buy Instagram followers
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When looking to build your Instagram account, one of the main statistics you will be looking at to determine whether your strategy is working is the number of followers – and while the best way to build a following is doing it organically, the internet is full of services offering you follower packages for little money. 

Can you buy Instagram followers? Yes, you can buy instant Instagram followers. However, is acquiring followers this way even worth it? Should you do it? And if not, why not? We will be talking about this and more below.

Is Buying Instagram Followers Worth It?

If you want an honest answer – no, it is not. While, in the beginning, it might sound like a good idea to quickly increase your follower count, in the long run, you will find that it actually did nothing to help you grow your account. Not to mention that, in some cases, it might even lead to your account being suspended or disabled completely. 

There are a few reasons why you should reconsider buying Instagram followers, and we’ll talk about some of them.

Fake Followers Give No or Little Engagement

Instagram followers you get from buying are typically bots or inactive accounts that won’t interact with your account, thus giving you zero or very low engagement. This point is especially important if you’re planning on growing your Instagram profile to become an influencer and work with brands. 

If a brand wants to start collaborating with an influencer, one of the first things they will check is their engagement rate – and believe it or not, it’s actually really simple to see which accounts have an engagement rate inadequate to the number of followers they have. 

Here are some general guidelines about the typical engagement rate based on number of followers:

Number of Followers Average Engagement Rate
<1,0008%
1,000 – 10,000 followers4%
10,000 – 100,000 followers2%
100,000 – 1 million followers1.8%
> 1 million 1.7%

Of course, those are just estimates, and an account with real followers might still be unable to meet those averages. However, if someone’s engagement rate is extremely low or extremely high compared to what it should be, chances are that their followers are fake. 

Nowadays, with the number of influencers on each social media platform, the follower count is not enough to be selected for a collaboration, getting added to the PR lists, or becoming the brand’s ambassador. Brands are becoming more and more selective about who they decide to work with, often working with agencies that evaluate the potential influencers to see if they are a good fit by looking at the audience demographics or engagement rate.

Instagram Can Recognize Fake Accounts

There seems to be a misconception that Instagram won’t realize if you buy followers. However, that isn’t the case. The social media app takes its users’ experience very seriously, which is why it regularly searches for and eradicates fake accounts and, therefore, your followers if you decide to buy them. 

Another thing is that Instagram can actually penalize you for it, as it violates their Terms of Service, which you agreed upon when creating your account. What does it mean exactly? In most cases, they will suspend your account. 

The time the temporary ban will last usually depends on whether it’s your first violation – if so, your account should be suspended for 24 to 48 hours. If, however, you already have a few violations under your belt, then the suspension can last even days or weeks. In the worst-case scenario, the penalty is getting your account disabled.

Buying Followers Hurts Your Credibility

We talked about buying followers for individual accounts, but what about brand accounts? Well, the answer is the same – buying followers is not worth it. 

Consider this. You are a customer who came across a brand account. You like the pieces they are offering, and when you look at the followers count, they have quite a high number. Nothing suspicious so far, right? Then you look at their posts, and with 100,000 followers, they get 100 likes at most on each post. That’s the first red flag. 

Then, you decide to take a look at each post individually, specifically at the comment sections – those are either empty or have very generic comments like “Nice post 👍.” That’s the second red flag, and already the warning bells are ringing in your head.

Something comes over you, and you decide to check their followers – who are they? But as you scroll through, all you see is blank profile, bot, blank profile, inactive account, bot, inactive account – and there goes the third red flag. 

Would you trust an account like that? Most likely not, but that’s how most profiles of people and brands who buy Instagram followers look, and that is also how your profile will look when you buy followers. 

Buying Instagram followers as a brand can significantly damage your credibility and make your potential customers wary of purchasing from you – and as a business, that’s the last thing you want. After all, isn’t the point of growth getting more orders?

Bought Followers Can Distor Your Performance Metrics

Buying followers for Instagram can significantly affect your social media marketing strategy. When implementing new strategies, even when it’s just trying a different type of post, one of the most important metrics you will be looking at to determine whether it worked or not is the engagement rate. 

However, when you have a lot of bought followers, your engagement rates will be way off, giving you a false idea about what works and what doesn’t. We’ll explain more, but first, let’s explain how the engagement rate is even calculated. 

There are many ways to calculate the post’s engagement depending on what you want to look at – the classic formula, however, takes into account followers, and that’s also how we will be calculating the engagement rate. You will need to use this formula:

Total likes + total comments / followers x 100

We’ll look at two scenarios – one with fake followers and the other with real followers. 

First, let’s start with bought followers – let’s say that your account has 10,000 followers, but most of them don’t interact with your account, which means that the total number of comments and likes your latest post got was 72. 

Using the formula we mentioned above, your engagement rate calculation will look like this:

72 / 10,000 x 100 = 0.72%

In this case, your engagement rate is very low, especially for an account with 10,000 followers. Based on the average engagement rate, it should be somewhere close to 4%. 

Now, let’s imagine a similar scenario where your account has 2,000 followers, but they are real followers and people genuinely interested in what you post. For the sake of example, we’re going to keep the number of interactions the same – 72. 

So, in this case, the engagement rate formula will look like this:

72 / 2,000 x 100 = 3.6%

As you can see, despite the same number of total likes and comments, the engagement rate in the second example is actually significantly higher than in the first case. You have to remember, however, that in most cases, the second scenario would actually get more likes and comments than the first account simply because of the nature in which the followers were acquired.

So, How Do I Build My Account?

There are many other ways to build your Instagram account that work better than buying followers, and that will provide actual long-term results.

The most important one is taking care of your account. Creating engaging content that people will want to like, share, and comment on is crucial. With the number of posts we are being shown whenever opening Instagram, standing out from your competition is a must. Also, don’t forget about being consistent – if your audience has to wait a week or two for a new post, they might decide that it’s not worth it and unfollow you.

Generally speaking, to get the best results, you should post 3 to 5 times a week. The best days to post are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, although the rest of the weekdays also might give you some nice engagement, while the best hours to post are between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., and between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. You should avoid posting during the weekend, as that’s when the lowest engagement rates are seen.

You can upload your posts manually, but you can also schedule the posts to go up so that you don’t have to worry about forgetting to post.

Another thing is finding your audience. While you can cater to people of all ages, nationalities, genders, locations, etc, it’s always easier to focus on a specific group. If you’re wondering why, the answer is simple – when you know who you’re catering to, you can tailor your content to them, increasing your chances of them seeing it and deciding to interact with your post.

Something that is often overlooked is the hashtags. Using the right hashtags can significantly increase your reach, making more people see your content. It might also make Instagram more keen to show your photos or reels on other users’ “Explore” pages. More people seeing your posts = more potential followers.

If you really want to increase your follower count quickly, you need to do proper research to ensure that it doesn’t involve bots or inactive accounts. Instead of a strictly “buy followers on Instagram” service, you should go for an organic Instagram growth service like SimplyGram rather than just buying followers.

At SimplyGram, we make sure to help you grow your account, including your follower count, while keeping things organic. Our strategy is aligned with Instagram’s Terms of Service, ensuring your account won’t suffer any consequences and that all the followers we direct to your page are real and active accounts that were specifically selected.

Get in touch with us today, and see your Instagram account grow before you know it.

The Bottom Line

While buying Instagram followers is an option that might look tempting, in the long run, it’s simply not worth it and can bring your account more harm than good. It gives you zero or very low engagement, it can lead to your account being suspended or disabled, and it distorts your performance metrics, so you can’t really see what works and what doesn’t for your social media strategy.

What’s more, if you buy Instagram followers for your brand account rather than your personal one, you’re risking your credibility, and it might make potential buyers wary of ordering with you – it’s actually really simple to see when someone bought followers, so you have to decide if an increase in followers is worth losing potential business.

There are other ways to grow your account, both personal and business ones, that will show you actual results in the long run. However, if you really want to use a service to boost your followers, opt for an organic growth service like SimplyGram.

Contact us today, and let us help you take your account to the next level.

Maddie Schultz
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