I seem to be the digital media guy who always raises the questions that most people who do what I do don’t want to have to deal with until their boss asks them. The latest manifestation of that relates to the coming rollout of Instagram ads for businesses. I just read a good article on that. But my question is this: So, you get a lot of likes on a photo you post. To what end? I’m not questioning the value of a fan following you (that benefit is obvious). I’m saying, on Instagram – to my knowledge – the number of likes you get doesn’t boost you in the feed. What you pay determines where you appear in the feed.

I’ve been doing social media marketing long enough that I don’t pin my evaluation of a post’s performance on Likes alone. For instance, one Share on Facebook by someone who has a good amount of friends boosts a post’s organic reach far more significantly than a Like or a comment does. But, I’ve gotten off topic here…

Instagram ads will be something that I think small businesses and nonprofits (like the one I work for) will be able to use for our benefit. People like seeing photos of other people – and a lot of nonprofits exist to help people. So post photos of both the people you help and the employees who do the work of the organization. It’s only natural that individuals will connect and engage more with friendly faces than with a logo. While you do want to get some likes on the photos you post on Instagram (paid ads or not), the key is to further build your brand by increasing your emotional connection with your audience.