Is the end of liking on Instagram?

[bitheerani42135]

When things become too popular, I usually get bored or get on my nerves. For years, I've written that Instagram is my favorite social network because it's relaxed, casual, calm, and slow, unlike all the other busy networks where the shelf life of content is shorter than the shelf life of yogurt left out in the sun.

That was once the case, and then people discovered Instagram, which grew in popularity almost overnight, and from a slow-paced social network focused on photography, it became a rather busy social network that makes serious money in the form of sales and influencer marketing, and where everyone is obsessed with the number of likes and followers.

The obsession has reached such heights that Instagram is seriously cameroon whatsapp list removing likes and calming down the hotheads for whom the magic heart has begun to mean too much, and which are increasingly difficult to obtain due to saturation, competition, and complicated algorithms.

Likes are obsessed with both amateur users who will never use Instagram for business purposes or make money from it, and brands that are starting to forget what social networks are for (brand image) and are starting to rely solely on the number of likes as a measure of success.

How it used to be
Digital marketing is a great thing, at least if you understand it correctly and apply it properly. If you get off track and start relying on vanity marketing and meaningless numbers then you have a problem because you lose focus and no longer know what you are posting, why you are posting it and who you are posting it for.

Social media really boomed a few years ago because, unlike traditional advertising, they offered an organic approach, posts created according to the needs of the target market, and did not seem artificial, staged, or staged. The audience had the impression that the brand was communicating truly and honestly, that they listened to what was being said, that they valued two-way communication, and that they were not doing everything just with profit in mind.

Influencers came as a breath of fresh air and a break from the big, famous names that advertised products on TV. People liked seeing ordinary people, like themselves, using products and services and making them more accessible, affordable, and desirable.

Those were the times of questionable quality photography but with a very authentic feel. Times when social networks didn't have all the add-ons, stickers, polls and quizzes like they do today, but the whole story was more organic and real, and less staged and staged.

Times when influencers and bloggers were trusted more because people lost trust in TV commercials, radio and newspaper ads (our products are the best) and started trusting ordinary "normal" people who said how great a product was and how everyone should use it.

These were times of authenticity and honesty that it is now abundantly clear could not last. As soon as large sums of money started circulating on the internet and digital marketing became popular enough (sometimes even more popular and desirable than traditional marketing), it could have become clear to everyone that the honest era was over and that we were entering a new, shiny, staged and expensive era.

like-instagram

Why are likes a problem?
Today, social media is anything but authentic and honest. There is too much money being spent on digital advertising to sustain honesty. Influencers have risen to stardom and are no longer ordinary, “normal” people that anyone can relate to.

Influencers have become stars who earn more than anyone could have imagined, who have things that few can afford, who sit in the front rows of fashion shows that were once reserved only for editors of famous magazines. Many would like to be able to connect with influencers, but, no matter how hard they try, today's influencers are what actors and models once were in the pages of glossy magazines.

As the competition among influencers grew, so did ordinary, "normal" people who wanted to be a part of that wonderful world. But unlike the former actors, singers, and models whose careers seemed inaccessible and millions of light years away, when it comes to influencers, the opinion is that it is a career available to everyone.

“If she can do it, so can I!” is the opinion that most people follow, without even thinking about how much work, effort, money invested, and a strong management team are behind such successful individuals. Success is never accidental, and it is not accidental on the internet and social networks either.

Behind every success are years of hard work and people who know very well what they are doing and how to do it to get the planned results. Just as famous movie stars are the product of film studios and business-focused managers, today's famous influencers are the products of marketing agencies specializing in influencer marketing and teams of managers, photographers, stylists, content creators, business consultants, and other team members who all work together with only one mission in mind - success.

Those ordinary, “normal” people who wanted to be influencers started to mistakenly believe that they would become one if and when they started getting enough likes. Thinking that it was all about likes and follower numbers, a whole industry of selling likes and fake followers began to flourish.

Instead of quality, the focus has shifted to quantity. The days of carefully creating content are gone, replaced by the times of analyzing data and publishing content that is assumed to achieve good results and be liked by as many people as possible.

It's not uncommon for people to spend hours on Instagram analyzing their own and other people's profiles, posting pictures and deleting them if they don't garner enough audience interest in the first few seconds. Posts with more likes automatically generate additional likes because people no longer like something because they like it, but because everyone else has liked it.