Why Instagram is Gearing Up to Hide “Likes”

Could Hiding Like Count Could Go Horribly Wrong?

"The future is private." -Mark Zuckerberg

What Happened?

On April 30th, Instagram announced at Facebook’s F8 developer conference in San Jose that it would begin testing a feature in Canada that would hide the like counts on photos/videos on selected public accounts on Instagram. This means that the number of engagements posts receive will be hidden from the public on the feed, perma-linked pages, and on individual profiles. 

Facebook claims that the main point of this is to get users to stop focusing on likes and more on the content that they are posting. With likes not being sought after anymore, "Facebook believes it is possible that the overall posting pattern will focus less on back-side bikini pictures and food porn and more on everyday life."

Is this a sound argument?

The problem with this argument is that users are no longer resonating with the fake lifestyles that used to flood social media content. Social media influencers, consultants and educators such as Gary Vaynerchuk are at the center of the social media culture shift towards authenticity rather than pictures and videos of rented Lamborghinis and food porn.

Additionally with Instagram’s most recent June 4th update, automation softwares have seemingly vanished for the time being eliminating the majority of spam and gimmicky marketing on the platform. By reducing the fake followers and fake engagements on posts, it is hard to understand why hiding like count is the next step if interactions are no longer coming from a bot. 

Will there be a need to continue to boost posts?

Another important point to mention is that Facebook has always promoted boosting posts and advertising on their platforms in order to grow audience, reach and engagement level. Many users boost their posts on Facebook and Instagram for the specific reason of growing their engagement on posts. By eliminating the incentive to promote your engagement for cosmetic purposes, Facebook will also lose out on precious ad dollars as their average usage time per day continues to drop on their largest platform. 

Will this eliminate Instagram users right to vote?

Engaging on posts is similar to voting. For years users have enjoyed their ability to “vote” on posts that they enjoy via likes. The most recent example of this was the World Record Egg that generated almost 57 million engagements and set a record for most likes on a post on Instagram. This made users feel like they were a part of history, and that ultimately they got to decide what the most liked post on the platform would be. 

It seems contradictory...

It seems contradictory that Facebook would want to eliminate like count in order to re-focus on content while simultaneously adding additional paid marketing correspondence and embedded goods for sale into posts to subliminally distract users from the content itself. 

For years, coaxing users to engage with the content they like has been the most effective call to action on social media; however, we are now beginning to see more ads on stories and feeds as well as shoppable posts.

This shifts focus from the users opinion on the content and instead promotes the user spending more time away from content on the platform via swipe up ads and tagged product posts. 

Mental Health questions

Another main focus from hiding likes, again according to Facebook, is to raise self-esteem and promote mental health awareness for younger users. Although according to Randi Priluck, a professor and associate dean at Pace University, “...users still being able to see their own likes does not help the situation, it doesn’t fix the fact that kids will still be jealous of other’s lives and can feel left out.”

Although Facebook believes hiding like count will be a mental health benefit and allow users to focus more on the content, this change will greatly affect influencers who make their money on the platform. 

How will the Influencers React? 

Instagram has dominated the influencer marketing space over the last 24 months with over 87% of Influencers reporting that their main platform was Instagram in 2018. The prime metric of differentiation for influencers from everyone else on Instagram is their engagement level. 

This engagement number (likes, comments) adds perceptual value to an influencers brand as well as adds true business value (Shoutouts cost roughly 10-15% of engagement in USD i.e 1,000 engagements = $100-150 per shoutout).  

With over 1 billion users, engagement is what separates influencers from the pack.  Hiding engagement will eliminate that differentiation factor in the eyes of their audience and prospective sponsors. 

In Closing… 

Engagement drives usage, and when users feel they do not have a voice they will become frustrated.  Furthermore, eliminating the prime differentiation factor of influencers from all other users can cause a migration of Influencers to other platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Twitch and LinkedIn.

As you can imagine, wherever the people of influence go, the masses will follow.

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