Let’s face it. You probably deleted a post or two from your IG feed because it didn’t get enough “likes”. And if you are a digital marketer using social media to help increase awareness for your clients, you’re probably sick of the question “how can we get more likes on our posts”?
To me, that metric is so 2014.
Instagram thinks so too!
Instagram likes are losing their importance in the social media world.
Believe it or not, the social giants care about your mental health and want social media to be a place of positive sharing, not a competition of who has the most likes. And while it’s important for influencers to prove their engagement and, well, influence, the social giants feel it’s time for your feed to reflect what YOU want to see and not what you SHOULD see.
What does this mean for you as a business or a brand trying to market on Instagram? It means that you should no longer place as much value on the “likes” count and stop focusing so much on a popularity contest and more on sharing content that your followers deem valuable. Stop pressing your marketing agencies to get more “likes and comments” and start focusing on valuable feedback about what it is you’re sharing. Instagram wants users to stop focusing on an uptick of numbers and more on the actual content itself.
“We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your posts get,”
Focus on engaging with your followers.
says Instagram. “During this test, only the person who shares a post will see the total number of likes it gets.”
Does this discourage you from posting? What is your number one driving reason you post to IG in the first place? If it’s to chase the “likes high” then you might want to re-think your mission. If it’s to genuinely inspire your audience or genuinely share something relevant, ding ding ding! IG will empower you.
Those trying to sell you on “getting more likes” are now deemed the used car salesman of
social media! Stop it now. Focus on content that delivers a real message that then gets people to click or engage.
FOR BRANDS: Here is a simple 3 -step approach to beating the new algorithms:
Establish your goals and ensure each social effort ladders back to those goals:
Make sure to think about your goals in advance of ANY posts. When you post, what is the purpose of the post? How will it help deliver on the brand promise? How will it lead to further interest in the brand and a form of sales?
Listen to your audience and experiment:
What posts are you most proud of? Have you tried sweepstakes or anything that encourages audience participation? You got to give love to get love. We’ve seen incredible results with positive social contests by gifting those who follow and engage.
Pay to play! Paid advertising as a brand is a MUST:
We’ve mentioned this before, we shall mention it again. You cannot expect sales and brand engagement from organic posting anymore. Create story telling advertisements on IG Story that encourage SWIPE UPS to either learn more about your business or to shop an exclusive deal. IG story ads are going further than IG feed ads.
Like it or not! Social media is here to stay.
Need to consult on social media for your business? Click here to contact us today!
