Instagram Hide Likes Creates Big Social Media Boom

Instagram has been one of the leading social media platforms since its inception on ' 6 October 2010'. One billion people use Instagram each month, according to recent data. Instagram has also brought a major change of hiding likes on posts even though it's booming in popularity. 

The era of proudly displaying an attitude seems to be coming to an end because of the number of likes you have for an Instagram post. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri recently announced the platform would remove public likes. This is the recent tweet by Adam.

How does the ' Instagram Hide likes' Concept Work?

Instagram explains why they took this move, and it was so that the users concentrate on posting content, and not just on likes. One can still scroll through the list of how many people liked the posts to calculate the number for yourself, but who on earth has the time for that? (I guess). While this may seem a negative change, remember that the popularity of Instagram Stories has boomed on a large scale, although users could not see the number of views that every story has. Still, they watched instead, because they wanted to be updated about the latest trends and happenings, and also because they were interested in the content.  You can see how many likes you received on your posts. While for others when they press on the ' others ' button a message is displayed that prompt reads: “Only "username "can see the total number of people who liked this post.”

Impact On People In Business Of Fake Likes

Since people like to measure social media engagement in past this may have been a viable way, but this measure has more and more become a vanity metric that does not show whether someone has any impact. People who were into the business of fake likes finally have their nightmare come true. Likes can be bought to make posts seem more popular than they are, such as people can buy likes from certain sites. Many people sell fake likes. There are certain ways of doing it some of which are -

• bots automatically like certain posts,
• reciprocal liking from pods
• tags such as "like for likes." and others.

Using third-party apps and tools to buy likes was becoming a widespread problem on Instagram, which effectively hid the genuine interaction and interaction with a post.

Is It Affecting Influencers?

Yes, of course, it is affecting influencers on a large scale. Influencers/ Tik-Tok users who believed that they can be on social media and get a full-time job by postings things and gaining likes are in some great snag. Many times brands hire influencers as a band-aid to cover up their incompetence on social media. But, because it’s been difficult to judge influence-based marketing, many companies have tried influencer marketing and spent a huge amount of money to do so. This is the reason why influencers are getting paid and more people are getting into influencer marketing since it is a full-time easy job.  But since Instagram hide likes have come into the picture influencers are endangered they are going jobless.

Here are statistics on how influencers used to earn through likes

Why did Instagram have to take this drastic step?

It is no secret that prolonged use of social media can be bad, for one's mental health right? A Healthline Study has identified a link between social media and negative health effects, which explains a lot. That's the reason why, Adam mossier came up with the initiative of hiding Likes so people can stop comparing themselves to others, worry less about going astray, and focus more on developing real connections with one another.

In a follow-up tweet, they also said that they wanted users to “focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get.” Their main focus is to make users’ well-being and mental health a priority, rather than popularity.

But there is always a solution to everything

• Content is key

Earlier content was not always well-practiced people used to focus on bogus things such as likes and stuff, but now it is more important that people focus on their content strategy. Follow the 70/30 rule, where 70% of your posts are for engaging your audience and 30% are about your other practices. Earlier, you used to have posts based on how many likes you got, now you can post on topics that are related. Instead of relying on likes create posts that support what your business wants to represent.

• Share Genuinity

Share some genuine information with your followers.  It is a great way to build confidence and help them combine positivity and utility with your brand. Share a behind-the-scenes tour so that there can be a great way for people to get to know you before they even meet you.

• Become Real

Consider what will make the most meaningful commitment instead of thinking about what will be most liked. It can be the perfect prospect for you to prove to potential customers who they would be working with so that they can start to build a strong institution that will support a trusting relationship. 

In Conclusion

Keeping this strategy in mind even you can become a famous Instagrammer. Thus social media can be more of what people want to post and show rather than a just popularity contest, which can be a win for advertisers, real influencers, and people who want to be a positive force for social media. Instagram only rolls out this change temporarily, but you could see other social media platforms fostering similar features if it's a success.

Also, what do you think about whether hiding like counts is a good idea? Do let us know what your opinion is by posting a comment down below.