4 Reasons Brands Should Never Buy Followers on Instagram
As a social media agency, we’ve seen first hand the real damage (no, we’re not being dramatic with that word choice 😅) that brands face after buying followers. It can take months (YEARS even!) to get their account back to performing how it once used to.
Brands often have the false idea that the higher their follower count, the more credible they will look. In reality, followers is just a vanity metric. Meaning, it’s a number that can make us feel good, but doesn’t tell us a whole lot about how our account or business is performing.
Although having a large number of followers may seem enticing to boost your status on Instagram without having to work for it… DON’T DO IT. The followers that you are buying aren’t the same that would choose to follow you, which will only let you down when it comes to engagement and other social media results and opportunities. Read on for four reasons why buying fake followers is a no-go!
BUYING FOLLOWERS HURTS YOUR ENGAGEMENT RATE
As a social media agency, one of our primary goals is to increase the engagement rate of our clients’ accounts. Why? Because when a post receives a significant amount of engagement, this signals to the Instagram algorithm that users are enjoying the content and, as a result, the algorithm will push it to more users to enjoy.
Let’s be honest: despite increasing your follower count, the random followers (that will probably be from Brazil) that you purchased are not going to interact with your posts. Therefore, having a large sum of fake followers TANKS your engagement rate because it tells the algorithm that despite having thousands of followers, only a small percentage of those users actually engage with your content. The algorithm will respond by limiting the number of users that are exposed to your content because it is not deemed as “valuable.”
You might be thinking: “But what if I don’t care about my engagement rate? I just want more followers to make my brand appear more enticing and, in turn, have my sales increase.” Wrong. Even if your brand is more focused on website clicks, for example, users won’t be able to take this course of action if your account isn’t on their radar to begin with due to a poor engagement rate.
BUYING FOLLOWERS WEAKENS YOUR CREDIBILITY
Contrary to what brands initially believe, buying fake followers will weaken your credibility because it isn’t hard to spot an account with fake followers. Think about it: 10k followers with only 20 likes on a feed post.. come on. 🤦🏻♀️
Weakened credibility and low engagement will also impact your ability to secure brand partnerships. No brand is going to want to partner with an influencer or another brand if their audience isn’t truly authentic because there is very little for them to gain from an account like that. Who wants to send product to an influencer or contribute $1k in prizes to a co-branded giveaway with an account that has a fake audience?
Previously, accounts would need 10k followers in order to link to a website on Instagram Stories. This was a common motivation for influencers and brands to take the plunge and purchase followers. Nowadays, however, anyone and everyone has access to Instagram Story’s link sticker, which eliminates this former motivation. Now, it only makes you look less credible.
YOUR DATA IS PUBLIC
As a brand, everything you do is public. It’s no secret that there are many sites like Social Blade and GRIN’s Fake Influencer Tool that share stats exposing brands with fake followers.
Here are a few tactics for spotting fake followers:
A user has thousands of followers but receives very little engagement on their posts
Social Blade data reveals a HUGE, sudden, and suspicious spike (and then a gradual drop) in followers
A significant portion of followers are from places like Brazil or the Philippines, despite the account being a US-based brand or influencer
The individual followers are following thousands of accounts but have little-to-no followers themselves
The usernames of followers are obviously fake and not real people
FAKE FOLLOWERS LIMIT YOUR AD RETARGETING CAPABILITIES
If you ever want to run Facebook or Instagram ads for your business, one of the coolest capabilities that Facebook’s Ads Manager offers is the ability to retarget your Instagram following with ads. However, if you buy fake followers, there isn’t an easy way to ensure that your ads are only being shown to your real followers, therefore you have to pay to show your ads to your fake followers as well.
Facebook’s Ads Manager also allows for the ability to create “Lookalike” audiences, which is when “your ad is delivered to that audience of people who are similar to (or "look like") your existing customers,” according to Facebook. If you ever want to create a Lookalike audience of your existing Instagram followers, the Lookalike audience will be useless if your Instagram following is filled with fake followers.
Did we convince you not to buy followers on Instagram? We hope you find this blog helpful in understanding the repercussions of purchasing fake followers. If you’re looking to grow your account organically, book a one-on-one consultation with us or check out our 10k? OMW Bundle to get those 10k followers authentically!
Until then, we’ll catch ya on the ‘Gram and in our social media newsletter!
xx,
The Homies