Upcoming Spotlights We have two upcoming spotlights: Makeup Spotlight and Cosplay spotlight! The makeup spotlight, which we started doing last year, showcases creative and imaginative looks designed with makeup. FX makeup would also fall under this category. This will be our first year doing the cosplay spotlight! If you know a Black cosplayer or if you are one, please be on the lookout for submissions in a couple weeks.
Updates We recently confirmed that our official account has been shadowbanned. We're not sure the reason why or how long it's going to last. As you all know, we steadily grew our following and engagement since 2014, and hit peak following/engagement in early 2020 when the world was boosting Black businesses and accounts. We gained over 100,000 followers in less than a month. Later that year, our following/engagement slowly started decreasing. You all know about the engagement dropping tremendously from what we're accustomed to, but you may not know that we went from gaining 1000+ followers a week to losing 13,000 followers over time (still dropping). Over the past year and a half, we've taken algorithm advice and done our own research on how to gain back our engagement and nothing has worked. And of course, now we know why. Apparently, instagram will limit an account if it even SUSPECTS they are purchasing fake followers and engagement. Even though ours is organic, we have a theory that due to the extreme increase we saw back in 2020, as well as other Black businesses and accounts on instagram, they decided to limit us. Another theory that someone brought to us is banned hashtags. We're not sure if hashtags are the reason, but in order to confirm, we are choosing not to use hashtags in our post until further notice. It has been brought to our attention that it is possible to have your shadowban lifted if you stop using the banned hashtag that got you shadowbanned in the first place. So stay tuned for that Until then, we'll continue posting on our official account AS WELL as our new backup account @blackartistspace2.0! Please go and follow us there (assuming we're not also shadowbanned there for being connected to @blackartistspace) and leave us some likes! We appreciate everyone who has already followed to show their support. We wouldn't be here without you guys so your support is everything to us In other news, we are working on getting our print service (open to EVERYONE, no approval needed!) off the ground within the next couple weeks! Pretty much all there is left to do is get some quality images of the type of prints you'll be purchasing if you decide to get your prints manufactured through Black Artist Space. We can't wait to show you guys and get started!!!!
Submissions We are now accepting submissions for story posts in addition to feed posts! The rules will be the same for the most part. Story posts will get you featured a lot quicker because the wait time is much shorter. At the moment, feed posts have an estimated wait time of four weeks. Story posts, however, do not have a current wait time. This means your post will be featured immediately! On the other hand, story posts do not contain captions and will simply be the post (shared from your page) with credit. When submitting, you'll receive a new approval message that mentions stories and will have the option to choose which post you want. You cannot have both, it is an either/or type of thing.
Don't forget to visit the Black Artist Space print shop on your way out! Enjoy the rest of your month!
