Marketing Land talked about Instagram has been testing removing “Like” counts on posts through an internal prototype in ways to reduce pressure on Instagram. Instagram is a primary platform for many influencers marketing their brand and if “Likes” were to be eliminated then that would affect marketing efforts. Influencers would have to rely on other resources without “Likes” to make their posts worthwhile. Leah Logan, VP of media product strategy and marketing for Collective Bias says she believes Instagram removing “Likes” would open up opportunities for agencies like hers to add value and transparency in an industry where campaign results can be difficult to decipher.
A world where ‘Likes” aren’t available or important would be a good move for the overall industry as it would push influencers to work harder to deliver. Most influencers post photos that they believe would get many “Likes” and compete amongst each other over who has better content and engagement. Evan Asano, CEO of MediaKix said, “brands would be forced to look more at the quality of the content.” He also believes it would deliver stronger engagement between influencers and their followers by paying more attention to the captions in addition to the photos.
Influencers should be confident of the content of their content and should not focus on the “Likes” they get. We at Bold Media know that social media is going to continue to grow and change and with that comes adapting to those changes. As influencers and businesses continue to use social media for their brands we hope that they will focus on content over quantity of “Likes.”
