Buying a following may look good, but that is all it is, an appearance.
In today’s world, an individual or business can easily buy a quick +1K followers for as cheap as one Chick-fil-A meal. But does this quick, short-term appearance “solution” really help you in the long-term?
When buying followers, that is all you are doing — You are buying a number. You are not guaranteed an engaged following. Most of these followers-up-for-purchase are either bots or inactive accounts. An easy way to spot a bought following is low engagement, with a high follower count. Here’s a great resource to see if someone has bought their following.
Seeing huge jumps in followings and unfollowings like this is an indication of buying followers. (image via SocialBlade)
On average, an Instagram account has an engagement rate of roughly 5%. When you start to purchase an unengaged following, this drives your engagement rate even lower and lower. Instagram’s algorithm is based heavily on your engagement rates — Do people enjoy the content you are providing? If yes, they will continue to push you to the top of the feed. If not, you will get buried underneath thousands of photos.
So what should you do to gain a following on Instagram?
Be true to yourself — Produce authentic content that provides value to someone else and your follower count will start to climb.
As our society focuses more on fake news and continues to crave more authentic content from both their peers and brands, why would you deceive the following you want by buying a fake following. Providing real, authentic content to a fewer, real users may not be the quick, short-term solution but it is the one that will have the most impact in the long-term.
