Unexpected break!

So I took an unplanned week away from Instagram and then just social media in general, but it wasn't by choice!

One day I noticed a couple of my Insta posts weren't getting much love with the interaction, likes, comments etc and while I don't get hundreds of likes for a post, I do get more than a few over a whole day.

After working out that my posts were appearing and even the hashtags appeared with their search, I sent Instagram a message which obviously they didn't reply too.

A day later, the problem is still there so I started looking online for an answer and it didn't take me long to find out what it probably was.

Ladies & gentleman, boys & girls, I present to you, 'Shadow Banning'. It's a great title isn't it?
Now for those you who haven't heard of it, Shadow Banning, Shadow Banned, or one of the other many different titles is best described as when Instagram still let's you post but blocks you from new followers. 

The new algorithms that started in 2016 within Instagram saw peoples interaction sliced in half! Instagram acknowledged there was a 'hashtag glitch' or was it to cover up the fact they are flushing out the constant spammers?
If you are banned, you can still post but only your followers can see you're posting meaning any hashtag you may have used is actually useless!

If the interaction is down, you could ask a few people who don't follow you to see if they can see your posts within a hashtag you've used, if they can't, its a good sign you're banned!

So how do you fix it?  There is no clear way, people have tried different things and some people have been banned for a few days, others a few weeks.
I was banned for a week and tried different things, switching from a business account to a personal account, unlinking Facebook, taking out hashtags from recent posts, not posting for a day or two and constant 'Report a problem' within the Instagram app.
Whichever of those things that worked, if you do get banned, just try them all!

What has this taught us today then class? Well, if you have a problem, look to find out as much as possible about it to help solve it, the people's experiences you will read about, they were all like you once upon a time.

Share your experience with others, you will probably help someone somewhere!

Bonjour & good day!