No More Visible IG Likes, Now What?
Hey E-preneur! Everyone is all in a frenzy now that visible likes have been taken away from Instagram. However, this shouldn’t stop influencers, bloggers, e-commerce merchants, and small business owners from posting their creative content. Who cares about likes anyway? It’s about the sales/conversions RIGHT? (and influence or connections if that’s what you’re in the business for) This shouldn’t be a threat to your business and here are a few reasons why:
People will still see your post and can still engage (Brand Awareness): Brand awareness is very important for business owners and influencers these days. With billions of Instagram accounts it’s quite hard for people to get a hold of your content unless you are posting a lot or paying for ads. Even though visible likes are no longer here, your content still is. With the whole Instagram algorithm they typically show your content to people who are engaging with your post (like and commenting) so with people still being able to like your post, Instagram will be able to show those same people the content. If you’re worried that people will no longer like your post then start paying to play! Pay for some IG ads to get more eyeballs on your content. (Download a free downloadable PDF I created on running FB/IG ads here)
You can still see your analytics (which is what is actually important): Instagram hasn’t taken away likes completely, they just made them no longer visible. This means you (the business owner/influencer) still have the opportunity to see who is interacting with your content. Instagram has a very robust analytics dashboard that shows Engagement, Reach, Impressions, and Audience Overview. All of those metrics are vital to knowing how to interact with your audience and to make improvements. Letting people see how many people like your post is similar to showing people how much money you make in your business (not really, but you get the point). What good is it for your followers to know how many people are liking your post or how much money you are making in your business - that’s none of their business. UNLESS you are an influencer and brands want to get inside of your metrics to see your engagement rates, but the good thing is you still have your analytics dashboard to show them. (I wrote about this previously as well, look here)
The bots and people who buy likes can no longer fool you: The fact that people actually buy likes so they can LOOK poppin is ridiculous. It does nothing but mess up your analytics and then you cannot really determine the people who actually like your content vs internet bots. Quality vs quantity people! With the removal of visible likes, this will hopefully get people to stop buying likes and then they can really start analyzing their metrics to see how to grow their business.
Has the removal of Instagram likes hurt or helped your business so far e-preneurs?