Fairfield Ludlowe High School athletics are currently being scrutinized for potential discriminatory practices when reporting for their school’s teams.
Complaints have rolled in about the Ludlow Athletics Twitter account, which students and parents have claimed to show more favoritism towards the boys’ sports than the girls.
Ludlowe defeats Warde 3-0 (25-14, 25-14, 25-18). Falcons will face Westhill for the FCIAC title on Saturday afternoon at 3:30. #ctvb@fciac@DaveRuden@GameTimeCT
Colleen Phelan, a parent of a female athlete at the school, expressed her displeasure with the apparent discrepancies that were being shown on the school’s social media.
“If you don’t acknowledge kids’ hard work, it’s very disempowering, especially for a girl,” Phelan said. “They really don’t get the attention, and that doesn’t make girls want to be in sports.”
When you’re coming down the home stretch of your victory lap, you might as well have a little fun with it.
That’s the mindset of many Quinnipiac University seniors, who are being offered a “Senior Experience” by the school.
Quinnipiac is organizing a night at the Foxwoods Casino and a boat cruise around Boston for members of the school’s senior class.
“I’m really excited about it,” Bethany Novak. “Going to Foxwoods… I’ve never been there before.”
Not all seniors are as enthused about the event, however.
“As of now, I’m not planning on signing up,” senior John Tamarez said. “I think (the experience) should be a full week after finals, like it was before.”
Following last week’s raw chicken incident, Chartwells Dining Services came under heavy fire from the Quinnipiac student body – so much so that a Town Hall meeting was arranged to address the issues.
Last Wednesday, Quinnipiac’s Student Government Association organized a Town Hall-type event in Quinnipiac University’s Echlin Center, in order to allow students to express their questions and concerns to QU Dining representatives.
Some complaints included the sourcing of the food, the inspection process of the products, and the price of certain items.
Chuck Couture, the Regional District Manager of QU Dining, weighed in on the matter.
“We’re always looking at better ways to be more sustainable,” Couture said. “Our ask is [to] bring it to our attention.”
On November 10, tragedy struck the Connecticut and NCAA community as a whole.
Southern Connecticut State gymnast Melanie Coleman died last Sunday due to complications from a serious injury she had suffered in practice on Thursday, November 8.
Coleman injured herself when she fell during a routine exercise on the uneven bars during practice, according to SCSU spokesman Ken Sweeten.
Coleman’s family said in a statement: “We are confident that her spirit, laughter, and humor will live on through the ones who loved her most, as well as through the gift of life to those who needed it most through organ donation.”
Kerry Ellington offered her concerns about policing in Hamden and the case of police officer Devin Eaton to the Hamden Police Commission. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
Emotions ran high at the Hamden Police Commission meeting Wednesday night Nov. 14, as one hundred protesters attended the event to voice their concerns about Hamden officer Devin Eaton. Most of the protesters were New Haven residents, Yale students and Hamden residents.
Protesters came to demand that the commission put the officer on its agenda the commission has not heard from the community since the April 16 shooting when Eaton fired 13 shots at an unarmed couple on Argyle Street in New Haven.
As of Oct. 21, Eaton was put on administrative unpaid leave and was charged with one felony and two misdemeanors.
Hamden Police Commission members heard public comments, all of which were centered around the April 16 shooting and police brutality. Left to right: Mitchell Strickland, Raeanne Curtis, Michael Iezzi. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
One by one, protesters expressed their frustrations to the police commission because it has not fired officer Eaton.
The Hamden Police Commission heard public comments during their monthly November meeting. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
“You have the power to act,” said Kerry Ellington, Hamden Action Now activist. “The felony charges presented against officer Eaton provide adequate evidence and just cause to discharge him now, and it did yesterday, and it did months ago.”
Even though Eaton was charged, the Hamden Police Department still has him on the force. That does not sit well with protesters.
“Today I want to say it is unconscionable that Devin Eaton continues to be employed by the Hamden police force. That night he jumped out of a still-rolling vehicle and quickly opened fire, even as the young man is exiting his vehicle arms up,” said Amber Kelly, employee of Quinnipiac and Hamden resident. “With criminal charges against him, he should not be a police officer in any jurisdiction.”
Amber Kelly giving comments to the Hamden Police Commission. Right, Bo Kocak. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
Some protesters described the fear they have for their children if they decide to keep officer Eaton on the force.
“I have children that live in Hamden. I have grandchildren. That behavior is unacceptable from anyone. Any officer especially, an officer of the law,” Marine Hebron a Hamden resident stated.
The protest hit a breaking point when a Yale student Ben Dormus called out the commission for everything they had on the agenda Wednesday night which included, the retirement of an officer, the handling of petty cash and donations to an animal control facility.
Ben Dormus taking a deep breath and collecting himself. He voiced his concerns with the way the Hamden Police Commission runs and how it is treating the protesters. The crowd clapped for Dormus because he didn’t back down when Iezzi interrupted him. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
“It seems to me that you’re not as much of a police commission as you are the social planning committee for the police department,” said Ben Dormus.
Mike Iezzi interrupted Dormus and told him to stop insulting the commission. This led to both of them shouting at each other but neither one could hear each other as other protesters shouted back, “Let him speak!”
Michael Iezzi firing back at Dormus’ comments that Mitchell Strickland can’t look protesters in the eye. Left to right: Robert LaTorraca, Michael Iezzi, and Larry Esposito. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
Hamden Acting Police Chief John Cappiello has until Nov. 20, to bring disciplinary charges against Eaton. If Cappiello brings the charges against Eaton the commission will have to schedule a hearing within 30 days but not sooner than a week.
Acting Chief of Hamden Police, John Cappiello, answering Kerry Ellington’s questions about a timeline for Eaton’s case. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
As the meeting was closing Ellington led a chant as all protesters were exiting.
“Justice for Stephanie and Paul! Discharge the officer now! We will be back!” protesters chanted.
The next scheduled commission meeting is Dec. 13.
The crowd that showed up to the commission meeting. Center of the aisle, people are lined up to voice their concerns with the commission. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
For the first time, QU Dining held an open discussion with Quinnipiac students to talk about the food on campus. QU Dining had seven total representatives in the Echlin Center that welcomed students to come and express any problems, issues and feedback about the food on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
“We don’t like those social media posts,” said Chuck Couture, the Residential District Manager of QU Dining, on why they decided to hold the discussion. “We’re embarrassed when those happen. We don’t come to work every day (thinking), ‘how are we going to get on Barstool today?’ … We’re constantly trying to train and retrain our staff. And we have to do better.”
The most recent incident of “those social media posts” was a picture of uncooked chicken that the infamous Instagram account, QU Barstool, posted on on Nov. 4.
The next day, Nov. 5, Quinnipiac Dining sent an email out to all students and staff, addressing the Instagram post. That following week, on Monday, Nov. 11, the Student Government Association announced a town hall discussion between QU Dining and the student body.
QU Dining sent this email out to all students and staff on Nov. 5, in response to the Instagram post with raw chicken.
Corporate Executive Chef for Chartwells, Joe LaBombarda, reiterated that message from the Instagram comment in his opening statement during the discussion.
“It was a pretty honest mistake with the chicken,” LaBombarda said. “We don’t like to have mistakes. We were pretty embarrassed by it.”
While this is the first time QU Dining has done an open forum, it certainly is not the first time complaints about rotten or spoiled food have been brought about from Quinnipiac students.
Over the 2018-19 school year and through most of the first semester of this year, QU Barstool has had nine posts about QU Dining food. The pictures have ranged from raw chicken to moldy buns to even slugs in containers of food.
However, the forum gave students and staff a chance to discuss a wide variety of topics. From healthier options to late dining hours, anything and everything was on the menu for discussion.
QU Dining staff announced that they would be making some changes to the dining halls. Using the survey that QU Dining and SGA put out for the students, the staff was able to come up with some new ideas that either already are being put in place, or are nearing completion.
Some of those changes include the addition of potstickers to the menu, weekend hours for the acai bowl station in the main cafe, a BBQ concept called Smoked for main campus, daily availability of chicken noodle soup and a variety of pop-ups the main cafe. In addition, Sono will be introduced on York Hill as a zTex-Mex, do-it-your-own station.
One of the concerns of students was having food options, like these vegetables at the salad bar, out and in the open for long periods of time.
Students like junior history and education major Traci Duff, still want to see some other changes made.
“For me, bringing more healthier options like whether it be vegan or vegetarian,” Duff said. “I also think they can change some of their workers’ attitudes, like I’ve experienced their attitudes, I’ve had a worker just disregard my order, so I think that would be good.”
Duff wasn’t the only one to bring up the attitudes of workers. However, in response, QU Dining asked for specific identities of workers and said they would handle it in-house.
That was how most of the questions were answered — either a direct response with the students saying they were satisfied with or a promise from QU Dining to do better.
“I think this meeting was really good, I personally couldn’t sit in front of a whole group of students and face the criticism and answer questions, so I think it was good that they did this,” Duff said.
QU Dining staff also encouraged students to come directly to them – and not social media – in the future.
“If we do make a mistake, bring it to one of us and we’ll fix it,” Couture said. “We have a 100% money-back guarantee (policy). If you’re enjoying something, come and find me. A lot of you have, and I try to make it right. That’s my promise to you, so next time, find a manager, find a chef, and we’ll make it right.”
If students have any questions or concerns in regards to the food, they can text QU Dining directly at 203-889-9123.
Jay Kaye, who ran as a Republican candidate against Mayor Curt Leng, standing in front of Common Grounds, Hamden. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
Growing up, Jay Kaye mowed lawns, shoveled snow and painted houses. Painting stuck with him, and for the past 23 years he’s been at Ferraro’s Painting & Restoration. He worked himself up from painting in the field to production manager. When he decided he wanted to head in a new direction, he got involved in local politics.
He said his political journey began in 2018 when he marched in the Memorial Day Parade with the Hamden Republican Town Committee.
“At that point I had already gone to a couple Legislative Council meetings and kind of figured out what was going on, and how the whole system was working, and how broken the system was,” Kaye said. “I wasn’t really sure how marching in the parade was going to help that, but I felt moved enough to march in the parade. I’ll represent Republicans because I really have lost trust in the Democrat’s ability to manage the town properly.”
> “ I wasn’t really sure how marching in the parade was going to help that, but I felt moved enough to march in the parade. I’ll represent Republicans because I really have lost trust in the Democrat’s ability to manage the town properly.”
— Jay Kaye
After being a lifelong Democrat, Kaye lost faith in the Democratic group running Hamden.
The Republican Town Committee was at the front of the parade. Kaye was standing in the middle carrying the committee’s sign. He said seeing the public’s reaction to the Republican group is when he decided the town needed political change.
“Some people were a little more vocal, but there was a respectful clap, where they’d almost look to see who was watching then decided whether they were going to clap or not,” he said. “Which actually cemented the fact that things need to change here because people are afraid to stand up the regime, or whatever you want to call it, the democratic machine, running the town for so long.”
When Kaye started to attend the Republican Town Committee meetings, he said he saw dedication, but low morale. He took this as an opportunity to get involved and run for public office, specifically for Mayor.
“They really needed somebody willing to go out there and represent (them), and instead of Legislative Council, I picked Mayor,” he said. “I thought that would be the best, most effective use of my abilities and would help the town the most.”
He saw running for mayor as an opportunity to communicate a message to voters.
“Listen there’s an opportunity to make a change here,” he said. “We can change the direction (of the town), things are bad, we all know things are bad, but we don’t have to be stuck there, we can make a difference.”
Though he wanted to run for mayor, he wasn’t sure what kind of a toll running would take.
“At first I was afraid it would affect my family and my job, but my family became more and more supportive and my wife even entered one of the races,” he said.
His family backed him, and he said Ferraro’s was also good about giving him the time he needed for his campaign.
Kaye was determined to change the leadership of Hamden. He says he was confident because he saw people believing in his ideas.
> “I think one of my biggest ideas, and it’s certainly not my own idea, it’s been brought up before, was switching the town from a mayoral council to a town manager system.”
— Jay Kaye
“I think one of my biggest ideas, and it’s certainly not my own idea, it’s been brought up before, was switching the town from a mayoral council to a town manager system,” he said.
A town manager is hired by the Legislative Council and Board of Finance to manage the town’s finances, making the role of the mayor smaller. Kaye said a town manager system makes the mayor a cheerleader and advocate for the town and its people.
He continues, “The benefit of this is that the town manager doesn’t owe anyone any favors, isn’t working for a political agenda, isn’t working for anything other than the taxpayer. Basically, working for the town. It’s designed to get rid of any corruption, get rid of cronyism, get rid of party agendas, get rid of paying back favors, and losing control.”
When it came to election night Kaye says he was feeling confident, but he knew after votes were counted in the sixth district he was going to lose.
“When I saw the results coming in, obviously I was disappointed, but I wasn’t disheartened,” Kaye said. “I went to the headquarters (the Elks Lodge) where we were either going to be celebrating or disappointed. The reaction there was actually quite positive because the numbers were strong and we picked up an extra seat.”
He ended up losing the election to opponent Curt Leng 7,412 to 4,898. While Kaye lost, he did win the 9th district, the only district to go Republican.
The graphic above displays the different voting districts in Hamden. The ninth district was the only district to go Republican. Graphic by Nick Slater.
“I think that was a nice message to the Democratic Town Committee saying ‘Look, it may not have happened this time, but change is definitely coming your way.’” he said.
He might not have gotten the win he was hoping for, but he wants to give the race another shot.
“I’m going to stick with it,” he said. “I’ve already kind of decided that in two years I probably will run again, but right now I just want to focus on what I can do to help the town as a resident.”
In the meantime, Kaye plans to continue spending his time helping Hamden. He said he has a lot of energy left to give to the community.
“I just turned 55,” he said. “I still have some years left in me and I have plenty of energy. I really did want to be the mayor so that I could use that energy to give to the community and really help the town, but I can still do that just as a resident, I don’t necessarily have to be the mayor to do that, and I’m going to continue to do that.”
This week on QNN, a look at student safety on and off campus. Plus, QU students share their concerns with Chartwells in a town hall meeting, and big changes are coming to “senior sendoff.” Those stories and more are in this week’s QNN newscast!
On Wednesday afternoon, over 175 students and faculty gathered in the Quinnipiac Center for Communications and Engineering auditorium to participate in an open forum regarding the issue of inclusion on campus. This event comes in the wake of multiple negative events occurring in the past few weeks, such as racist language being used in the dorms and a professor tweeting her discontent with Chick-fil-A on campus, which became an outlet for hateful commentary on Twitter.
Pictured (left) Kevin Parker director of health and wellness, (middle) Vice President and Provost Jennifer Brown, (right) Elyssa Wrubel, senior english major.
“I do think it was helpful in the sense of informing students as there were topics discussed today that I know other students didn’t know as well as myself,” said Tyler McNeil a junior public relations major. “Most notably for me was that I was unaware that faculty here did not have ‘clock stop’ with their tenure.”
The “Clock stop” policy that McNeil mentions is when a school allows faculty and staff to stop the clock on their way to achieving tenure. This would be beneficial if professor or staff member fell extremely ill, or had to leave for maternity/paternity leave. Right now Quinnipiac does not have this policy in place so if a professor were to have to leave, their eligibility for tenure would be in jeopardy.
This was the email sent to the entire student body regarding the racist language used in the dorms.
This was the email sent to all students, faculty and staff inviting them to this open forum, discussing the topic of inclusion.
On top of the discussion regarding clock stop, around five students and seven faculty members stood up in front of the room and voiced their concern about different topics of inclusion on campus. These ranged from the LGBTQIA community, racial minorities being underrepresented, religious discrimination, handicap accessibility and more executive support for faculty and staff when it comes to school policy.
Specifically, Austin Calvo, the student government president spoke about the issues when it comes to ADA violations on campus and how the schools SGA has tried in the past to fix inaccessible pathways to buildings and residential halls.
A sociology professor, Jim Buccini, voiced his unhappiness with how unwelcoming this campus feels to students of minority races. He used his son’s experience of touring the campus and how at the end of the tour he absolutely did not want to attend Quinnipiac and was disappointed that his father taught at such an uninviting school.
Another student, Andrew DePass, a junior Biology & Computer Science major also talked about the issues of race on campus and discussed the toxic academic environment many minority students face in class. He said that this feeling is created when professors allow students of the majority to use their freedom of speech to say things that immediately make minorities feel inferior and/or alienated.
This open discussion is a product of Quinnipiac President Judy Olian’s strategic plan, which pushes the importance of diversity and inclusion in a competitive and creative work force, but for the past few weeks, Quinnipiac’s community has not been living up to its ideals.
Over a week ago, an email was sent to the student body from the university’s Office of Residential Life about racist language and actions being used in the dorms. The director of Residential Life, Mark DeVilbiss, stated in his email, “The university is committed to a culture of inclusion, openness and civility and is strongly opposed to discriminatory words and actions.”
Then two weeks before the email was sent, journalism professor Margarita Diaz expressed her discontent on Twitter with the use of Chick-fil-A on campus, due to their non-inclusive beliefs. The tweet blew up and users began attacking her and the community. The school newspaper also published an opinion piece that took her view and twisted it into something very different from the original intent of her comment.
This is the packed CCE Auditorium as faculty, staff and students listened intently.
After the constructive conversation concluded, Don Sawyer ended the discussion by promising there will be more open forums throughout the year and that over time, there will be change.
Vice President Don Sawyer addresses the crowd and helps lead the discussion on inclusivity on campus.
“When changing campus culture an hour is not gonna do it, a year might not even do it, but it will happen over time,” said Sawyer.
Caitlin Houston is a 34-year-old Connecticut micro-influencer running the lifestyle and family blog Caitlin Houston Blog, posting about things like mom life, gift guides and clothing.
“There’s a lot of people who don’t understand what a blogger is and what a blogger does,” Houston said.
Houston works 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. like many people her age, but she said a lot of people don’t think blogging is a “real job.”
“They don’t understand it,” Houston said. “The second I say I’m a blogger or influencer, somebody thinks I’m just out there talking about something I was paid to talk about.”
Houston explains influencing as, “Giving people knowledge about an item or a brand or topic and hoping that they take your opinion as worth more than just an opinion.”
She uses many social media platforms to promote her blogs and communicate with her audience.
Houston uses Instagram to spread knowledge about a product or brand. She also uses it to share pictures of her family and form relationships with people.
“So when I do talk about something, they take my word honestly and they believe what I’m saying is organic,” Houston said.
Facebook is Houston’s most active platform.
“I have a large audience on Facebook that doesn’t use Instagram,” Houston said.
For every blog post Houston writes, she also creates a graphic with text and posts it to Pinterest with key words.
“I do it with the hopes that they will click that pin which will ultimately take them to my blog and keep them there for a while,” Houston said.
Houston’s goals aren’t just numbers on social media. One goal was to create a presence in her community.
She loves it when people reach out to her, like one woman who wrote, “I love your blog” and “you helped me through this part of motherhood.”
Houston talking on a panel about influencing along with other Connecticut influencers.
Through blogging, Houston’s connected with people outside her community.
“I have friends probably all over the country,” Houston said. “People that I talk about daily, talk to daily.”
Houston and her friends run lifestyle blogs, but influencers don’t all have to focus on the same subject.
Some influencers focus on very specific niche-interests.
Marissa Mullen is 26-year-old living in Brooklyn, New York. The Connecticut native left her job as a house band coordinator for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to pursue her passion…for cheese.
“I am a “Cheese Plate Influencer” as they say online,” Mullen said.
As a micro influencer, Mullen is a one-person band. She creates content for three separate Instagram accounts.
@ThatCheesePlate shares her full cheese plate creations. @CheeseByNumbers show’s swipe by swipe directions on how to create each cheese plate and @ThatCheeseClass shows boards created at her workshops.
But Mullen doesn’t just run an Instagram accounts, she runs a business.
“Some days I’m busy working with clients to create content, which means crafting and photographing four cheese plates in a day,” Mullen said.
As the only employee to her company, she spends days answering emails, handling invoices and booking events. Her most recent project is her upcoming cookbook, “That Cheese Plate Will Change Your Life.”
But it’s not just family blogs or things like cheese.
Video gamers can also have a career in influencing. They share their content when they post videos to either their social media or YouTube channel. Videos game influencers are unique because they take you through an experience.
“Facebook, Twitter, they don’t allow for the sharing of the experience itself,” David A. Tomczyk, professor of Professor of Entrepreneurship & Strategy at Quinnipiac University, said.
The video itself is a solo experience and the social interaction happens before and after.
Houston and Mullen are a part of a large group of micro and macro-influencers, world-wide.
“Influencers are considered to be thought leaders,” Professor Mary Dunn of Quinnipiac University’s school of communications, said.
Dunn teaches a class called “Strategies of Social Media,” and her research includes influencers. Dunn said that people don’t realize how much production goes into being an influencer.
“It’s beyond a job, it’s a whole industry,” Dunn said.
This “industry” is made up of macro and micro-influencers. Macro influencers often have over a million followers. Micro influencers have a couple thousand followers.
John Powers, who teaches a course called “Social Media in the Digital Age” at Quinnipiac University said, “It’s a natural way to do what you love to do.”
Before social media influencers starting popping up, brands used well-known celebrities to endorse their products or brands. Today, it is more common for a macro influencer to partner with brands.
“LeBron James wore them, so I have to get them, has turned,” Powers said.
MuseFind is a influencer marketing platform. Its data shows that 92 percent of consumers trust an influencer more than an advertisement or traditional celebrity endorsement.
Powers said, he sees that average people with a large following were more trusted by the public then celebrities.
In the late 2000s, American model and reality television star Kendall Jenner endorsed Proactive, a skin care brand. In 2017, she endorsed Pepsi. This shows how she went from a small product to a worldwide brand.
From the outside looking in, this can still look like a glamorous career, but it’s much more complex on the production side than anyone realizes.
Micro-influencers may work independently, while macro-influencers work with their team to produce content.
“Many of what we call macro-influencers, who have over a million followers, but aren’t considered cultural celebrities, those accounts that are posting so regularly often have teams behind them,” Dunn said.
These teams are forming a number of careers for people.
“There are actually supportive creative careers within the industry of influencing,” Dunn said.
Amanda Perelli is an editorial fellow at Business Insider covering YouTubers and influencers. She said both smaller and larger businesses are only growing in popularity.
“I think people think right now that the industry is very saturated, but I would say it’s only going to get bigger,” Perelli says.
In 2019, spending on influencer marketing will…
Parelli said a lot of brands still don’t practice influencer marketing. She thinks that once more brands use this type of marketing they’ll see the success of influencer marketing versus celebrity endorsements or television advertisements.
Powers said the success of “great content” comes from being active on multiple platforms.
The research firm, eMarketer, found that on average, people will spend 3 hours and 43 minutes each day on their smartphones, feature phones and tablets this year. That’s 8 more minutes than they’ll spend watching TV.
“Huge percentages of people are spending vast majority of their time on those social networks, that is where information is being shared,” Powers said. “It’s where messages are shared, it’s where brands and people are expressing themselves.”
Social media also gives influencers the ability to network with others in their niche.
“Instagrammers also do a lot of cross promotion with others of similar interest,” Dunn said.
Cross promotion allows influencers to work with other influencers. This can lead to an increase in followers and the opportunity to partner with more brands.
For example, MAC cosmetics isn’t going to come out with a line of hardware tools. So if you’re a beauty blogger endorsing brands, you’re not going to endorse your “favorite” hardware tools.
“If it feels random, the audience is going to think you’re just in it for the money,” said Dunn.
The audience just wants partnerships to make sense.
“Audiences don’t care that they’re doing partnerships,” Dunn said. We’re seeing that consumers are actually excited for these micro influencers, that they’re getting to make some money.”
However, the audience wants to see disclosures when working with a brand.
“You would think it would put off a bunch of people, but instead if you’re upfront about it then the consumers are like OK, I still value your opinion,” said Dunn.
The brand, influencer and audience ideas have to mesh, but the influencers has to practice transparency in order to be successful.
“That full disclosure is a better business practice for the audience who’s the vulnerable population, the influencer who has to manage this relationship and the brand who’s using all this tactically to support the brand,” Dunn said.
A big change has come to some Instagram accounts.
The social network is testing a feature that will no longer show someone’s “likes.” Account holders can see their likes, but their followers won’t know the amount of likes on a picture or video.
In an article on Instagram hiding ‘likes’, Perelli writes, “By promoting products to followers, Instagram has become a huge source of revenue for many social-media influencers and a major part of their online businesses.”
Instagram likes are often used as measurement for brands.
Adam Wescott, a partner at Drm Select Management Group, told Business Insider that, “”For creators, it’s a big change because likes are the number one tool for tracking post engagement. They know within minutes how their content will do based on number of likes.”
Talking to Lifestyle blogger, Caitlin Houston
Houston, the creator of Caitlin Houston Blog, isn’t worried about Instagram’s trial feature.
“Truthfully I feel a sense of relief that they are going to be doing this because I put too much pressure on myself when a picture doesn’t get as many likes as I think it should,” she said.
Houston thinks brands will be able to look at quality and “impressions” instead of quantity. The lifestyle blogger focuses more on her comments than her likes.
“Comments are huge to me and I think more important than likes because people are stopping to engage with the photo,” she said.
Influencers will still be able to make an income from their social media accounts.
“For a lot of people it’s a career because they’re able to make money in so many different ways,” Perelli said.
Wescott told Business Insider that he believes brands will find alternative ways to measure engagement through looking at things like comments, shares, and Instagram stories.
An increase in influencer marketing will also create job growth.
“When mainstream brands and bigger brands start putting money into that, I think it could really become a career for even more people than it already is,” Perelli said.
