Buyer Beware: Should You Be Buying Instagram Followers?

Mar 12

One of the most common questions is “how do I buy Instagram followers?”

The short answer? You DON’T!

I know it is tempting and there is no doubt that at first blush it would be amazing to have 10,000 followers but like all things the shortcut doesn’t pay off at the end of the day.

Let’s lift the veil and break down the practice of buying followers.

Still… 1,000 followers seems like a good deal, right?! So what’s the catch?

The catch is they are robots. Not the cool kind or even advanced AI, they are just an account created to inflate follower numbers. When you buy Instagram followers, you’re paying for a number alone. Engagement is not guaranteed, or even likely and they won’t convert to sales or advocate for your brand.

What is an Instagram bot?

Instagram bots are everywhere — on Insta that is. They range in sophistication and in some cases, the bots may even assume the identity of a real person, using stolen images and names. At the end of the day they are not REAL. Without real followers to engage with your content, your posts are essentially hidden from everyone except your inauthentic audience. Meaning actual customers who would convert to sales will NEVER see the awesome content/product/service you are offering.

What if it were real people behind the fake account?

Say you purchased followers who maybe weren't bots but accounts whose sole purpose was to follow other accounts. Sounds like a good solution right? Actual humans!

Unfortunately, still isn’t a great idea.

You'll get early engagement that tapers off over time.

Followers like this provide no long-term value to your profile's content. The followers you buy might give you views, likes, and comments early on but the honeymoon won’t last long. As soon as a week later a noticeable coldness will be coming from those accounts.

And how helpful, really, are 10,000 followers that don't engage with you? Engagement is key to how Instagram’s algorithm works! Without likes or comments, your post most likely won’t show up on your audience’s news feeds and it also won’t show up on any For You or Explore pages.

  
    If this isn’t enough to convince you, let's talk about the negative brand impact buying followers could have.

Group of friends outside with cell-phones

You could hurt your credibility.

Having a lot of followers could convince users to give your brand legitimacy and follow you organically but it's no guarantee and if you’re called out with a ton of fake followers, you could ruin your credibility with your real audience.

your actual audience will notice.

If you don’t have a ton of engagement on your posts people will suspect your following is paid for, which could lead them to unfollowing you. If you have 10,000 followers but only two likes per post, it won't take people long to realize there is something fishy going on.

Think about it this way. If you knew a brand bought 10,000 bots as followers instead of actual It could seem inauthentic and lead you to believe the brand couldn’t get genuine followers through good content alone.

Bought Instagram followers will invalidate your metric tracking.

How the hell are you supposed to determine the growth of your audience if a high percentage of that audience isn’t real? How will you measure the effectiveness of your content if it isn’t being served to your actual customers?

Help me if I’m wrong here but isn’t the point to always be cultivating and converting your audience into buying customers?

Ultimately, if you pay for Instagram followers, you aren’t paying for quality, real-life followers.

You’re paying for a vanity number. And since Instagram’s algorithm is largely tied to engagement (likes, comments, time spent watching Reels & Stories), not the number of followers, buying followers isn’t a good plan.

Instead of taking the shortcut, focus instead on building genuine relationships with a REAL audience. If your content is engaging and authentic (remember to teach, not preach), your loyal followers will spread the word and engage with your brand AND convert to sales.