Thursday the 18th July 2019 marked the rollout of a significant change in the operation of social media giant Instagram. Any digital agency in China can tell you that this platform is known for high engagement rates, with a very high number of users worldwide − and its popularity is still growing. Between June 2016 and June 2018, the amount of active monthly users doubled. In June 2018, it clocked up to 1 billion active monthly users. That’s a lot of potential audience for your business.
The Shock News
The news came from Instagram that they’ll no longer show users the amount of likes obtained by other people’s posts. Instead, there will simply be the nondescript message “Liked by ‘name’ and others”. It’s hard to imagine how this might affect both personal and business accounts and content creation. A large part of influencer marketing is based upon the social proof lent to content and brands via the number of likes they’ve received, with that information having always been visible to everyone in the past. Instagram Australia’s Director of Policy, Mia Garlick, states that “the idea is to just really let you focus on the content and the experience of engaging without being worried or feeling pressured over how many likes a post has received.”
