Why You Shouldn’t Buy Instagram Followers

Whether you want to become an Instagram sensation or simply want to evolve your business or brand with the help of Instagram, you must be looking for techniques to enhance followers or increase engagement on your Instagram account. This practice may involve “buying” Instagram followers.

Here, we will try to cover all the necessary information about Instagram followers and whether it is a legal practice or not.

What is coming up in this guide?

• Is it possible to buy followers on Instagram?
• Disadvantages of buying Instagram followers.
• Is it a legal practice to follow?

Is It Possible To Buy Instagram Followers?

Yes, you can buy Instagram followers. Prices can differ based on different factors. However, these followers typically are not real and are mostly bots or inactive accounts that won’t bring a strong impact on your Instagram engagement. So, you can increase the follower count but not the engagement which is why buying followers for the Instagram account is not considered an effective Instagram marketing strategy.

But, have you ever thought about it “If these followers are not increasing the engagement then why are businesses buying Instagram followers?”

The reason is a profile with a lot of followers is considered successful because more followers may appear prestigious in the Instagram community. From a business point of view, this also means sales. The mentality behind this is the more followers the more engagement which means increased sales. But, does it work?

It is often not recommended to buy Instagram followers. Because most of these purchased followers are bots or fake accounts and this may violate Instagram’s terms and conditions.

Disadvantages Of Buying Instagram Followers

There are many disadvantages to your business if you buy Instagram followers, take a look at some of them:

Questions On Credibility And Trust Issues

Audiences demand authenticity. When users get to know that an account is increasing followers by buying fake ones then the trust will be violated. It will erode trust and damage credibility. Genuine followers will appreciate honesty and transparency. If they discover the fake followers their trust in you will be damaged and they may unfollow your Instagram account. This can affect your brand reputation online and offline.

Algorithmic Punishment

Social media platforms follow a sophisticated algorithm to determine the authenticity of content. When an account shows a disproportionate number of followers in comparison to its engagement rate, it signals that the content may not be valuable or interesting as a result, the platform will reduce the visibility of your posts and limit the organic traffic to your content. All this can affect genuine audience engagement as well.

Fake Engagement

One of the biggest drawbacks of buying followers for Instagram is a lack of genuine engagement. The followers are typically bots or inactive accounts and offer meaningless interactions. You may think that they will bring a large engagement but they may make you suffer with trust issues that genuine audiences have on your account. A real audience brings genuine interactions and they may recommend your brand or business to others rather than these fake engagements.

Waste Of Resources

You can consider buying followers as a waste of financial resources because these purchased followers do nothing so surprising for your account’s engagement. Instead of investing your money on these fake accounts you can invest money on marketing and more valuable stuff that can benefit your brand.

Is It A Legal Practice To Buy Instagram Followers?

Yes, buying followers for Instagram is generally a legal practice but it may violate Instagram’s terms of service. Instagram does not support purchasing fake followers and may put punishments by reducing the visibility of your posts. This may affect the genuine interactions of the audience.

Instagram can suspend your account temporarily or permanently. Your content might be less visible and these fake followers may harm your reputation. In that case, you must follow “Quality over quantity”. Your genuine followers may not consider your account trustworthy and it does impact offline and online reputation. So, if you are thinking of purchasing fake followers first of all learn the disadvantages it might bring.

You can take the help of a social media agency. A team of experts will guide you through the process and help you make the right decisions.

Conclusion

Instagram followers might amaze you with their popularity and increased engagement, especially in this digital world where everyone wants to be an influencer but moving ahead with the right practices is what you must focus on.

Instagram might temporarily or permanently suspend your account and will limit the reach of your posts to the genuine public if you are taking advantage of bad practices and violating its terms of service. Get help from a social media agency and ask them how you can evolve your brand or business online.