You’ve worked hard to build your Instagram account. You post great content regularly, use relevant hashtags, engage with others in your niche, run promotions, and try out the latest Instagram features.
Fake follower Fallacy
At first glance, buying 1,000 Instagram followers for $10 seems appealing. An instant boost in your count for practically pennies? What’s the harm in that? Well, the reason follower packages are so (suspiciously) cheap. You will likely buy inactive or bot followers. Either way, they won’t engage with your brand. And while the number temporarily satisfies your ego, fake followers sink your long-term growth. Here are three ways buying counterfeit followers holds brands back.
- Fake engagement distorts your analytics
As Michael Patterson writes, “When you buy fake followers, every piece of meaningful data about how your audience interacts with your brand becomes unreliable”. Likes, comments, saves, reach, impressions – all the metrics you rely on to make business decisions lose trustworthiness. With fake users mixed into your data, you can’t accurately track how real followers respond. So you might devote resources to content fake users prefer, failing to serve real fans. Or you incorrectly assume a post flopped when bots don’t engage with it. Distorted insights paralyze growth-oriented decisions. And when your audience is unclear, crafting content that resonates and converts becomes nearly impossible.
- Inauthentic accounts get your profile banned
Buying artificial followers or engagement goes against Instagram’s terms of service. They block accounts using third-party services to inflate popularity. Restricting or disabling your account means losing touch with real followers you worked hard to gain. As social media consultant Jenn Herman warns: “You could lose everything you built organically by buying fakes”. Staying authentic keeps your account safe and secure. Protect your profile by skipping short-term gains through artificial followers. Keep your growth organic through strong content and community interaction instead.
- Fake followers drive away real people
While inflated numbers initially attract some people, fake followers soon repel real users. Nobody wants to join an inauthentic community full of bots. When real people check out an account and see 5,000 followers but notice only a few dozen likes and comments per post, they’ll know those followers aren’t engaged”. Seeing a mismatch between followers and engagement makes actual people skeptical. They question if you even have real fans. And so they’ll hesitate to follow or engage themselves. Genuine connections encourage deeper connections. But fake followers signal that you have no substantial, organic community. So real users stay away, stifling any potential growth.
Go for real-growth results
how can you buy followers on Instagram in 2023? Stagnant follower counts frustrate, especially when you work hard on great content. But skip the fake follower pitfalls holding your brand back. Focus on attracting genuine users – even if it takes more patience and strategic effort. Organic growth through authentic engagement drives real results over time. So instead of buying fakes, double down on what made your initial real followers connect with you. Do more of what makes them follow you? Make sure you engage fans, respond to comments, message followers, collaborate with similar accounts, optimize hashtags, and post consistently. Building real connections earns you loyal advocates.