Why Buying Fake Followers Kills Your Credibility on Instagram
The business of selling fake followers on social media is
very lucrative. There are overseas social media farms that have mobile devices
and computers running automation software that creates fake profiles around the
clock, which then follow accounts.
It’s a multi-million-dollar industry and now the social
media companies and even attorney general offices are taking action to reduce
this practice, as it is essentially false and fake advertising. But it doesn’t
stop businesses, as they continue to buy fake followers. Here is why you
shouldn’t consider buying fake Instagram followers.
Makes your business look desperate.
You have probably spotted a business with fake followers
before and it didn’t take a lot of digging to know that their followers were
fake. If someone has 100,000 Instagram followers but their content gets 20
likes and no comments per post then it’s blatantly obvious that they have
purchased their followers.
What kind of image does that give off? Not a good one, I can
promise you that.
“It just makes you look desperate and not trustworthy,” says
Oliver James of Perth Web Design online.
Think about it, if a business is willing to try to deceive people with fake
followers, what else will they try to cut corners on? How can you trust a
business that does that? What are they trying to mask by trying to look
popular? It’s just not a good look at all, so don’t do it.
Real followers won’t want to be associated with your
profile.
“If you see a business with fake followers as outlined above
do you want to follow them? Of course not, because you don’t want to be
associated with a social media profile that reeks of bots,” says Irene
McConnell of Arielle Executive. “It’s
just a very unprofessional look, and should be avoided at all costs.”
So, not only does this move make you look bad but the
problem will never correct itself because no real followers will want to be
linked to your profile or be seen by others as someone who follows a fake
account.
Not to sound like a broken record, but there is absolutely
no benefit of buying Instagram followers. “You are killing any opportunity for
natural growth if you try to take a shortcut. A blog like Vital,
aiming to build its reader-base would never want to buy fake flowers as it
would instantly ruin their credibility,” suggests Pedro Del Nero of Vaporizer Vendor. It just isn’t
worth taking that risk.
Can get your account penalized and restricted.
Instagram isn’t stupid. They know what followers are full of
bots, manufactured by these social media farms. “Instagram often does huge
account purges, deleting millions of accounts that are fake,” suggests Pat
Skinner of answerfirst.com. “If your
account sees a large percentage of its followers fall off during these purges
they will assume you are a spammer and your account will be shadow banned.”
This means that when you post none of your real followers
will see the content. This makes your efforts on Instagram virtually worthless,
as nobody will see the content you are putting out there.
Gives you false data.
“You will never get true engagement data if your account is
full of fake followers,” advises Andrew Tran, whose brand Therapy Blanket uses
social media to sell weighted blankets.
The fake accounts never engage back, and those that try to really game it will
buy fake likes as well, to make it appear like people are actually liking their
posts.
If you do this then it becomes very difficult to track
accurate data, because most of it is manufactured and totally fake and
worthless. While it doesn’t look as impressive, having 50 likes on a post that
are from real people that actually engage with your posts is better than having
a post with 5,000 likes that are fake.
Don’t worry about trying to look popular. It doesn’t turn
into sales. Worry about engaging with those people that really follow your
Instagram account.
Results in low engagement rates.
If you buy 200,000 followers guess how many of them will
like your posts? None. They are fake. They just sit there and do nothing for
you.
This kills your engagement rates and it looks very suspect
when you have a quarter million followers and none of them ever like your
pictures. It reeks of fake followers, which is why many now resort to buying
likes and comments as well.
“You can spot fake comments from a mile away as well,”
suggests Tad Thomas of injury
lawyers firm Thomas Law Offices. “They are usually all emojis or just very
random and generic comments. Fake engagement is the same as no engagement.”
Makes your business look unpopular.
Many people think that buying Instagram followers will make
their business look popular but it actually does the complete opposite. Because
they don’t engage it makes it look like they people that follow your business
have no interest in what you are posting.
“For a company like ours that relies on social media so
much, buying fake followers would be brand suicide,” says Ignacio Soria of CANN
& Co. “We have to remain as authentic as possible as a brand, and consumers
will not support you if they see you trying to test their intelligence with
fake followers.” To see what a cautious brand like Soria’s does on social media
you can learn more here.
If someone doesn’t take the time to see if your followers
are real they will just assume your business isn’t popular. Either way, you
lose and push people away because you are trying to portray social proof that
doesn’t exist.