Instagram influencers are ~going through it~ (er, are they tho?) thanks to the social media platform’s new “like count ban,” which has already been rolled out in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and Brazil.
In fact, some anonymous Influencer called into a live Australian radio show to complain, saying “I used to work [on Instagram] six hours a day, but now I’m working eight hours a day because the ‘likes’ are going down!”
The IG model said she has 205,000 followers and that “since the change happened, I’m getting roughly 1,200 likes a day now.”
She explained that while she also has a full time job, she makes a significant amount of money from Influencing—and her likes are a huge part of that: “I even make money off the airlines too. That’s how you get sponsored and get free flights too. Every thousand likes we get, we probably get around AU$1,000. It all depends on the brand and how popular they are, and how many likes and followers we get.”
Instagram said the test would create “a less pressurized environment” on the app and make it feel less “like a competition” since users will be able to see who liked *their* posts, but not be able to count how how many likes other people got. Obviously, this is going to have a huge impact on influencers who rely on likes (and not just follower count) as a way to prove their audience engagement to potential sponsors.
Also, is now a good time to bring up Mikaela Testa, the Instagram Influencer who went viral for weeping about the like count ban? Cool, thought so.
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