How social media silences you without your knowing

If you haven’t yet heard of the Instagram shadow ban, prepare yourself for a trip down this rabbit hole.

            What is a shadow ban?  A shadow ban, also known as stealth banning, comment ghosting, and ghost banning, is a way of excluding a person from an online community (app, chat group, platform, etc.) without that person finding out.  It’s sort of like making sure that someone’s virtual invitation to a party got “lost in the mail.”  The shadow…

By now, you probably are aware of “hashtags,” the pound sign that has taken over your social media platforms, but you may not know what they are or how they work.  Though they may seem like a form of convoluted-millennial-groupthink, they are surprisingly user-friendly and functional.  If used properly, hashtags can help improve your social media presence by directing new people to your content pages.  

So, what are they?  Hashtags placed either at the end of a social media post, or where they fit continuously within the sentence…

You know how you are more likely to buy something that someone you trust, like a friend or a loved one, recommends than some other product?  This is called word of mouth marketing and it influences somewhere between 20-50% of all purchasing decisions according to McKinsey Quarterly.  What’s interesting is that word of mouth marketing is no longer limited to people who we have direct contact with.  It now includes a whole world of social media influencers.  For example, I asked my assistant how she makes her buying…