Attempting to Solve The Mystery of the Missing Followers
Over the past two months, the Sisters of the Valley have experienced a troubling pattern on Facebook and Instagram. Their following, which had been steadily growing at an astonishing rate of 50,000 new followers per month, suddenly started declining. Instagram saw over a thousand accounts deactivated in just one week, while Facebook began shedding 20 to 50 followers per day. At the same time, engagement dropped, and sales plummeted. What was happening?
For weeks, no explanation made sense—until a Friday night call with Meta finally provided an answer. According to the Meta representative, the company has been undergoing a major purge of “fake accounts,” removing bot accounts.
The Shadow Ban Period: A Coincidence or Something More?
After three months of unprecedented growth, on November 29th, 2023, the Facebook follower growth stopped, and thereafter, began dropping. For the Sisters who rely on their store for their livelihoods, this interference right at the beginning of the biggest sales season caused the sisters to lose two-thirds of their normal December sales.
The Sisters of the Valley are not alone in this experience. Many small business owners have noticed drastic shifts in engagement and follower counts, without explanation.
Shadow-banning, by design, severely restricts the ability to reach your own audience. And because of Meta’s habit of shadow-banning any content that isn’t mainstream: cannabis, hemp, anything to do with mushrooms or alternative treatments – because of this, the sudden growth in election season was perceived by the Sisters to be a ‘lifting’ of the shadow ban for a period.
Since August 30th and the return of the page that was hacked by someone in Pakistan for 34 days, the sisters have tracked their daily Facebook follower count. The Sisters also did a poll with their followers and the results were appalling. Top fans reported they only see our posts about once a month, or once every three months, sometimes years!
In addition, the Sisters have emails from Facebook from this recent period of working together for resolution – saying there is no problem, no shadow-banning, followed by emails saying ‘yes, it is shadow-banned because of something you posted and you just have to wait it out.’ The Sisters are still waiting and also wondering what they posted that caused the shadow-ban. Everyone is in the same boat. Meta never explains why, just points to a 10,000-word document for you to read and figure out what you did wrong.
Regardless of what is happening on the follower count side, the shadow-banning is still happening and the Sisters invite everyone to help by signing the petition. But what has suddenly become obvious is that while the Sisters thought that the 50K per month growth was a result of the lifting of the shadow ban, in reality, it was likely something more sinister and related to the election.
Election Season in the U.S.
Historically, social media platforms have been exploited during election periods to manipulate public opinion. Everyone recalls what happened during the 2016 U.S. presidential election – Russian interference through the same path.
Given this context, it’s plausible and even quite likely that the surge in our followers was influenced by similar inauthentic activities. The subsequent decline due to Meta’s purge suggests that a portion of our audience may have been comprised of these fake accounts. If this is indeed what happened, then statistically speaking, the bots set up 45,000 new followers a month on our account over the three months preceding the election.
This situation underscores the complex challenges small businesses face in navigating social media dynamics, especially during politically charged times. It also highlights the importance of platform transparency and the need for businesses to remain vigilant about the authenticity of their online followings, although, at this moment, I have no advice on how to do that.
A Live Experiment: Can Facebook Engagement Be Revived?
Armed with this new information, the Sisters of the Valley are conducting an experiment. We are hosting two live events on Facebook—one on January 29th for the Lunar New Year and another on February 12th for the Full Moon. Both will be held at 5 p.m. Pacific time.
Meta’s representative stated that such live events should increase the following again. If it doesn’t, the shadow banning or algorithmic suppression may still be in effect. This test will be a real-time measure of whether organic engagement on Facebook is being given a fair chance or whether more work needs to be done to hold the platform accountable.
Final Thoughts: Social Media’s Role in Election Integrity & Business Survival
The broader implications of this story extend beyond one small business. If Meta is aggressively removing fake accounts, that suggests a deep-rooted problem — a problem that was built for the purpose of launching misinformation campaigns and influencing elections. Small business, like ours, are caught up in this ugly net.
Although the Meta agents that have been engaged by the Sisters to help — now dozens of them — have tried to help, it appears they have no real tools to fix anything and the answers on what is happening vary from agent to agent. Perhaps this is a problem too big for Meta, but platform accountability and transparency are essential.
Of course, we are happy to hear they are purging fake accounts, as everyone who manages a page knows there are plenty out there, but it took months and nearly forty hours of chat and phone time to get to the answer, and we are left scratching our heads, wondering, did we get to the answer?
For now, the Sisters are watching and waiting—eager to see if their upcoming live events will provide the growth that Meta says it should, or if more action will be needed to ensure that their message reaches the people who need it most.
Call to Action
Want to see the results of the Sisters’ live engagement test? Join them for their upcoming Facebook Live events: 📅 Lunar New Year Live Event – January 29, 5 PM PT 📅 Full Moon Live Event – February 12, 5 PM PT 📍 Join Us on Facebook. Meta says you don’t need a Facebook account to watch and hear the LIVE.
For business owners who have faced similar issues, the Sisters encourage you to track your engagement data, speak out, and demand transparency from social media platforms. The future of small businesses depends on it.
See Chart: Facebook Two-Year Journey for insights into engagement trends.
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