No "likes" on Instagram: Why brands and influencers shouldn't be afraid

The change that Instagram wants to do away with "likes" left many brands and influencers confused at first, because like numbers used to be a simple indicator to measure engagement and thus success in social media.

Both brands and influencers have long seen Likes as confirmation that their community is engaged and finds their content attractive. In the age of bots and purchased followers, however, the "like" has lost some of its appeal. 

Influencer Marketing Fraud

The influencer market has exploded in recent years and is expected to grow to $6.5 billion by 2020. The problem of influencer marketing fraud also continues to grow. According to a report by Cheq, fraudulent activity is costing advertisers $1.3 billion this year, so "vanity metrics" like Likes shouldn't be relied on alone.

The brands that have run successful influencer marketing campaigns understand that in today's digital world, it's community management and engaged engagement with the fan base that leads to success, not superficial likes.

What comes after the Likes?

So if brands and influencers are no longer measured by likes, what's next? Quite simply, they need to work smarter to ensure they are managing their communities and interacting with their content in a meaningful way. When brands select an influencer to work with, instead of looking at the number of likes, they need to look more closely at that influencer's community and how well the community's interests overlap with the interests of the brand's audience.

Only by understanding the personas within their own audience can they select an influencer whose content will resonate and bring much-needed authenticity.

Success barometer besides Likes

Even without the Like, all is not lost. Instagram stories don't have public metrics, and that hasn't stopped them from becoming a marketer favorite. Realistically, Likes are just one of many metrics to measure and compare Instagram success.

Based on the number of comments, the number of existing followers, and the number of followers gained, there are many other barometers of success that brands and influencers should use. It's important to remember that Instagram profile owners can still see their own Likes, it's just that their followers won't now be able to see how many Likes there are for certain content.

What brands and influencers need to do

All in all, the loss of likes is nothing to worry about. The brands and influencers that have worked to build and manage a strong social media community should just keep doing what they're doing. However, the loss of Likes means that it will now be harder for them to hide behind "vanity metrics." They need to invest more time and effort in the three key areas:

• Understanding their communities,
• the creation of content that activates these communities, and
• Developing more meaningful metrics to measure their successes.