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by seanwalker08 2536 days ago
I've got a smaller account(33k) and have noticed similar issues lately. It makes no sense as to why visibility fluctuates when my behavior hasn't changed. I have a feeling it's Instagram trying to push us to use their ad system.
4 comments

This is my fear too. Instagram’s addictive neuroengineering has crowded out attention to our website, so it’s a platform where we need to be in order to reach our constituency. But we are a tiny non-profit and can’t afford to pay to play.
I think so, yes. I have encountered this with Facebook pages, too. Either you go straight viral and get a constant stream of followers each day/week/month, or you flat out.

For one project 700 likes was the end. I collected those in a few months due to natural growth and then it suddenly stopped. With 700 likes to the page there were only around 150-200 impressions per post (no matter time or day or post content) and Facebook _heavily_ offered me to use their ads to push my views.

Tell me what you want, this is about monetization of their platforms, nothing else.

Sounds like something out of the Yelp playbook I've experienced personally w.r.t. their shady sponsored advertising services and their review filtering and business search sorting algorithms.
My sense is at some point Instagram is going to suppress engagement unless you pay them, they may be testing out how that will play out.