Welcome to the battlefield of social media algorithms news! In the fast-paced world of social media, where 80% of marketers are vying for the elusive social media engagement crown, we've got your back.
In this blog post, we analyze the different algorithms for all the major platforms in 2026 (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube) and we provide actionable tips on how to get the social media algorithm to work for you.
As we delve into the algorithmic mysteries, know that StoryChief is your shortcut to effective social media management. Try it free! 🙌
We'll be keeping this article updated all year with news, tips, and tricks to help you master organic reach in 2026 and beyond.
Table of contents
- Facebook algorithm
- Instagram algorithm
- LinkedIn algorithm
- Twitter (X) algorithm
- TikTok algorithm
- Pinterest algorithm
- YouTube algorithm
Let the social media algorithms work for you. StoryChief ensures your content performs—no matter how the rules change. Try it free.
What are social media algorithms?
A social media algorithm is an automated calculation that decides which social media posts make it to the top of your feed and which don't. In that sense, the social media algorithm actually makes sure you only see posts that would interest you at the top of your page.
Overall, the top factors in most social media algorithms in 2026 are:
- The amount of engagement that piece of content has received (especially within a short time frame)
- How much you tend to engage with that creator's content in general
Let's dive into the social media algorithms of 2026!
In this report by Content Marketing Institute, we see how B2B marketers’ use of organic social media platforms has changed in 2026.
2026, the year social media algorithms became fully AI
In 2026, the phrase "social media algorithm" doesn't just signify a ranking system; it represents a complete artificial intelligence determining what you see, when you see it, and why you interact with it.
According to Social Media Today's recent 2026 predictions report, almost every major platform now uses machine learning and generative AI to tailor your experience. For marketers, this means that the era of simply maintaining consistent posts is gone. The focus now is on delivering precisely what the algorithm desires—authentic, engaging, and adaptable content that aligns with each platform’s evolving AI priorities.
1. Facebook Algorithm
With 2.5 billion active monthly users, Facebook is still the top social media platform in terms of users. However, this social media giant takes a lot of heat from businesses because of how difficult it is to get organic reach with a business page (versus a regular user profile).
Let's look at how business-related content can make it into users' organic social media feeds without utilizing a business page to post content.
Posts by users' friends in groups show up far more often in the newsfeed than ever before. You can build up friendships and a following to discuss business, right from your personal account.
How the Facebook algorithm works
Here are some of the defining factors of this social media algorithm:
- Prioritizes content from friends and family members over businesses
- Heavily prioritizes content from people you engage with (people whose posts you comment and like on, or whom you message)
- Prioritizes number and length of comments
- Prioritizes number of reactions and variety of reactions
- Shows both recent content from your top friends and highly engaged content from friends that you personally engage with less often
- Content types you engage with most frequently will be shown most often. If you engage with video more, you will see more video in your Feed
Updates for 2026
The most significant updates for 2026:
- In 2026, Facebook is testing options for users to choose between AI-driven feeds and chronological feeds due to regulatory pressure in the EU. This change could allow marketers to connect with audiences in two distinct ways:
- Algorithmic feeds: Focus on personal connections, AI-curated highlights, and emotionally engaging content.
- Chronological feeds: Emphasize consistency and timeliness, making them ideal for news and community pages.
Tips for winning on Facebook in 2026
Here are some ways to get the Facebook algorithm on your side in 2026 (aside from running paid ads).
- When applicable, use your profile as a business owner or start an employee advocacy program.
- Set posts to 'public' to gain traction with followers.
- Ask questions to inspire engagement.
- Post content that encourages meaningful, lengthy comments (not just "Nice shot").
- Utilize Facebook video (doesn't have to be live!).
2. Instagram Algorithm
When it comes to engagement, Instagram is light-years ahead of Facebook. Brands' content on Instagram gets a 1.6% engagement rate. Let's take a look at how business owners utilize Instagram.
In these examples, a fitness coach asks her audience for shopping decision advice, and a marketing education site offers a mini-tutorial in a carousel post.
How this social media algorithm works
The Instagram social media algorithm has the following characteristics:
- Prioritizes posts with the highest number of likes
- Favors very recent posts (created within minutes of a user logging on)
- Prioritizes posts from profiles that the user engages typically with
- Favors posts from hashtags that the user follows
- Occasionally shows posts with great engagement from a profile and using hashtags that the user does not follow
- Is believed to treat brands' content and consumers' content equally
- You can ‘Favorite’ users and creators to make sure you never miss their updates
Instagram Algorithm Updates for 2026
Instagram’s 2026 algorithm is built around two priorities: Reels and AI assistance.
- Reels have become the main entry point for users — the feed is now almost entirely short-form video.
- Meanwhile, creators are now supported by AI editing tools that help trim, caption, and suggest hashtags or soundtracks automatically. Instagram also plans to roll out AI transparency labels, clearly identifying AI-generated content.
What this means: The algorithm is smarter — but it’s also stricter. It favors authentic, well-produced short videos over polished ads. Creators and brands that mix human emotion with storytelling (rather than obvious promotional posts) will thrive.
Tips for winning on Instagram in 2026
How can you master one of the most challenging social media algorithms in 2026? Let's see:
- Think micro-moments — 10-second videos that spark emotion or curiosity. Let AI handle the polish, but keep your storytelling raw and personal.
- Experiment with Instagram Reels to engage and captivate your audience.
- Engage with followers' content during the first hour after you post something.
- During the first three hours after you post something, immediately respond to every comment.
- Write meaningful captions.
- Ask questions in your captions to engage with your audience better.
- There's no one way to apply hashtags, so experiment with different hashtags and hashtag strategies.
- Utilize Instagram Stories to get more organic reach with your audience without affecting your feed's cohesive style.
- Stay consistent! This algorithm will downgrade you if you post randomly. You should post once a day, once every other day, or two times a week (whatever you can manage). Tip: Try batch-creating visually appealing content and utilize a third-party content planning tool to maintain a consistent schedule of posting engaging content.
Learn How to Measure the Success of Your Instagram Content.
3. LinkedIn Algorithm
Did you know that 89% of B2B marketers utilize LinkedIn? Let's take a look at some posts that made it to the top of the LinkedIn algorithm.
Here's a LinkedIn post that asks for comments as a favor:
While this post doesn't have much engagement, the person posting it is persistent on LinkedIn. He posts every day, and he's always in the top three posts on my LinkedIn feed!
It goes to show you that consistency can be even more important than racking up likes.
How the LinkedIn algorithm works
LinkedIn’s 2026 algorithm has one mission: make your feed feel like a mini business school.
Instead of rewarding posts that get lots of likes, LinkedIn now promotes content that drives meaningful professional engagement — saves, comments, and shares.
AI assistants now recommend not just who to connect with, but also what to post about based on your industry and network trends. The algorithm also favors short-form learning content — 3-minute “micro lessons” and mini case studies that encourage users to stay and learn.
As far as we marketers can suss out, the LinkedIn algorithm does the following:
- Prioritizes content from users whom you have engaged with in the past and who post consistently
- Prioritizes content from users who get large amounts of engagement, even if you don't tend to like or comment on their posts
- Favors lengthy comments over a high volume of reactions. Try to get as many comments in the first 2 hours to improve your post’s reach.
- The more you engage and comment on other people’s posts, the more your posts will be prioritized. So, interact and add value on relevant posts.
- Prefers native content such as text posts, images with text, and videos with text. Try to rotate between different types of posts. Add in several ‘personal’ posts about learnings etc. This is what the audience on LinkedIn loves! 😍
- Prioritize content from personal pages over business pages. However, you can use that to your advantage if you include employee advocacy in your content strategy.
It's hard to say whether or not links with comments in the first spot are really getting downgraded, but if you're concerned about this, you can always minimize the use of that tactic. Ensure you're creating native content that doesn't need to link out to anything in a comment.
Tips for winning on LinkedIn in 2026
Here's what you can do to get more eyeballs and engagement from LinkedIn:
- Focus on delivering value-first content. Tutorials, professional insights, and success stories perform far better than self-promotion.
- Utilize business owners' and employees' profiles instead of just the business page. Learn how easy StoryChief makes it to include employee advocacy in your content strategy.
- Post different types of content: text, images, and video. See what gets the most significant proportion of impact over effort.
- Stay consistent! This algorithm will definitely downgrade your content if you post randomly. 4 times a week seems to be the sweet spot for most, but if you want to really up your game, start posting once per day. Building up your track record is essential.
- Don't be afraid to post external links occasionally. Just make sure the rest of your post is optimized for the algorithm and you should be good.
- Be sure to create content that can spark a conversation. The posts that really do well in LinkedIn's algorithm garner longer, higher quality comments, not just things like "awesome!" or "nice!".
Who has time to unravel the intricacies of each algorithm? You're a content creator, not a detective! Know that StoryChief is your shortcut to social media engagement. Try it free! 🙌
“By centralizing our content strategy with StoryChief, we increased lead generation by 300% and grew LinkedIn engagement by 500%” - Tim Overton, CTO at Modo Energy
4. Twitter (X) Algorithm
With 330 million monthly active users and 152 million daily active users, you can't completely ignore Twitter (X). Twitter (X) is still vital in the B2B space.
If you're not sure if it's worth your time, spend some time there — check out competitors, other companies, popular hashtags, and trending topics — to see if your target audience is active on Twitter (X) and what the top-performing posts are in your industry.
Let's take a look at some example posts that will score well given the conflicting social media algorithm news in 2026.
Getting retweets is still one of the best ways to increase your reach on Twitter (X).
Creating highly visual content on Twitter (X) matters now more than ever.
How Twitter (X)’s social media algorithm works
Of all the social media algorithms, Twitter (X) factors in recency more than any other. But there are other characteristics too.
- Prioritizes recent content (last 24 hours) with the highest amount of engagement from users you follow
- Favors content posted recently (within minutes)
- Prioritizes content with retweets and comments over likes
Updates for 2026
X (formerly Twitter) continues its shift toward a monetized ecosystem. Its algorithm increasingly prioritizes content from verified or paying users, meaning the free-for-all visibility days are gone.
The platform also leans heavily into AI-curated topic feeds, where users get personalized timelines around sports, finance, or tech. For marketers, that means niche content performs better than broad messaging.
Tips for winning on Twitter (X) in 2026
- Niche down. Create focused, conversation-starting content in your vertical. And if budget allows, consider the visibility benefits of paid verification.
- Tweet 2 to 8 times per day for the best results.
- Utilize all 280 characters only in specific posts (when sharing something informative).
- Ask questions to get engagement.
- Create a Twitter (X) poll once a month.
- Immediately respond to all comments within the first 2-3 hours of sending out a tweet.
- Try out Twitter threads.
5. TikTok Algorithm
Let’s start by setting the record straight. TikTok really isn’t about dances anymore (if it ever was). If you provide value, the platform is a goldmine to foster brand awareness.
When it comes to TikTok, hashtags and posting time will not matter. The only thing that matters to the TikTok algorithm are watch time metrics. Essentially, if you want to influence your watch time metrics, it all boils down to how good and qualitative your video is.
Great and engaging videos will garner longer watch time and will therefore end up on people’s ‘For You’ pages. This For You Page is a highly personalized feed unique to each user.
The TikTok algorithm is hyper-skilled in picking up the likes and dislikes of its viewers based on how you interacted with other videos previously. The platform continues to show highly targeted and relatable videos the more time you spend on TikTok.
Let’s dive into the factors contributing to the TikTok algorithm in 2026.
How TikTok’s social media algorithm works
TikTok’s algorithm remains one of the most advanced in the world. In 2026, it’s becoming predictive. Using behavioral AI, TikTok now surfaces videos that anticipate what users will like before they’ve even searched for it.
It’s also moving deeper into AI avatar influencers — synthetic hosts who can promote products 24/7. Combined with livestream shopping and mini-apps, TikTok is turning into a hybrid of entertainment, search, and commerce.Likes
Tips for winning on TikTok in 2026
- Success on TikTok comes from agility. Jump on trends early, use creators or avatars to host shoppable streams, and experiment with interactive live formats.
- Strive to jam-pack your content with value. Either educate, inspire or entertain your audience to get to that desired For You page.
- TikTok is an extremely high-speed platform that lives on trends and trending sounds. Generally, a trend surfaces on other social media platforms days, weeks, or months after it started trending on TikTok. To leverage this and maximize views for your account, try making use of trending sounds that can be found on the platform.
- Focus on very niche content. If your videos are good, they have a natural way of founding their target audience.
- Younger generations are using TikTok as a search engine. Browse the TikTok trending keywords by typing queries into the app’s search bar. Add these keywords throughout your bio, say them in your video, add them as subtitles, etc.
- Making videos for TikTok can be a time-consuming practice. Batch create them and schedule them with a third-party scheduling tool such as StoryChief.
6. Pinterest Algorithm
Female millennials are the top cohort of active pinners, so mastering the Pinterest algorithm will be worth your time if that's your target market.
There are other active communities on Pinterest, too, especially B2B marketers.
In the B2B marketing space, Pinterest is a great way to share infographics and drive traffic back to the original blog post with the infographic embedded.
Pinterest is very popular among bloggers, who use the site to get organic traffic in the thousands or even hundreds of thousands each month.
How this social media algorithm works
Pinterest’s 2026 algorithm focuses on visual search and predictive inspiration. Using AI, it can now recommend Pins based on your mood, past behavior, and even calendar events (e.g., suggesting holiday decor weeks in advance).
The platform is also evolving into an e-commerce hub — with one-click checkout, AR try-ons, and in-app product recommendations.
The Pinterest algorithm has the following characteristics as for what shows up in your main feed:
- Prioritizes fresh, recent pins
- Prioritizes pins with the most engagement (repins and comments)
- De-prioritizes pins that someone is repinning to too many boards
- De-prioritizes pins from groups with hundreds or thousands of contributors
Updates for 2026
Pinterest will continue the trends they set in 2025, which is to downgrade spammy pins in the algorithm. Pinners need to be cautious with pinning the same pin in dozens of group boards, and group boards with too many contributors no longer have the distribution reach they used to. The Pinterest algorithm is also growing in its ability to vet pins for visual quality and check that pins are only pinned to relevant boards.
For Pinterest, it's quality over quantity. So you should pin less but newer and higher-quality content.
Tips for winning on Pinterest in 2026
- Treat Pinterest as a top-of-funnel search engine. Use keyword-rich descriptions, high-quality imagery, and shoppable Pins to capture users as they discover new ideas.
- Pin high-quality images (the length of the images doesn't matter as much as it once did).
- Only pin to relevant boards.
- Incorporate relevant SEO keyphrases in your pins.
- Use a Pinterest scheduling tool like Tailwind to keep your feed fresh.
- Pin a maximum of 50 pieces of content a day, but you'd best stay between 15 and 25 (and no more than ten boards per pin)
Let the social media algorithms work for you. StoryChief ensures your content performs—no matter how the rules change. Try it free.
7. YouTube Algorithm
While YouTube is still somewhat underutilized in the B2B space, it's still an important platform. 73% of all adults in the US use YouTube.
The YouTube algorithm is notoriously tricky, and there are several ways that it shows users' content.
One of the most common ones is after you watch something, you're shown a related video to that topic or by the same content creator.
How this social media algorithm works
YouTube is complicated. And it's one of those social media algorithms in 2026 that stays complicated too. It has the following features:
- Recommends video content related to what you previously watched.
- Recommends video content by the same content creator as what you once watched.
- Favors viral videos (getting mass amounts of engagement and watch time in a short period), even if it's not relevant to you.
- Lets you toggle to your subscriptions and shows videos from your subscriptions in reverse chronological order.
Like Pinterest, YouTube also has an algorithm, which means that SEO-optimizing your YouTube content is essential.
Updates for 2026
The YouTube algorithm will continue to factor in a user's likelihood of engaging with your channel and the type of content you post. In 2026, your relationship with your subscribers will be far more critical than your number of subscribers. Make sure that your subscribers understand the theme of your channel and know what to expect from you.
Tips for winning on YouTube in 2026
- One to two minutes into your videos, ask viewers to "hit the like button or comment" if they're enjoying the video, so you increase engagement.
- SEO optimize all of your YouTube videos.
- Post consistently so your content makes it to the top of the subscription feed.
- Write meaningful comments on videos in your niche (without asking people to check out your channel).
- Use other marketing channels to get views and engagement on your videos within the first few hours of posting. Use other social media channels and your email newsletter.
- Make the first few seconds and the first few minutes of your video very engaging and to-the-point. Don't ramble, or you'll have high bounce rates and low watch time.
Emerging Platforms to Watch in 2026
Bluesky: With over 25 million users, this decentralized, X-like platform is gaining momentum fast. Backed by Jack Dorsey, it offers a free base with a paid ad-free option and recently added trending topics. It’s a compelling alternative for those seeking less centralized social networking. Learn more about Bluesky X Competitor Explained.
Kick: Since late 2022, Kick has grown to 50 million users by January 2026, challenging Twitch with fewer broadcasting restrictions. It’s a rising star for streamers and could shake up the live content space.
Instagram Threads: Since its mid-2023 debut and EU rollout in December 2023, Threads has carved out a niche as a text-based extension of Instagram. Think shareable updates with an X-like vibe—perfect for quick thoughts and conversations. It’s steadily growing, offering a new way to connect with followers.
Read more about social media:
- Creating Content Pillars for Social Media
- Create an AI Social Media Strategy in 5 Minutes
- 28 Social Media Planning Tools
- Top 10 AI Tools for Business
Free tool: Analyze your target audience, brand voice, content pillars and competitors. Try it now.
