Instagram is said to test how things will look without a "like" statistic next to each post. Moreover, much has been said about whether this change will indicate the death of the influencer.
The Atticism, a public relations agency and social media experts based in Oxford, told Metro that the writing was on the wall. This change of Insta is only part of a broader shift in the social media game.
"Social networks as we know them are dying, according to my daughters (17 and 15) and their friends, Instagram and Facebook are" lazy. "Statistics show that many of the younger generations are leaving the platforms completely behind," explains the Director of The Atticism, Renae Smith.
"As an agency, we can not just keep working the way we have always done and expected our clients to achieve the same results," he said.
"Consumers are experiencing brand fatigue, lack of confidence, and too many vendors competing for their attention." The future of social networks must transform into content-based strategies that offer genuine connections between a brand and its consumer".
The statistics
The agency says its new position comes from the statistics published by a Trust Insights report on the brand's commitment to Instagram. Bearing in mind that associating with brands is how influential people obtain their income, it is exciting reading.
For the report, the company analyzed 1,430,995 publications from 3,637 brand profiles (stories not included) to determine the overall average participation rate what amounts to likes and comments.
The report says: "Since the beginning of May, average commitments have declined precipitously over time and now stand at around 0.9%, a decrease from earlier this year of 1.1%. 18 % reduction in the average of commitments (mostly I like it) since the beginning of the year ".
Trust Insights focuses specifically on influential people: 'Fashion influencers (have passed) from a maximum commitment of 4.3% on February 17, 2019, to a minimum of 2.4% on June 20, 2019, which represents a decrease of 44% commitment for the same period. '
The answer
The Atticism says that it has not worked with influential people in the last 18 months.
"We've had so many clients who are chasing" I like "and still do not understand the ultimate goal," Renae said.
"Collecting" I like "is not influential and we do our best to explain this to them - unless someone influences an industry, a subject or a group of people, they have no reason to be called" influential."
However, not everyone agrees. Some argue that only things are changing a bit. Instead of big names that gather lots of followers and "I like," we will see the emergence of the "nano influencer." That is someone with a small, highly committed follower.
"A Nano Influencer has more than 100 followers on social media," wrote South Africa-based management consultancy JA Culture.
"The recent kicker has revealed that you can be even more effective in promoting a brand, as a nano-influencer, than celebrities in its mega-influence category."
Taylor Lorenz, a writer, established in everything related to Internet culture and social networks, says that Instagram will not do anything that harms the commitment:
"Eliminating tastes will not fundamentally change the platform".
"The most committed feature with Instagram - Stories - already has counts of predetermined private tastes.
"People will still be able to see their own" I like it. "Besides, in the world of the influence factor, almost no one trusts the public as it counts as a metric It is a fully dated metric Any brand seeking to make a content agreement The brand requires a more detailed analysis in the private analysis tab of the influencer. It will not change anything related to that. I also like them, in general, have become much less critical. Comments have become a more participatory method important that shared stories have. "
"Also, ultimately, eliminating the Like counters will likely increase the amount of content that people are willing to share on the platform, which is only suitable for Instagram. They want us to publish as much content as possible, without worrying about the public metrics. "
This post first appeared on Metro.