Should You Buy Your Instagram Followers or Not?

12 mins read

Buy Instagram followers. If your goal is becoming an influencer or just want to improve brand awareness, it can be tempting to take shortcuts to grow your Instagram followers, such as ‘buying’ them. You may have fate in your Instagram content, but imagine how much better it would be if 10,000 other people agree, too.

We believe that buying Instagram followers is a bad idea, and we came to such a conclusion based on the benefits and drawbacks we examined. However, we will leave it to you to determine yourselves whether or not it is a good step for your business by answering any questions you may have about buying Instagram followers…

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Can Followers Be Bought On Instagram?

Yes, you can buy instagram followers but you will only pay for the number. There are numerous low-cost platforms that allow you to purchase 1,000 followers for a few dollars. What’s the problem with that? Many of these followers, however, are bots or inactive accounts, meaning they will never communicate with your content. Everybody would get 1,000 followers for a few dollars if it were really that easy.

A few more dilemmas arise here: First, is it worth investing in it after you already invested in building a website (that is, if you do not have enough knowledge to create one yourself using various platforms available online)? And, second, there is a question of legality and safety for your business when buying Instagram followers. The main reason why buying followers on Instagram can prove to be a lost investment is that the accounts that would follow you are often fake.

Buying ‘Fake’ Followers

As previously mentioned, the vast majority of followers available for purchase are bots or inactive accounts. Here is how it works:

Instagram Bots

As of 2018, Instagram has approximately 95 million bot accounts, which makes up approximately 9.3 % of the total user base of this social network. Some companies have perfected the process of building bots to the point that they can re-sell them as followers. In some cases, bots can even present the identity of a real person, using other people’s images and names.

These fake accounts will appear natural and use automation to share and like content, depending on the service. Some may even be programmed to create content on their own. They may not have the power of real followers, though, because they are not real people. As a consequence, the level of interaction they generate would be minimal.

Your posts are effectively shielded from all but your inauthentic audience if you do not have the desired followers to consume your content. Plus, since your fake followers do not exist in real life, they will not talk about your brand with their friends or family.

Accounts That Are Inactive

Not all fake followers, however, are bots. Real-account followers are something that certain businesses offer. Accounts are generated in this situation because they are handled by users whose sole aim is to follow in return or to provide this service. And while these followers might initially be engaged, this will not be the case in the long run.

Finally, if their accounts are created solely for the purpose of fulfilling a sponsorship request, the actual person behind the account does not have much reason to stay on the channel that shares information, communicates with the content, or purchases the goods and services being advertised.

When You Buy Instagram Followers…

The continuation of the sentence from the title above is: you only pay for the number. Engagement is not guaranteed, not even likely. You can pay for strategic following services for other accounts on your behalf, as well as buy instagram followers directly, depending on your preferences (account type, hashtag usage, location, gender…). Followed accounts can, in the best-case scenario, reciprocate.

Even though, there are huge chances that your followers be real people if you choose this choice, as far as engagement – not much of it will be gained. Since there are no guarantees that these accounts will follow you, it is a risky investment. Even if some accounts follow you this way, and most will not, such an arrangement will not be based on loyalty nor long-term and they will not be active.

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You’ll Get an Initial Engagement That Will Narrow Down

Purchased Instagram followers do not provide long-term value to the content of your profile. The followers you buy can bring you views, likes, and comments at the beginning but the attention they now attract will later disappear.

How useful 10,000 followers, who do not get in touch with you, are? Instagram algorithm displays posts to users in the way that engagement is the top priority. Without likes or comments, your post probably will not show up on your audience’s feed.

It Can Damage Your Credibility

Having a lot of followers could convince users to decide to follow you on their own but that is not a guarantee. The risk alert: you will hardly get likes or comments on posts by these followers and, if getting into the situation of having a bunch load of fake followers, you risk losing credibility with your real followers, i.e. your loyal audience. Users may notice that you do not have a lot of engagement in their posts, which could deter them from following you. If you have 10,000 followers but only, let’s say, four likes per post, it will not take long for people to realize that something is wrong.

Put yourself in such a situation: would you continue to follow an account if you saw that most of its ‘loyal audience’ are inactive accounts or bots? We guess not. This can seem deceptive and lead you to believe that a brand cannot gain authentic followers just through quality content.

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Instagram Identifies and Cleans Fake Followers

About half a year ago, Instagram updated the terms of use to identify and remove inauthentic accounts from its platform. Instagram removes any likes, follows, or comments from independent apps designed to artificially increase someone’s account audience. Buying followers can trigger a reaction from Instagram moderators because it is against the Instagram community guidelines.

Instagram strives to maintain real interaction on its platform, protecting real accounts and experiences. So, it is better to expand your audience organically as fake or purchased activities violate Instagram’s mission and can result in consequences, i.e. penalties.

Alternatives to Buying Instagram Followers

The Instagram algorithm rewards the engagement more than the number of followers, displaying content similar to posts that users have dealt with in the past. To encourage engagement, there are many different actions you can try on the platform to present yourself to your ideal audience.

By using good marketing practices on Instagram – whether you are creating a personal brand or a company account – you can better reach Instagram users, whose number reaches more than 1 billion, and build an authentic audience.

Make Your Account Public

First, make your account public so users can see your profile and content without having to wait for you to approve their follow requests. This way, you can increase your audience organically when your content appears on user research pages, attracting and captivating your target audience.

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  • 100,000+ media publications;
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Give Your Users a Reason to Follow You by Posting Quality Content

When you do the above, you can post various things: pictures, GIFs, videos, boomerangs, polls, and music in your story, instructions, and more. Build trust and excitement among your followers by using high-quality photos, writing catchy headlines, and consistently posting and maintaining a unique style as a whole to differentiate yourself from other accounts. Investigate which hashtags are trendy and which are aligned with your brand. Hashtags can be a great way to reach a new audience if used properly.

Depending on your brand, it can be helpful to be funny or witty in your content. Having an acute awareness of how your brand is perceived and trends on Instagram will help you in choosing the content to publish and how to interact with your Instagram community.

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Take Full Advantage of Instagram

Lastly, use as many features as Instagram has to offer, such as Stories, Live, IGTV, or Shopping. There are so many different ways to connect with customers through which you can organically and authentically encourage engagement and traffic.

If you need help in community building around your Instagram profile by professionals, feel free to contact them. It is not a shame. Especially, if you use your profile to make money, for example, by selling something. Buy Instagram followers?

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