Back in 2019, it was first announced that Instagram would begin testing the option for users to hide likes on posts on their accounts.
Last week, this feature finally went live on Instagram, and Instagram’s parent company, Facebook, began testing this option on Facebook for a future large-scale rollout on that platform.
Hiding likes on Instagram (and soon Facebook) isn’t the default option for the platform – your account must opt-in to hiding likes.
Hiding Likes on Instagram
Hiding likes on Instagram is pretty straightforward. Once you post a photo or video to your Instagram account, click the three dots (…) in the top right corner above the photo or video. There you will see an option to “hide like count” on photos and “hide like and view counts” on videos.
At any time, if you prefer the like and view counts to be displayed on a specific post, you can go back to that same area in the upper right corner above your post and select “unhide like count” on photos and “unhide like and view counts” on videos.
Related to Instagram giving the option for your account to hide likes and views, you can select that you do not want to see like or view counts on any other accounts’ posts. This will hide anyone else’s number of likes or views from you regardless of the hide or unhide settings they have on their posts.
To do this, navigate to your account settings, click privacy, then posts, and select “hide like and view counts.”
Why Hiding Likes May Be Right for your Brand
As we’ve come to know and love social media, many have placed increasing importance on the number of likes a post has. Some users judge if a post is relevant, timely, and credible based on how many likes it gets. For big brands and Influencers, this isn’t a problem.
However, for newer companies, or companies in the B2B sector, establishing a large follower count that will organically like your posts or crafting posts day-after-day with an aggressive hashtag strategy to generate likes isn’t always sustainable.
A better use of your company’s time on Instagram may be to focus on posting high-quality images or videos with well-crafted captions that highlight your business’s unique selling propositions, culture, and demonstrate that you are a leader in the industry.
Once you have these posts, select “hide like count” so that new users finding your account or posts focus on the post itself before passing judgment.
It is important to note, especially from a brand perspective, that even once you opt-in to hiding the number of likes, other users’ accounts can still click the “liked by” and get the comprehensive list of all accounts that have liked a certain photo or post, just not the total number of likes.
81 percent of people use Instagram to research products and services.
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