It’s easy to get caught up in Likes, Comments, and Shares mania on social media because it’s often believed that more likes mean your post performed better.
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” The new version of this saying may be something like, “If your Instagram post gets 500 likes and no one knows, does it matter?” The answer is a simple no.
According to Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, Instagram will begin testing hiding likes for US users next week. You will still see the likes and engagement on your posts, but others will not. More importantly, you will now be unable to compare, stress, and obsess over the Instagram page for the veterinary hospital down the street, and how their posts compare to yours.
In the grand scheme of things, this shouldn’t really affect anything on Instagram. You and other users will still like what you like, and may not feel the pressure to like certain photos because everyone else is doing it. But what brought on the change? Many social media networks are working on demetrication and trying to make the internet a safer, less competitive place.
Even at WhiskerCloud, we are so focused on data that we provide to our clients; sometimes, it’s nice to feel good about a post that went out and not stress about likes, reach, and engagement. We hope this will help you, too. Creating and sharing content should be able just that, sharing something that means something to you. Just because your post had less engagement than someone else’s post doesn’t mean it’s any worse. Now everyone will be on an equal playing field in public space.
Leave a comment and let us know what you think. Do you like this or hate it? Will you like more or less if you cannot see the like count?
