Social media is an excellent marketing tool that can generate a lot of new business for you or your startup. While there are many ways to get attention on the internet, buying online seems to be the way of least resistance. So, is it safe to buy Instagram followers? Can the network or your ‘real’ followers tell if they are real?
It is human nature to choose the easiest way to do something. If there’s a shortcut to every step of life, someone will take it. Sometimes it pays, sometimes it doesn’t.
Instagram is now the go-to social network for businesses that are serious about influencing and want a fanatical following. Sure, Facebook and Twitter still have their place, but Instagram is the place to be. To impress, you need your followers and something meaningful to say. You can buy one, not the other. But should you?
Followers and social proof
Social media users have long used their follower count to confirm their sense of worth or as social proof. If many people follow a brand or person, they must have something useful to say, right? If a company or individual has thousands of followers, they should also be worth following. That’s the idea behind social proof.
Sprout Social uses an analogy that works perfectly here. ‘You are walking down the street looking for a place to try for lunch. Eight out of ten restaurants have indoor dining. The other two are completely empty. Are you more likely to go to one of the restaurants with people or one of two empty restaurants?
If you’re like most people, you’re probably going to someone with people in them. You probably will without even giving it a second thought. It is no accident that we chose the restaurant with customers in it. It has to do with a little psychological phenomenon called social proof.’
So with the case made for having a large number of Instagram followers, is it safe to buy them?
buy Instagram followers
There are many places on the Internet that offer to get hundreds or thousands of Instagram followers for one price. The idea is that you pay them a set fee and they use whatever they have to get the number of likes you pay.
Starting at $3 per hundred likes, it may be tempting to increase your follower count the easy way, but you really shouldn’t. Here are three reasons for that.
no interaction
Services that sell Instagram followers are cheap but very one-dimensional. You’ll probably end up getting close to the number of followers you paid for, nothing more. Accounts will not like, interact with, or interact with your account in any way.
Instagram is all about engagement, and anyone who uses the network for longer than five minutes will realize you may have a thousand followers, but none of them will comment, like or interact with you in any way. This will not go well.
You will not get more work or make more money
While a single follower metric may seem fine and is the only thing some users care about, the majority want more. Purchased followers won’t come to your cafe, buy your product or service, or share how good your service is on their account. They will not promote you in any way, so you get more business on social media.
Instagram will notice and you will be cleared
Instagram tried very hard to detect this when buying followers because it cheapened its brand and user experience. You can get rid of it for a while, but not for long. You may get a warning on your first offense, but you may be turned off.
Instagram has a dedicated team that looks for bots, automation tools, and events that don’t happen in real time. It is unlikely that you will get rid of it for a long time.
Gain Instagram followers
If you’re promoting a business or service, would you want to risk your reputation for something like this? I wouldn’t. It will take much longer. It will require much more effort. It will require imagination and creativity. However, it is essential to gain your Instagram followers by engaging with them and offering value in every post you make.
Only then will the social proof be real and not be bought in a transparent way. Only then do you have a chance to really make money from them or from Instagram as a whole.
