Instagram Removing Likes Could Give Content Marketers an Advantage

In March, Instagram rolled out a new Checkout feature, wherein brands can more directly link an influencer’s post to a consumer’s shopping cart. According to eMarketer.com, this has been a highly successful tool for brands to both record more accurate metrics and garner direct sales. EMarketer argues that the social media marketing industry overall is shifting toward direct sales and away from more superficial measurements such as impressions, but likes could already be a thing of the past.

Daniel Schotland, COO of influencer marketing platform, Linqia, said to eMarketer.com, “Brands will start to look beyond likes and engagement numbers to measure if a campaign is successful or not, including tying directly to sales. Brands have already started to implement tools to minimize the steps between post and purchase, including adding universal checkout and add-to-cart options.”

For franchise brands—which often market on a hyper-local scale—this shift away from likes could be an excellent way to prompt consumer interest and engagement without worrying about having the same national reach and vanity metrics as competitors. After all, micro-influencers, who have significantly smaller followings than the Kendall Jenners of the world, are the new influencers. Focusing on more accurate metrics and minimizing the steps between posts and purchases could be a new frontier of franchise social media marketing.