What You Need to Know About Instagram Potentially Hiding Likes
Have you recently opened your Instagram account and found that all of your likes had disappeared?
Instagram recently started testing hiding likes in Canada, and today we are going to talk about what the implications of this change might be.
Instagram made the announcement during F8 2019, with Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg mentioning that there are no like counts for certain users on Instagram. Users can still see which other accounts liked the content and even tap on the list to go through them one by one, but there wasn’t a count visible.
What about seeing my own likes?
It is important to mention at this point that you will still be able to see how many likes a photo or video gets, even if your followers can’t. But even so, you won’t be able to see your likes on your post directly.
If you click on the “others” on the likes bar to go to a screen where you will be shown the total number of likes on your post.
How do I sign up or sign out of hiding likes?
At the time this is being written, the feature is available to a select few users in Canada. If you are one of these people, you will be able to see a banner on your home screen that lets you know your account has been selected as one of the test participants.
Right now, there isn’t any way to sign up to a test group or sign out of one, but it can be expected that once the feature rolls out worldwide you will be offered a choice.
How will this change Instagram?
Hiding likes is a major change to the way Instagram has operated till date. Instagram users have been conditioned to view the number of likes something gets as a symbol of how much success it has achieved.
Hiding the like counts then is a move designed to help users share more authentic and genuine content rather than just chasing likes for the sake of it.
Zuckerberg said the move is designed to help people focus on connecting with other people and be less invested in how many likes they are getting.
How will this affect brands and influencers?
In our opinion, this is a really positive change for the platform.
One of the most widely used features on Instagram is Stories, which doesn’t have any public metrics or like counts. And still, it continues to grow in popularity with users of all kinds, professional or otherwise.
Leaving your like count out of the equation will put the focus on the quality of your content and can free you up from adhering to algorithmic variables like a best time to post.
It also frees you up from a mental block that many people on social media platforms experience – getting too attached to the like counts of their pictures.
For brands, it might make things more difficult initially to find the right influencers to work with because they won’t be able to see like counts. Brands care a lot of about engagement rate and reach, so this will make the selection process tougher.
If you are an influencer or a brand looking to partner with people on Instagram, it is absolutely essential that you have a good media kit to showcase how engaged your community is.
There are some experts who think that hiding likes could mean a shift away from influencer marketing and towards more paid advertising. They say this could lead to a situation where it is difficult for new entrants to a market.
On the other hand, there are also experts who think this will actually improve the brand marketing situation, because businesses will start looking at more meaningful metrics like conversion rate or impressions.
What you should do with this information
If you are a business owner on Instagram, it is more important than ever to analyze data correctly and finding new ways to look at what content is actually driving your business and helping you reach meaningful targets.
Likes were always a misleading metric of sorts, but it gave businesses a gauge for what kind of content might work. Now, brands will have to look at the things that really matter.
For people who are running social media agencies or have clients, this means you will need to change the value proposition you are offering based on hidden analytics.
It may still be several months away but hiding likes on Instagram is coming. As a reader of this blog, we want you to get every advantage possible. Use the tips we have outlined in this article to shift your content so that you can continue to thrive in a like-free Instagram.