Marketers see plenty of positives as Facebook conceals likes

1. Facebook likes now hidden

It’s official. Facebook has followed in the footsteps of its partner, Instagram, and hidden likes from view.

This decision was made due to the overwhelming evidence claiming social media negatively impacts mental health.

In particular, how many likes a user gets can significantly impact their feeling of validity.

“We recently surveyed our network of influencers following Instagram hiding likes and found 81 per cent indicated that there’s a direct link between the number of likes and levels of anxiety,” CEO and co-founder of Hypetap, Detch Singh, told Marketing Mag.

With the platform focusing on a more commentdriven metric in an attempt to establish a greater sense of community, marketers have debated how this could impact advertising.

While not all are in agreeance, the overall consensus is this could be an extremely positive move, particularly for people just beginning their marketing journey.

Clipchamp director of product and growth Anna Ji told Marketing Mag: “It gives up-and-coming creators an opportunity to compete on content quality.”

2. Coca-cola ventures from fizz to fashion

In an attempt to tap into the environmentally conscious buyer, Coca-cola has teamed up with the label Diesel to release “Diesel x Coca-cola: The (Re) Collection”.

The range has a strong focus on recycling and the recycled, with each piece created using recycled plastic bottles and cotton.

This comes as one of Coca-cola’s first attempts to move towards purpose-driven marketing, targeting consumers who care about certain societal, or in this case, environmental issues.

Also tapping into exclusivity culture, the collection is currently only available on a hidden shopping page on Diesel.com that is accessible once consumers find and scan any recycling logo on hand.

The line will officially be debuting in bricks-and-mortar at a Galeries Lafayette event during Paris Fashion Week, preceding a global rollout in major cities such as London, Berlin and New York.

3. Instagram enables new ‘restrict’ option

Instagram has added a new “restrict” option to its platform in another great effort to make it a more positive and welcoming environment.

With the successful removal of like counts in July, the platform has been trying to find other ways to reduce the level of anxiety, criticism and cyber-bullying experienced on its app.

The latest addition is giving users the ability to restrict other users’ access to their profile.

Instagram claims that this is a step forward towards a more communitybased platform, empowering users to stand up to bullying.