The Instagram algorithm is a pandora box. No one really knows how it works. One day your posts will be filled with likes and the other day, posts are void of likes.

Do you find yourself in a similar circumstance, where you’ve noticed a dramatic drop in likes?

Perhaps it’s because your posts aren’t being seen by others, including your followers.

This necessitates immediate remedy, but first, let’s explore why your posts aren’t receiving the likes they deserve.

1. Your Instagram Account Might Have Been Shadowbanned

Instagram is a popular social media application that has more than a billion active users. Among these users are some are on the application to enjoy their time while some for shopping and some to build exposure for their brands.

And there are also several groups whose main target is to spam people. These profiles usually have little content but thousands of followers, advertise dubious services and mislead new users. Instagram employs a shadowban tactic to keep these kinds of accounts off the platform.

The term “shadowban” refers to the strategy of placing a ban on a user in such a way that even the profile owner is unaware of the ban. They will follow, like, and comment on other people’s accounts, but their posts and stories will be hidden from their followers.

One of the signs of the shadowban is receiving fewer likes. You can also check whether your profile is shadowbanned using online tools. It is unclear how the algorithm decides who to shadowban, but one of the signs is aggressive behavior.

Aggressive behavior refers to the aggressive activity of users where they follow or unfollow more than 60 profiles or like and comment on more than 60 posts per hour on the same day. If such activity is detected, you will be declared spam, and a shadowban will be imposed.

2. Using Excessive Amounts of Hashtags on Instagram Posts

The action of shadowban is also related to the unnecessary addition of hashtags. If you notice some posts, you will see a number of hashtags in the captions. Hashtags are crucial for the posts to reach a broader audience.

The more hashtags are added, the better the post will reach the right audience. But there is a limit when it comes to adding hashtags. In Instagram, adding more than 30 hashtags will be considered spammy.

3. Adding Irrelevant Hashtags Below Posts

Maybe you are not someone who adds too many hashtags to your posts, but still, your posts are lacking in the number of likes. Then maybe you are not adding the right hashtags or adding blocked hashtags.

Thanks to spam accounts that use irrelevant tags to attract likes, Instagram has declared several hashtags to be blocked. So, if you even accidentally use those blocked tags on your posts, you are just inviting the chances of being shadowbanned.

To avoid such a scenario, check on the search bar whether the hashtag is showing up. If it doesn’t, don’t use it. Also, when entering hashtags in the caption, a dropdown list appears, if the tag doesn’t appear then avoid using that particular tag.

4. Having Less Engagement With Followers.

In Instagram, one of the best ways to build an audience is to engage with them. If followers comment on your posts, reply to them. If they send messages, reply to them quickly and politely. 

Doing so improves your profile reputation and your profile also will be able to garner the attention of the picky Instagram algorithm. Using the anonymous Instagram story viewer to research some of the top Instagrammers can be a good way to generate ideas to build a good reputation on Instagram.

But some accounts do not focus on interacting and rather invest their time in posting content only. Such ignorant activity is a great blunder in the journey of Instagram blogging

Even if you have a million followers and you are not interacting with them, then there is no way you will be receiving likes. And since there is no engagement, your posts will also not appear on your follower’s field, and thus, you will not receive likes. 

To increase your engagement, you can invest in a free Instagram likes trial that increases the number of likes while increasing your profile engagement.

5. Not Posting Content Consistently

Instagram’s algorithms prioritize consistency. If you submit content consistently every day simultaneously, the algorithm will consider you a ‘genuine’ account and recommend you to others.

By consistently, we mean posting at least one content per day 6-7x a week. If you think posting 7x a week is too much, you can also post a 3-5x week; the goal is to show that you are active on Instagram. 

If you used to post regularly but suddenly started to stop your consistency. You will also start to witness the drop in your like and follower rate.

6. You Are Not Posting Content at the Right Time

You are posting quality content regularly and consistently and still not receiving likes, and then maybe you should pay attention to the time at which you are posting the content. 

Though millions of users use Instagram daily, not all use it simultaneously. Some in the morning, some at night, and some in between the day. Based on several tests, the Instagram algorithm has recognized that most users are on Instagram.

So, the content posted at that particular time will appear more appealing to the algorithm so that that post will get recommended in others’ feeds. Posting good content at the wrong time is a wasted effort.

7. You Are Not Uploading Instagram Stories

Your followers follow plenty of other accounts too, so there are chances that your account may not appear at the top of their feed. 

And since there are chances that not every person has the patience to scroll till the end of the feed, your post may not even be seen by them and will start appearing less on their feed. Which means you will be losing likes.

To avoid such scenarios you should use stories. 

In some profiles, whenever a new post is uploaded, the owners will announce a ‘new post’ on their stories. Doing so conveys to the followers that a new post is added and will prompt them to view the post.

Stories are an effective weapon in boosting the likes rate. Though some may find scrolling feed tedious, most will never miss any story update. If you are not utilizing such an effective method, you will tend to suffer from fewer likes.

8. Maybe Your Posts Are Not Qualified Enough

Till now, we have seen the common mistakes committed by the majority of Instagram users. Almost every step mentioned above is related to Instagram’s complex algorithms. 

As important as the algorithm is, satisfying its conditions does not mean you will start to receive more likes. In fact, there are people who follow the above rules and still suffer from fewer likes.

If you are still wondering why the reason might not be the algorithm but your content itself.

Imagine posting content regularly, with the right hashtags and the right amount of hashtags but neglecting the content quality. No matter how often it appears on your follower’s feed, they will probably just avoid it or rather get annoyed with it.

Before posting content, make sure it is appealing to look at. Use filters, the proper ones that highlight the aesthetic of your post.

Before posting, Instagram gives its users the option of applying filters on their posts. Utilize the chance of using such filters. Also, there are applications like Canva, which provides a wide range of features to create beautiful posts.

Not using such features and posting ugly content regularly is not going to help you in any way,

• Your Followers Might Mute Your Posts

If your posts are not getting likes, there is likely a high chance your followers are muting your posts.

If your posts are muted, they will not show up in the follower’s feed, so they will not be able to like your posts unless they visit your website. 

There are two ways to interpret why they have muted your posts:

1. Maybe your posts are accidentally or unintentionally muted.
2. Or maybe you are posting too much.

Posting regularly is fine. But frequently is not welcomed by both the users and the algorithm. 

Imagine your feed filled with similar content at the same time; it will be considered annoying by the followers and spammy by the algorithm, which will eventually result in your post being muted or, even worse unfollowed.

But, you may ask how one account muting your posts will result in fewer likes?

If one follower follows or likes your posts, the same posts will be recommended to their other friends. This is how your profile is reached to a broader audience. 

The same rule applies to ‘mute’ as well. If one mutes your posts, their followers’ activity will be reflected by burying your posts at the last of their feeds, which eventually results in fewer likes.

• Your Captions Are Not Engaging

After posting content, the captions are the next best thing you have to focus on. 

Just like how filters are important in making the content more appealing to the followers, captions are important to prompt your followers to like your posts.

Yes, we know how tough it is to write captions. But captions do not necessarily need to be a long paragraph. You can just write something. About your day or your experience, it can be anything.

You do need to wrack your brains to write the best captions. If you can’t think of captions, you can post quotes or phrases from google or Pinterest and paste them below your post. Also, make sure to add one or two emojis at the end.

Another mistake people occur is not adding CTA at the end of the caption. Just adding a simple ‘Like, Share and Follow’ at the end of the caption is enough to prompt the users to like the posts. 

Conclusion

Having a smooth experience and suddenly not getting you well-deserved likes is not really a pleasant feeling. However, before we can remedy an issue, we must first determine what is causing it. We believe you’ve figured out what’s causing your poor performance and how to fix it.

Social media is the buzzword right now. It impacts almost all aspects of our lives from business, social life, school life, etc. With the onset of the pandemic towards the end of 2019, social media has been used in many ways.

We have seen companies requesting their staff to work from home, schools have gone online all over the world. The impact of social media on education has its upsides and downside. However, if implemented well, the upsides far outweigh the downside. Schools need to adopt social media to prepare the students for the future world. 

Schools have to be on the lookout for how social media is used by the student and develop measures to counter the negative use of social media. For instance, a lecturer might come across a student’s personal social media account where they have used inappropriate language or are cyberbullying other people. How does the school deal with that? 

One way to prevent this is by training staff and students on the proper use of social media and how it can help them in their school work. They have discussions about the books they have read, know what is going on in the world, do extensive research, share information, and get feedback from other students or lecturers. 

Lecturers can use social media to assign work to students, give out information to all students at once, and have group discussions with the class. Lecturers can also monitor the progress of students and provide personalized feedback as they do their assignments.  

Why Is It Important?

Sentiments by a professional essay writer at CustomWritings, Lauren Bradshaw, is, “Basically, these are the main things to know about social media if you want to start using it responsibly. It’s better to treat this article as a starter’s guide rather than an exhaustive list of what you need to do. It’s significant to research this topic because online communication is a relatively new concept, and many people treat it with extreme caution. That’s why it’s very important to avoid the dangers and highlight the benefits of social media so that people improve it instead of opposing this phenomenon. Using Facebook and Instagram to become more mentally healthy instead of exhausting yourself with fear of missing out or social anxiety is a perfect place to start.”

One reason colleges should embrace social media is that more students are looking through social media platforms instead of college websites before choosing the college they want to attend. This shows the great impact social media has on college students. 

Reasons Why Colleges Should Adopt Social Media

Social media is here to stay

There was a fear amongst school administrators about allowing students to use social media. The two main fears were pornography and predators. As much as the fear is still there, no one can imagine a school without the internet. Below are reasons why social media is here to stay:

• Mobile movement: Compared to previous years when people had big mobile phones and bulky PDAs, nowadays, the mobile phones are getting sleeker, more innovative, and stylish. These mobile phones can literally do anything a computer does. People have moved from traditional desktop to mobile gadgets. This has increased the use of social media as you can connect anytime, anywhere. 
• Targeting: You can connect with anyone around the world and get expert opinions from different people that you can share with the class. This will give students diverse opinions from different people to choose the ideology they relate to and do more research on them. 
• Hearsay: People are more inclined to trust what other people say instead of what they read. Social media enhances this. As we have stated earlier, students use social media to find out about schools. This peer-based information is more trusted. 

Students concentrate more when they discuss

One way of ensuring students are more engaged when using social media is to introduce topics that spark discussion. The students will come with diverse views and support their theories. This means that the students are concentrating on the issue at hand. 

Inspire online education

Readily available learning materials can inspire students to learn. Social media offers different learning techniques such as YouTube videos, eBooks, further research on the same topic, and video conferencing calls. All these provide educational growth. Students can also join a college of their choice through distance learning, which social media have enhanced.

Downside of Social Media on Education

Source of distraction

When students use social media, they might get distracted from doing school work and wander into the social scene of social media. This results in a wastage of time, leading to submitting assignments late. 

Affects health

Social media can be harmful to your mental health or even physical health. Students become so engrossed on social media that they forget things like taking meals at the right time, not getting enough sleep, being “glued” to their screens which can seriously affect their eyes, and even bad posture.

Decreases education and research skill

There are varying views from different people online, and getting this information is very easy. Students get distracted and forget to look for publications and journals that focus on their area of study. This decreases their education and research skills. 

Closing Pointers

Since the beginning of the internet age, social media has evolved, and it continues to impact our daily life. Not including it in education seems like a big disadvantage. Professors can communicate with students and parents at any time regarding the progress of the students. 

While in college, students will be required to do a lot of projects that require online research. Students can get help from professional essay writers who will instruct them on how to write essays. This will mean a lot of communication between the two parties, and the easiest way is through social media. 

This will guarantee a great start to the student’s future career because most companies use social media more and more to build their brands.