New accounts start with less trust
Anti-spam systems weight account age and history. A brand-new account that behaves like an early user of a growth tool gets treated like one, and the visible result is low reach — commonly reported for the first weeks, longer if the pattern continues.
This is not the same as a shadowban. Usually nothing is hidden: the account simply is not being recommended yet, because nothing known about it argues for recommending it.
What gets a new account flagged
Bulk following and unfollowing, identical replies pasted under many posts, dropping links into replies to strangers, repeating the same link, and logging in from many locations in a short window. Individually minor; combined, they look exactly like a bot.
The reverse counts too. An account with a complete profile, original posts, and real replies builds the history that the ranking layer can actually learn from.
How to grow through the first weeks
Pick one topic and post into it consistently. Reply where your contribution is obvious rather than promotional. Follow a small number of accounts you genuinely read, and answer your own replies — conversations are the cheapest distribution a young account has.
Wait on the tactics that merely look like growth: follow-back trains, engagement pods, and fully automated posting. They work briefly and cost you the trust you were still building.
When it is not the new-account problem
If a specific pattern appears — your handle missing from suggestions, your replies invisible to logged-out visitors — run the same tests an older account would: logged-out search, a reply under a busy post, and one cross-check from an account that does not follow you.
Measure it, wait a few days, measure again. Age solves most new-account reach problems; only a repeated, specific pattern is worth acting on.