IF YOU'RE A 'GRAMMER' YOU'RE PROBABLY A VICTIM OF THE DREADED #INSTASPAM
Do you want the good news, or the bad news? Read which ever outcome below you want to hear first:
The bad news
At this point in time there's nothing that actually prevents insta-spam from happening. Spam is an annoying part life online and is always going to be there in some way, shape or form as platforms develop and evolve. Your best bet is to get tough on spam, in the form of what comes next.
The good news
If you have a 'personal' Instagram account (generally used for your personal rather than business life) you can set your profile to 'private'. This means that anyone who wants to 'follow' you or post on your profile needs to submit a request to you, which you can then either allow or deny. Tip - if you have a private, personal account you've probably chosen it to be this way for a reason. Don't approve anyone you don't know or wouldn't want commenting on your pics. This will not only block potential spammers from leaving ridiculous messages on your posts, it will prevent them from even seeing your profile too.
For those of you with business related profiles, setting your account to private wouldn't be a good idea - it defeats the purpose of you being on social media if no one can see or find you, right? Your strategy must be to get tough on spam. We suggest you report anything (comments as well as profiles) that are 'spammy' or abusive. You can do this on any public profile, as well as your own.
Reporting Spam on iPhones and iPads - Go to the comments section of the post, swipe your finger left on the comment you wish to report, tap the exclamation mark (!) and choose 'Spam or Scam'.
On Android devices you also go to the comments section of the post, tap and hold on which comment you want to report and then select (!) and choose 'Spam or Scam'.
Report both spammy comments AND accounts; readwrite.com gives us a good exmple of the three main types of Instaspammers:
- Passive spammers: Accounts that have only one photo and a bio that reads along the lines of, "Click this link and get more followers"
- Aggressive spammers: Similar to passive spammers, except they plaster your photos with comments inviting you to "check out this link"
- Logrolling spammers: Typically real accounts manned by actual people, though they wander about asking others to like their photos—that is, offering to trade "likes" for "likes"
Note that certain types of photos (and the hashtags associated with these) are pretty big spam-magnets. Generally selfies (also animals, babies, fast cars and basically anything 'popular') attract the spam in large proportions, so be vigilant on checking post comments regularly if your selfie game is strong and a big part of your promotional toolkit.
Be mindful: Lots of spam comments on your posts may also be a sign of your account being compromised! This means you could actually be the one posting spam comments. Eeeeek! If you think this could be you, jump on the Instagram Help Center: Abuse & Spam and follow their instructions.
Final words of wisdom:
If you tend to take the 'post & ignore' approach (posting and not checking on your engagement) then it's likely your photos will be the ones recieving all the spam. Remove spam as soon as you see it, and those doing the spamming won't view your photos as a great place for their annoying, ugly, boring, cheesy, (did we say annoying?) waste-of-space spam.