Every month, one billion people use Instagram. The average user spends 30 minutes every day on the social media platform. More than three-quarters of users use the platform in order to research services and products.
If you’re starting a business or trying to make it as an influencer, you might be wondering how the heck you can catch the attention of the enormous user base of Instagram.
One way that people help to jumpstart their accounts is through buying Instagram followers and likes.
What are the business benefits to buying Instagram followers? Do they outweigh the risks of this practice? Let’s take a look at everything you need to know so you can make an informed decision.
What Is Instagram Follower Shopping?
If you are trying to grow your Instagram followers, you can basically pay for accounts to follow your own account. It is possible to buy a large number of followers in a short period of time. You can even decide how many followers you want, though you usually purchase them in round numbers like 5,000, 20,000, or 30,000.
The Benefits of Buying Instagram Followers and Likes
You can give your account a sizable boost when you are just starting out by buying Instagram followers. Let’s take a look at why it might be worth doing.
Drives Traffic to other Platforms
One of the reasons that buying Instagram followers is a smart marketing tactic is that it can help direct your audience to other social media platforms or your business website. The more followers you have, the more visibility you will have, and people will be able to find your presence across the internet.
Help Your Business Grow
The world of internet businesses is incredibly competitive. It can be hard to figure out how to stand out from the crowd. If you are working to develop your business using social media as an advertising tool, you can purchase followers to jumpstart your situation.
It can be difficult to build from the ground up when it comes to social media. If you have 0 followers, how are you supposed to go from 0 to 1 to 100 to 10,000? If you purchase some followers to begin with, it can help you get the boost you need to really grow your business.
Helps You Generate Profits
There are a number of different ways that people monetize their Instagram accounts. However, it can be hard to connect with a large crowd through organic means. When you have more followers, it means that you have more potential customers and your reach is wider, meaning that more people are looking at your products.
People will also be more likely to follow you if they see that you already have a healthy base of followers. People will be more reluctant to follow you if you only have a small handful. Purchasing followers can help you get the ball rolling in this regard.
Increases Your Credibility
Building credibility has always been important in the marketing industry when it comes to building brands. However, it’s all the more important these days with businesses that exist entirely online. Consumers need to know that you are a trustworthy and reputable brand, and how many other followers you have can imply to them how credible your brand really is.
There is a snowball effect when it comes to followers in some instances. For example, if a potential comes across your account when you only have ten followers, they might decide not to follow you because it seems like your business isn’t very established. However, if you have thousands of followers, they will be informed by the wisdom of the crowd that you are a legit business that really has something to offer.
Saves Time and Energy
It can take a ton of time and energy to build your Instagram followers from the ground up. You can work tirelessly on the project for months and not feel like you are seeing the results you want. When you buy followers and combine it with other tactics like creating legitimately engaging content, it can help you fast forward through time in terms of your follower count.
Brand Development
When you’re starting an online business, you want it to get visibility. When you buy genuine likes and followers from actual legitimate sources then it can help build the visibility of your business. The more followers you have, the more other people will see your brand as a legit business that has authority.
Helps You Climb the Ladder
It’s a battle out there when it comes to succeeding in the world of social media marketing. You can’t really cut corners when it comes to things like producing killer content and providing valuable information to your audience. However, you can give yourself a little boost by buying some followers to start with.
Reasons You Might Not Want to Buy Instagram Followers
On the other hand, there are some reasons you might want to stay away from this type of business altogether. Some argue that it is actually a net negative to buy Instagram followers.
Engagement Will Taper Off Over Time
Commonly, when you buy followers they are made up of inactive accounts or bots. This means that they won’t end up engaging with your posts. You might end up getting likes, views, and comments early on but it will likely taper off over time.
Your Credibility Could Be Harmed
You definitely might get some organic followers by simply having a lot of followers. However, it could destroy your credibility if you end up getting caught with a ton of fake followers. This could jeopardize your chances with your real audience.
Users also might be weirded out by the fact that you have a high follower count but not a lot of likes per post, for example. This will make your brand seem sketchy and far from legit.
At the end of the day, trust is super important when it comes to running a successful online business. If it becomes known that you’ve been buying followers, it makes you seem spammy and untrustworthy. Instead, consider practicing time-tested digital marketing techniques such as producing evergreen content.
Your Performance Metrics Can Be Distorted
If a bunch of your audience isn’t real, it’s going to be pretty much impossible to measure whether or not your target market is connecting with your brand. How could you possibly determine whether or not your real audience is enjoying your posts when a bunch of your followers are just inactive accounts and bots that screw up your ratio?
When you buy followers, you simply aren’t going to get real-life followers that are high quality. You are basically paying for an empty number. It’s important to understand that the algorithm of Instagram is largely tied to engagement rather than the number of followers, meaning that it really isn’t a long-term solution to buy followers.
Some business owners might choose to take the money, energy, and time they would dedicate to buying followers to instead practice smart marketing techniques in order to build a genuine relationship with a real audience. When you produce content that is authentic and engaging, you will find that you won’t have to bribe people to follow your account. Instead, people will happily and willingly follow your account because they want to be tapped into the content that you have to offer.
Fake Followers Are Identified and Purged By Instagram
You also run the risk of your fake followers being purged from Instagram by the company itself. They have recently updated their terms of use in order to work towards identifying and removing inauthentic accounts. This means that all of the follows, likes, or comments that aren’t legit will disappear.
You are violating the community guidelines of Instagram when you buy followers.
Back in 2018, Instagram announced that it was going to work to eliminate fake likes, followers, and comments. The platform works to keep the social space genuine and not just a world of bots.
Is It Worth Buying Instagram Followers?
As you can see, there are some serious pros and some serious cons around buying Instagram followers. At the end of the day, it’s your choice whether or not you choose to engage in this activity. While it could be a worthwhile boost to your business when you’re just starting out, there’s also a chance that it could actually end up doing more harm than good.
Did you find this article about the business benefits of buying Instagram followers interesting? If so, be sure to check out the rest of our blog for more engaging and informative content!