You may know your Instagram content is good, but imagine how good it will look if 10,000 people seem to agree.
Whether you're trying to become a social media celebrity or just want to spread brand awareness on Instagram, it may seem tempting to use shortcuts wherever possible, including 'buying' Instagram followers, to expand your audience.
Here, we've covered questions you might have about buying Instagram followers to give you a better idea of how it actually works. We've also explored the pros and cons so you can decide for yourself if it's a good move for your brand.
Can you buy Instagram followers?
Yes, you can buy Instagram followers. There are lots of cheap services that allow you to buy 1,000 followers for a very low price. But you only pay for one number. Most of these followers are either bots or inactive accounts, which means they will never interact with your posts.
It might seem like a good deal since you buy 1,000 followers for the price of just one coffee. But of course, if it really was that cheap and easy, everyone would be doing it. The main reason buying Instagram followers can prove to be a futile investment is because the accounts you follow are often unreal.
Buying 'fake' Instagram followers
The vast majority of purchasable followers are either bots or inactive accounts. It works like this:
Instagram Bots
As of 2018, Instagram could have 95 million boots, which accounts for about 9.5% of the total user base. There are companies that automate the bot creation process so well that they can then sell these bots as followers. In some cases, bots can even identify a real person using stolen images and names.
Depending on the service, these fake accounts may appear organic, running on automation to share and like content. Some can even be programmed to produce content. However, since they are not real people, they won't have an organic looking follower-to-follower ratio. As a result, the commitment they generate will have little effect. Without real followers to interact with your content, your posts are actually hidden from everyone except your unreal audience. Plus, your bot followers don't discuss and interact with your brand in real life because they don't exist in real life.
Inactive Accounts
However, not all fake followers are bots. There are some companies that sell followers that are real accounts.
In this case, accounts are created either because they are managed by users whose sole purpose is to be followed, or for one reason to offer this service. And while these followers can engage early, they will eventually become a burden on your Instagram account's performance metrics when their account goes dormant. After all, if their account was created solely to fulfill sponsorship requests, the real person behind the account has little reason to stay in the news feed, interact with content, or purchase advertised goods and services. Without this interaction, your follower count will have no value organic followers will bring, only your follower count will be inflated.
Purchased Instagram followers can break your performance metrics.
If a large percentage of the audience isn't real, it's almost impossible to measure how well your target audience is connecting with your brand. If these bots and inactive accounts skew the rate, how do you measure posts that work well for your real audience? If you don't know how well your posts are doing or what your real audience thinks, you will never be able to convert your Instagram followers into real customers. And isn't that the point?
Ultimately, if you pay for Instagram followers, but not for quality and real-life followers. You are actually paying for a blank number. And since Instagram's algorithm is largely dependent on engagement and not followers, buying followers isn't a long-term solution. Actually it is not a real solution.
Take the time, energy and money to buy followers and instead focus on building real relationships with a real audience. If your content is engaging and original, your loyal followers will spread your account and interact with your brand without the need for any bribery.
Alternative Methods to Buy Instagram Followers
Instagram's new algorithm rewards more engagement than the number of followers by displaying content similar to the posts of users who have interacted in the past. To increase engagement, there are many different actions you can try on the platform to get ahead of your ideal audience.
Create your personal brand or company account monthly using good Instagram marketing practices
You can better reach nearly 800 million Instagram users and build an organic audience.
1. Make your account public.
First, make your account public so users can view your profile and content. This way, when your content appears on users' discover pages, you can organically grow your target audience, attract and delight your target audience.
2. Give users a reason to follow you by posting quality content.
Then, post a variety of posts to your post: You can share images, GIFs, Videos, Boomerangs, Quizzes, how-tos, user-generated content and much more about your story. Build trust and excitement among your followers by using high-quality photos, writing catchy headlines, posting consistently, and generally maintaining a unique style to differentiate yourself from other accounts. Find out which hashtags are getting a lot of buzz and which ones are compatible with your brand.
Depending on your brand personality, it can help you be funny or humorous in your content. Having a keen awareness of how your brand is perceived and trends circulating on Instagram will serve you in choosing the content to post and how to interact with your Instagram followers.
3. Use Instagram to its fullest potential.
Finally, use the many different channels on the platform like Instagram Live, IGTV, Instagram Stories or Instagram Shopping. There are many different ways to connect with users, and through these features you can drive engagement and traffic in an organic and authentic way by encouraging engagement.
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Şeyda Şen
