This week Instagram started trialing hiding the number of likes on posts in several countries; Australia, Brazil, Italy, Ireland, Japan and New Zealand.
A bold move that was met with horror (most from the influencer marketing community) some time back when it was first announced. As a consumer however, I fully embrace this. Studies suggest that instant feedback on content can boost people's self-esteem but bring others down if they do not get as many likes. In short - social media can be toxic and pretty bad for your mental health. Something I’ve had a bit of clarity about recently.
Although I’m based in Singapore where we aren’t affected by this yet, this community spreads all over the world and I’m keen to address what this might mean for you as a small business owner. (In my opinion, I actually think this is a really positive thing).
This is nothing to worry about. In fact if this is rolled out as the norm, I think it will prompt a major shift in how we think about and consume social media content, in a positive way. It’s important to realise, that as the account owner you will still be able to view analytics. All metrics on engagement will still be viewable in whichever tool you use to analyse, and of course on the Instagram app itself. YOU will still be able to see how many likes your post has. But no one else.
Instagram claims to have done this to remove the pressure of how many likes a post will receive, so you can focus on sharing the things you love. I couldn’t agree more. Instagram has evolved from somewhere we all used to post pictures of food to a powerful marketing tool for business owners, and digital influencers. Influencers have become unavoidable, we all log on to Instagram and see inauthentic ads from digital influencers that are selling products. How many times have you seen “I’m often in situation X, that’s why I love product X, because A, B, C”. The incessant need for acceptance on social media has changed how people promote themselves online, and we are constantly comparing with others. People buy likes, people buy followers, you can fake anything on Instagram these days, just to look better than others.
It doesn’t need to be the case for a small business. Instagram engagement has gone through many, MANY algorithm changes in the last few weeks. Popular automation tools have been shut down for good, and users are trying to find other ways of getting their content seen and ‘liked’. Don’t feel bad if your posts aren’t getting that many likes - this is exactly why Instagram is trialing this and there have been multiple changes in engagement metrics recently. Every like is not a sale, you still need to focus on your content, building your community, ultimately focusing on much more than just getting someone to click a heart on your post. The average Instagram engagement rate is just 1-3.5% with anything above that considered ‘good’. On my personal account I hover around 5%, but my impressions can be up to 10,000 per post!
Go back to basics and look at your brand. Think about what it is that you’re trying to achieve on Instagram. Is your content unique? Are you posting stills or videos? Do you use Instagram stories? Do you use Instagram live? Are your captions engaging? Are you utilising all 30 hashtags? Do you engage with other users at all? How often do you post? What time do you post?
Each and every one of these factors (plus many more) is going to have an impact on how successful your content is, even if the ‘like’ changes don’t come into effect worldwide. I would welcome it, and I’d love to see less competitiveness and more focus on quality, fun content.
If you’d like to chat about how I can take all of this off your hands, send me an email!
