if you’re worried about spending too much time on Instagram trying to post regularly, we���ve got you there.

How to say hello to us

We would all love to say hello to you on social media – especially Twitter!

Hailley on Twitter and Hailley’s Website

Brian on Twitter and Brian’s Website

Thanks for listening! Feel free to connect with our team at Buffer on Twitter, Buffer on Facebook, our Podcast homepage, or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.

Enjoy the show? It’d mean the world to us if you’d be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!

—

About The Science of Social Media podcast

The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing tactics from brands and influencers in every industry. If you’re a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you’re sure to find something useful in each and every episode.  It’s our hope that you’ll join our 18,000+ weekly iTunes listeners and rock your social media channels as a result!

The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.

A Marketer’s Guide to Decoding Social Media Algorithms in 2019 posted first on http://getfblikeblog.blogspot.com

[mariemary1]

A Marketer’s Guide to Decoding Social Media Algorithms in 2019

Social media algorithms play a very important role in the ability for marketers and business owners to make an impact online. And although algorithms are often difficult to understand, we need to learn to work with them and not against them if we want to find success.

Luckily for us, big social networking sites often share updates on exactly what their algorithm prioritizes.

For example, Facebook recently shared that meaningful conversations are one of the most influential factors on the platform. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is looking to status updates from professional users that share more openly.

We’re fortunate to have an inside look at the various algorithms that power the world’s biggest networks. Today we’re covering everything you need to know about decoding social media algorithms in 2019 and what brands can do to thrive.

Let’s dive in!

A marketer’s guide to decoding social media algorithms in 2019

What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of the Buffer Podcast episode for your reading pleasure.

Table of Contents

Part I: Inside the Facebook algorithm

Part II: Inside the Twitter algorithm

Part III: Inside the LinkedIn algorithm

Part IV: Inside the Instagram algorithm

Brian: Hi everyone! I’m Brian Peters and this is The Science of Social Media, a podcast by Buffer. Your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and learning.

Hailley: Welcome to episode #123, I’m Hailley Griffis and this week we are talking all about social media algorithms 2019. Now, I know these can seem quite mysterious, and they really are, but there are certain things we’ve been able to figure out when it comes to algorithms and in this episode we’ll be giving you everything you need to know in a guide to decoding them for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Brian: I love a good mystery! Let’s kick it off.

As many of us have come to realize, social media algorithms play a very important role in how we as marketers and business owners are able to make an impact online.

Algorithms are often difficult to understand but they are always on and we need to learn to work with them and not against them if we want to find success.

Hailley: When you think of it, for many of us the way that we are discovering news and information is coming directly from these algorithms. When we use Google or any of the social sites like Facebook and Twitter, there’s an algorithm involved.

Brian: Luckily for us, big social networking sites do share updates on what their algorithm prioritizes.

Facebook has shared in the past that meaningful conversations are most powerful on the platform, and LinkedIn is looking to status updates from the professional users on the site that share more openly.

Hailley: The overall trend we’ve been seeing as we researched this episode is that social networks are prioritizing real connection between their users and that knowledge can truly help us make a big impact online.

For example, influencer marketing has been doing really well for this reason, as has user generated content because they are both types of content that connect people really well.

Brian: There’s a clear shift away from promotion and building purely a following on social media, to now creating community. So today we’ll look at the things we know about the algorithms for four major social networks.

Part I: Inside the Facebook algorithm

Hailley: First up is the biggest social network on the block, Facebook.

Let’s start with what we know about the Facebook algorithm. We already mentioned that meaningful interactions are a priority for Facebook and successful Facebook pages. This means that they look for content that creates interactions between friends and family.

Those interactions can be things like, a person commenting or liking another person’s photo or status update, a person reacting to a post from a publisher (or brand) that a friend has shared, and multiple people replying to each other’s comments on a video they watched or an article they read in the news feed.

Brian: It also includes when someone shares a link over Messenger to start a conversation with a friend or group of friends, and that link ends up prioritized in the algorithm after that.

The overall theme for what we’ve mentioned so far is that Facebook wants content to create more conversations and if your content is doing that between friends and family on Facebook then it will do better in the algorithm.

What’s interesting is that the length of the comments on posts has weight as well, long form comments on a post help that post receive a higher weighting.

Hailley: While more engagement on your content means it will be ranked higher, the tricky thing is that if you ask people to like, comment or share your post, that makes the algorithm mark it down.

The other thing about your content is that Facebook prefers native content over content that will take a user to another site, which does make sense since they are trying to keep people on Facebook.

Brian: The other thing is that your credibility as a brand page affects your ranking so make sure that you keep posting consistently and have all of the information about your page filled out.

And finally, we’ve talked about this before but when you post to Facebook they show your post to a smaller group of users at first to see how it holds up for engagement before it shows it to a larger group.

Hailley: Phew! That’s a lot about the Facebook algorithm . Now, we’ll go through a few changes you can make to your Facebook marketing now that you know a bit more about the algorithm.

You might have figured this out, but your new priority is creating conversation on Facebook for the people you’re trying to reach, it’s not about you, it’s about creating a place for your audience to communicate.

Brian: Along the same lines, remember to be extra conscious with your content. Avoid asking people to like it and remember that Facebook prefers native content so use links back to your own site sparingly.

If you keep these things in mind, post consistently and keep your profile up to date, we have full confidence that you’ll be staying on the right side of Facebook’s algorithm.

Part II: Inside the Twitter algorithm

Hailley: Next up, the Twitter algorithm,! I love Twitter. And if you use it, you know that there are three different sections and they play a role in how your Tweets will be categorized on Twitter.

The sections are, ranked tweets which are recent and relevant, in case you missed it which is for older but relevant tweets, and then the remaining tweets which are in reverse chronological order.

Brian: Now the tricky thing is that users can choose to remove the feature to have Twitter show them the best tweets first, which means their timeline is simply in reverse chronological order.

For this reason, one of the main things we know about Twitter’s algorithm is that timing is critical. If you time your tweet properly and it gets engagement soon after being shared then it is more likely to be seen by others.

Hailley: A few other things we know about the Twitter algorithm are quite similar to Facebook so I’ll go over these quickly since we just chatted about them. Your tweets will be served to a smaller group of users first to measure engagement.

Engagement is key, likes, replies, and retweets weigh heavily in the algorithm and so does native content. And the credibility of the person posting is of course, also a big factor here.

Brian: How a user engages on Twitter also impacts the algorithm. Users see more from the people they already engage with and if they spend time reading a tweet or on someone’s profile they will see it even if they don’t engage with it.

Now, this information gives us so many ideas for how we can be better marketers on Twitter. To start, timing is so important. You should be aiming to tweet when your audience is online and if you aren’t online at that time then it’s really easy to schedule a tweet for then.

Hailley: The next thing is to take advantage of the fact that users see more from people they engage with and engage with your own audience. Be a member of the community and interact with others and Twitter’s algorithm will start placing your tweets in other people’s timelines as long as they are following you.

Brian: Just like on Facebook, make sure your profile is all filled out and up-to-date on Twitter to help with your credibility. Also avoid posting broken links and remember to be a human. Tweeting every minute will get you flagged as a bot in no time. And finally, stay consistent. The algorithm recognizes people who are adding value and if you’re online, posting and engaging with your follows then your content is more likely to be prioritized.

Part III: Inside the LinkedIn algorithm

Hailley: Onto the LinkedIn algorithm! As a fun side note we also talked a lot about LinkedIn in episode 111 so go back and check that one out if you’re a big LinkedIn fan.

Brian: Like the other two algorithms, there are a few things here that are really similar. So I’m going to skim over those so we don’t sound repetitive and then we’ll focus on what’s different about LinkedIn’s algorithm.

Once again the algorithm prioritizes, native content, engagements in the form of likes, comments, and shares and your post is shown to fewer people first.

Hailley: What’s different about LinkedIn?

Well, if you’ve been poking around there recently you’ll have noticed that a lot of personal stories are doing really well on LinkedIn and that’s a part of the algorithm.

Part of that is that if a story or another type of post is doing really well within your own network, LinkedIn actually has a staff member look at it and then open it up to a wider audience. This is unique because it’s the only algorithm where there is a human involved in choosing which posts to show to more people.

Brian: We should find out who that person is and add them on LinkedIn.

The last thing about LinkedIn’s algorithm is that the key isn’t just getting your post seen by your own network, but by people in your 2nd and 3rd degree network. So now that we know all these things about LinkedIn, let’s talk about how to make this work for you.

To start, as you might imagine, the network on LinkedIn is extremely important. Whether a brand page or a personal profile you want to make sure that your connections are relevant to the type of content you are posting so that they’re more likely to interact with it.

Hailley: Next, capitalize on the personal story sharing that is doing so well on LinkedIn right now. Focus on being open and writing content that will appeal to your community on LinkedIn and it stands a way higher chance of being seen by people outside of your network. And finally, as with the other networks, focus on native content. Don’t always link back to your own website. For LinkedIn in particular, they have been really focused on creating a great platform for video and they’re even testing out Stories for college students, so we recommend trying to play around with native images and video on LinkedIn.

Part IV: Inside the Instagram algorithm

Brian: The last social network on our list today is the Instagram algorithm! And we have so many good Instagram episodes from recent weeks so go back and check those out if you’re interested to learn more about Instagram and Stories.

Now, Instagram’s algorithm does have one main similarity to the others and that’s that a post is shown to a smaller group first.

But other than that we have a whole lot of differences! To start, the content category that a user tends to interact with the most by liking, commenting, viewing or sharing will be shown higher in their feed. So genres of content can be things like memes, fitness posts, quotes, pets, etc.

Hailley: One great thing to note is that if you’re working hard on creating great hashtags, that is a part of the algorithm for the Explore pages so more people will find your content that way.

People are also more likely to find your content if you post consistently and what’s neat is that the longer someone spends looking at your content, the more the algorithm likes it.

In fact, the more people engage with your content, the more each of your following posts will be more credible in the eyes of the algorithm.

Brian: Sort of similar to Facebook but if your post is shared via people’s direct messages then that will get your content ranked higher by the algorithm, and finally, if you’re putting in work and engaging with your audience via likes and comments, that will help drive views and engagement to your Instagram profile.

So let’s talk about what to do with all of this. Again, a big thing here is making your content engaging and engaging with others. If you can hold people on your post or profile, it will help your ranking and credibility.

Hailley: Plus, if you can make sure the types of posts you’re engaging with fall into the same content category as your own posts then that will only help drive people who already engage with that kind of content your way.

Last but not least, keep posting consistently and regularly since that does help with the algorithm as well. We do allow you to schedule posts to Instagram right through Buffer so if you’re worried about spending too much time on Instagram trying to post regularly, we’ve got you there.

How to say hello to us

We would all love to say hello to you on social media – especially Twitter!

Hailley on Twitter and Hailley’s Website

Brian on Twitter and Brian’s Website

Thanks for listening! Feel free to connect with our team at Buffer on Twitter, Buffer on Facebook, our Podcast homepage, or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.

Enjoy the show? It’d mean the world to us if you’d be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!

—

About The Science of Social Media podcast

The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing tactics from brands and influencers in every industry. If you’re a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you’re sure to find something useful in each and every episode.  It’s our hope that you’ll join our 18,000+ weekly iTunes listeners and rock your social media channels as a result!

The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.

Thank A Marketer’s Guide to Decoding Social Media Algorithms in 2019 for first publishing this post.