What does this mean for Influencer Marketing?
A bold statement
Recently Instagram has made a bold decision by trialling the removal of likes in a bid to combat how social media can negatively affect mental wellbeing, particularly amongst its younger users. Whilst it’s currently only been trialled in several countries, including Australia and Japan, this decision has been met with mixed reactions and raised questions over the future of social media influencers. This platform is the home to influencer marketing, which is a crucial strategy in many companies marketing plans. You would still be able to see who liked the post without the numbers clearly displayed so whilst the decision has been met with some negativity, if anything the removal of likes will mean companies would have to refocus and improve the quality and diversity of content.
Companies in sectors such as retail and food and drink, use influencer marketing to improve their brand awareness and generate conversions. If Instagram decides to make this trial permanent, we need to consider how influencer marketing might be affected. Will other metrics such as comments and followers be used to determine the future of influencer marketing? Influencers and brands will be forced to consider the type of content they are posting, tailoring it more effectively to their target audience.
Making the most of Instagram
If these changes come into play permanently, we would suggest making the most of everything Instagram has to offer. Use stories for swipe up and additional shopping functions, engage users with videos and live streams and consider well thought out captions, questions and call-to-actions.
Of course, this is just one opinion. How do you think the removal of likes would affect Instagram and its influencers?