Buying Instagram followers for brand identity – why we are on the fence

Like any other social media platform, the chance to cement your influence on the scene is in form of followers. Having more of them gives you a greater say in what you talk about, as well as how many people listen to you. For many businesses that seek to get their brand names out there, it is invaluable.

Instagram offers you a great chance to expand your sphere of influence. There are two options in growing your following through. You can either choose the honest way, where you cultivate a relationship with your followers, post great content that keeps them coming back for more, setting a strategy, as well as setting smart goals.

The other option is joining the dark side – and buy Instagram followers.

Why consider buying Instagram followers?

Many brands and even celebrities today prefer the shorter route of increasing public interest in their accounts – just because they want to increase their sphere of influence. After all, the prospect of taking the longer route is unappealing, and human instinct does not enjoy activities that demand patience. However, why do they choose to do it?

The answer is simple – it is all about perception. The truth is many people (if not all) always look at the numbers of an account before deciding to follow them. In fact, many brands use the number of their followers as a metric to measure their own effort.

If you are considering this route, it may be because you want many followers on your brand to encourage other people to consider your brand. This is the sad part, people like judging things at face value, so quantity over quality is the principle in this case. The good news is buying Instagram followers is not a difficult task.

How does it work?

Note here that we do not mean Instagram automation (relying on bots to increase your followers and comment on your behalf), but rather the explicit act of buying followers.

Buying followers involve what it says. You need to link your Instagram account to a service, and this involves a small fee. After that, you sit back and watch the audience increase steadily.

The fee is not very expensive, as you can get charges of about $3 per 100 followers. The advantage though is that the results are instant. If you want, there are more expensive options that charge you more, though it is better to opt for them if your account is active, and your account interacts with other active accounts.

Certain tools that you get with the services will follow others on your behalf and wait for those users to return the favor. These will generally offer you options in terms of the accounts you want to follow, such as niche, location and gender. After some time, they will unfollow the accounts that did not follow back.

Why is buying followers a bad idea, though?

It may seem a convenient option to just take the shorter route and buy instagram followers to make your brand look serious. However, it may not be a great idea for the long-term, and experts from digital media advise against the move strongly.

If you are wondering why this is so, it can be due to the reasons for being a dishonest way of getting influence, and it does not increase web traffic.

Does not enhance web traffic

Instagram does not work with URLs, even those left under comment threads. That makes it a bad idea, even more so than other platforms such as Facebook, because sharing links is useless, aside from your bio.

That means that buying followers does not increase traffic to your main site of the business, and it will also not increase the clicks that you get through the platform. Instead, make sure you place your budget and direct it to ways that help your brand increase its visual content.

Another way to increase your visibility is using tools such as hashtags and geotags so that it increases the chances of the right people seeing it. Above all, remember that Instagram is a visual medium – once you invest your time to create great content, users will follow in time.

Money loss

You think buying Instagram followers is cheap in the long-term. Well, it is not, and the degree of exaggeration of your numbers determines how your followers will decrease over time.

The problem with most of these sites that offer to boost of followers is that they give you ‘bot followers’, that is followers that lack real engagement. The purpose of your brand is engaging with your followers, so it does not make sense if these followers do not engage anyway.

Growing a strong and loyal subscriber base may be discouraging at first, especially when you want the recognition that other brands are getting. However, keep in mind that it is possible to grow organically, as long as you keep consistency and you post good quality images. Above all, it is not worth the investment if you pay to get followers then they decrease with time.

The risks of getting caught are high

Buying followers can make your account and brand look good for a short time, but the long-term implications are bad. It can cause damages to your reputation online, and your followers can reduce by very large margins once you are found out.

The implication is even worse – once your actual followers begin to notice that your brand is dropping in followers or engagement statistics that mismatch your followers, they will begin to lose trust in you.

Organic followers can mistrust you

Organic followers (those that have been growing steadily with you) can notice this exaggerated increase or decrease in your numbers, and this can put them off.

Damage to reputation is notoriously difficult to fix, and it is not something you can run away from once it happens. Never put off your organic followers, as they are the reason your brand is growing, and they are the people that engage with your brand the most.

Final thoughts

Buying Instagram followers is one of those topics that are uncomfortable to handle, as it may help your brand in the short-term but be harmful to your reputation in the long-term. It is better to go for organic growth for this reason, as it is honest and enhances trust in your brand.