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Should You Buy Social Media Followers?
When you're promoting your business on social media platforms, it's challenging to make an impact on a very saturated market. When you have big dreams to achieve, it's only natural to want to take a shortcut to speed things up.
Buying likes and followers on social media can be tempting, especially if your profile is new and barely attracting followers. It sounds like a great idea to spend a little money to buy a couple of thousands of followers to give the impression of a higher engagement and earn trust from real people. It's so easy, and everyone's doing it, right?
But the thing with shortcuts like buying followers is it's never worth it.
Buying likes and followers is cheap and easy; that's true. But the results might not be what you expect at all. The next time you think about buying followers to make your social media profile look good, think again!
- It can ruin your credibility
- It will alienate your real followers
- Your account will be removed from the platform
- There are hidden costs
- Your profile will attract the wrong audience
- You might be reported by your own followers and be banned on social media
- You could attract followers who will harm your brand
When trying to build your business and develop a trusted brand, you don't cut corners or resort to cheap tricks. This will have a direct impact on your reputation. Buying likes won't make your business look good. It does the opposite; it will make your business appear shady to real users and the platform itself.
So many businesses have been removed unceremoniously by Instagram, and buying followers is one of the top reasons why.
5 Ways to Grow Your Social Media Following Without Buying Followers
Buying followers on social media can ruin your reputation, but don't fret. There are ways to grow your followers, boost user engagement, and develop a trusted brand without taking a shortcut. Instead of buying followers, here are the best strategies to try:
Focus on Engaging Your Ideal Customers
When buying fake profiles to make your business look good, you're not widening your reach. It's all for show. Worse, you might end up attracting people who could harm your reputation!
Instead of buying fake followers, focus on the followers you already have. Analyse your prospects, provide value, and understand their pain points to provide relevant content. The real people following your profiles offer a wealth of information that could lead to more followers. It's just a matter of looking at different angles and finding a promotional strategy that works to score leads and attract long-term customers.
Explore Different Content Forms
While many social media sites are known for specific forms of content, it will be good to diversify your repertoire by experimenting with different content styles.
For example, while Instagram is used to post beautiful images, you can also create short videos for its Reels and Story features. Facebook is often used for posting shoutouts or sharing links, but you can try live-streaming via its Facebook Live platform. Find what content gets the most attention from your followers.
Being creative in the presentation will attract more followers. It also allows you to leverage social media algorithms to learn the trending content on specific platforms, what content the platform favours, and use the data to your full advantage.
Protect Your Social Media Profile
Social media platforms have a zero-tolerance policy for fake profiles. If you're buying likes, you risk being banned by the platform, and if this happens, all your hard work will be down the drain once you get the boot.
Aside from being removed, your social media profile could open the doors for scammers, fraudulent activities, and spam if you buy likes and followers from fake profiles. Your real followers could also report your profile or posts and be removed from the platform.
Buying followers and similar transactions aren't regulated, so you cannot protect yourself from shady consequences. And social media channels have become better at spotting fake accounts. You don't want to wake up one day to see your profile with a 3M following being erased just like that!
Boost User Engagement
Brands that buy followers have very little engagement. This is especially noticeable on a post that gets tens of thousands of likes but zero comments. Fake profiles do not engage with the content, and posts with fake likes appear fake in real users' eyes.
When it comes to getting attention from real users and getting a follow, it's all about encouraging people to take action every time they see your post. You can post a giveaway, offer discounts, freebies, or interactive content to get your followers to join in the fun.
Reels, short how-tos, demos, and BTS (behind-the-scene) are popular on most social media platforms, so you should get great engagements with these types of content.
Protection from Spam Messages and Weird DMs
Why are some big brands getting hundreds of spam comments on every post? These brands likely purchased followers, and though the vendor may be a legitimate business, the followers they sell could open the doors for spam and fraudulent activities. That's because the vendors have zero control over fake profiles.
You could end up sabotaging your marketing efforts by unintentionally spamming your followers, tricking followers into giving their infos, receiving weird messages, and being hacked, essentially turning your profile into a cyber crime hot spot.
Instead of buying fake followers, you should actively remove fake or spammy profiles on your page. You can buy a tool for this or remove each one manually. Whatever it takes to keep your real followers feeling secure and safe as they interact with your content.
Foster Authentic Relationships
When you're buying cheap services to implement cheap tactics, there's no way to know if you'll get the results promised to you. You don't know if the vendor will deliver their promise. There's no way to tell if having thousands of fake followers will impact your brand image.
Rather than investing money in questionable strategies, why not focus on connecting with trusted brands and real users? Instead of opening yourself up to be scammed by companies that sell fake likes, why not collaborate with brands that can help you gain a wider reach, sell more products, and elevate your brand?
Making real, meaningful connections with trusted brands will lead to better exposure. You can propose joint campaigns, host giveaways, and provide sponsored posts to attract more followers without resorting to questionable practices.
Never risk your reputation. Buying followers may sound like a great idea, but the long-term effects will be hard to shake off. Providing value, collaborating with credible businesses, and fostering a deep sense of community are the best ways to build a trusted brand.
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