How to avoid the Instagram ‘shadowban’ and gain exposure
When a photographer noticed his images weren’t appearing in certain hashtag searches, back in 2017, it was quickly suggested that many images weren’t showing up in certain searches or that different people would see different content in the same hashtag search. The term became known as the Instagram ‘shadowban’, with Instagram now using a special algorithm applied to hashtag search results. This means that for certain searches, different users may see different content results, despite looking for the same topic. The measure was criticised by those in the music industry, with artists and DJs complaining that their posts were not always reaching their intended audience as a result of this. The Instagram algorithm plays a large role in ensuring which content your fans may – or may not – see. And much of this information is material that many artists aren’t privy to.
Instagram made their stance on the issue clear, adding that producers or DJs who would find their content limited, or even worse, blocked, were those deemed to be posting in a spam-like nature. So how can your content reach fans, in the most organic way without Instagram posing restrictions on your promotion?
Respect the follow and unfollow divide
The limit of Instagram accounts any one individual can follow is 7,500 accounts. And once you hit that limit, you will be forced to unfollow someone in order to start following any new account. Of course, following fellow DJs and artists is a sure fire way of boosting your reach, working on collaborations together, and get your name out there. But also, following members of your fanbase can help create a warmth and personal bond between the artist and their following, so many DJs choose to follow a large proportion of their most loyal sector of fans.
Instagram also has fairly strict limits on the number of people you can follow within a certain time period, which can be an issue when first starting up your Instagram account. Newer accounts have lower limits on the number of accounts they can follow hourly or daily, but this is a case of patience taking precedence. As you grow your account, the network will allow your limits to increase, and though the limits are not specified as such, stats show that current limits sit around 30 follows per hour and a total of 800 follows per day. Again, some people may be allowed to exceed these limits, depending on various account factors including engagement on their own account content. But pushing these limits puts you at risk of exceeding allowances and having your account put on restriction for a minimum of 24 hours.
Limit your likes
Though liking a fan’s post as an artist is a great way for your activity to go viral (you’d be surprised how many fans will get a buzz from their favourite artist simply ‘liking’ their post, and then share that screenshot numerous times across their social platforms), you have to limit your ‘liking’ spree. One of the more clearly stated limits on Instagram is the number of likes you can perform. This action is capped at 350 likes per hour. And f you exceed that limit, your account will likely be flagged for spam activity and have its access restricted for a minimum of 24 hours, no matter how big your name is in the dance music world.
This works out at only around 6 likes per minute, and though most users won’t exceed this limit, if you are using a bot to carry out your Instagram activity, you will need to programme it to not exceed these limitations. Instagram does explicitly outline that you can’t @mention more than 5 people in an individual comment and you can’t post the same comment repeatedly. This means you can’t copy and paste the same generic comment onto multiple posts, so remember to mix it up!
Trim down your direct messages
In addition to likes and comments, Instagram has restrictions on direct messages. You can send a direct message to a single user or a group of up to 15 people. And though each direct message can contain up to 500 characters, when you reach that cap, no more characters will appear in the text. You will have to send that message, and continue typing the rest of your text in an additional message.
Cap the hashtags
With Instagram clearly regulating the number of hashtags on a post to 30, laws have now been enforced which mean that exceeding 30 hashtags in your post caption or a comment will mean that the caption or comment won’t post on upload. One potential loophole in this scheme is that by placing 30 hashtags in the caption and then another 30 in a comment, Instagram will only recognize the first 30 hashtags added to the post. The downside of such a crafty move is that if the hashtags in the caption were added first, the post won’t appear in any searches for the hashtags used in the comment on that post.
Tag no more than 20 users
Though a standard Instagram post will allow a DJ or producer to tag 20 people in a post, an Instagram story post is limited to only 10 people. As you can see, there are a lot of restrictions imposed on various Instagram features and activities. However, Instagram is still one of the key marketing tools for any aspiring producer in the music industry, and when utilized in the right way, it can lead to a huge growth of your brand.