My Take on the Instagram Likes Update

Over the past week, I have been expressing my thoughts on the Instagram update and I think much of what I’ve been talking about has come true in a very short space of time.

Two things mainly: 

1. An increased number of ads on my feed. 

2. Declining organic engagement

And by the way, I run ads myself because I came late to the Instagram game and trying to amplify a message without them now is difficult.

When the update was first announced, I was happy about the fact that the likes count disappeared on posts, especially since my reach isn’t very large. But obviously, with working on Facebook and Instagram ads, I was looking at this with a little bit more skepticism.

There are some pros and cons I see to the update which are as follows:

Pros

• It is the great equalizer where nice content isn’t pre-judged due to the like count. 
• It forces marketers into a more effective way of reaching their audience through sponsored content and advertising, which is extremely powerful and quantifiable.

Cons

• The quality of ad content has dipped with companies who never advertised being forced to do so. Hopefully, this sorts itself out over time and Instagram maintains the integrity of picture and video-based content.
• For the end consumer adds become more subtle because for example you can no longer see that the random post from California reaches you in Ireland with just 5 likes. 
• It forces influencers to be more forthcoming with their backend stats, rather than touting at-a-glance engagement. Remember. Likes can be bought too.

As long as Instagram ensures that it stamps out text-heavy, billboard-style advertising, the platform's integrity will be maintained. Otherwise, it will sink, and quickly!