Many Instagram modifications appear minor at first sight, but it’s the hidden back-end changes that might hinder or benefit your user engagement.
Surprisingly, the viewers are sometimes unaware of the changes that happened at the back end until they notice sudden change in their engagement rate and reach.
There are many such modifcations that have happened in the past and it will continue to come till the platform is in use. Once of these changes have been a shadowban. If you are wondering what is a Shadow ban on Instagram and how it can affect your performance, the article below will provide you with best information.
A shadowban has just been discovered within the app to boost organic Instagram growth and filter out some of the “spammy” bot-driven posts. For those unfamiliar with the phrase, a shadowban occurs when a person is unknowingly barred from a social media platform such as Instagram or Twitter. You may get a notification about shadow ban instagram but have no clue why this has happened. In such circumstances, you need to know how to remove shadow ban on Instagram and appeal the platform to live your profile again.
The hashtag use is directly affected by the Instagram shadowban. The most common reason behind the platform banning you is you have used the hashtags that have been barred by it. It wouldn’t happen the moment you use a hashtag, but if you continue using it consistently on multiple posts you put on your profile. With that in mind, if hashtags are an important component of your Instagram marketing strategy, pay close attention to avoid being affected by this harmful shadowban.
What are the signs of shadowban?
The shadowban is most likely to blame for a large drop in likes, comments, or views on your company’s postings. Users who do not follow you will not be able to see your post beneath the written hashtags, but you and your followers will. This completely negates the point of utilizing hashtags for increased visibility.
Instagram basically eliminate the possibility of using a hashtag only to promote the content to a wider set of audiences, irrespective of its relevance with the post. Additionally, if you do not change the hashtags more often and stick to the same ones, the platform considers it a spam and might lead to Instagram shadow ban.
Many users have misused hashtags with unpleasant, “spammy” posts for the sake of likes and other “spammy” followers since Instagram has become such a popular marketing tool. Remember that Instagram is run by real people who can quickly spot bot-like activity and will likely penalize you for it.
Many people believe Instagram created the algorithm and other features, such as the shadowban, to entice businesses and influential users to pay for sponsored posts.
Whereas, the platform has entirely different explanation for this. They claim that such features get introduced to ensure organic reach of genuine businesses that put effort in their content can increase. They say that shadow ban on instagram only happens if the platform finds something fishy and the profiles who follow every norm has nothing to worry about.
Now, to begin organic Instagram development, make sure you follow the regulations and never run into anything that might jeopardize your brand’s success. It will take lots of planning and more effort to curate the right strategy to maintain desired reach and eliminate the chances of any shadow ban on instagram.
Now, to begin organic Instagram development, make sure you follow the regulations and never run into anything that might jeopardize your brand’s success.
While using hashtags to expand your audience is advised, be sure they’re not restricted or unsuitable. Frequently, apparently benign hashtags get clogged with offensive or useless postings. When this happens, Instagram will effectively ban the hashtag, preventing any posts from appearing.
When the posts get partially banned, they will not appear to those who are not following you. Even if someone is following the hashtag relevant to the post, they won’t be able to find your post in the search results. Thus, your reach and visibility will decrease drastically, and there is no way you can expect the engagement. So, your overall business growth will halt if you fall into a shadow ban on Instagram.
Please keep in mind that if you have a single broken hashtag among numerous functional tags, your post will not display in any of them. Only by checking each hashtag for clean, relevant information before posting can you avoid this. Some people might strategize that putting one banned or restricted hashtag amongst ten others that are legit will help them sail through and the algorithms will not be able to find it out. However, this is not true and you will not get sparred from the shadow ban instagram.
Also, don’t be the cause of a hashtag that isn’t working. I’m sure this is self-evident to many companies and personal account users, but you’d be amazed at some of the obscene information shared in the sake of cultivating an edgy or humorous image. Being flagged or reported almost always results in a shadow ban.
Botting
Be sure you’re not breaking Instagram’s ever-changing rules if you’ve been utilizing software to boost your account’s traffic. Sure, a fast boost to obtain some likes and followers will help you establish credibility. However, many of these bots abuse the auto-like and auto-comment functions to the point where they seem very “spammy,” in which case the program will undoubtedly scold you and maybe place you on the shadowban list.
All of this happens without any notification or warnings from the platform. You will only get an idea about it if you suddenly find your likes and followers dripping drastically overnight. Furthermore, if you see lesser reach and engagement by your followers, it can also be a sign of shadow ban. There are various instagram shadow ban tester tools that can help identify if the platform have partially banned your profile, hiding your content from the new followers. Other than this, there are ways to manually check this ban.
If you’ve observed a significant drop in interaction on your posts and aren’t sure if it’s due to a shadowban, have a buddy unfollow your account (assuming they follow you) and search for your post using the hashtags you posted. If they cannot find you there, you clearly know that you have been banned by the platform and might need to appeal for unrestricting your account.
Appeal
If you believe you have been banned for no reason after respecting Instagram’s terms of service, your best chance is to contact Instagram directly and desist from using the app for 3-4 days. Give it time before the team looks into the matter and responds with all the details about why the ban happened and whether they will remove the shadow ban. If the ban has really happened because of a confusion, you are likely to get the issue resolved soon. Many individuals who have been shadowbanned say that taking a break from Instagram has completely resolved their problems.
How to Determine Whether You’ve Been Shadowbanned
Whether you haven’t noticed, Instagram’s “shadowban” restrictions make it tough to figure out if you’ve been banned. There’s no way to know for sure if you’ve been shadowbanned. The challenge here is that if you don’t have any idea about whether you have been banned, you cannot know how to remove shadow ban instagram. So, the first step is surely about figuring out the ban and then using ways to come out of the tricky situation.
Listed below are a few tests you can do to get a good idea:
Test your articles
Once you know what is shadow ban on Instagram, you know that only the specific content gets banned from the platform. So, the right way to identify if you have been shadow banned is by checking if you are visible to the people who are not following you. To do so, send out a new live post using a popular hashtag. Test the material under the hashtag with a few folks who aren’t following you to check if your post appears. If it doesn’t, you should dig a little further.
One thing Instagram has confirmed is that there are certain problematic hashtags that have been suppressed. You may have used one of these selected hashtags if you notice a message under that hashtag that is being concealed. The challenge is that Instagram doesn’t release any list of hashtags that it has restricted, so the users don’t even know if they have unintentionally used the hashtag which has been barred. The right way is to keep changing hashtags and see if a particular one has an issue, or check the restricted list on the web to plan the content captions accordingly.
Examine your Instagram analytics data
There’s a significant likelihood you’ve been shadowbanned if your impressions engagement has dropped dramatically outside of your follower network.
How to Get Rid of an Instagram Ban
So you’ve been shadowbanned, right? Unfortunately, no one knows how long a shadowban will have an adverse effect on your account. Several people have stated that it will take two weeks, while others believe it will take longer.
In some situations people found the right solution after putting an appeal, but there are a few businesses who had to create a new account because shadow ban never really got lifted. So, what happens to your account depends on multiple factors, like the strategy you use to remove the ban.
Here are some steps you may do to hopefully get your account back on track as quickly as possible.
1. Put an end to any activity that violates the terms of service.
This involves adopting low-cost engagement strategies such as Instagram pods to increase likes, comments, and followers. Alternatively, you may use any Instagram bot activity to automate engagement. The Instagram algorithm is difficult to deceive. Any applications that have managed to avoid the bot crackdown will not be able to do so for much longer.
There’s no proof that this kind of behavior gets you shadowbanned. However, it is preferable to be cautious. Your account might be frozen for 24-48 hours at the very least, or fully shut down.
2.Revoke any unapproved third-party app permissions
There are several applications that require Instagram access in order to function. Do you use an app to track follower counts, hashtag searches, or engagement automation? Unfortunately, all of them are significant no-nos.
Only enable permissions from Instagram’s approved and trusted partners who have access to the API.
Tailwind, fortunately, is an Instagram Approved Partner. Right inside our app, you can do hashtag research, schedule posts, organize your Instagram grid, and track metrics!
Auto Post allows you to upload photographs and videos instantly to your Instagram feed.
- With SmartSchedule and Hashtag Finder, you can make every post more engaging.
- To keep your description clean and clutter-free, automatically conceal your post’s hashtags in the first remark.
- With user and location tagging, you may make your postings more discoverable.
- With sophisticated analytics, you can see what’s working across all of your posts and profiles.
Using hashtags that are banned might limit your interaction. Using these hashtags repeatedly may result in your Instagram account being suspended. Always double-check your hashtags. Make it a practice to check for new hashtags before adding them to your mix to ensure they aren’t limited.
If you use a restricted hashtag, you can modify your post to delete it entirely. There’s no need to delete them all; only the ones that are limited!
The Hashtag Finder feature from Tailwind is fantastic for staying on top of your hashtags. You may also make sure you’re not using any hashtags that are restricted or prohibited. You may use hashtag search to get a nice combination of hashtags that are relevant to your image and save them to lists!
4. Contact Instagram Customer Service
Your feed posts aren’t visible to followers, and you’re not listed on the Explore page? It’s worth contacting Instagram Support to see if they can look into it. To accomplish this, Report a problem by going to your Profile > Menu > Settings (Cog icon) > Help > Report a Problem.
Don’t mention a shadowban; simply inform them that your followers are unable to view your postings, which is having a bad impact on your business.
5. Avoid Behaving Like a Bot
True, posting, commenting, and like too many times in a short period of time will result in an Instagram downtime. This is also true while quickly following and unfollowing accounts. This extraordinary engagement rate bot behavior is being looked upon by Instagram. It will put a hold on your account for anything from 24 hours to 7 days, preventing you from participating!
6. Refrain from being reported
One of the most common ways that information gets flagged is by reporting. Alternatively, the system may misinterpret your message as questionable material. Make sure your material adheres to the Community Guidelines. Also, make sure your material is relevant to the interests of your followers.
7. Take an Instagram Break
Taking a vacation from Instagram, according to most users who feel they’ve been shadowbanned, was the most effective remedy. For a new start, avoiding the app for a few days is well worth it!
Remember to continue with caution when you return.