The Daily Carnage

If your Instagram account has taken a sudden hit in engagement and reach, you might be shadowbanned—or (unofficially) penalized by the app’s algorithms, leading to limited visibility. Here’s how to address it:

1. Confirm whether or not you’ve been shadowbanned.
   • Create a post using a unique hashtag that you haven’t used before.
   • Log out of your profile and switch to a different account.
   • After several hours have passed, search for the unique hashtag in the app.
     If your post doesn’t appear in the search results, it might mean that your profile is shadowbanned.
2. Revoke permissions for any unapproved third-party apps.
   • Click the hamburger menu in the top right corner of your Instagram account.
   • Go to Settings > Security > Apps and Websites.
   • Revoke access to all third-party apps.
3. Delete content that violates Instagram community guidelines.
   • Avoid spammy behavior like rapidly responding and generating fake engagement with bots.
   • When applicable, add a content warning to enable users to skip your content if they choose to.
4. Delete banned hashtags.
   • Confirm if a hashtag is banned by typing it in the search bar.
   • Don’t use too many hashtags per post or broken hashtags.
5. Contact Instagram support.
   • Go to Settings > Help.
   • Report the issue and request assistance in removing the shadow ban.

Check out EmbedSocial’s complete guide to the Instagram shadowban.

Employee-generated content (EGC) is content created or shared by your brand’s best advocates: your employees.

Here’s why you should include EGC in your content strategy:

• On average, employees have 10x more followers than a brand’s account.
• Employee-shared content gets 8x more engagement than content shared through branded channels.
• Employee posts get re-shared up to 24x more than a branded post.
• 92% of consumers trust people they know for referrals above any other source.
• 93% of consumers find UGC to be helpful when making a purchasing decision.
• The use of UGC results in 29% higher web conversions than campaigns without it.
• Customer reviews are trusted up to 12x more than marketing content.
• Consumers find UGC 9x more impactful than influencer content.
• 86% of Millennials trust that UGC accurately reflects a product’s or brand’s quality.
• Millennials think UGC is 35% more memorable than other types of content.
• And 84% of millennials stated UGC had an influence on their decision to purchase.
• 90% of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding which brands to support.
• 70% of consumers place peer recommendations above professional copy.

Take a closer look at the pros and cons of EGC, best practices, and examples at Post Beyond.