Instagram’s CEO, Adam Mosseri, announced that public engagement metrics, or the ability to see how many and who liked an Instagram post, will be removed for U.S. users starting this month. Users will still see how many likes their own posts receive, but they will no longer be able to see the engagement on other users’ posts.
Now, instead of seeing the number of people who have liked someone’s post, when a person you follow has liked someone else’s photo, it will show their Instagram handle as well as a few others under the post where likes would typically appear. Users can then click to see a list of the accounts who have liked the post, but they will no longer be able to see a number highlighting how many people have liked it. Yes, you could count…but where’s the fun in that?
Instagram was originally created to bring people together and connect them over shareable moments. The intent behind the change is to try and depressurize Instagram, make it less of a competition, and give people more space to focus on connecting with people they love and things that inspire them. Mosseri decided that Instagram should be more about bringing out the best in people rather than the worst. It has become too much of a popularity contest instead of a platform to highlight key moments.
Additionally, as people fight to be on top, we have seen influencers begin to post more and more obscure and radical posts. The idea of deleting likes will hopefully encourage people to begin posting more everyday pictures rather than trying to go to extremes.
Of course, there are always going to be critics. I mean, haters gonna hate – right? Some people are arguing that removing public engagement metrics will mean less engagement for both businesses and influencers. If influencers are getting paid for engagement rates, won’t it impact their career to no longer see likes? Well, luckily those influencers will still have access to performance metrics on the backend of their account.
Additionally, Instagram stated that they understand that like counts are important for many creators, and they are actively thinking through additional ways for creators to communicate value to their brand partners. Others have suggested that the decision is profit motivated, and that Instagram is taking like counts away so that brands and companies stop paying people directly for their audiences and instead buy ads on Instagram itself. Whether this is true or not, the majority of people are enjoying this change on Instagram and love that we no longer need to turn to social media for validation.
With more and more people using social media, do you agree it’s time to find ways to use Instagram for connection rather than validation? Reach out – we’d love to start a conversation with you about Instagram and how it could benefit your company, with like counts or not.