Instagram tests hiding likes in Canada

Would love to hear everyones thoughts on this feature and how you feel it may positively or negatively affect working with influencers? So why the change? Instagram have said 'We want your followers to focus on what you share and not how many likes your posts get'. How it will work is your likes will no longer be visible to the public, you as a instagram user will still see the like count and can share that info if you're working with a brand etc.

The Week quote Instagrams co-founder Kevin Systrom from 2016 saying that 'one of the reasons for the creation of Instagram Stories was to alleviate the pressure of receiving likes'. So it feels this is a direction they have already been moving in for a few years now. Personally I feel this is a step in the right direction, I look forward to seeing the results and if this will be rolled out across Instagram. I think any of us working in influencer marketing or with influencers need to recognise our responsibility, especially to the younger influencers to make moves that protect them and their potentially young audience.

The BBC have reported on a recent proposal to place limits on letting users under 18 'like' posts on Facebook and Instagram. As concerns over mental and physical health have arisen due to younger peoples use of social media platforms. The question remains how governments could enforce this. Are Instagram and Facebook trying to get one step ahead of these changes before restrictions are put on the platforms?

Ashley Carmen from The Verge shares a great point that at 'the same time, likes can incentivise less interesting content and facilitate like-garnering posts, like nudity, food porn, and classic Instagram-bait scenes. Getting rid of likes could fundamentally change the platform'. This could add to creating a more authentic experience when browsing posts. You like something because it engages or interests you not because you see 10,000 people already liked it.

Leena Norms a UK influencer created a video featuring her opinions (well worth a watch). I love especially how she described followers over fans, she describes a fan as someone who actually interacts with her content. In her opinion a follow or subscribe isn't an endorsement. As many of us see in the industry today subscribers isn't a useful metric in determining how successful a channel is, views and engagement are what we should be focusing on.

All round a very interesting topic and I'd love to know your views on this.