- Jun 29, 2016
- 153
- 58
Right away, I would like to warn you not to take the information provided here as gospel truth. The following is simply a result of my own observations stemming from experience or promoting services over Instagram in regional communities and with a limited budget.
This list of recommendations is not exhaustive. Should this post find enough engagement with the readers I will return with part 2 containing advice for promoting via not only Facebook and Instagram, but via other social media sites as well. Indeed, every social media site has its own peculiarities, and it would be an interesting challenge to study them.
Some forum users might find the information presented here fragmented and incomplete, and the reason for that is that I tried to avoid repeating the advice that had already been provided by others.
This post does not contain information on Instagram audience credibility, account age, location, account verification, and automation, since the advice on these matters is freely available. Look it up, make some inquiries and I assure you that you will find it very useful, as I once did.
The thing I'd like to star with is, of course, shadowban. It is worth starting with it simply because it will help you to not get shadowbanned in the first few hours from starting an account. These days many Instagram users complain that their audience simply do not see the photos and videos they post, as they do not show up in the feed. This is a direct result of repeated violations of the Instagram rules, which leads to the publications getting hidden from users. Generally, accounts get shadowbanned for repeated offences. This can definitely stifle the organic growth of the account — it will not cost you money, but it will cost you a lot of time.
Having created an account, make sure to confirm your email and phone number. Add your socials to the bio. This will boost your trust score—make the Instagram's internal system view you as more human-like. Also, do not transition to a business account from a personal account right away. Why? Simple—posts by personal accounts have a much wider reach.
An influencer can get shadowbanned after repeated offences, but new accounts are much more vulnerable—a new account can become unviable after only 2–3 violations. This has to do with the trust score—the system trusts old accounts more than new ones.
Here are common mistakes you want to avoid as you're starting out:
3. Using a huge number of off-target hashtags.
This one comes up when people use irrelevant hashtags for their posts. Make it a rule to only provide information that is actually mentioned in the photos and videos when making captions and selecting hashtags. I've seen some successful accounts duplicate the information from their videos in the captions and hashtags—all to boost the relevancy score. Content relevancy—up to the metadata—is a primary requirement of modern social media platforms. These days I avoid using viral hashtags—they are too competitive. Yet, while I cannot compete with the big fish using my accounts, I can absolutely reach the top with hashtags that have medium- to low-intensity competition. Only having accumulated 10k followers can I use highly-competitive tags. When it comes to the quantity of hashtags, people have different approaches. Personally, I do not use all 30 hashtags when posting, I think it is too much. In my opinion, 15–18 hashtags are more than enough for a post to take off. Overuse of off-target hashtags might have the opposite of the desired effect. This is to say, more is not always better.
Having created the account, make sure to properly fill in the name and bio, and upload a profile picture. Then, follow 1–5 influencers who are relevant for your niche. I'll provide tips on how to properly set up an account from the SEO standpoint in my next post, should you think it interesting. I might be the only one talking about the Instagram SEO—others might think it folly. But, I think you'd agree that it's cool when your account shows up in the search results and starts organically attracting traffic.
If you have multiple accounts, do not copy the captions, hashtags, and profile bio from one account to another—try to keep them unique. If you keep pushing the same posts on 2–3 accounts, after about 5–10 posts they will stop showing in the users' recommendations.
Generally speaking, shadowbanning comes as a result of regular violations of Instagram's rules. The permissible number of such violations differs depending on the account's trust score. This means it might take 5–10 repeated violations for a famous influencer who has been posting for 3–4 years to get shadowbanned, but for a new account, 2–3 is enough.
The purpose of this article was simply to express my personal opinion on what not to do when promoting a new account. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them. If you don't like this information, make sure to write a response and let me know — criticism is a drive for improvement!
This list of recommendations is not exhaustive. Should this post find enough engagement with the readers I will return with part 2 containing advice for promoting via not only Facebook and Instagram, but via other social media sites as well. Indeed, every social media site has its own peculiarities, and it would be an interesting challenge to study them.
Some forum users might find the information presented here fragmented and incomplete, and the reason for that is that I tried to avoid repeating the advice that had already been provided by others.
This post does not contain information on Instagram audience credibility, account age, location, account verification, and automation, since the advice on these matters is freely available. Look it up, make some inquiries and I assure you that you will find it very useful, as I once did.
The thing I'd like to star with is, of course, shadowban. It is worth starting with it simply because it will help you to not get shadowbanned in the first few hours from starting an account. These days many Instagram users complain that their audience simply do not see the photos and videos they post, as they do not show up in the feed. This is a direct result of repeated violations of the Instagram rules, which leads to the publications getting hidden from users. Generally, accounts get shadowbanned for repeated offences. This can definitely stifle the organic growth of the account — it will not cost you money, but it will cost you a lot of time.
Having created an account, make sure to confirm your email and phone number. Add your socials to the bio. This will boost your trust score—make the Instagram's internal system view you as more human-like. Also, do not transition to a business account from a personal account right away. Why? Simple—posts by personal accounts have a much wider reach.
An influencer can get shadowbanned after repeated offences, but new accounts are much more vulnerable—a new account can become unviable after only 2–3 violations. This has to do with the trust score—the system trusts old accounts more than new ones.
Here are common mistakes you want to avoid as you're starting out:
- Using the same hashtags under all of your posts.
- Using the same captions under your photos and videos.
3. Using a huge number of off-target hashtags.
This one comes up when people use irrelevant hashtags for their posts. Make it a rule to only provide information that is actually mentioned in the photos and videos when making captions and selecting hashtags. I've seen some successful accounts duplicate the information from their videos in the captions and hashtags—all to boost the relevancy score. Content relevancy—up to the metadata—is a primary requirement of modern social media platforms. These days I avoid using viral hashtags—they are too competitive. Yet, while I cannot compete with the big fish using my accounts, I can absolutely reach the top with hashtags that have medium- to low-intensity competition. Only having accumulated 10k followers can I use highly-competitive tags. When it comes to the quantity of hashtags, people have different approaches. Personally, I do not use all 30 hashtags when posting, I think it is too much. In my opinion, 15–18 hashtags are more than enough for a post to take off. Overuse of off-target hashtags might have the opposite of the desired effect. This is to say, more is not always better.
4 .Copyright infringement—1–2 warnings and your account will be banned. Not even shadowbanned, simply blocked forever.
5. Overtagging other accounts. If you tag over 10 accounts in one post, the algorithms will suspect you of spamming. Generally, after three warnings, such an account gets shadowbanned or banned.
6. Frequent spam reports. If you keep sending the same message to all new followers, you might receive a spam warning. Instagram has little tolerance for spam. Two warnings will get you shadowbanned or outright banned.
7. Mass liking and mass following immediately after creating an account.
Avoid this method of self-promotion immediately after creating an account. The account will very likely (80%) get restricted within a day.Having created the account, make sure to properly fill in the name and bio, and upload a profile picture. Then, follow 1–5 influencers who are relevant for your niche. I'll provide tips on how to properly set up an account from the SEO standpoint in my next post, should you think it interesting. I might be the only one talking about the Instagram SEO—others might think it folly. But, I think you'd agree that it's cool when your account shows up in the search results and starts organically attracting traffic.
8. Using hashtags and captions from other accounts.
If you have multiple accounts, do not copy the captions, hashtags, and profile bio from one account to another—try to keep them unique. If you keep pushing the same posts on 2–3 accounts, after about 5–10 posts they will stop showing in the users' recommendations.
9. Using hashtags that Instagram thinks promote violence and bigotry. Refrain from any such hashtags and hashtags you are unsure about.
Generally speaking, shadowbanning comes as a result of regular violations of Instagram's rules. The permissible number of such violations differs depending on the account's trust score. This means it might take 5–10 repeated violations for a famous influencer who has been posting for 3–4 years to get shadowbanned, but for a new account, 2–3 is enough.
The purpose of this article was simply to express my personal opinion on what not to do when promoting a new account. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them. If you don't like this information, make sure to write a response and let me know — criticism is a drive for improvement!
