October 05, 2023
When social media marketing first became popular, it seemed like an amazing gift for businesses to connect with audiences, promote their goods or services, and convert leads into sales. Low costs and accessibility were big selling points of social media marketing. Businesses could use social media as their sole marketing platform or to supplement traditional advertising. Gone were the days when their only choice was to spend big bucks to slap their logo on a billboard in Half Way Tree, the pulse of Jamaica. Everyone assumed that all was finally good in the world of advertising - or so we believed.
Companies were putting enormous energy into building followers and likes for their content and getting large audiences for their promotions. Everyone was happy! But as soon as social media figured out how to monetize their platforms, things changed. Social media introduced a new feature that businesses did not find cute. Called shadow banning, the algorithms limited content visibility and audience. Many companies took a while before they realized what had happened. Then it became clear they would have to pay for their content to be shown to a sizeable audience.
When that all happened a few years ago, it left social media marketers and content creators bewildered and helpless. But recently many of them seem to have found new energy to protest this platform practice. They are taking their arguments to their audiences in. their videos (See below) and stirring push back against the social media platforms that engage in this practice.
Companies were putting enormous energy into building followers and likes for their content and getting large audiences for their promotions. Everyone was happy! But as soon as social media figured out how to monetize their platforms, things changed. Social media introduced a new feature that businesses did not find cute. Called shadow banning, the algorithms limited content visibility and audience. Many companies took a while before they realized what had happened. Then it became clear they would have to pay for their content to be shown to a sizeable audience.
When that all happened a few years ago, it left social media marketers and content creators bewildered and helpless. But recently many of them seem to have found new energy to protest this platform practice. They are taking their arguments to their audiences in. their videos (See below) and stirring push back against the social media platforms that engage in this practice.
Some of these social media “doctors” offer visual step by step guides so you can determine if you have been shadow banned in your social media presence. Others have come up with creative practices to get around the banning and to reach fans without spending, also with step by step instructions.
For now, the results seem underwhelming, mostly because few people have the patience to follow these instructions or words of advice. Sad to say, the only other real option that works, and it is perhaps exactly what the social media platforms sought, is for marketers to spend hard earned money on boosting to promote content.
How to Know if You Are Shadow Banned
Want to Know if You Are Shadow Banned?
