Are You Using Banned Hashtags!
After we finished our Instagram challenge, I’ve started doing some research on Hashtags. Specifically soft-banned and fully banned. You would be surprised to see some innocuous words on the banned list. #Kansas, #desk, #lean, #easter, #like, #popular, #thought, #todayimwearing and so on. I totally get why some would be banned, topics like self-harm, eating disorders. Ok, ban those tags. Why do they let others through that are just as bad or worse? Why is it “ok”? It is fairly easy to uncover lists of banned #’s just google for you own giggles. Why are they policing #women when #man is not?
Instagram will only say “We may remove the Most Recent posts section of a hashtag page if people are using the hashtag to post abusive content in a highly visible place. “To protect the quality of the hashtag page, we may hide that section temporarily”. If the tag is fully banned your search will return zero results, you may get a “the page may have been removed” if you are lucky.
If you happen to be using these tags know that your post may be hidden. The soft-banned search result will show the top results, but no recent posts.
So you are getting ready to post your content and you add your tags #ilovemyinstagram #popularpage #thought #todayimwearing #brain #citycentre, your photo will not be displayed and you may get yourself banned!
Many different studies say different numbers of hashtags per posts to improve engagement. Instagram will let you use up 30 hashtags per post so feel free to use all 30 or at least more than 11. Just be careful your content doesn’t get lost due to a poorly chosen hashtag.
I’m adding a list of what hashtags I think are ridiculously banned.
#like
#easter
#happythanksgiving
#newyears
#newyearsday
#woman
#desk
#everybodyisbeautiful
#thought
#alone
Don’t think this list will affect your social media branding. Here a few more …..
#alone
#americangirl
#armparty
#asia
#attractive
#bikinibody
#bombshell
#bra
#brain
#carving
#cheeky
#citycentre
#costumes
#cpr
#curvy
#damngirl
#date
#dating
#desk
#direct
#dm
#ebonyandivory
#edm
#edmbabes
#elevator
#fishnets
#gloves
#goddess
#happythanksgiving
#hardsummer
#hijabiba
#hooters
#humpday
#instagirl
#instamood
#italiano
#jugs
#kansas
#kickoff
#kik
#kikgirl
#kikmessenger
#killingit
#kissing
#lingerie
#lust
#marcoreus
#master
#mexicangirl
#mirrorphoto
#mixedgirls
#models
#nasty
#newyears
#newyearsday
#pixie
#poop
#publicrelations
#pushups
#rack
#ravebabes
#saltwater
OK, as an avid Scuba Diver the last one in this list kinda hurts my feelings. 🙁
Of course, you can make your own hashtags, or co-opt any other word you would like to associate with your brand. Social media is a powerful tool for brand building. Anyone who has been successful building their brand through social media will tell you that it is extremely time-consuming and demands constant attention. That is why we are writing this post. Don’t let all of your hard work go unnoticed by using censored hashtags. Take a minute to get yourself acquainted with this ever changing list.