Has Instagram's reach and engagement of the audience sharply decreased? The reason may be getting into a shadowban. And this is a severe problem because the shadowban on Instagram can make your account invisible. The worst thing is to get it during the launch to a warm audience. How to get out from the shadowban? How not to get next time - read on.
How to check if you are shadowbanned on Instagram
You won't receive an official notification of getting into the shadowban.
You can only understand this yourself by the following characteristics:
1) A sharp drop in outreach and views in stories.
2) A significant decrease in the number of likes.
3) Inability to find publications on personal or low-frequency hashtags (up to 1000 publications).
4) Publications are not displayed by geolocation.
5) The account becomes invisible in search results.
6) It is not possible to tag you in stories.
7) Mass unsubscribing.
8) Low activity from new subscribers.
What is a shadowban?
A shadow ban (or shadow banning) is a method used on some social platforms and online communities where users are not notified of their ban, but their posts become invisible to others. It means that the user can continue to post content, but it will not be displayed to other members of the social platform or community.
This approach is used to combat bots or toxic users who violate the platform's rules. Instead of informing the user about the ban (which could lead to creating a new account), administrators simply reduce the reach of posts and make them invisible. This helps avoid the re-creation of accounts to circumvent the ban and reduces the amount of unwanted content on the platform.
However, this method is widely criticized as it can be used opaquely and without proper warning to the user. Moreover, there are cases where algorithms responsible for the shadow ban can erroneously block harmless content.
Besides, the platform does not notify the user about the shadow banning. They learn about it through indirect signs.
Possible reasons for shadowban
Getting into a shadowban is a kind of sanction for violating the rules of using Instagram. There are several reasons why the administration may temporarily make you invisible:
1) Cheating subscribers or activity (likes, comments, views).
nstagram is an ingenious social network and quickly calculates unusual account activity. Therefore, participation in a giveaway or activity chat is a direct road to a shadowban.
2) Mass following and mass liking.
Gray methods of promotion can also cause a ban and not the only shadow kind. Keep the optimum quantity of subscriptions, unsubscriptions, and mailings per hour.
3) Numerous simultaneous complaints on the profile.
It is often used by competitors or ill-wishers who arrange a spam attack on the profile. If hundreds of users simultaneously complain about a profile for violating specific rules, the administration will impose restrictions on your account.
4) The monotone of hashtags.
Hashtags should not be repeated in each publication. Otherwise, the algorithm will consider them spam. Use not more than 10 hashtags in one post (1-2 high-frequency, 3-4 medium-frequency, 3 low-frequency, and 1 geolocation).
5) Prohibited tags.
Restrictions can be obtained for the use of tags of sexual themes, racism, or other discrimination.
6) Third-party services help.
This includes analytics, auto-posting, mass following, and mass liking services.
Giveaway or how to get into the shadowban forever?
Participating in Instagram giveaways is an easy way to increase the number of subscribers quickly. Moreover, the cost of such a method of promotion is much less than targeted advertising or advertising from bloggers. But there are several reasons why this method is categorically not worth using:
1) Cheating bots.
Often the organizers of the giveaway cannot fulfill the promised number of subscribers, so they simply cheat bots to your account. As a result, you get only a digit in the profile header.
And if unscrupulous organizers add fake accounts to you while participating in a large giveaway (with the number of 50,000 subscribers or more), then you can immediately delete your profile, because it will remain in the shadow bath forever. Such an amount of "dead audience" will contribute to the extremely low ranking of the account.
2) Receiving a non-target audience.
The audience that comes to you while participating in the giveaway is just people who want to win a gift, and 99.9% of them will not become your potential buyers.
3) A significant decrease in the activity of a real audience.
Instagram's algorithms will show your posts and stories to new non-target subscribers who will not be involved in your content. As a result, your real subscribers simply will not see you in the feed.
4) Mass unfollowing will begin after the end of the giveaway.
After all, the purpose of the subscription was a gift, not an interest in your profile. Now imagine the situation: your account has 2,000 subscribers. You buy giveaway with a promised number of 10,000 new subscribers and rejoice in a new digit - 12,000 subscribers. But then, one day, 6-7 thousand subscribers will unfollow your profile. Instagram will simply find your page uninteresting to users and will send you to the shadowban.
How to remove the Instagram shadowban
You can reduce the lock time in the following ways:
1. Remove tags from the last 15 posts, both hashtags and location tags.
2. Minimum activity for the next 72 hours. Do not leave comments, subscribe to profiles, and publish new posts.
3. Disconnect the profile from all third-party services.
4.Turn from your business account or author's account to your personal profile.
5. Publish 3 new posts without hashtags and geotags (not earlier than 72 hours after the block).
6. Edit profile header (new description, delete website link, new name).
7. Use only the main gadget to sign in to your account (preferably a smartphone). It is worth forgetting for a while about the web version and the use of VPN.
8. Get in touch with the technical support. Most likely, the ban will not be removed from you, but you can try to find out the reason for the blocking.
9. Stop all advertising campaigns.
10. Change password.
11. Add two-factor authentication.
12. Link it to your Facebook account.
Block Duration
The period of account blocking is individual and depends on the level and frequency of violations. For some profiles, this can be 3 days, while for others it can be several weeks.
Tips on how to prevent getting into the ban
After removing the restrictions, your account will be in high-interest mode by the Instagram administration. Take a look at our advice on how to not attract unnecessary attention:
1. Only quality content. Good content is one that will interest your target audience.
2. Only white promotional methods. It is advisable to use only targeted advertising for some time.
Determining whether your account is in a shadowban is difficult, but quite real. And no matter how scary it sounds — imposing restrictions does not mean "death" of your account. Follow our advice and don't give up, because the reach will return, and your audience will be with you.