“We want your friends to focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get. You can still see your own likes by tapping on the list of people who’ve liked it, but your friends will not be able to see how many likes your post has received

Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram

Founder of Instagram, Adam Mosseri announced on the 14^th of November 2019 that Instagram will be expanding the list of countries the company is testing the removal of the like feature for.

Instagram is already testing out hiding likes in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand, that commenced in July. They announced this on the official Instagram twitter account

With people like Kim Kardashian a speaking about it during The New York Times Deal book event. She says that for her it would be better for mental health of people in general.

With about 151 million followers and other businesses under her belt the changes made by Instagram won’t really affect her business so much. She has multiple sources of income unlike smaller influencer who have

Rere, an influencer with a smaller Instagram following speaks on the changes Instagram is making.

I actually really like that they’ve removed the likes. Many people buy likes and followers

Rere

This has been a practice on Instagram to increase the amount of followers on has and the amount of likes per post. A lot of influencers do this to increase the traction on their page. If people see more followers, they will automatically assume the influencer is important. Also, by buying followers they can increase their organic growth and get sponsors

Rere says that taking this out also helps reduce the pressure on people who frequently use the social media platform. There has been a debate on the impact of mental health on the users of Instagram, with experts sharing that the way Instagram is structure plays on the release of dopamine when we get likes.

The more likes people get the more dopamine gets released, dopamine is t a chemical in the brain that causes us to feel good. People want to feel good, so they post more on Instagram and the more likes they get the better they feel which is very addictive.

While Instagram is a great place for influencers like Rere to show their creativity and ideas trying to get like begins to overtake the creative process.

This causes people to post what will get the most views instead of something creative and innovative. They try to get more engagement on their post so that sponsors can collaborate with them and they can get compensation for their efforts.

Rere says with this new change it will be easier for Influencers as brands will be able to see if you are who you truly say you are. She proposed that it could be simple especially for growing influencers.

Because everyone is now on the same playing field it would be about those people who have a lot of engagement on their page. Influencers who have created a niche of loyal fans will be able to get better sponsor.

If an influencer can submit their insight which show the stats on their page they should be able to get advertisements on their page. An influencer who previously bought likes and follower won’t have as much engagement as an influencer who grew their page organically.

Gary Vee a popular life coach says that he believes that Instagram is taking likes away from the app not because of mental health but because they’ve observed in data that people were starting to limit creativity.

He says people tell him all the time they post what their audience want and he feels that it makes them one dimensional he says:

I think that people have become too one- dimensional in knowing what their audience is looking for completely predicate on the arbitrary number of likes and I think it has limited creativity and expansions of people horizons and I think it’s an extremely healthy change

Gary Vee

With a lot of changes happening for influencers they can make some changes to prepare for the changes Instagram is making.

In their insight tab they should try and pay more attention t their stats which show their audience ratio male to female and the optimal time to post during the week and the best time to post.

Since a lot of top influencers have been relying on the trends on Instagram, being creative and not following the trends will be sure to get their page to stand out from the rest.

Being active with their followers, replying comments and keeping a connection with followers will help to create a dedicated audience. As Instagram make tests in other countries more of the effects on creators like Rere will be see.

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Keywords: Instagram, Influencers.