On today’s episode, I am talking through what to do and what I do when I’m shadow banned. People love to use this term when engagement is low and today I’m sharing what to do to never think this is a problem again. I share my tips to getting your engagement and likes back on track.
Show Up Real is opening its doors March 11th, get on the waitlist for Show Up Real. Show Up Real is a 12-month content marketing group program designed to help you up-level or jumpstart your content as a coach or service provider.
Transcript:
Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to Latina’s Booked Out podcast. I hope you are doing so, so well. So I’m really excited to talk about Shadow Ban. Today or Shadow Banning, or being shadow banned. So we will get into that. But before we get into that, I just wanted to check in with you. I feel like it’s been quite a while since I have created an episode where I’m not purely, you [00:02:00] know, launching something or I am, I don’t know.
I just feel like. I needed to chill a little bit the last couple months, and I feel more chill. I feel more relaxed. There’s a lot happening in the business, which is not very relaxing, but I think overall, generally, I have had more rest in the last couple weeks and I am just feeling a little bit more chill and calm and just overall rested.
So before I get into today’s episode, I kind of just wanna give you some background on like what life has been for me and what business has been for me. The last couple weeks to a month. I started January with a launching show up in Lead Mastermind. We have an incredible group of people and I’m planning our [00:03:00] live in-person event that’s happening.
In Vegas. I am so excited for this live event. I got a suite in one of the most iconic hotels in Las Vegas, and I’m so excited to have my clients join my suite or doing the entire training there. And I, I’m just, you know what I’m mo most excited about? It’s really just the identity shift in being in a very, very wealthy feeling room.
The room itself is so freaking expensive, but it makes sense for what I would pay for. An event space, um, at the hotel. I figured for the amount of people that are going, I can just get a really nice suite and we can enjoy ourselves much, much more [00:04:00] comfortably. So, I’m so excited. This is really going to be, um, an identity shift from my mastermind clients, and I’m just so pumped about that.
I also recently visited Nashville for Business. I visited my coaches live in-person event, and I got to meet my, the folks who are in my new mastermind that I’m a part of, and it was so eye-opening. I am, it’s a very small group and it’s a group with. Many, everybody in the room are multiple six figure earners.
You have to be to be inside of this mastermind. And there are a million dollar earners and multi million dollar earners. And my coach is, I think she’s sold like 37 million in coaching. So being in this room was definitely. I, uh, [00:05:00] different. Um, I definitely had thoughts. I definitely felt this kind of level of nervousness because I am, you know, I respect everyone in that room.
I know a lot of people in that room know more about business than me, and I gotta be honest, the last. Kind of masterminds that I’ve been a part of for the last two years. Um, they, I, I’ve been one of the higher earners. So I think I’ve just got accustomed to that, which it’s not a huge deal. Um, like it’s not, you know, like my ego is up front and center.
But typically when you’re in a mastermind like you, you know, you have, you have thoughts and, and. I, I guess I established a little ego about being one of the top earners in my masterminds and being in a group where I am on the lower end of [00:06:00] the, you know, the, the, the money being made in the room. Not only am I so pumped about it because holy crap, I’m just gonna learn so much from all the people.
But it also is this like kind of nerve-wracking like, oh my God, I really can’t fail in this room, or else I’ll fail really, really big. Or at least it feels that way. So that was, that was a pretty incredible trip. Um, I got to have a lot of closeness with my two great, great, great friends who are also in the Mastermind with me.
And I think just having that time to. Have camaraderie and really coach each other. It, it was just so much of what I needed. It was also a break from my life, like my family, and as much as I missed them, it was so, so, so needed. So. That’s what I’ve been doing and now [00:07:00] we’re just like head into planning for this live event.
Inside Show Up Real, I am doing, we’re doing 29 days of Instagram reels and we’re having so much fun with it. If you don’t follow me on Instagram, make sure to follow me @catdelcarmen. I’m sharing it on my socials and on my IG stories, but we’re having a lot of fun inside Show Up Real just playing around with Instagram reels in short form content and letting it not be just too hard.
We’re really. Getting creative and figuring new ways to do that. So that has been fun. There’s so much going on. Show Up Real, my group program for folks who want to build an profitable online community through content, the doors are opening to this program in March, [00:08:00] March 11th. So mark your calendars.
You could use the link below to get on the waitlist so you have all of the up-to-date information. But if you wanna be a part of this program, if you really wanna start building community online and you wanna do it through not being in your head about. Content join this program. It’s so good. We, it’s really a safe space to just play around with content, create strategies that work for you, and learn more about how to utilize content to make more money in your business and also build an audience.
So make sure you sign up below in the show notes if you want to learn more about that program. Alright, let’s talk about. What to do when you feel like you are shadowbanned. Alright, so let’s talk about what shadowbanned is or what being [00:09:00] shadowbanned even means. So I just Googled this on, um. On Google, and here’s what it shows as shadow band.
So it’s basically being blocked from social media, from a social media site or online forum without your knowledge. Typically by making your posts or comments no longer visible to other users in some way, shape, or form. So what I’ve heard a lot of online is people seeing their shadow banned when their engagement’s low.
People seeing their shadow banned when they don’t get many likes, when they’re not seeing comments, when their posts aren’t getting visibility. Um, it could just be combination of all those things and. I’ve noticed that a lot of people use that as [00:10:00] a time to take a break on social media, or they typically will share with everyone and kind of just create a conversation about how they are shadow banned and how they’re trying to solve it or what their frustration of why it happens and.
That’s why I wanted to do this episode. I wanted to share my thoughts on what I believe happens when I’m shadow banned and what I do about it and how I think about it and why it’s just not a big deal for me. Like I. Just don’t think about it that deeply. I don’t like to, I don’t think it’s helpful and I feel like the way that I think about it could be helpful for so many people because I just choose to not take it that seriously.
And I do have a strategy, which I’m gonna be sharing with you on today’s episode on what I do, but I just never make [00:11:00] it this like big thing in my business. Every time I feel like my content or my count is being shadow banned, I just do these following steps and it almost always works. So. That’s what I’m gonna be sharing with you today.
I’m gonna share four steps, what I do to really get out of being shadow banned, or I don’t know if I’m really getting out of it. It’s really just like changing my perception, making some changes to my content, and shaking some shit up. That’s basically what it is. So let me go through these steps and if you are a person who feels like you’re always getting shadow banned, I really encourage you to do this work and to really consider it this way.
Okay? Alright. So. Here’s the thing. The first, first thing when my like, so what typically happens is people’s likes [00:12:00] engagement, um, story views, they all get lower, like out of nowhere. It feels like out of nowhere. Now what I’ve noticed that is that generally anytime there’s an update to Instagram, not every time, but.
Mm. Pretty often if there’s some type of update to Instagram that’s already a trigger that it might slow down engagement, and I kind of just expect that I’m not, I don’t think of it as this like, big deal if my, if I notice that my story views are much, much lower than they were the day before or. Be lower than last week.
Then I notice it, but I’m never in this like, oh my God, something’s wrong. I need, this is an emergency. I don’t like to go all the way there because sometimes it could just be a couple quick fixes and. And that’s, that’s it. [00:13:00] So the first thing I do, so here’s what I do when I believe that I’m being shadowbanned, number one is I check my thinking.
I check my own thinking, meaning I acknowledge the thoughts I’m having about. Me having low engagement or nobody seeing a post right, or nobody seeing my stories, I check my thinking because sometimes when these things happen, our brain will just go to like, I. Emergency. Nobody’s looking at my stuff. This is deeply gonna affect my business and la la, la, which I’m not saying it’s not, but I don’t, it’s just not helpful to tell yourself this big, big story that everything’s going to crumble because your content is being shadow.
It’s never, ever, [00:14:00] ever helped me. So every time I feel like my engagement has drastically gone down or something has happened, the first thing I do is calm my ass down. I don’t tell myself that like, oh my God, nobody’s gonna see my stuff. What am I going to do? I have to switch to email, or I have to utilize a new platform.
Like I don’t do that. Instead, I take a little tally of what my thoughts are and what I’m telling myself about the engagement. And then I immediately go to telling myself a different story. And because this happens pretty often from time to time, the things I tell myself are pretty regular. Like, I don’t need to do all this thought work to do that, but you might need to sit down and really brain dump all of the thoughts you’re having when something like this happens.
So if [00:15:00] that’s you, I want you to take the time to just brain dump. Like, what is my brain telling me? It might be telling me things like, no one’s going to see my posts. It’s because I am, you know, um, sharing things about Palestine or politics or some type of war or like something, right? Regardless, I want you to acknowledge all of that thinking.
Instead of thinking that you are being shadow ban, I just want you to consider that maybe you just have to shake shit up in your, your marketing. Maybe you’ve been posting the same type of thing over and over and over again, and the algorithm’s a little bored with it. Maybe, maybe you tell yourself, oh, this happens from time to time at school.
It’ll just go away soon. I read somewhere that shadow bands typically last approximately 14 days, and uh, [00:16:00] I don’t know if that’s true, but regardless, every time I see this kind of trigger come up for me or like I notice something in my, my engagement, I immediately, and this is because I’ve done this so many times, but I immediately go to.
Oh, this, this happens to people. Like I’ll just keep moving forward. Like, oh, it’s just going through that thing again. Alright, I just gotta see this through and I just don’t make it this huge deal. And I really encourage you to do that too. Like, I don’t want you to make these things, shake your business and make you take drastic efforts when the reality is it happens to everybody, it’s normal and you’ll, you will get through it.
Okay, so the first thing I want you to do is check your thinking, brain, dump your thoughts, and be very intentional about what you tell yourself. Don’t tell yourself a big, big, big ass story on how Instagram hates [00:17:00] you, and your posts are never being seen, and you’re never gonna build a business like this, and you’ll never be able to use this consistently because it.
Because Instagram doesn’t like you, like stop saying that shit. That shit is not helpful for you at all. At all. At all. At all. That is number one. Check your thinking. Have that awareness. Write down what you’re telling yourself, or at least just be aware of it and tell yourself a different story. Okay? Tell yourself a story that happens to everyone.
Tell yourself a story that it’s just going to pass. Tell yourself a story that it’s the perfect time because you need to shake up your marketing anyway. Okay. So number one, check your thinking. Number two, pull your socials data. And what I mean by this is like wherever you think you’re being shadow banned, I really want you to look at the data.
Look at the data. You could look at your insights. You could just [00:18:00] literally look at your actually ins, your Instagram grid or your TikTok grid, or your LinkedIn posts or whatever. Look at it. Look for patterns. Look for what’s not working. Look for when it started. What might the algorithm not like? What’s happening?
Like take act like actually look at your marketing. From this lens of curiosity where you’re just collecting data and you’re trying to figure out like, Hmm, what was it that the algorithm might have not liked or like maybe the a certain type of post never gets likes or barely gets engagement. If you’re seeing that and then you’re posting them over and over and over again, I would question that.
I would have thoughts about that. I would play [00:19:00] around with that. Now we’re gonna talk about caveats at the step four, but I really, really, really want you to take a moment after you check your thoughts. Then I want you to check your socials. I want you to look for patterns. I want you to solve for the problem instead of getting angry at the problem.
I want you to solve for it. I want you to get curious about it. I want you to ask yourself, huh? I wonder why this reel has only gotten two likes and I usually have a hundred, right? Like, what is happening? I want you to solve for that. I want you to come up with like five reasons why this might have happened, okay?
So that’s number two. I want you to collect the data. I want you to pull the social data and really ask yourself these questions and answer them. And then once you’ve really got an idea of like, okay, these are some [00:20:00] reasons that this could have happened. Okay, this sort of makes sense. I see where we’re getting at here from that place.
That’s when I typically will decide to like disrupt. The algorithm with. Disrupting my marketing and like change, doing something a little funky to switch up the way I’ve been marketing. So here’s what I mean by that. When I say disrupt the algorithm, what I mean is find new ways to say the things that you wanna say in your marketing, right?
So if you’re noticing that one specific post is always, always, always. Not having engagement. I want you to ask yourself one, why am I, why am I continuing this? Is like, how can I share this exact type of knowledge, but in a different way? Maybe I’ll try an Instagram [00:21:00] reel. Maybe I’ll try a video. Maybe I’ll do some lives I really like when this is Me.
What I like to do is I. I immediately do something that the algorithm is not used to me doing. So if I am typically posting a whole bunch of carousels, maybe I mix in an Instagram reel once in a while, and I go on stories like if that’s me and my. Algorithm, I mean, and my, and my account just suddenly has super low engagement.
I’ll do something to shake it up. Like I’ll disrupt the algorithm by doing two lives in one week or two lives in one day, or I will do a different type of real, right? So maybe usually I do like just a little audio and like a little b roll. Um, some like background video. Maybe I’ll do, instead of that, I’ll actually like, have a video recording myself and actually like talking in front of the camera and doing an [00:22:00] Instagram reel that way.
Because it’s not typical for me, right. So I might try that. One thing I’ve done in the past is, um, I’ll put a photo. So like, typically I, I use a lot of Canva posts for all of my launches, but when I feel like it, things are getting shadow banned and I will just put a photo from my iPhone, like I will just pick a good photo of me or my kids or my family or like whatever I want, and I’ll just.
Pick a photo. I will barely edit it. I might put a filter ’cause I’m a filter girl. But I will put it on and I will just put a caption with it just to shake shit up. Like I really want you to get a gauge on like, what does your social media look like and when you’re trying to kind of get out of this like shadow band state.
I want you to be like a really try new things. This is the time to like play around, disrupt the algorithm. Put like a very basic post with a caption [00:23:00] or try an Instagram reel if you typically don’t do them or stop using Canva. I feel like I see this all the time, like one thing I’ve noticed a hundred percent is that Instagram doesn’t love Canva like almost.
Like I’ve found almost a hundred percent of the time, Instagram is not a fan of Canva. And if everything you post is like super Canva-fied, then I would disrupt that. I would do something that has no Canva. I. At all. Not, not your logo, not a thing. Like just put a freaking picture and play with it, right? Um, with a caption maybe.
Um, there’s so many ways you can do this, so I’m not gonna tell you exactly what to do, but what I really want is for you to disrupt the algorithm by posting something out of your regular routine. Some post something or take some type of action on social. That is not normal for the way [00:24:00] you use the app.
That is always so helpful. I did this last, um, I think I did it. I’m trying to remember when I did this, but, um, I do this often during launches. Like I’ll just put a photo of especially face photos or like really nice photos of myself. Those always do well. So that’s always something that like I could disrupt the algorithm with.
Um, photos of me and my kids are always likable. So like I really also think like what is the algorithm typically like? Like what is something I post that almost always gets some engagement? And I might try that out. And I also wanna mention that like these things aren’t supposed to work immediately.
It’s not like I post something and then ta-da, it’s done. No, I’m like playing around. I’m like toying with new ideas. I’m doing them. Trying new things back to back. So I’m willing to just mess up the aesthetic of my Instagram so that I mess with the [00:25:00] algorithm and it typically will work, especially if I’m patient and I do it for a couple days and I don’t expect the world quickly.
I typically will see some type of results, and if I don’t see the results I want, I just accept like, okay, this is gonna be a phase. Let me go through it. Now, if you are a person that says like, oh, I never get good engagement, and I never. Um, I feel like I’m always shadow ban. You have to uncover that. You have to keep playing.
You have to look at what’s working and what’s not. Like actually look back at your. Posts, right. And actually identify like what does, what is working, what gets engagement, what do people like talking about, what does the algorithm like being a post? All of those things. And then when you find one, like if you post something and it gets great engagement, I really encourage you to try it again [00:26:00] and do it in a D, like try the same type of thing in a different way.
’cause that will help you learn about what’s working in marketing and what isn’t. Okay, so number three is disrupt the algorithm by posting things that are very different than what you typically post. And then number four is I want you to consider the caveats. Now, there are just times in my business where I will expect very, very low engagement for me and for almost everyone.
It’s launching when you’re launching and you’re posting a lot in a short period of time. I’m almost always getting very bad engagement during launches. I know many of my colleagues get bad engagement during launches. It’s because we’re posting a ton and it’s very, very like businessy posts and I just don’t think out, um, Instagram or most, most algorithms like it.[00:27:00]
But that’s okay. Like now it’s just an expectation and I’m not really tripping. I’m going to post anyway. I’m going to give the value anyway, and I could be in my head about it, or I could keep going with the plan, which makes more sense for my business. And if I wanna pivot, if I wanna do different things to solve for that, I can, but.
Overall, your con, like your engagement is gonna lower during launches if you’re posting a ton. Okay. Also, certain types of content is a caveat, so like just consider caveats, and when I say caveats, I mean consider that like there are just some things that the algorithm just. A hundred percent doesn’t like, right.
I mentioned this earlier, but like a Instagram doesn’t love Canva. Like those two don’t mix greatly. There are some Canva things that it’ll do well, but like pages that use a hundred percent Canva typically have lower engagement period. Like you could look, go to a page that has like very aesthetic [00:28:00] posts and you’ll see the, the algorithm doesn’t like pretty, um, that’s what I’ve learned for sure.
So just consider if you want, and I’m not saying you can’t make money with an aesthetic, you know, feed you absolutely can, but just don’t expect the engagement. You know, like, don’t set this expectation of like very popular, um, content when you aren’t taking action in a way that the software wants you to.
Or the app wants you to, right? Like you just wanna have those expectations and consider those caveats when you’re launching, you’re not gonna get a lot of engagement. Don’t entertain, oh, I’ve been shadow banned. No, don’t entertain that. Instead do the do take steps one, two, and three. Right? Um, another caveat is if you post.
Only Canva and like graphics and photos within Canva, but everything’s coming outta Canva. [00:29:00] Just consider that. You might have to shake that up and if you’re not willing to then co consider that, that that might affect your engagement long term. And that’s okay. That’s up to you as long as you’re making money in your business.
And if you’re not, then I recommend you play around with your marketing. And then lastly is like aesthetic feeds, right? So. Stuff that’s very branded, stuff that’s very artsy and very, um, I’ve seen a lot of like collage-y type things that don’t do well, even if they’re very cool and very artistic and just very cool across the board.
I’ve seen them not do well just because the, at least for for Instagram, Instagram might not like it. You just wanna consider that you wanna be able to look at these situations with an objective eye and not take it so personally if your engagement changes. So number one, when [00:30:00] you, what I do when I am shadow banned is one my thinking and I really tell my a myself a different story about being shadow banned.
I pull all the data I have, I look at my marketing, I look at my posts, I look at what’s working, what’s not, what causes engagement, what doesn’t, and then I double down on the things that I know works. And I don’t expect immediate result. I just do it because I’m trying to play around and figure out what’s happening, right?
So number two, pull that social data. Understand what, um, maybe, you know. The, the app wants what it favors in terms of engagement and get to know that for your feed. And then number three is disrupt the algorithm by posting things that are not typical to you. So this is the perfect time to try to go live, right?
Go on Instagram Live, maybe create like a broadcast channel, [00:31:00] maybe, um, just really messing around and trying new things. Things if you haven’t tried reels, you could try reels. If you only do reels, do a photo with a caption, right? Like there’s so many ways you can do this, but really disrupting the algorithm is gonna be so helpful when you’re going through, you know, like super low engagement.
And then number four is consider the caveats when you’re launching. You’re probably gonna have lower engagement. If all of your content is Canva, you’re probably gonna have lower engagement. If you have a super aesthetic feed, you’re probably going to have lower engagement. Just accept those truths so you don’t have to feel like you’re banging your head on the wall trying to figure this out.
If things aren’t working, you change it, you edit it, you evaluate it, and you move. Okay. I hope this was helpful for you. I hope you needed to hear this. Look, if you want to be confident with your content, if you wanna feel like shadow [00:32:00] banning is never going to affect you. Join Show Up Real. Show Up Real is my community building program for people who wanna use content to build a profitable community online and through content.
Doors are opening March 11th and we’re, I’m so excited because we’re launching with a very special challenge that I’m going to soon invite you. All to join. So if you want to be the first to have all the details, join the waitlist for Show Up Real and get all the dates.
I hope this was helpful. I will see you next week. I send you a hug. Bye.
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