Everyone these days wants a quick following on Instagram, and many people are even willing to pay for the same. But should you?
Well, don’t be tempted by those ads offering to sell you Instagram followers; they might give you little long-term benefit and will harm you eventually.
People who sell Instagram followers typically use bots, fake or empty accounts, and most of them are closed sooner or later by Instagram. Some of these bought followers are real, but they are not of much use as they don’t really engage with your posts in a relevant manner.
Building a following on Instagram can seem quite hard; however, it’s not a good idea to buy followers, even though the temptation is great in this era of influencer marketing.
Furthermore, there are influencers who are ready to sell their Instagram account, which is a much smarter way compared to buying followers. There are some Instagram accounts for sale on this social media platform, which are traded by Instagram influencers.
People opt to buy followers in order to boost their numbers. However, you should understand that numbers are good, but what’s even better is how many followers actually engage with you on the app.
Instagram is the preferred social media platform of most influencers, and some of the influencers are earning a lot, which is why aspiring influencers see Instagram as a lucrative way to earn money.
Though the path to success seems simple enough, like growing a large following to make yourself visible to brands, only having a large following is no use. Brands also see the value in how the following can lead to real, measurable results for them.
Though there are many reasons listed above, here are a few good reasons why you should never buy Instagram followers:
Instagram Bots are not Real
Using Instagram bots makes it look like you have a lot of followers and comments in a few hours or days, but the problem is that they aren’t real. These followers are not your customers; even if they are real, they will not spend time and money on your product and services.
You are not actually growing your followers who are genuinely interested in your content, so there will be less engagement in your posts.
Bots can also make comments that don’t make sense and are unrelated to the post. They don’t understand the context of the conversation and simply add comments based on a hashtag.
It may harm your reputation
Many Instagram users are wise about Instagram bots, and if they realize that you are buying fake followers, they might react negatively towards your brand and cause others to do the same.
If your brand becomes known for buying fake followers, it can be humiliating, and you might begin to lose your genuine followers who actually trust your brand. And online reputation is everything for a brand nowadays. Buying fake followers will not only destroy your brand name but also put your entire business at risk.
Banned by Instagram
Buying followers is against the terms of service of almost every social media network, and Instagram is no exception. Instagram has shut down a large number of third-party sites for violating its community guidelines and terms of use.
So, buying fake followers may jeopardize your account. There is no easy way to grow your Instagram followers, and if you take shortcuts, you are running the risk of being banned by Instagram and ruining your reputation.
It doesn’t increase your engagement
As mentioned above, buying followers doesn’t increase your engagement because the bots don’t engage with your content. It destroys your brand reputation as your audience sees that you have a high number of followers but very little engagement.
Plus, adding followers who don’t interact with your account results in decreasing your overall engagement rate. What this effectively conveys to your Instagram followers is that people aren’t interested in your posts.
Things you can do instead of buying followers
Participating in engagement groups of your niche is one of the best ways to grow your followers. Moreover, using the Instagram growth services is another smart way to boost your followers by engaging with users in different fields by liking and following them.
If you ever consider buying an Instagram account from other influencers, make sure that you use the Instagram escrow service to be on the safe side and do not face an issue or get scammed.
You need to devote time to increasing your Instagram followers and engagement. Human interaction is necessary, and you can post engaging content, interact with people, and use the proper hashtags to attract your audience, which will grow with time.
Growing your social media presence takes time and effort, and buying followers to speed things up will do more harm than good. If you have a strong strategy in place and work hard to gain followers originally, you can still be successful.
