A few days ago there was an article about Instagram hiding the likes count one day. Well they started the test.
“Instagram is going to test hiding “like” counts this week as a way to make “a less pressurized environment” on the app, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced on Tuesday.”
Interestingly a lot of people here jumped on the “they-will-never-do-it” boat. It looks like they are actually going to do it. What we don’t know is if it will become an official feature or will only remain a test.
When they are testing it, nobody knows if they are going to do it. They test it to see which reactions hiding likes are causing and if the engagement drops, increases or stays the same. They are for sure not caring about Instagram beeing less a competition. They are just caring about the $. So if the result is a drop in engagement and a decrease in spended time on the tested content, they won’t do it.
All of that is pure speculation because only Instagram/Facebook has the data on the given content.
They also tested many other horrible ideas - such as the 4 image grid. Ultimately what will decide what sticks is people’s reaction to it and how it affects their bottom line. Both of these factors taken into consideration makes me think they won’t go through with it in the long run. However, for now we’ll just have to wait and see.
They announced that they test it, not that they implement it.
Just because they say it is a way to make Instagram a less pressurized environment it doesn’t mean that this is the idea behind it. Of course it sounds better to the majority of people when they say: “We are trying to improve your user experience” than “We want to make more $”.
So it looks like WHO likes your post will be more important than HOW MANY like your post.
It would be a change in the landscape and more power to influencers and big accounts.
Sounds like a method to remove the power of fake likes and a reason to focus on quality rather than quantity. Building a network of fans will never have been more important as they will influence each other’s decision to like something.
Only if that power liker is in your network. You are only shown who liked the post from your network right now and just one top name. I am guessing that they will show more names and drop the likes number.
How the post will be promoted by IG might not change at all though, so all those likes may be more important than ever to get your post seen.
Edit: I wrote Facebook instead of IG, easy mistake to make these days.
I guess there are two areas to look at, the benefits for the general population and the impacts for businesses like us.
I had a couple of discussion with friends, and it can be quite interesting.
I think, sure it will help with “anxiety” and “depression” which are the key reason for doing it, but at the same time, people can find other ways to validate themselves e.g. traffic going to their page and built-in analytics.
In the business point of view, I think it is beneficial for us as now the importance of delivering traffic to a page is much higher which is one thing F/UF method does!
I don’t see it as impact for us, it was always easier to grow followers than likes. When you have a client who posts twice a month, it’s pain in the ass to grow their engagement, at least with hidden likes they won’t complain much.
I’m simply stating a fact. Thought for now it’s just a test