I can’t help but chuckle when people use filters like Google search or EdgeRank to paint a conspiracy theory about how we’re being kept from important information about our world and society.

A day without the filters we rely on would be a tough day indeed. Finding the exact Dumb and Dumber quote you couldn’t remember would get a lot trickier without Google. Your inbox would be packed to the rafters without spam filters. Your Facebook feed would be nothing more than mindless drivel from each and every person you’ve ever accepted a request from (though some would argue it is anyway).

Filters help our society cope with the massive amount of information that exists. Some of that information, however, is yours.

Welcome to Optimization Week
This week, we’re going to talk about optimizing your “stuff” so it capitalizes on filters and rises to the top like the cream resort content (almost) always is.

That includes a focus on Google search, online ticket retailers like Liftopia, Facebook’s EdgeRank, and more.

We can’t cover all of them, but we can cover many. Luckily filters aren’t independent, unique systems. Each shares a fairly unified goal.

The Common Thread
The easy way to highlight this common thread is simply this: good wins.

Sometimes filters get a bad name, as if they’re keeping us from what we really want. But every filter is designed to filter out the bad to reveal the good so we get more and more of what we want and less of what we don’t.

• Email providers want to hide emails that you don’t want.
• Liftopia’s wants to show visitors good deals.
• Facebook wants to fill your feed with things that matter to you.

Filters aren’t a corporate conspiracy, they’re a reflection of our desires and wants. No filter is perfect, but it’s the goal that matters.

The Starting Point
We’ll dig deeper on each, but success with filters always seems to boil down to one thing: thinking like the algorithm.

The first step isn’t to find the shortcuts, it’s to imagine what the creators are trying to do so you can understand their objectives and think like them. After all, if anyone knows how to get something to rank high…they do.

You can’t define each criterion the filter uses in its quest for perfection, but if you can learn the rules and understand the motives, you’ll have a much better chance of winning the game. That’s what we’re doing this week.

Let optimization week begin!

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.