Regarding social media, more followers mean more influence, right? Wrong. Purchasing followers can have the opposite effect and hurt your business in the long run. Read on to discover why you should never buy fake followers and how to grow your following.
It’s tempting to purchase followers to make your social media profile look more popular. After all, who wouldn’t want to have thousands of engaged followers? However, there are a few reasons why you should not purchase followers:
- Buying followers decreases the credibility of your brand
While buying followers may seem like a shortcut to success, buying followers can have the opposite effect. When you buy followers, not only are you cheating yourself and your followers out of a real connection, but you’re also decreasing the credibility of your brand.
- It’s against the terms of service for most social media platforms.
If you get caught, buying fake followers can get you banned from social media, which will then waste your time, money, and opportunity to scale your business on these platforms.
- Low Engagement rate
Most of the followers you purchase are fake and will not engage with your content, which will tank your account’s engagement rate. The algorithm will stop pushing your content to a larger audience, making it challenging to grow your account.
- You might end up with Inappropriate Bot comments on posts.
I bought followers to bring spam with them. You might end up with inappropriate Bot comments on posts and DMs.
Alternatives to Buying Followers
To boost your social media following legitimately, focus on creating quality content that engages your audience and grows organically.
So, if you want to increase your social media following, don’t buy followers. It’s an unethical and ineffective way to do it, and in the long run, it will only hurt your business. Here are some alternatives to buying followers:
- Make your account public
This way, you can grow your audience organically when your content pops up on users’ explore pages, attracting and delighting your target viewership.
You can make your account public by unchecking the Private Account Box in your Privacy and Security settings.
- Create quality content
Give people a reason to follow you. Quality over quantity – don’t post just for the sake of posting. Post interesting and engaging content that will capture your audience’s attention. Use images, videos, and infographics to break up your text and add visual interest. Plan and create a content calendar so you know what you will post each day/week/month, and use the correct hashtags to reach a wider audience and increase engagement.
- You have to be social on social media.
The whole point of social media is to engage. We recommend hiring for at least 15 minutes a day. Like other people’s photos and leave thoughtful comments. Follow people who have similar interests and follow their followers. The point is to connect with other Instagram users on a personal level. This will help you build brand affinity.
Video Content
As social media platforms evolve, video content has become one of the most important ways to connect with your audience. Using videos to share your brand’s story, promote a product or service, or engage with customers and followers is a great way to reach more people and create a stronger connection with them. (Examples: Reels & TikTok Videos)
Focus on creating content that people will want to follow and share organically. We can help you with that! Our social media strategists know how to create content that engages your audience and drives traffic to your website.
Contact us today for more information!