There is no doubt that Instagram over the years have built a very strong chain of influence in the world of fashion. It is almost true that fashion designers, vendors, and fanatics post and follow up on fashion related media first and more frequently on Instagram before they consider posting on their respective websites/stores in available.
In the wake of this, Instagram feed have become a competition ground for brands and stores with the never-ending battle to have a reasonable large number of likes on every posts on their accounts. And as expected, Instagram has decided to look into this and have concluded to remove the “like” feature from the feed. Instagram says, is to make the app a more pleasant and less competitive experience.
In an experiment conducted in March, study by the American Psychological Association that linked a rise in depression, psychological distress and suicidal thoughts among people 26 and younger to social media use. At F8, Facebook’s annual developer conference, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that this feature was introduced to create a “less pressurized environment where people feel comfortable expressing themselves.”
Mae Karwowski, CEO and founder of the influencer marketing platform Obviously, said the company has surveyed over a hundred influencers in Canada since the change rolled out, and 58% have said their like count has stayed about the same, while 33% said they were getting fewer likes. One response she heard from many, though, was that, “they liked that they had a little bit more range now — they didn’t have to post the photo that they knew was going to get the maximum number of likes because they know that potential partners are looking at every single post that they do. So you don’t just have to post that one sunset photo or that one avocado toast photo because you feel like you have to do that and you feel the pressure to keep your like count extremely high.”
Mark Zuckerberg explained at F8, “As you scroll through your feed, there are no like counts, You can see who liked a photo or video, you can tap through to see [the list], and if you have the time you can add them all up yourself.”
But can you still see how many likes you get on your own Instagram posts?
Yes, you will still be able to see how many likes you’re getting on posts, even if your followers can’t.
But the number won’t automatically appear under your post, instead, you will have to tap “others” under your blog post to go through to the total number of likes:
For Fashion however, Instagram seem committed to its push into e-commerce, which in March expanded to allow users to checkout within the app when they click on a shoppable post. In May, it launched @shop, an account featuring curated brands, trends and influencers, including footwear and fashion labels Freda Salvador, Kurt Lyle and Aera. The app last year hit a billion monthly active users, and according to social media management firm Hootsuite, 60 percent of those users actively seek out and discover new products on the platform.
“We believe this change move will put more of an emphasis on Stories, IGTV, and Instagram Shopping, as brands will be able to track actionable metrics like swipe ups and purchases from these content formats, and calculate ROI and performance metrics,” said Zoe Marans, VP and General Manager at Mediakix, an influencer marketing agency.
Still, she said, the lack of public metrics may make it more difficult to determine pricing for sponsored posts and stories. “This may lead to more negotiation room as brands and influencers find new ways to work together, share messaging and determine effectiveness of ad spend.”
