Instagram is constantly evolving and making the platform better for their users. They have updates every month, but this recent update could have impact on the social proof of organic marketing.
Around May, Instagram planned testing a version of the app that removed the public “like/view” counter on users’ posts.
The owner of the post could still see how many “likes/views” the post accrued and who left them, but they would be invisible to everyone else; all that an account’s followers would see would be any comments that were left.
In July, Instagram confirmed that it was being rolled out to some users in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand. Both likes and video views will be hidden in these tests.
Instagram likes and video views will still be part of the platform, and both metrics will still be used to assess quality and relevance. Posts with more video views and likes, therefore, will still be gaining priority in the algorithms. The social proof that is currently available as a result of public video views and like counters, however, will disappear completely.
Soon, if the tests go well and Instagram releases this on a wide scale, the only social proof you’ll have to go on is “comments”. This has a big implication: people who swipe and don’t engage are likely users going to hit that little heart button than they are to “comment”. So this could shift the social proof of organic marketing. “Comments” will be more important than ever before. It’s a good idea for you to to working on strategies and ideas on how to generate discussion in your posts (including responding to every comment possible!).
In the following weeks and months, we will be exploring several content engagement pillars in our own posts, and hopefully with some of our clients as well to see what will work. So stay tuned.
Follow us on Instagram to learn more about what these pillars are, and let us help you design a small campaign to shift engagement from “likes” to “comments.”
Source: AdExpresso by Hootsuite