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No Likey, No Lighty

In more news of social media platforms removing embedded features…

INSTAGRAM LIKES ARE DISAPPEARING

Well, kinda.

Instagram have announced that they are rolling out a worldwide release of hidden like counts. This means that your followers will not be able to see how many likes your post receives, but you can still view this information as the account holder. Their justification for the move seems to be focused on mental health issues surrounding social media use, mostly by young people, but what does this mean for small businesses?

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Instagram’s Head Honcho, Adam Mosseri, has stated that this will impact engagement but believes it’s the right thing to do moving forward on the platform. Whilst I can applaud such a large organisation recognising the effects of social media on mental health, I’m not sure the number of likes is the main issue. Surely cracking down on trolls and online bullying should be the focus here?

No matter how you spin it, this will have an impact on engagement and reach on Instagram for small businesses. It’s another case of having to play the algorithm game just to see even a fraction of your previous engagement levels. No wonder people think the algorithm is out to get them!