We get it! It would be impressive to have 10K likes on your post. You will get there with patience and consistent efforts. Like all good things, social media growth will not be achieved in a day. But when it is done, it can reap benefits beyond your imagination. But if you are hasty and want to become an overnight success and buy your Instagram followers, then we are here to discourage you from that path.
Want to know why buying your followers can be more harmful than good? Then, read on!
What does buying Instagram Followers mean?
Don’t like the follower count on your Instagram profile? You can bring the count up in a matter of hours by buying fake Instagram followers.
So, how to buy Instagram followers? You find a follower’s vendor (yes, they exist) that is within your price budget. You pay them their price, and they will slowly trickle in your followers so as not to alert Instagram. And voila, your account has more bots – ahem, followers than it did yesterday. And you can get it all done within your budget!
Sounds amazing, right? Well, in theory, it might!
But in reality, your engagement stays the same. You end up with little genuine connections and lots of dormant accounts that do not care about your brand.
How to tell if someone buys Instagram followers?
Do people know when you buy Instagram followers? The short answer is, yes, they do.
But how will they know? There are some ways to know, let’s break it down:
- For starters, a study by Markerly analysed the engagement rates of 2 million influencers and found a pattern. All accounts had a similar engagement rate:
Anything above or below these rates by a considerable margin is considered to be suspicious. And when people notice that your posts are not getting as much traction but you have a huge following, then it is bound to raise some eyebrows.
- Fake accounts bring with them a lot of spam. So, the next time you post a photo, your comment section may be filled with unrelated comments, promotions for other products. This can bring unease to your real followers, thus ruining their experience.
Things you need to know before buying Instagram followers:
Although we are in no way promoting buying Instagram followers, you can buy followers through the following channels:
- There are many fake followers vendors that you can find by doing a simple Google search. Find one that best fits your budget and check if they are legit before purchasing. Once you are done, they will deliver the followers gradually so as not to alert Instagram.
- There are many kinds of followers you can opt for:
- Instagram bots: They are automatically generated and can assume the identity of a real person. But these accounts are not capable of genuine engagement.
- Inactive accounts: These are active accounts maintained by genuine people. They will engage with your content in the beginning, but once they get followed back, they usually go dormant.
- Demographic accounts: You can strategically follow accounts that fit your criteria. These accounts might or might not follow you back. And since they will not have any genuine interest in your brand, engagement could be sparse as well.
Now that you have all the options laid in front of you, let us understand why you should not do it. How is buying followers exactly harming you? Well, let us discuss that in detail!
7 reasons why buying Instagram followers can do more harm than good
There are at least 10 drawbacks that we can think of from the top of our heads. Curious? Read on!
1. It beats the purpose
There are 3 reasons why you would want to grow your followers on Instagram:
- You want to become an Influencer – Who are you going to influence with fake followers? A couple of bots? Brands look for influencers with authentic engagement in their posts, which you cannot achieve with a bunch of fake accounts.
- You want to market your business – No amount of convincing is going to get a bot to buy from your business. So, might as well stop trying!
- You want to make genuine connections – Again, a fake account is not the right choice for this!
Whatever your end goal might be, there is little a bot can do to help you get there. So, might as well, strive to achieve authentic growth!
If you are thinking, this is just for the short term, you are still losing out. Because Instagram identifies and eliminates fake accounts (they are not hard to identify!) all the time. This means you might lose your fake followers even before you get your money’s worth.
2. Instagram might penalize you
Losing your fake followers might not be the worst thing that could happen to your account.
Instagram highly discourages involvement in dishonest practices such as artificially gaining followers. And if they find you practising this, they will warn you, and sometimes – they may even suspend your account.
As a result, any actual, genuine followers you have gained might also go down the drain. And you have to then start from scratch again!
3. You won’t know what your audience likes
The growth of your Instagram account depends on your ability to provide entertaining and useful content to your audience. To do that, you need an understanding of what your audience likes and dislikes.
But with a bunch of fake followers, who do not engage and interact with your content, this is not possible. Without a clear understanding of your viewers’ preferences, you are going to churn out content that is not relatable or interesting for them.
4. Impacts the trust your real followers have for you
Imagine following your favorite brand on social media, only to find all their posts bombarded with spammy content from bots. Doesn’t seem very appealing, right?
People follow brands and Influencers on social media, who they feel genuinely connected to. They follow accounts that they trust and relate to, and buying followers might not give you a good head start.
5. Bring in more unwanted visitors
Since your account is filled with fake followers, what is one more? More and more spammers and inappropriate accounts might dump your comments and your followers’ DMs with unwanted messages.
And whose brand reputation will take a hit because of this? It will be none other than yours!
6. Tarnishes your reputation
Your brand is something that stays with you. It is a digital account of your life that your future partners, bosses, or fellow workers are going to be able to access.
And buying fake followers is not exactly a vote of credibility for you. And if you think your real followers won’t notice, trust me, they do!
Chances are they do not want to be associated with an account that gets involved in such activities.
7. You can’t make money out of them
As we saw earlier, there is no way you are going to get a bot to purchase from your business.
But what about if you are an influencer? You can collaborate with brands and make back your bucks, right? Wrong!
Brands can spot an account with fake followers a mile away (they are that easy to spot!) and will not choose to work with you. Brands have their reputation to worry about and will take extra precautions to avoid being associated with untrustworthy creators.
Conclusion
If you do not care about your business’s reputation, then by all means buy your followers!
But if you do care about your reputation, then growing your followers organically by posting and interacting with your audience is the right way. This ensures long-lasting success!
But, thankfully, with the help of tools like Predis AI, you can automate your social media posting schedule. This makes you consistent without having to spend extra time and effort.
So, sign up for your free Predis AI account today and start growing your business!
FAQ:
Yes, you can buy Instagram followers, but it can be less useful in the long run. Keep in mind that Instagram is strictly against this practice, and if identified, the platform might suspend your account.
No, it will attract more spam accounts, skew your performance metrics, and repel your real followers from engaging authentically with you.
No, they are most commonly bots generated by companies to sell. Even if they are genuine accounts managed by real people, they are less likely to engage in real conversations with your brand.
