Instagram Report – 6 Things You Should Avoid to Protect Your Brand

Protecting your brand’s reputation and image on social media platforms is one of the most essential measures in today’s digital world. If you do not meet the community guidelines set by each platform, there is a good chance of your post or account being reported and/or banned. 

Instagram, with its safety policies, is very strict on following community guidelines. This article takes a look into what Instagram reporting is and what you should do to avoid being reported on the platform. We will also discuss what you should do in the case of your account being reported.   

What Is Instagram Reporting?

If you don’t follow the rules of Instagram then you can be on the wrong side of being reported. If one or any of your posts on Instagram violates any of the community guidelines set by Instagram any user can report your post or account. Once it is reported, Instagram will review it and take necessary actions. As expected, they have a ton of reports to go through each day so it will take some time to process.

What Happens When Your Account Gets Reported?

There are plenty of things that could happen when your account gets reported. You can rest assured you would not want to associate yourself with each and any of them as it could result in a disaster. 

Once a post is reported, Instagram will review it. This may take time due to a large number of posts or comments that get reported. Once, it is reviewed, Instagram will decide whether to keep it or delete it. If your account violates the community guidelines severely or on many occasions, then Instagram can suspend your account. Suspension can be either banning from posting for a few days or permanently deleting your account. What’s more, you’re going to be pressured into encountering a bit of a hassle moving forward. 

6 Things You Should Avoid to Protect Your Brand

It is evident you should know what to avoid in order to protect your brand’s Instagram account. If your get too many reports then there is a possibility your brand will get a pretty bad reputation and you would want to avoid that as much as possible.

#1 Spam

Spam involves posting the same thing over and over again. When someone notices this then they can report you. Besides, there is really no reason to do that as it would be better to post different things in a short span of time. Believe it or not, spamming an account would not really gain the attention of your viewers. It would be a lot better to do it when the time is right and that is to just wait for a day before you post the same thing again. That is not even mentioning the fact that posting the same thing repeatedly can become a pain in the eye of your target market.

#2 Hate Speech or Symbols

Hate speech can involve cursing and lashing out at other people online. No matter how tough the content other people post is, you should never take it upon yourself to spread hate. This includes racist posts, comments, etc. What you must do is to make an Instagram report yourself. After all, it is not that hard to do and it won’t even take too much of your time.

#3 Violence or Dangerous Content

Posting pictures or even videos containing people or animals getting brutalized is a big no-no for this environment. Hence, you should never think about posting violence. If you think of doing violent things to other living creatures then posting about it is a big error and can harm your reputation. Even any posts supporting violence can be reported.

#4 Bullying or Harassment

Insulting other people in the comments section of your account or other people’s accounts would definitely violate the guidelines set by Instagram. After all, this should be a somewhat friendly environment for everyone to interact with each other one way or the other. It should be not a bullying platform because if that is the case then nobody would want to make an account. Also, sexual harassment is a big no-no so it won’t be wise to comment or post content that promotes sexual harassment. 

#5 Illegal or Regulated Goods

Selling or promoting goods that are banned in your region would result in getting reported. Not only that, if police were able to take a look at it then you could be sent to jail. Hence, better make sure that you double-check what you are offering to the public and see whether or not it is legal in your country. 

#6 Intellectual Property Violations

Making a duplicate account of an account that is verified is not allowed. As a result, it would be a lot better to make something original. Copying something from another account can lead to infringement of copyright. That does not only apply to pictures but to words as well. You can’t blame yourself for being a bit lazy but there is really no place for that when you’re trying to build a good name for your brand.

What to Do If Your Instagram Account Gets Reported?

It would be time to check whether your account has violated any of Instagram’s terms and guidelines. You may not have intentionally done something to get reported, but maybe inadvertently your posts violate the community guidelines. After all, the report would not have gone through if that is not the case. Once you discover what made one person report your account then better remove it from the Instagram account. Make sure you will never make an effort to do it ever again in the future. 

Temporary Block

Your followers would want to know why your account is disabled so better find a way to announce to them that you have been temporarily blocked. Everything should also be going back to normal in a few days or even a week’s time. There are times when you don’t really know when the block would end though so you just need to check your account every now and then. When the block does end, you should learn your lesson by that time since they would normally tell you the reason why they blocked your account.

Disabled Account

It is possible the account would be disabled if the term you violated is pretty severe. This would be the case if the violation has been going on for quite a while. If that is the case, then Instagram now has many reasons to take your account down in order to make room for new ones that would post better content.

Appeal the Decision

It is indeed possible to write to Instagram and appeal to them why your account should not be temporarily disabled. It may take a while for Instagram to notice your email and even then there would be a long correspondence to get the issue sorted. 

Conclusion

Getting reported on Instagram will harm your brand’s reputation immensely in this day and age of social media marketing. When you are building your brand, you should do everything possible to not get reported. Our advice is to read the rules and regulations of the social media platform, even the ones in tiny prints. We hope that this article sheds some light on the workings of Instagram reporting.