Why You Shouldn’t Buy Followers
Have you ever felt frustrated because your brand just can’t get enough followers on social media? If so, you’re not alone. At Personalized Creative, we often hear from business owners who aren’t seeing the numbers they want online. They call us looking for some help to gain momentum on their social media accounts.
The competition for followers is fierce, and many business leaders are tempted to just buy their way out of the problem. The logic goes like this: if your social media accounts have tons of fake followers, real social media users will be impressed by your “head count.” Then, they’ll start following your accounts too!
Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way. Buying followers is not only unsuccessful most of the time, it can also harm your brand reputation and your marketing momentum. Keep reading to learn more about why buying followers is a bad idea and how you can replace it with more effective strategies.
Why is Buying Followers Such a Bad Idea?
Buying followers looks like an easy solution to your problems, but in the end it just creates more problems to solve. Let’s take a look at a few of these.
Buying Followers Creates Dead Weight in Your Social Media Communities
Sure, your metrics might surge when you buy followers, but in this case, quality matters more than quantity. Bought followers aren’t actually going to contribute to your community. They won’t comment on your posts, buy your products, or offer feedback. A social media account full of inactive followers isn’t a good look. Focus on fostering real engagement from a small community of real followers, and you’ll see more dividends in the long run.
Buying Followers Confuses the Algorithms that Determine Your Visibility
Unfortunately, adding fake followers to your social media accounts can become a form of self-sabotage. Social media platforms use complex algorithms to determine what content appears on users' feeds. In general, content with higher engagement rates will be favored by the algorithm. But what if your account is full of fake followers who don’t actually engage? Your posts will be classified as “low engagement” content, and it will be deprioritized in users’ feeds. Ironically, adding fake followers can prevent real followers from actually seeing your posts.
Buying Followers Isn't a Good Look for Your Brand
When it comes to marketing, trust is everything. Buying followers is a quick way to violate your audience’s trust. Today’s social media consumers are typically very knowledgeable about the platforms they use. If you buy fake followers, your real followers will quickly figure out what’s going on, and your brand reputation will take a hit.
Buying Followers Can Violate the Terms of Service on Your Platform of Choice
Many social media platforms do not allow users to buy followers for engagement. In fact, their terms of service often prohibit these actions in black and white. If your account is found to violate these terms, you could be suspended from the platform or even banned completely. Sure, you might get away with it for a while– but is the risk really worth it?
Buying Followers Won’t Help You Understand Your Audience Via Social Media
Social media is an excellent way to boost your brand visibility. It’s also a powerful tool that can help you really understand your audience. Whether they’re excited about a new product release, frustrated by customer support issues, or wondering how to use their new product, your audience wants to be heard. That’s another reason why you shouldn’t allocate energy and resources to padding your accounts with fake followers. By deeply engaging with your real audience instead, you’ll gain insight that can lead to better results.
What Can You Do Instead of Buying Followers?
There are plenty of proven strategies that may help you jumpstart your digital marketing strategy.
A few of our favorites include:
Creating high-quality content that users actually want to watch or read
Running targeted ad campaigns powered by insights gained from data analytics
Engaging with your audience through authentic conversations
Collaborating with influencers to boost your brand reputation
As tempting as it might be, the risks involved with buying followers outweigh any short-term benefits. The path to successful marketing is a marathon, not a sprint, so you can’t sacrifice long-term stability for immediate wins.
Wondering how to take your digital marketing game to the next level? The team of passionate, experienced professionals at Personalized Creative is ready to work with you. Call us today and learn more about how we can help!