Instagram tell me why

In the last year, I’ve slowly accepted that I am, to some extent, an influencer. It feels gross to say, but I get paid to post sponsored content, though I’ve found a unique spin on it.

When I run partnerships, a standard part of the delivery process includes handing over screenshots of the posts to quantify their engagement. It feels more like a pseudoscience than something easy to qualify (I don’t usually promote a product, I just tweet deranged versions of popular apps). However, a deal is a deal so I happily share the numbers with my partners.

I am so busy with my design agency, Stompers, and other products that I pay little attention to engagement metrics except when running a partnership. As I tried to come up with an idea last night, I found myself on the post metrics page for a recent concept I shared on Instagram. This got me thinking about all the people who saw my content but didn’t like it (no hard feelings, I promise).

What if there was an option to send a push notification to everyone who saw your photo but didn’t like it? You could ask these people why and probably get 1) a bunch of people mad that this feature exists and 2) potentially a small cohort of people who provide actionable feedback.

I like the idea of this being a feature that’s accessible to anyone. If this existed it would render Instagram unusable to everyone likely immediately because you’d be inundated by spam messages from people trying to find out why you haven’t liked their photo. Alternatively, people might start liking everything for the sake of plausible deniability.

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