started posting my own content daily more than a year ago. Was growing about 10 followers per day almost 4K now. I tried a bit of everything (three month Jarvee, some browserplugins) stopped jarvee beginning of the year as it lead to blocks. Than I used a bit a browser plugin EL*R liking home feed and hashtags and got again a warning to change password not even block. Probably used phone and browser at the same time. I stopped the plugin but since than hashtags are in some cases not used at all and overall reach is dropped to a third or quarter but I was still gaining followers. But the reach stayed low. Two months later I was stopping IG for five weeks and started a month ago again. But with each post I loose more followers…is this normal after a 5 weeks break and what can you do to change? I stopped posting daily and changed to every two days even five days but still loosing followers with each post…
My guess is that my browser/machineID used with that plugin is somehow noted and just using IG from that browser leads to the actual low reach? Can somebody relate to that?
And if that makes sense to you, do you know a solution to change the ID of my browser on my home PC so that I can go on using it but get rid of the “shadowban”?
Losing followers when posting seems to be a pretty common trend these days, although obviously losing followers is normal to begin with but not really at a high rate.
In general I think that is potentially a bigger symptom of those who did follow/unfollow to grow a following, and is especially more noticeable if you’re no longer following those people and take breaks in posting. When you suddenly resume, they don’t remember following you, check your page, see you aren’t following them and unfollow back.
Not to say you used that strategy so the above may not apply to you, but taking a break usually shifts your engagement in a seemingly random direction, in my experience.
Even if you never did follow for follow people will unfollow you when you’re posting. There are always people who follow you hoping you’ll follow back, and when they see your new post and story they know you’re on the platform right now, probably noticed that they followed you but didn’t follow back.
Nothing to worry about here. Continue to post good quality content and you’ll gain more followers than you lose.
If you can keep up with posting daily or every other day, I’d prefer that over once a week. More chances to be seen by potential followers.
How are your hashtags performing? Have you checked them lately? Some hashtags grow insanely fast and maybe they’re not a good fit for your account anymore.
Keep in mind that the algorithm favours Reels since they rolled out worldwide, it’s a bit harder for other posts to be seen through hashtags.
I do not think that is a shadowban, it’s prolly users unfollowing you when they see your posts and they see that you’ve unfollowed them in the meanwhile.
I think you should keep up with posting some good and unique content and followers should rise again.
Thanks Ian, I tried the described method for several weeks but that is ten month ago and I understood the negative effect of it very well so I had stopped it. So this is not the case here.
Thanks mate! f/uf is not the case and people hoping that I would follow them back were probably always there. But your thought on hashtags sounds good I will check on them… Have a nice day!
Tried several reels but they performed worth than my posts and at the same time the reach on my posts dropped… But that was in August. Did you observe a change in reels? Since when are the y globally used?
I’m not sure when they were available for almost everyone, I had them from the start since I’m in one of the countries they tested them in.
Reels can be weird, some get a lot of reach and likes and some just don’t, but then I check my hashtags and see my worst performing Reels in the top 9.
If Reels make sense for your content, keep experimenting, share them to your feed and your story, or share your old Reels to your story from time to time.
Maybe try to target hashtags that don’t have Reels in their top 9 yet, that could be your opportunity.
Thanks for your ideas! Posted a reel again but it tanked. But it was maybe to far away from my general content. But reposting other’s reels and my own reels in the story at least gave me almost double story views… Thanks for your ideas. Will try a bit the hashtags on my reels like you sugeested…
I saw in another thread that you are using ads. Ads are huge reason for drop in reach. I have now tested this 3 times and every time I started using ads my organic reach dropped massively. I would suggest to unlink your ig account from ads manager and dont post maybe for couple of weeks. See if it helps
Thanks for seeing this. It feels like the ads / creator account in general is bad for reach but actually the drop was before…but maybe it was a shadowban and than I connected the ads manager and it stayed this low… Also the ads not really working I spent 50 Euros and got around 100-130 followers from whom I dont know if they really engage…
So probably unlinking could be a solution but why not posting for several weeks? Cant I just go on posting and the reach would come back… Do you still use a business or creator account or also left that?
Of course you can post but instagram will not give you better reach straight away they will still try to convince you to pay more. If you are happy to have much lower reach and lower engagement until your account recovers you can post but another point is that if you don’t post for at least few days they will give push notification to some of your followers to say that you posted first time in a while and you’ll get better exposure.
You could keep posting to keep the algorithm satisfied with your consistency and then, when your reach recovered, go back and archive all posts that don’t meet your expectations.
Thanks again. From your expierence did you just disconnect the admanager or also switch back to a personal account instead of creator/business accountto get back to the “normal” reach?
When ads are placed. ER goes down and after the ads stop they still stay down – and then go back up. Some accounts have gone up after a month or so from what I have seen.
this is true, numbers go up – however, posting to much is worse than not posting at all How much is to many? depends on the niche – memes at 30 to 50 a day is a tad bit overboard – A bikini clad account of an influencer once ever few days is good. It depends on your niche –
I honetsly would not switch to personal just have patience and it will go back up. one thing I noticed recently Polls increase story views massively. try not to post feed posts for few days and do 1 or 2 stories a day one of which should be a poll. see what happens. Would love to hear. I got 10.5 views this way when generally I get 3-3.5k
Many thanks for this will give it a try. Inventing questions already My highest story view was lately when I reposted a reel (not mine) that got many likes (50k+) already.
My highest story view was lately when I reposted a reel (not mine) that got many likes (50k+) already.