Are you having trouble with your engagement rate on Instagram? and might doubt what’s going down after putting your best out there? Then you have reached the right place as we are going to help to find a plausible answer to these concerns. Instagram Shadowban might be the cause behind the drop you’re facing. In this article, we will look into the various aspects of Instagram Shadowban and ways to escape it.
Instagram has been and continues to be a global platform for creators to create content for various kinds of audiences and showcase their lifestyles publically. At the same time, they are an amazing platform and a source of marketing for many.
It has to constantly come up with community guidelines and algorithms to protect or safeguard the community and boost the creators. But sometimes, these algorithms can be a little problematic to follow, and one has to mend their way through it.
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What is Instagram shadowban?
Instagram Shadowban can be explained as when users’ content is restricted or blocked in such a way that they are unaware of it. The posts and their account, in general, are not visible to other accounts on Instagram, which can be a setback to the creators out there. Your visibility on the platform will fall dramatically, and your posts will only be limited to your followers.
Shadowbanning isn’t an official term used by Instagram, but they want the authenticity and credibility to be sustained. Therefore, in their perspective, their goal is to protect the community from the bigger picture and filter out the accounts that are not adhering to the community guidelines. So, you have to make sure that your content follows the guidelines properly.
“Shadowban is a term that Instagram doesn’t use. They’ve never used it, they’ve always denied it was a thing. It doesn’t mean that the things included in the shadowban label are not happening.” By Carolina Hadas (who had a quarrel with Instagram over hashtags).
Is there Something like an Instagram Shadowban?
There hasn’t been an official confirmation about this term from Instagram itself. Still, there have been talks in the community about their posts or accounts unnoticeable to the audience or general public. Which, in turn, has reduced their reach, and they are highly concerned about that. So, Instagram, in the span of a few years, issued a few statements on this stated below :
- “Shadowbanning is not a real thing,” further adding that they don’t hide users’ accounts or content for either posting too many hashtags or taking different actions via the Instagram team in 2018.
- After a year, Instagram declared that posts classified under “inappropriate for our international community” would not be highlighted on the Instagram explore page.
- In 2020, a user raised a concern regarding shadow banning as the posts were getting silenced and not showing up on the feed as he voiced his opinion about a social movement.
- In 2021, Instagram’s head (Adam Mosseri) released a video explaining various concerns the users had across the platform. Quoting one of the statements by him, “But we can be more transparent about why we take things down when we do, work to make fewer mistakes – and fix them quickly when we do – and better explain how our systems work.” so, we can expect some transparency about accounts and posts being banned.
How does Instagram work? Or more specifically – why do I see what I see on Instagram? 🧐
In this video I cover:
– “The Algorithm”
– Ranking Feed & Stories
– Ranking Explore
– Ranking Reels
– "Shadow Banning"
– Influencing Your Experience pic.twitter.com/ZqffIy78Ap— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) June 28, 2021
How to Know if your Account has been Shadowbanned?
As we have learned about what is shadow ban is and is there something like shadowban, we have learned that it can exist to a certain extent and one has to be careful to share or be on this platform for a long term. So, let’s go through a few steps to know if your account is shadowbanned or not.
- Examine your posts or content– post your content with a trendy hashtag or sound and ask some of your friends to look you up under the hashtag to see if your post comes up.
- Examine your hashtags– Instagram has various hashtags that can be a little problematic and won’t exactly follow the community guidelines. Therefore, look for hashtags that are not working for you and the type of content you are making, along with being vigilant about the hashtags that do not fall under Instagram guidelines.
- Monitor your Instagram insights– if the engagement on your profile is going considerably low or negative, then there might be a possibility that your account has been shadowbanned.
This is what Instagram has to say about your posts not showing up on the explore or hashtag pages:
Via Instagram help center.
How to Fix your Account that is Shadowbanned?
Creating content or marketing is no joke to the users, and we want to safeguard our accounts at any cost. So here are a few things that you should avoid for not getting shadowbanned, and these things can also be used to fix an account that is shadowbanned.
- Never use bots or any other automated service to boost your followers and engagements as it can hurt your account. If you are using the same then, stop right away and delete it.
- Authenticity is the key to sustaining on this platform, and that solely can give you the push you’ve been rooting for.
- Never use banned hashtags as it can hinder your growth and lead to shadowbanning your profile.
- Abide the Instagram rules or guidelines thoroughly to help your content to be surfaced on the platform for a more extended period.
- A fair share of people has also suggested taking a 48-hour break from the gram to help you navigate through it efficiently.
- Stay away from spammy activities such as flooding your posts with hashtags and commenting too much instead post a significant amount.
- Useless yet relevant hashtags that way, the chances of your posts being highlighted will be more.
Conclusion
The only key to getting through an Instagram shadowban is to maintain a distance from shady activities rather than incline towards helpful, reliable, and credible content that will undoubtedly lead to a significant and genuine audience. As they say, slow and steady wins the race and stays away from shadowban. I hope you find this article helpful, and in case you have any queries, you can drop them in the comments below.
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