“We want people to worry a little bit less about how many likes they’re getting on Instagram“
In short, these likes are disappearing – but perhaps only temporarily.
As noted in Amplification Inc., some Canadian and Brazilian Instagram users this summer lost the ability to see the number of likes some posts had.
The way this has worked thus far is as follows – users can see how many reactions (likes and smilies) have been posted on their own posts. But they can’t see how many reactions have been posted anywhere else.
Why the change?
The Facebook-owned social media platform wanted to find out whether doing this might create a less high-pressure social media environment, allowing users less scope to compare themselves to one another.
The logic is that social media can negatively affect mental health and self-esteem – and that removing the likes counter may counteract this.
According to Instagram head Adam Mosseri:
We want people to worry a little bit less about how many likes they’re getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people that they care about.
Facebook is soon going to implement the same measures.
Many social scientists have been suggesting these changes for years. Indeed, The Washington Post noted:
The psychological drawbacks of social media use have gained more attention in recent years, with parents, consumer advocates and even tech companies pointing to its potential to increase anxiety and social isolation.
It’s important to be aware that, right now, these measures are only a trial. But if they work effectively, without decreasing social media engagement, they might well become permanent. Even Facebook’s very own Mark Zuckerberg is aware of the potential blow to online engagement:
As we roll this out, you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media…Now, I want to be clear: by making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down. But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable. And if we do the right thing, I believe that will be good for our community and our business over the long term too.
Will this affect my business?
If you pay a lot of attention to likes, it might:
if you rely on likes to promote your products or gauge the success of your posts, it’s time to brush up your digital strategy.
So, to avoid this affecting your business, you simply need to shift your focus away from likes – and onto different strategies.
Your business can consider other analytical tools to measure engagement, and act accordingly. Yes, likes can be useful – but they’re rather arbitrary and basic, and they’re certainly not the only way of measuring engagement.
One solution is Facebook’s Ads Manager. It should be a key component of your social media marketing strategy
Facebook ads allows you to measure the success of your ads in more ways than simple likes – which could be very useful if like counts do disappear forever. Engage with Ad Manager and your missing likes won’t matter.