Sure, huge following numbers on social media look impressive and almost become a status measurement. Unfortunately, to achieve that high following, many users turn to fake followers, which is better known as bots.

You may be thinking having thousands of followers on your business Instagram means that it will look like people are interested in your brand plus having a massive following will make your following grow even bigger by giving your page more exposure.

Hmm.. That may have been the case at one point, but it hasn’t been for a long time. It’s been said on every other blog post about Instagram but it’s worth repeating… Organic. Reach. Is. Almost. Non-existent. Particularly for those who are not already following your brand… Plus, the fact that followers/fakers can be bought isn’t a top secret.

Users are thankfully getting sharper. While it makes complete sense for Wendy’s to have over 3.4 million Twitter followers and over 8.5 million likes on Facebook, it would be a little odd for Mary’s local family restaurant to get anywhere near those numbers, except if Ellen promoted Mary and her lovely hot cross buns and then Nasa wanted to put those hot cross buns on the moon.

Here’s five reasons why you shouldn’t pay for fake followers/fakers.

1. Buying fakers will get you banned/punished by Instagram.

Is a short-term high of seeing your follower count fly up worth the risk of permanent punishments from Instagram? (Spoiler, it’s not.)

If you buy fake followers, it’s almost the digital equivalent of a professional athlete taking steroids. You may not get caught for a little while or notice any negative changes… But in hindsight, but when your purchase catches up with you there will be significant blowback for your business.

Did you know as of May 2018, Facebook/Instagram closed 583 million fake profiles. In July 2018, The Washington Post reported Twitter had suspended 70 million suspected fakers. It really is only a matter of time before Instagram and other platforms punish those further who have an unusually large number of fake followers. It’s ruining the platforms at the end of the day.

2. No one cares what your follower count is anymore.

Of course we all secretly love the validation that seeing our followers growing, we’re human. The harsh reality when it comes to digital marketing is that a simple follow means absolutely nothing. When I speak with my clients, I cannot explain enough how important impressions and engagement is and that being what we need to focus on. It’s so much more important to have 100 engaged followers than 500,000 bots that you purchased from a click farm who don’t exist and provide zero engagement.

3. Say goodbye to your analytics.

Let’s put it this way, you bought a million followers. You post your first photo with your new following expecting thousands of likes but it doesn’t happen. You realise only 1,000 are legitimate (if you get lucky) and respond to your posts, you have an engagement rate of 0.1 percent. That’s simply embarrassing, suggests your content is dull and shows the pointlessness in bragging about following size. You will not be taken seriously, people are catching on to fakers.

To compare, a company that has 1,000 followers and 200 engaged followers has an impressive engagement rate of 20 percent. While these numbers would be incredibly low for an international or even a national brand, they are actually pretty good numbers for a local business.

4. It’s a huge waste of money

You would be so much better off spending fakers money elsewhere... Anywhere… Coffee for your team. I beg of you to not fall victim of websites that tempt you with these unrealistic promises of thousands of “real” followers for a small fee. Are you seriously willing to use a perfectly good 20 pounds for an imaginary temporary victory? Use it for a small day advert promoting your business, you’ll get a lot more from that.

I am really struggling to find a good reason to buy fake followers, there isn’t any. Sure, you may get a decent dopamine rush from your increasing follower count until your first post after buying fakers. Fake followers are just buying an award to “show off” because you couldn’t be bothered to take the time or effort to earn it yourself. It may take a while/five minutes for people to catch on, but when they do find out you will lose all credibility.

5. Fakers are irreversible

This is the big one. Once you purchase your fakers, that’s it. Yes, in hindsight you could go through and block all the new followers manually… How many thousands do you want to buy again? Even by blocking the fakers, your account will forever be punished by Instagram, say goodbye to ranking well on their algorithm, verification and more.

The only way to fix it once you make the purchase is to simply make a brand new account. Please, please don’t do it.

Written by Robbie