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Paying For Instagram Followers – Do’s And Don’ts

Written by Shelby Stone
September 26, 2019

Social media is a robust platform that allows you to connect with your customers, influence their purchase behavior, and establish a strong brand presence. It is a highly competitive space, and it isn’t easy to attract an audience on popular platforms like Instagram. Many businesses try to take shortcuts by buying Instagram followers instead of building their audience from the ground up. Instagram has over a billion active monthly users, and taking the long-route can be difficult.

Paying For Instagram Followers

Is Paying For Instagram Followers a Good Choice?

Opinions are divided. Some business owners believe that buying IG followers is an excellent way to make an impression on the audience. A business with a modest number of followers might not garner as much as attention as a business with a massive following. Adding a few thousand followers to your count can help boost your reputation. 

However, buying followers doesn’t offer much benefit beyond that unless your followers actively promote your content to their audience. Your company’s reputation can take a big hit if people find out you have bought followers.

Customers won’t trust your brand, and you will lose whatever traction you have gained in the market. It is always more beneficial to get followers naturally. It is possible to build a strong following from scratch, even with a high level of competition. You need to make sure you have good content and a sound social media strategy.

Paying For Instagram Followers

Dos and Don’ts of Buying Instagram Followers

Sometimes brands want to get a head start and believe paying for Instagram followers is the best option for them. There are several things you can do to avoid negative repercussions of such an action. Here’s what you need to do:

Do – Buy an Old Account with A Decent Follower Count

Instead of paying for Instagram followers, you can buy an old account with a reasonable follower count and rebrand it. You might lose some of the followers because of the change, but you might be able to retain most of them if you have a sound content strategy.

This is a better alternative to buying followers directly because you will get real user accounts and engagement instead of bots and spam accounts. This is a legitimate marketing strategy, but it requires some serious investment and effort. Most Instagram users won’t be willing to sell their successful account unless they intend to leave the platform entirely.

Don’t – Buy Cheap Instagram Follower Plans

Many unreliable marketing companies and professionals offer to get you hundreds or thousands of followers for just a couple of dollars. You might see your follower count go up, but most of these accounts are bots, spams, and temporary accounts. All they do is inflate your follower count. They won’t provide any real engagement or interaction. You won’t see any likes or comments on your content, and these users won’t share your posts with their connections.

Do – Look For Companies That Offer Real Accounts

Some companies offer real user accounts as a part of their social media plan. It is more expensive than buying bot or fake accounts because it involves active Instagram users instead of just bots. These users will interact with your content and share it with their connections.

These services are more expensive and charge around $1,000 for 10,000 follows. These accounts are operated by the marketing company that will engage with the content. They can be a good starting point to help build a strong audience base.

Don’t – Hold Onto Fake Followers

It is a good idea to purge fake followers from your account after you reach a reasonable target. For example, if your content strategy succeeds and you get 10,000 real followers, you can purge the thousand fake accounts you brought from your profile. 10,000 followers is a good number and will help you reach a wider audience.

Once you have enough followers, you can rely on them to get you new audience and exposure. Holding onto fake followers might place your reputation at risk and cause you to lose legitimate user accounts down the line.

Paying For Instagram Followers

Do – Focus on Engagement Over Follower Count

100 real followers are better than 1000 fake ones. They will engage with your content regularly by commenting on it, liking it, and sharing it on other platforms. Engagement offers real value and will help you establish a strong brand presence on Instagram. Your engagement rate is the sum of several likes and number of comments divided by the number of followers multiplied by 100.

For example, if you have 10 comments and 100 likes on a post after 24 hours of posting it and have a profile with 1,000 followers, your engagement rate is 11. Focusing on the engagement rate will help you reach the true potential of your IG account.

Instagram is a visual platform, and you can only grow on it if you have a good content strategy. Make sure you regularly post relevant and beautiful pictures and clips on your profile. Eye-catching content will attract people and encourage them to share the post with their connections. That’s the best way to grow your influence and reach out to new users. Make sure your pictures are polished and meaningful. There are several editing tools available online to help you refine your content. You can also use platforms like IG TV, Instagram Live, and IG stories to reach your audience. IG stories and Livestreams are a great way to establish a more personal connection with your audience.

Paying For Instagram Followers – Do’s And Don’ts