Ever since Instagram’s popularity has soared, the debate of whether to buy followers or not has as well. This argument is existent for both personal and business accounts.

Why are people suddenly questioning whether or not to purchase their followers?

Simple. When someone views your profile and they see a bunch of followers, 10.3K for example, you will appear more popular and relevant than having an account that has 266 followers.

Whether you’re a fashion blogger or a small brand trying to grow your following, purchasing followers is a huge compromise for your account and I’ll elaborate on the many reasons why.

Lacking Authenticity

If you decide to purchase followers, your authenticity will be on the line.

While the look of a massive amount of followers looks good on your account, your current followers and potential audience will see the disconnect pretty quickly.

Usually after following an account, especially one with a big following, a user will become curious to see who followers it as well. They’ll look to see which friends and family members of theirs follows the account, what other brands follow it, and so on.

They’ll click on “Followers” and scroll through to see a bunch of accounts with weird, unrealistic usernames.

If something seems fishy, someone could potentially even click right on some of the accounts that follow you and be able to tell if it’s a robot.

Here’s a few quick fake account tells:

• Accounts that follow you all have minimal posts
• All of these profiles will all have the SAME exact number of posts in total
• Profiles that have a username with their first name paired with multiple numbers
• Has posts with no caption copy
• Bio sections that aren’t filled out

It’s very unattractive for a user to spot a fake account, especially for a business brand or public figure. They’ll immediately lose all trust and question why the account needs to purchase followers in the first place.

On the other hand, there are providers that don’t give you robot followers

Instead, these providers will have other accounts that purchased their services follow you.

What’s the catch?

Purchasing followers usually comes with automated likes and comments.

This means, the providers find a way to make your account spam other accounts who bought followers and likes as well, aka a never ending cycle.

You’ll begin to notice random comments on your posts such as “awesome!” or “great account!” and your account will probably be generating the same type of comments on their accounts.

Your spamming will show up on the feed for anyone who follows you.

This will most likely trigger them to immediately unfollow you, and soon, you’ll end up losing all of your real followers and you’ll be wondering why you did this in the first place.

Counting the Likes

If your account has a lot of followers but only receives 10-30 something likes per post, you’re positioning yourself to be called out.

It’s the quickest and easiest way to determine whether an account is purchasing their followers or not.

Just because you purchased followers it doesn’t mean that you are guaranteed likes from these followers.. that is, unless you purchase those too, which is even worse!

Besides looking up your followers, your audience will also look up who is liking your posts. They can easily scroll through your likes and come to the same conclusion: this account is inauthentic.

You’re Hurting Your ROI

Besides ruining your brand image, purchasing followers (and/or likes) is bad for engagement.

Not only will your followers stop liking your posts and probably unfollow you, but all of your real likes will disappear, leaving you with fake likes and comments.

Instagram will pick up on this, and that’s a nail in the coffin. It will show in your engagement rates and prove that this is not worth the investment.

Furthermore, Instagram might suspend your account for purchasing followers and/or likes in the first place, because after all, it is against the terms of us from Instagram.

Doing Things the Right Way Will Be Worth It

All in all, my recommendation would be to not purchase anything to enhance your Instagram profile, following, posts, or ranking.

The followers you purchase will end up most likely dissolving over time and they aren’t going to buy anything from you or subscribe to your newsletter anyway. So what’s the point?

By testing out hashtags, captions, features like Instagram Stories, and even filters, you’ll end up seeing your engagement rate increase and most likely end up benefiting from it.

Building your brand on Instagram will provide you will real insights on what’s working and what isn’t working.

You can position yourself the way you want to and gain real followers, a boost in online presence, in-app purchases, sign ups, etc.

Need help growing your social media following? Contact us today!