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Private Story Likes are rolling out now on Instagram, allowing users to show appreciation to Stories. Creators will get the feedback—and a crucial new metric to measure the effectiveness of their content.

❤️ Private Story Likes ❤️Starting to roll out today, you can now send some love by liking people’s stories without sending a DM. Likes on stories are private and do not have counts. Rather, they appear as hearts next to people’s handles in your Stories view sheet. 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/l56Rmzgnnw

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) February 14, 2022

One key difference from Likes in other formats is that these Likes will not be visible to other users. Indeed, the Insta team is referring to this new feature as “Private Story Likes” to emphasize that they are only visible to the creator of the Story.

Why it Matters

Stories have been a less-measurable content medium since they first came to Snapchat. Views are often the easiest KPI without too much direct engagement to measure. The introduction of Likes creates this opportunity.

Be sure to keep an eye on this and see if Story Likes become a useful metric for your Instagram efforts.

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Here are a few more shareworthy items we’ve been reading this month…

Channel Updates & News:

• Facebook iOS Underreporting Down from an estimated 15% to 8% (FB Business News)

• Clubhouse adds in-room Chat (Clubhouse blog)

• You can now change your Snapchat username (Snap news)

• LinkedIn Tests New Option to Switch Off Political Posts in Your Feed (Social Media Today)

• Where YouTube is Headed in 2022 (YouTube blog)

• Twitter Tests New 'Articles' Option (Social Media Today)

• FB's "News Feed" is now just "Feed" (@aledeheath, The Verge)

• Snapchat will let users share their real-time location with friends (The Verge)

• Snapchat partnering with Ticketmaster to show nearby events in Maps (Snap Blog)

• YouTube Adds New Shorts Shelf in Channel Listings (Social Media Today)

• Meet Reddit’s new Discover tab (RedditInc blog)

Stories & Analysis

• What Feature Should Facebook Add to Improve the User Experience? (Social Media Today)

• Why Empowering Users Matters More than Privacy Policies (Snap business blog)

• Russia partially blocks Facebook for fact-checking state-owned media (The Verge)

• 12 Important Instagram Trends to Watch in 2022 (Hootsuite blog)

• Trump's Truth Social app can't beat Twitter, but it doesn't have to (The Verge)

• Top Voices in Remote Work: The 10 creators to follow (LinkedIn News)

• Examining Our Relationship with Algorithms (The Cut)

• TikTok sees a surge of misleading videos claiming to show Ukraine invasion (NPR)

Looking for More Social Media Help?

The expert team at Dooley Social Studio helps brands get attention by being thoughtful about how they give it. Our goal is to make every social interaction with your company a remarkable one. Get in touch to find out how a partnership with Dooley Social Studio can grow your brand.

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