Social media success is one of the most valuable marketing tools a company can have these days, so it can be tempting to buy Instagram followers in order to boost your follow count fast. The sudden surge in followers sounds appealing, we get it.

But it’s time to start thinking twice before you hit the “purchase” button on those fake followers. It’s a risky choice to make and at the end of the day, it’s really not worth it. Not to worry, though! There are plenty of ways to grow your Instagram naturally, without needing to buy followers.

Let us show you why you don’t want to buy Instagram followers and how you can instead boost your follow count naturally.

Top 3 Reasons Not to Buy Instagram Followers

1. Fake Followers Won’t Engage

Something that often gets overlooked in the social media world is the fact that the number of followers an account has isn’t the only important statistic. Beyond the three big numbers at the top of someone’s profile are the analytics. Analytics are provided by Instagram, and they show account owners how successful various posts are, along with other information. Included in the numbers provided by analytics is the engagement rate of an account.

Engagement displays how much an account’s followers interact with its posts, stories, etc. Having high engagement is very important when running a business account on Instagram because it shows that your brand has cultivated an online community that customers want to be a part of.

While buying Instagram followers makes your number of followers higher, this really just serves to create a bigger gap between the number of followers you have and the number of followers that interact with your posts.

Purchasing followers will bring down your engagement rates since fake followers do not like and comment on your posts, view your stories, etc. Plus, fake followers won’t purchase your products through your Instagram account, so you won’t be improving your sale rates, either.

It’s also important to keep in mind that, when you buy fake followers, they will likely bring spam to your account along with them. Fake followers may load down your posts with spammy comments or bring other spammy content to your page. This is bad for your account and can damage a brand’s reputation to any potential followers.

2. It Goes Against Instagram’s Terms of Service

When you create an Instagram account, you agree to the terms of service laid out by the site. One thing that you agree to is to not buy Instagram followers, so purchasing followers directly violates the agreement you made when you signed up.

This is dangerous because Instagram takes the time to remove fake accounts. If (or when) Instagram discovers that you have purchased fake followers, your account can get blocked or even banned, which is very bad news for your brand. If this happens, your account will be taken down for inappropriate activity, and it can be difficult to get reinstated on the app with a new account.

As we mentioned before, social media success is a vital marketing tool in the current age, so having your account banned from Instagram is much worse than undergoing a slow process of accumulating followers. In other words, the sudden influx of followers is not worth the risk of having your Instagram account blocked or banned when you buy Instagram followers.

3. Fake Followers Can Ruin Your Credibility

Purchasing followers can initially seem like a sneaky shortcut to Instagram success, but fake followers are easier to recognize than you may realize, especially when you know what you’re looking for.

It’s pretty easy to tell when someone has purchased fake Instagram followers, thanks to some dead giveaways. Anyone has the power to look at who follows an account. So, if your list of followers is filled with a bunch of fake accounts that have no posts or statistics of their own…it’s pretty obvious that these accounts are fake.

It also looks pretty suspicious when an account has a very high number of followers, but much lower numbers of likes and comments on their posts (there’s the engagement factor that we discussed earlier).

Brands and influencers are always on the lookout for red flags like these when they’re considering a collaboration with another brand. So, you’ll want to keep your reputation clean with these accounts so that they’ll be more inclined to collaborate with you.

Collaborations are an extremely valuable asset when it comes to social media growth and success, so it’s a good idea to do all that you can to make your account seem appealing to influencers and other brands.

They’ll know if you buy Instagram followers, so here’s yet another incentive not to!

3 Tips to Grow Followers with No Risk

1. Use an Organic Instagram Growth Service

There are all sorts of tools and methods out there to help you grow your Instagram account, so before you invest in one, take some time to see if the service is of high quality.

One important aspect to keep an eye on when it comes to Instagram growth services is whether the service is organic. These organic growth services don’t promise followers overnight, but they do help your account to build up follower numbers gradually and naturally over time.

Organic growth services will assist you in connecting with Instagram accounts similar to yours, thereby helping you to make a name for yourself in your brand’s online community. This will allow you to network and build professional relationships that’ll be helpful for marketing.

As you grow within your brand’s niche on social media, you will accumulate real Instagram followers. This will ensure that your account grows while you still follow all of the rules and don’t do anything to damage your account or your reputation within the Instagram community.

2. Work on Creating Better Content

If you’re considering purchasing fake followers, take a moment to think about why you might be facing this temptation. Why are accounts not coming to your page? Or, if they are, why are they not sticking around to follow you?

Maybe simply focusing on improving the content you publish will give your account the boost it needs to be successful on its own. Try diversifying your content and then analyzing the success rates of various posts to see what kinds of material are most effective with your particular audience.

For example, consider posting videos, hosting Instagram Lives, creating stories, and publishing IGTVs. Instagram has provided users with the opportunity to create all different kinds of creative content, so take advantage of this! Don’t be afraid to get creative with the material you post, and see what sort of content draws in new followers.

Another way to draw in new followers is by making sure that your page looks visually appealing. Start publishing posts that fit within a certain theme so that your grid looks aesthetically pleasing to viewers.

You can also optimize your bio by making sure that it accurately portrays who you are as a brand without using too many or too few words. If potential followers come to your page and see content that is interesting and exciting, they are more likely to stick around and follow your page.

And, when you post content that your followers like, your engagement rates will go up as they like, comment, and share your posts. This will help you to grow naturally, eliminating any need or temptation to buy Instagram followers.

3. Use Hashtags

One of the most effective tricks to have up your sleeve when it comes to obtaining Instagram success is the proper use of hashtags. The concept of optimizing your hashtag use may seem complicated or overwhelming at first, but it’s not all that bad in reality.

One thing to pay attention to when using hashtags is making sure that your hashtag is appropriate to your brand’s niche. You’ll want the hashtag to accurately portray what your brand is and be appropriate to the post that it accompanies. But, just make sure that it’s not too specific or too general.

Instagram uses hashtags to suggest the optimal accounts and posts to users in an effort to connect followers to accounts that will interest them. This is why you want your hashtags to be appropriate and specific to your account’s niche, while still being general enough to appeal to a wide range of real Instagram followers.

Users also have the ability to search for hashtags on Instagram, so consider this fact when you are designing a selection of hashtags for your posts — think about what sort of hashtags your potential followers would be most likely to search.

And, when including hashtags in your posts, perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is balance. You don’t want to use hashtags that are too long (overly specific, usually) or too short (usually too general). And you don’t want to use too few (not very effective) or too many (comes across as spammy).

This may sound overwhelming or confusing, but it’s all pretty simple stuff, and most of it falls under common sense. So, go with your gut when it comes to hashtags, and then take a moment to double-check yourself and make sure you’re following the tips we’ve discussed.

Wrapping It Up

Still, thinking about buying fake followers? Hopefully, the information we provided has helped you to understand the importance of growing your Instagram account naturally and without purchasing any followers.

There are many risks and downsides when it comes to buying Instagram followers, not to mention alternatives that help you still get to where you want to go. There are so many ways you can grow to Instagram popularity naturally, and the tips we included in this post are just a few to help get you started.

Hopefully, this information has given you a good place to start and provided you with some inspiration to optimize your own Instagram account. So, the next time you’re feeling tempted to buy Instagram followers, come back here for some reminders on the other options you have.

And, if you try out any of these tips, we want to hear all about it! So, get cracking on these helpful hints, and then come back and let us know how it goes for you in the comments!