Shadow Banned? Reverse the Damage in 3 Easy Steps

If it feels like your audience has disappeared overnight, you may have been shadow banned. The hard truth about this is that your account won’t magically bounce back—it’s not a simple switch of a button! Reviving your profile is not impossible, though. Despite the rumors, there are 3 practical steps that ANY brand can take to regain visibility, rebuild trust, and reestablish momentum online.

For years, shadow banning has been shrouded in mystery. Anyone paying attention would immediately notice the signs: zero reach, low engagement, and an eerily quiet inbox. But in 2018, Instagram publicly denied its existence. (Confusing, right?) Fast-forward to today, and we’ve since received more clarity as to how Instagram categorizes our posts and why it takes action against certain content. But the question still remains, “What do I do if my account has been shadow banned?”

Community management is often the last thing that comes to mind, mainly because it’s tedious, time-consuming work that doesn’t offer instant gratification. In the wake of a shadow ban, however, putting in the work isn’t optional. It’s ESSENTIAL. Crawling your way out of digital limbo involves consistently liking, commenting, resharing, etc. with your community, sending Instagram’s algorithm the message that your brand is still active and relevant.

According to HubSpot’s Principal Marketing Manager of Community, Erica Finley, “You’ll get a bird’s-eye view of what’s working and what’s not, what people love, and what they’d like to change, and you can use that insight to improve your product or service.” MeyCo Marketing takes this seriously enough to have a team member whose primary responsibility is to manage our community engagement strategies. By having someone whose pulse is always on the behaviors and preferences of our audiences, we’re better equipped to get out (and stay out!) of a shadow ban.

Once your community management is back on track, it’s time to audit your hashtag strategy. Start by cross-checking against Instagram’s list of banned hashtags. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to accidentally use one, especially in medical aesthetics. If any of your go-to’s overlap with those that Instagram red-flags, this could be the reason why your content is kept buried by the algorithm, tanking reach and engagement.

Think your hashtag strategy is airtight? Think again. Even if you’re carefully sidestepping banned or sensitive verbiage, relying on the same set of “safe” hashtags for every… single… post can still hurt your account. Instagram’s algorithm doesn’t just look at what you post, but also how you post.

Repeating the same hashtags over and over can be interpreted as “spammy” or bot-like behavior, which is exactly the kind of activity that will get your content quietly suppressed (A.K.A. shadow banned). So if playing it safe might actually be playing it wrong, then tailoring your hashtags to fit each individual post is a smart move—and another way to stay in the algorithm’s good graces.

Organic growth can seem hard to come by these days, we know. Social media often feels like a game of pay-to-play (and money, unfortunately, doesn’t grow on trees). With new competitors popping up constantly and platforms rolling out endless updates, keeping up can be a full-time job in itself.

…And if you’re trying to claw your way out of a shadow ban? Generating organic growth can feel like scaling Mount Everest—without a map, guide, or any idea what crampons are. That’s why many medical aesthetic practices and device manufacturers are leveraging boosted posts. It’s a strategic way to increase visibility on your Instagram account, helping to reach target audiences exponentially faster.