It’s time to start prepping your social media content for Valentine’s Day (or Galentine’s Day).

But before you do, we have one important tip.

#ValentinesDay is a banned hashtag!

Using this hashtag in one of your posts on Instagram can result in your account receiving the infamous shadow ban.

What is the shadow ban?

The shadow ban is Instagram’s attempt to rid the app of accounts that are not complying with Instagram’s terms and conditions. It makes your account essentially invisible to accounts that are not already following you and inhibits your ability to reach new accounts.

For more information on the shadow ban, such as how you become banned, why you were banned, and how to fix it, join our Instagram membership site, InstaCrush Society! We even have a complete list of banned hashtags to avoid using.

safe Valentine’s day hashtags

Be creative in your use of Valentine’s Day hashtags. Even if #valentinesday was not a banned hashtag, we would not recommend it. This is because it is a very popular, commonly-used hashtag which creates a lot of competition. Your post would be lost amongst the millions of other posts with that hashtag. We recommend using hashtags that have less than 500k uses!

For more hashtag tips, check out The Boss Babe’s Guide to Hashtags!