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Picture this: you open the app that your company uses to pre-schedule Instagram posts. You carefully select an image, write a caption, include a few of your business’s most relevant hashtags, ones that you use pretty often. You schedule the post for a few days from now– and yet months later, it has gained little attention from non-followers.
Sound familiar? You could be the target of an Instagram shadowban.
What is a shadowban?
The shadowban is a device employed by Instagram intended to limit the presence and influence of spam accounts on the platform. It uses a number of factors to identify target accounts; since it is meant to be a deterrent to certain types of behavior, it is intuitive that repeated inappropriate hashtags or other abusive content would be a red flag for the Instagram moderators. However, recently this has begun to include many mechanisms that businesses commonly use to reach new markets– this includes utilizing an Instagram accessory app to schedule posts ahead of time and even just using many of the same hashtags repeatedly. The content posted by affected users is not visible to anyone who doesn’t already follow the page, making it impossible to reach new groups of people. Is this a ploy by Instagram to make hashtag-based marketing less effective and induce businesses to purchase more paid promotions? Maybe, maybe not, but either way, here’s how to fix it.
How can I tell If I’ve been affected?
If your engagement is low and you think a shadow ban could be the culprit, the first thing that you should do is check the search pages for the hashtags that your posts use. If the only posts visible are the Top Posts or there is a message displayed telling you that the hashtag violates the community guidelines, your posts are likely being blocked. If this isn’t the case, you could still be affected if you do use a post scheduler, as that violates the Instagram Terms of Service.
Another way to tell for sure whether you have been shadowbanned is to check your hashtags on an account that is following you and then again on one that isn’t. If it shows up in searches by accounts that are already following you but not in ones that aren’t, you have probably been shadowbanned.
What can I do about my shadowban?
There are a lot of ways that you can try to lift your shadowban– none are guaranteed to work, but these are the strategies that have been successful for many users.
The first thing you should is to stop the activities that caused the ban in the first place. With the exception of Instagram-approved scheduling app Later, stop pre-programming your posts, and make sure that none of the hashtags you use are banned or broken. It can also be helpful to switch up your hashtag use so that Instagram can tell it’s really a human behind that screen.
Next, there are some tricks to reverse a shadowban that has already taken effect. Try logging out of your account and leaving it completely alone for a few days. You can also try switching your account from business to personal, leaving it for a few days, and then switching back.
Finally, there are a few more preventative measures that you can take to get it reversed as soon as you can. Try to avoid activity that makes your account look abusive and avoid being reported by other users. Also avoid brief periods with huge quantities of activity– don’t like hundreds of posts in under an hour or follow dozens of new accounts. Because bots often engage in these activities simultaneously, Instagram is sensitive to surges in outgoing engagement.
Hopefully, with these tips, you’ll be able to get your engagement back on track and keep on gaining visibility for your business.
About Ethos
Ethos is a multiplatform branding agency that develops and executes integrated marketing campaigns across multiple channels for companies inside and outside of Maine.
At Ethos, we believe that the most effective way to set a company’s marketing course is by finding its core truth – its ethos. We know that once we discover and communicate that core truth, we can truly make a difference for each client’s unique marketing and business objectives.
With Ethos, you get more than a behavior change marketing agency. You get a long-term partner whose goals are your goals.
Learn more about the Ethos approach and the work we’ve done for our clients. Want to have a conversation about your brand’s core truth? Contact us!
