Goodbye Instagram ‘Likes’?

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms today with one billion users every month. Speaking as a professional social media consultant Denver businesses are benefiting greatly from the social app. From boosted brand awareness to building relationships, the platform takes ‘social’ to a whole new level.

There comes a time, however, where “too much of a good thing” can become a problem. Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s Head of Product, says, “We want people to worry a little bit less about how many likes they’re getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people that they care about.”

In recent years, chatter about the psychological effects of social media has become more dominant. Increased anxiety, social isolation and low self-esteem are just a few of several problems people are facing when it comes to social media.

While the ‘likes’ of a social media post are important to a social media consultant Denver businesses must recognize engagement as the most important metric on social media. While ‘likes’ post as a superficial, inaccurate popularity contest, engagement houses the value.

Instagram hiding ‘likes’.

Instagram is now in the testing-phase of removing the ‘like’ count displayed on images posted to the platform. First rolling out in Canada, social media content creation companies are beginning to see the changes.

Eliminating the display of ‘like counts’ is geared towards diminishing the competitive vibe users might feel and to bring the ‘social’ back into social media. It’s not uncommon for the ‘like’ metric of Instagram to feel harshly competitive to a social media consultant Denver Media Group included! And while ‘likes’ do need to be recognized in a sense, other metrics and simply engaging with real people is what matters most.

Does this affect business?

While it’s still too early to gauge, we feel confident in the change. With the ever-growing popularity of Instagram Stories that also lack public metrics, we have a feeling the platform will be just as popular as it is now.

However, social media content creation companies are questioning how the update will affect influencers and their brand affiliations. We can’t help but feel that the anonymity of ‘likes’ will not affect brands in a detrimental way. In fact, it just might push brands to build a feed that is more authentic to them, which in turn, means better content on Instagram.

Paid advertising.

With anonymous metrics, there’s a chance that we’ll see an upswing in paid advertisements on Instagram. Lia Haberman, former Livestrong VP for Audience Development notes, “This will likely increase the amount of ads as brands look for more exposure and make it difficult for anyone but established influencers to get a foot-hold.”

Instagram users ‘like’ 4.2 billion posts per day, being presumed as the “happiest place in the (internet) world.” While Instagram certainly more popular for fun photos of dogs and travelscapes, we can’t help feel that the ‘like’ count would make the platform more enjoyable overall.

Do you pay mind to other accounts and their like counts? How do they make you feel? We’d love to hear your insight!