Instagram is hiding likes, and this is what you need to know and what you don't need to
know about this update.
I'm going to break through all the BS in this video.
So first and foremost, let's go back to 2018 when Kanye West of all people tweeted this,
"We should be able to participate in social media without having to show how many followers
or likes we have.
Just like how we can turn off the comments, we should be able to turn off the display
of followers.
This has an intense negative impact on our self-worth."
And then fast forward to today and this past week when we found out from Instagram's CEO
that they'll be hiding likes.
Kind of interesting.
Coincidence?
I think not.
And this has been something that's been rolling out in other countries, but now that it's
coming to the US, people are losing their minds.
Take a look.
Where does Instagram stand on that right now?
So right now we're testing making accounts private.
So you'll be able to see how many people liked a given photo of yours or a video of yours,
but no one else will in seven countries, including Brazil, and Japan, and Canada.
I'm actually announcing that we're going to start testing in the US next week, not the
whole US at once.
So I have a feeling that you know what I'm going to say about this and you can comment
below if you have a guess.
But before I dive into my thoughts on this, how you can use it to your advantage, because
it's actually not necessarily the worst thing in the world for you and the algorithm.
I just wanted to pull in one more heavy hitter to kind of round out my point here in this
video.
So the next person I wanted to bring up is, this is a tweet from Nicki Minaj that I came
across.
So I'm just going to read it out.
"I'm not posting to IG after this week, because they are removing likes.
Hmm.
What should I get into now?
Think of all the time I'll have with my new life."
Nicki Minaj actually has a good point here, but there's also something very wrong with
what she posted on Twitter.
And please don't attack me if you're a fan of hers.
I love her music, but there's something inherently wrong with this post, this tweet, this conversation.
So yes, Instagram is a business and part of the reason, let's just call a spade a spade.
Part of the reason for why they're removing the likes.
Yes, it has to do with mental health.
And I do think that that Kanye conversation has something to do with this.
But more importantly, Instagram is a business, and a lot of the ad dollars and the money
that's going into Instagram is going directly to influencers.
So as a business for Instagram, they need to be looking at their bottom line and they
need to be looking at the revenue they're bringing in.
If they know that a lot of their influencers are making millions of dollars, but that money's
going directly in the influencers pocket as opposed to into Instagram's pocket, that's
a problem with their business inherently.
So, that is true to Nicki's point.
That makes sense.
And she's talking about it from the perspective of young up and coming artist and needing
that info and those likes and the vanity metrics to prove that they are worth following, et
cetera.
So I understand it from that perspective as like a small business owner, you're like,
"I need the likes, I need the vanity and metrics, I need those things."
But on a bigger scale this is what's inherently wrong with that mentality in my opinion.
And I think there are two sides to the coin and you can tell me which side you're on below.
I think the issue with that thought process is that it puts so much weight on numbers.
And it puts so much weight on metrics that don't really matter and it does perpetuate
the cycle of comparison and competition.
And I think if you were to go back in time and if we looked at artists from back in the
day that are timeless and classic and that people still listen to, if the Beatles had
to think about how many likes a certain post was going to get or how many views a certain
song was going to get, it would have hindered their creative process.
And I've even found for myself that when I post to Instagram, which I do few and far
between, you can watch this video on how I post to Instagram and how I have a very minimalist
approach to that platform.
But I found for myself that I won't post certain things because I'm like, "Well it's not even
going to get seen.
I won't get the metrics and I don't really care about likes and followers on Instagram."
What I care about are the hidden metrics.
So I care more about is this post going to resonate with the audience that I have?
Is it going to turn into paying clients and customers, is it going to have an impact?
And I think when I saw that tweet from Nikki Minaj, I was like, "This right here supports
the mental health argument," because if you're strictly saying, "I'm not going to post it,
Instagram any more because I can't see the vanity metrics," this is the problem.
Because Instagram has become a scroll hole of the same over and over and over again.
People are posing the same way as people are pulling the same stunts to get the kind of
likes that they need to get.
People are using the same aesthetic.
People are using the same preset.
There is no reality on the platform.
You have to perfectly curate your feed and have a certain look and feel to it in order
for people to resonate with it or an order to get those vanity metrics.
When at the end of the day, the vanity metrics don't really matter.
Because there are a lot of, I always talk about this, broke influencers out there.
There are a lot of people with hundreds and thousands if not millions of followers on
Instagram, but they aren't making any money.
They don't even know how to monetize it.
So you can't take followers to the bank and if you just are focusing on vanity metrics,
you're screwing yourself.
So why I think this is a really exciting thing is that when it comes to technology, when
it comes to anything in business and entrepreneurship and you don't innovate, you die.
So I actually think Instagram is innovating and they're listening to the fact that the
platform does have a problem with sameness and everything's starting to look alike, and
hindering creative expression and freedom.
Because people are so worried about vanity metrics that they don't think about the fact
that, "Oh, this is just something that I have on my mind.
And if I share it, I hope that it makes an impact."
They're thinking, "If I share this, is it going to get likes?"
And that's a big fricking problem.
I'm so excited because it's going to bring back creativity to the platform, it's going
to bring back innovation to the platform.
It's going to allow people to be more raw and real and in the moment, which is what
Instagram was originally made for.
Insta, instant.
Gram, instant photos.
And that's how we all used to use it.
So I'm curious and excited about how we can use this to our advantage.
So let's dive into that.
One of the biggest ways that you can use this change to your advantage as it starts to roll
out is something that I spoke about in my video about owning the Instagram algorithm.
And there are three key signals that I talked about in that video that are vital and really
are the only factors to getting seen on Instagram and showing up higher in the algorithm.
And one of those factors is relationships.
So what I'm so excited about is that this is going to put more emphasis on actually
talking to people and using your direct messages, using your comments wisely, building real
relationships, which for me, that's what social media is.
If you follow me on Instagram, which go ahead and follow me.
I'd send you a little doozy.
You'll see that I respond to your DMs.
I will send voice notes to new followers.
I comment back as much as I possibly can, because I understand that we are human beings
talking to human beings.
And building relationships on this platform is one of the biggest keys to getting seen
in the algorithm.
So if you're focusing more on DMs and comments and those hidden metrics that not everybody
can see publicly but actually matter the most, you're going to win on this platform.
So stay tuned because I'm going to make a video all about this and my five minute rule
on Instagram and how I leverage comments and DMs.
So that's coming up on my channel.
So subscribe if you haven't, subscribed yeah, hit the bell to get notified when we post
new videos.
So the next thing is we are bringing back intention to Instagram and to social media
in general.
And what my hope is is that this change is actually going to change the way people think
about social media in general.
And you know I talk about intention a lot, because like I said, "We're so caught up in
likes and followers and vanity metrics.
We forget why we're actually doing this."
And if we got more intentional about impact and conversion and making sure that when we
post something, there's actually a meaning behind it as opposed to just doing it all
for the likes and doing it all for the gram.
Oh my gosh, what a healthier, more wonderful space Instagram is going to be.
So when you do post anything on Instagram, the way that you're going to stand out is
having a real intention behind it and paying attention to real results.
Because like I said, "You can't take followers to the bank."
So what I focus on when I post is what is the impact this is going to have on my audience?
What is the intent behind this?
Is this going to inspire, or educate, or help people in some way?
Is this a post where I want to gain clients?
And the funny thing is, the interesting thing is, across platforms, the content that generates
the most clients for me generally are the posts or the videos that don't get the most
vanity metrics, but they get the most targeted intentional audience.
So that's why I mean, vanity metrics mean nothing and I'm so excited because this is
going to allow us to focus on real results.
The next thing is that there's going to be no more comparison, because yes, you can see
your own vanity metrics, you can see your own followers and likes, et cetera on your
posts, which is good, but the amount of comparison is going to go down so much and I think the
amount of creativity is going to skyrocket because we're not afraid of failing publicly
with low likes, etc.
I've had friends post things and they don't even work in the social media space and they're
like, "Oh my God, I got to take it down.
I don't have enough likes."
That's a sad reality to live in.
Let's just share because we have an intention behind our posts to share.
And the final thing I'm excited about when it comes to this, and I'm going to talk about
something else really important in a second when it comes to this Instagram change.
But the final thing that I'm really excited about is that there aren't going to be any
more stunts necessarily and just salacious content just to get the likes.
Yes, that's still going to happen, but you're not going to be as validated by those vanity
metrics as you used to be.
So it will be less enticing for you to just randomly post things simply to get a reaction.
Because I think that that's a big problem with the platform as well.
Now when it comes to influencers and brands, I know that you are probably freaking out
if you rely on brand sponsorships or that's an avenue you want to go, or maybe you are
a brand watching and you're trying to figure out how am I going to navigate this and how
are we going to pick the real influencers to work with.
This is why this is exciting too, because yes, the influencers and the people on social
media on Instagram will be able to see their metrics and they're going to have to be a
lot more honest about their metrics than they ever were before.
So it's about innovating and that's what this is challenging us to do.
And I think it's more so looking at this as an exciting challenge as opposed to a roadblock
or treating it like Nick Minaj said and being like, "I'm not using Instagram anymore."
Because there will be people who do that, and I hope it flushes out people who aren't
using it in a way that's actually helpful or impactful.
Because bye Felicia, we don't need you anymore.
But I hope that it helps people create content that actually makes a difference and has a
real purpose and impact.
So as a brand and as an influencer, influencers, you've got to pay attention to real metrics,
real results.
And that means are you converting people from your post?
Do you have a targeted following?
You don't need a big following, you just need a targeted following to actually convert.
One follower should equal one buying customer, paying customer, affiliate customer, et cetera.
And when it comes to the brands themselves, you're going to have to get creative about
how you gather those metrics and measure influencers.
It's not going to be the people necessarily with millions and millions and millions of
followers.
It's going to be the people who what I like to call micro influencers who have really,
really targeted micro audiences that will actually convert for your brand.
So this is just a call to innovate and elevate how we use Instagram as a platform.
So if you want to dive in further and gain real followers on Instagram and use it in
the right way, I created a whole playlist on this platform and again, I don't have programs
around Instagram.
I just like talking about this because I think it's really interesting and I'm obsessed with
how we can leverage social media in a really meaningful way.
So check out this playlist here on how to use Instagram and all the nooks and crannies
of it to really understand it and check out this video on owning the Instagram algorithm.
If you like this video, hit that like button below, share it with your friends and be sure
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Thanks for watching.
I'll see you in the next one.
Bye.