I’ve never been one to pay too much attention to celebrity views on politics and social issues. Not least, to a figure as controversial as Kanye West.
However, in an interesting turn of events, Kanye has called out social media likes and gratification as being factors in mental health conditions.
This isn’t news to us, we’ve had the evidence for a while, but Kanye went further and has called them out publicly, on their own platforms, and demanded action.
The impact of celebrities calling for action isn’t to be sniffed at – Taylor Swift’s urge to her fans to register to vote caused a considerable spike in voter registration. Rihanna’s criticism of Snapchat led to plummeting users and market value. It’s possible that West’s demands will indeed bring changes to social platforms.
So what would this mean for social advertising and metrics? Social media sites have become invaluable to companies that rely on digital marketing and endorsement advertising. Many sites measure the success of paid posts on likes, interactions and click-throughs. If these were to be eliminated or hidden, would this be as successful?
It goes without saying that many will align the number of likes a post has to its success: how good a product is, how beautiful the model is, how effective the product really is. So how would the success of paid-for posting then be measured?
It remains to be seen how potential changes like hidden likes, or followers, would affect influencer marketing, and I’m curious to see how digital marketing would adapt around them.