Are Outdated Instagram Followers Hurting Your Engagement Rate?

Instagram is undoubtedly one of the most popular apps all around the world and making your content visible on such an overcrowded platform can be an overwhelming task. Since the changes in the Algorithm of the platform in 2016, from reverse-chronological to curated content things have become quite messy.

Businesses that want to reach a wider audience face several challenges such as outdated Instagram followers or ghost followers.

Are they bad, can they affect your brand’s position and appearance on the news feed, how do you deal with them? Keep on reading to find out some extremely valuable information from our team at Aliado Marketing Group  on how to maximize your reach and engagement organically.

Working Of Instagram Algorithm:

Before moving further, understanding how algorithms work is very important. When a user logs into their Instagram account the algorithm studies their history of preferred content and posts and based on their preferences and the accounts they might be interested in, their feed is generated.

Their rate of interest can be classified into the following categories:

• The topics user have shown interest in
• New fresh posts are preferred over the old ones
• The accounts user have most interacted with
• How frequently the account has been used by the user
• The number of accounts a user follows.
• The more time a user spends on the app the more things they are likely to find.

So to cope with this new way of Instagram individuals need to make eye-catching content that can gain the audience’s interest swiftly.

Can Outdated Followers Affect Your Brand?

As maximum engagement is the new mantra of Instagram, having followers who don’t engage can damage your brand visibility. Instagram followers are everything in the social media world but outdated ones can hurt your brand badly.

Who is considered an outdated follower?

An outdated Instagram Follower doesn’t mean your oldest possible followers. But it refers to the followers who are following you but doesn’t engage with your posts much. The possible reasons could be:

They are no longer interested in your content, the followers are from the spam accounts or your account has not been reaching them.

Explaining the possible concerns:

The limited or zero engagement on your posts will signify Instagram, marking your content irrelevant. Marked irrelevant means less appearance of your posts under maximum people’s feed which in turn leads to lower new followers.

But when you try to buy fake Instagram followers and bots, there will be no engagement from them. Whereas Google also penalizes or bans such accounts that gain their followers through unfair means. A large number of followers might be a tempting sight too but the quality of them matters the most. Their activity means improvement in the quality of your account.

Such quality followers define you and help you shine bright among major feeds and searches. Having inactive followers is damaging for your brand’s visibility across the platform.

Remove The Outdated Instagram Followers:

Followers who no longer align with your content can be removed from your accounts in several ways. Go through your account and identify pages that look outdated and fake. Like having fake names, numbers in their usernames, zero posts, or followers. There is a high chance that they are part of a fake follower campaign.

However, there are several apps available on the play store too, to remove such outdated accounts. Use these methods with care because it is not a guaranteed method.

Ways To Avoid Outdated Instagram Followers:

So is it possible to get rid of such outdated followers? Many have made desperate attempts to increase their engagement rate but have failed badly. Here are some most effective ways to level up your Instagram game.

1.      Post frequently:

Post frequently on your account. Share stories daily, upload posts, create IGTV videos so that your chance of appearing on people’s accounts will increase. Post at least 3 times a day. So that if someone misses a post they could reach your other posts.

2.      Utilize hashtags:

Hashtags are a great way to reach an audience that is not following you already. As you can use a maximum of 30 hashtags a post, it means you have 30 chances per post to reach a new audience. Try to use different hashtags, use both the popular and the least popular ones as well.

3.      Create a brand strategy:

To increase your reach and engagement you don’t have to just stick with Instagram only. Utilize other social media platforms to attract your audience from there as well. For this, you will need to use the same logos, names, themes, marketing strategies everywhere.

4.      Create unique content:

Content is the king of the social media platform. If you are not posting high-resolution pictures with interesting themes and content relevant to your niche then it means fewer people will feel motivated towards you.

5.      Avoid buying fake Instagram followers:

You might think that a large number of Instagram followers are going to attract more followers and make you more prominent among others but in reality, these followers won’t engage with your content neither would they help with the reach of a new audience.

Need Help With Engagement?

Handling your account in the ever-changing Instagram world can be a handful task especially for those who don’t understand how the platform works. Let Aliado Marketing Group take a look at your account and receive valuable guidance from our extremely professional and expert team.

Being a leading marketing team in the field we have helped hundreds of businesses to live their dream instead of being overshadowed by your competitors and the changing algorithms.