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What Instagram doing away with likes could mean for influencer marketing

At the Facebook F8 Developers Conference, it was announced that Instagram has been testing a new feature that would essentially hide the number of ‘likes’ displayed on a user’s page. While Instagram has stated that this new feature would be better for user experience, what would this mean for influencers and marketers in the influencer marketing industry?

Instagram has become the most popular channel for influencer marketing. If you have spent just a few minutes on Instagram you would have most definitely seen an influencer’s post. Users of Instagram are more likely to like and comment on influencer’s post compared to other networks. Instagram’s popularity is largely due to the fact that it has the best engagement rate (3.21%) compared to all other social media networks (1.5%).

‘Likes’ have been an important metric for brands and influencers. Brands use an influencer’s engagement rate as a key factor when deciding whether to book the influencer in an influencer marketing campaign. Influencers can see ‘likes’ as their bread and butter.

Instagram’s reasoning for doing away with ‘likes’ is that they want users to interact with the app rather than chase the vanity of ‘likes’. Many users have become obsessed with ‘likes’. A recent study by the Royal Society for Public Health and the Young Health Movement states that Instagram ranked the worst out of all social media platforms for negative effects on young people’s mental health. The same study also points out the positive effects of Instagram including the opportunity for self-expression, accessing health information and the feeling of community. Instagram hopes that doing away with ‘likes’ will minimize the negative effects of ‘chasing likes’ and maximize the positive effects of creating content.

Is this a bad thing for Influencer Marketing?

Conversely, Instagram doing away with ‘likes’ is great for influencer marketing. It’s not obvious, but here’s our thinking.

Firstly, the focus on influencer marketing campaigns will now shift from ‘meaningless likes’ to quality engagements generated through quality content. The quality of content and subsequently the quality of engagements on influencer’s posts will become the most important thing to look for when booking influencers. Influencers will have to not only produce more engaging content, but also more diverse content including videos and stories to get ahead of Instagram’s algorithm.

Secondly, Webfluential has historical data on all 35,000 influencers who have opt-ed into the platform. Marketers and brands can rest assured that they will still be able to find important data on influencers including engagement rates over time, audience demographics, influencer’s pricing, booking information, and so much more.
Influencers don’t have to worry about being buried by Instagram’s algorithm as marketers and brands will still be able to easily find and book them through Webfluential.

In essence, all this means is that there is a paradigm shift that will soon take place where brands will no longer place such high value on ‘meaningless likes’ and place more emphasis on finding influencers who create authentic content that aligns with their brand. Better content and stronger engagement is a win for brands, after all in an influencer marketing campaign the influencer’s content is an extension of the brands’ story. Whether you are a marketer or a creator, being active on an influencer marketing platform such as Webfluential is now more important than ever.

If you are a marketer start finding influencers who create amazing content here.

If you are an influencer, get ahead of the curve by connecting with brands who align with your content here.

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Webfluential’s new design – Are you featured?

Webfluential is excited to announce the launch of our new site design.
With our new design, we wish to create a user-friendly browsing experience for our valued users that is uncluttered, easy to navigate and more user-friendly.

Featured Influencers

Webfluential has world-class influencers who have joined the networked, proven their professionalism and deserve to be featured on our most prized real estate – our home page.

Visit webfluential.com and see if you are a featured influencer or start collaborating with featured influencers by viewing their Media Kits.

Start searching

Get started with influencer marketing campaigns right now by searching for influencers who match your brand and budget. Enter whether you want to drive awareness, traffic or sales, your industry and your brands Twitter handle. Then enter your budget per an influencer and click next. Sign-up or login into Webfluential to start collaborating.

Start collaborating with influencers here.
Sign-up as an influencer here.

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Selling online? Theres and influencer for that

Thousands of people are making a living from affiliate marketing today. According to Forrester Consulting, around 84% of publishers are making use of affiliate marketing as a means to drive revenue from their sites and content. Spending on affiliate marketing is expected to reach 7 Billion dollars by 2020.

Affiliate marketing can be defined as a performance-based business. A Brand can generate revenue by using independent marketers called affiliates. These affiliates earn a fixed commission which is paid only when sales are made, an action takes place or leads confirmed. The idea of Affiliate marketing is based on revenue sharing. Find out more about affiliate marketing here: Affiliate Marketing-The Ultimate Guide.

Influencers can be extremely successful by using Affiliate marketing. Right now most influencers rely on being ‘paid per post’ by brands, however, there is great potential for powerful influencers to take advantage of affiliate marketing. There is a way that influencers with large followings and real impact on their audience can monetize their influence.

Amazon is trying to bridge the gap between affiliate and influencer. This solution could be extremely lucrative for influencers as well as the Amazon’s marketplace. According to TechCrunch, Amazon is currently beta testing a much more targeted and finely tuned version of their affiliate program, designed specifically for influencers.

Amazon’s solution to bridging the gap between affiliate and influencer is to provide influencers with their own storefront where they can sell products that they believe in through their ‘influencer affiliate’ link to their audience. The products they sell on their store will be relatable to their audience. The influencer will only have to worry about driving traffic to their Amazon site.

Amazon’s interest in the influencer space is further proof that people buy from people they trust. And today, influencers are the ones driving purchasing decisions. While the program is still in beta testing will be very interesting to see how Amazon builds on the success of Affiliate marketing by empowering influencers to lead the charge.

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