In an attempt for users to focus more on the photo itself rather than the number of ‘likes’ a photo gets; Instagram has decided to hide the number from viewers. This is currently rolled out as a trial outside of the United States to see if there is more engagement encouraged based on the content posted. Account owners will still be able to see the analytics and number of likes within their account; it just won’t be available for their audience to see.
With so many social media sites relying on multiple levels of activity to decide where a post is featured within searches, this may prove to be a way to get users to pay more attention to the content and engage with the actual message. This could prove to be very helpful for digital marketing campaigns if they choose to roll this out across the board. The messages that brands are attempting to get in front of the social media audience will be more likely to see the message behind the image posted.
One billion users worldwide are actively on Instagram on a monthly basis. An audience this size could prove to be a great platform to reach a new generation of customers. Instagram offers a great avenue to deliver marketing messages using imagery versus just captions and hashtags.
