Samuel Stroud, the British blogger behind GiraffeSocial has posted a column taking a closer look at how TikTok’s algorithm works — at least how he thinks it works. But that isn’t the point of the post for you, dear reader: he has some good advice on how to improve your own social media content, regardless of where it lands, and how it is constructed.

Before I get to his suggestions, I should first turn to why I used the word outrage in my hed. This is because a new Tulane University study shows that people are more likely to interact with online content that challenges their views, rather than agrees with them. In other words, they are driven by outrage. This is especially true when it comes to political engagement, which often stems from anger, and fuels a vicious cycle. I realize that this isn’t news to many of you. But do keep this in mind as you read through some of Stroud’s suggestions.

You might still be using Twitter, for all I know, and are about to witness yet another trolling of the service by turning all user blocks into mutes, which is Yet Another Reason I (continue to) steer clear of the thing. That, and its troller-in-chief. So now is a good time to review your social strategy and make sure all your content creators or social managers are up on the latest research.

Stroud points out several factors to keep track of:

• Likes, shares and comments: the more engagement from others, the higher a post is promoted. And this also means you should respond to the comments too.
• Watch time: Videos that are watched all the way through get boosted
• New followers: posts that generates new followers signing up also get boosted
• More meta is betta: Captions, keywords, hashtags, custom thumbnails — all of these help increase engagement, which means paying attention to these “housekeeping” matters almost as much as the actual content itself.
• Your history matters: if you have had previous interactions with this creator, type of content, or other trackable habits

Now, most of this is common sense, and perhaps something you already knew if you have been using any social media platform anytime over the last couple of decades. But it still is nice to have it all packaged neatly in one place.

But here is the thing. The trick with social media success is being able to balance your verisimilitude with your outrage. It is a delicate balance, particularly if you are trying to promote your business and your brand. And if you are trying to communicate some solid info, and not just fuel the outrage fires, then what Stroud mentions should become second nature to your posting strategy.