Instagram is hiding likes and have begun linking influencer content to shopping tools as a way to drive and measure direct sales. The platform has hidden likes from the public view, which has began testing in the US .influencer’s marketers could be forced to look beyond vanity standards to more advanced measurement tools, including social commerce and instore purchase behavior.
Many users are worried about influencer’s jobs hanging in the balance with the new move, when in reality it would be great for brands and influencers alike. Brands have measured influence with popularity for far too long, and finally they’ll be forced to consider the measures that really matter engagement and impressions. Hiding “likes” will help curb the proliferation of influencer fraud on Instagram, whereby users buy followers and likes in order to appear more influential than what they are. If likes are hidden, there will be no need for this.
Some of South Africa’s social media influencers have raised concerns over changes that has been made to (IG) algorithms, which seem to affect feed visibility for some users on the popular social media platform. the changes have affected there engagement rate and it looks like the priority is just focusing on likes. This has impacted on there marketability as an influencer, as brands look more at engagement rate with your followers than likes on a post.
Lately social media platforms have been gaining a lot of traction from mainstream brands, who are leaving traditional media platforms and putting their advertising resources on social media.
This has forced them to rethink their strategies and find interesting ways to promote their brands using these new formats of these media platforms.
