Instagram recently announced that Canada would be the first country to test a new concept for the app: it will be hiding the total number of likes on photos and videos. Taking effect later this week, Instagram will be removing the tally of likes or red hearts on the main feed, permalink pages and profiles. The likes on a post will now only be visible to the account holder. With likes often relating to the popularity of a post, it’s an interesting shift for the app.

Krystin Lee, our Social Media Director and one of Canada’s leading lifestyle influencers, welcomes the change to the platform.

“I think we’ll see a wider spectrum of content from influencers who have, until now, been driven to create videos or images that will generate the highest volume of likes. I see this change as positive and hope that influencers will see this change as an opportunity to embrace and explore their creativity. In terms of user behaviour, audiences have been conditioned for years to double tap on something they love and I don’t expect this habit will shift immediately. I do believe that with time that quality engagement such as comments will become a stronger metric as responses are going to remain visible whereas likes are not.”

With experience working both agency side at Talk Shop combined with her leading personal brand, Krystin thinks this change will put a greater emphasis on the need for a relationship between brands and influencers. Rather than feeling transactional, influencers will now need to better understand a brand’s audiences, what moves their metrics, what they deem as successful and other valuable inputs, in order to see success across a number of metrics. This reality will allow for a more collaborative and long standing relationship between a brand and influencer.

Brands benefit by building a more personal relationship with their brand ambassadors, obtaining access to integral metrics for key target audiences and quality feedback on their campaign messaging. This shift also presents an impact for brands and agencies engaged in influencer collaborations. More so than ever, a collaborative relationship is vital to ensuring influencer marketing is working best for your brand.