Are you thinking of buying fake Instagram followers to boost the popularity of your account after finding it hard to do so organically? Buying fake Instagram followers could be an option for you but there’s a lot of information you need to learn before you take the plunge.
Here’s how to do so cautiously.
What Are Fake Instagram Followers?
Fake Instagram followers, as the name suggests, are Instagram accounts that are used to inflate someone’s follower count. Oftentimes, fake Instagram accounts have no profile pictures and just enough info in their profiles to avoid being detected as bots. Their usernames also often consist of a series of random numbers, letters, and symbols but some services randomly generate more realistic usernames to make them less obviously fake.
Some fake Instagram accounts are ghost followers meaning they only serve as an addition to an account’s follower count meanwhile others are bots that can conduct automated functions like liking, posting fake comments, replies and sending friend requests.
In recent years, a number of companies started to emerge that sell fake Instagram followers as well as likes and comments to any person or company willing to boost their Instagram’s activity.
How Common Are Fake Instagram Followers?
Instagram remains as one of the biggest social media platforms to exist, with approximately 2 billion monthly active users, according to data published by Statista in January 2023.
Anyone who spends a significant amount of time on the social media platform is prone to eventually run into an Instagram account with oodles of fake followers. The telltale sign is an account with thousands and thousands of followers but with extremely poor engagement on their posts.
Joe Karasin, the chief marketing officer and founder of Karasin PPC told Business2Community:
“It is very common to see accounts with fake followers. This trend began to pick up steam around the time that influencers became more and more popular on Instagram. In an effort to make their accounts seem more valuable and hence command more money for their services, unscrupulous influencers were inflating their follower counts to garner more money.”
According to an article published by Kicksta.co it is estimated that one in 10 Instagram accounts are fake which makes it to about 95 million fake accounts on the platform. However, an exact estimate is hard to find as fake Instagram accounts are constantly created and deleted and it’s often impossible to tell if a basic account is fake or not as there are plenty of real people with empty Instagram accounts.
Karasin added that people choose to purchase fake Instagram followers for a number of reasons including surging the popularity of their account and give social media influencers more “credibility”.
“The reality is that most have gotten wise to this and actually delve deeper into the engagement statistics to see if the ‘followers’ of an account are engaging with the content at all,” he added.
How Much Do Fake Followers Cost?
The cost of fake Instagram followers can vary widely depending on several factors including the number of followers someone wants, the quality of the accounts and the service or provider they choose.
How to Buy Fake Instagram Followers
If buying fake Instagram followers is something you are considering for your business here is a step-by-step guide on how you can proceed.
1. Choose a company
A number of companies that specialize in the sale of fake Instagram followers have started to emerge.
You can find the biggest by Googling certain keywords such as “buy Instagram followers”.
It is important to note, however, that many of these services are not verified so it is important to conduct your own research before trusting any of them with your payment information.
2. Pick Your Plan
Companies selling fake Instagram followers offer customers an array of plans which would be best suited for them. Research the plans available and choose the best for you depending on your business needs.
Many of these plans include the number of followers you would like to acquire and any extra “perks” like boosting likes on posts as well as comments.
And voila! You are all ready to go.
What Happens When You Get Caught Buying Instagram Followers
Of course, purchasing fake Instagram followers is not the most ethical way to boost your social media page and comes with significant risk. If Instagram finds out that you are buying fake followers it may ban your account permanently. Perhaps even worse is that if your community or the general public discover that you are buying fake Instagram followers, you will loose a considerable amount of credibility in their eyes.
Karasin noted:
“Among many of Instagram’s rules, not one bans the purchasing of followers. Your account will eventually be seen as less credible as a result, which is never good for a business account. Influencers, if caught, will most likely get exposed and their ability to command higher rates for their work will diminish. In essence, it is a bad idea to buy followers for an Instagram account.”
What About Fake Followers on Other Social Media Platforms?
Purchasing fake social media followers is possible on any social media platform and is prevalent on most.
Twitter has been famously known to be home to many spam and bot accounts which Elon Musk had brought up on several accounts prior to purchasing the social media application.
Is Buying Fake Followers on Instagram Worth It?
Buying fake followers could be a fast way to boost the popularity of your page, however, not the most effective.
Karasin, speaking from first-hand experience, noted that while purchasing fake Instagram followers could be a good way to “window dress” a company’s Instagram page, they do tend to make the page look spammy, downgrading its credibility.