To buy or not to buy, that is the question. We know that nothing is quite as tempting as buying Instagram followers to give you a little boost.

You put in all that effort to create social media content, upload it and no-one sees it.

Only you know the point behind the content that you are creating. It could be to drive traffic be it to your website or service, which in turn leads to your business and creates much needed revenue.

Without followers, this can’t happen but that doesn’t mean you have to fake it till you make it.

 Here are 10 reasons why buying Instagram followers will not help your business in the long run:

• Fake followers = NO ENGAGEMENT

It will build your follower base but it will have no impact. Fake followers will not comment on your posts or even like your content.

• Fake followers make your marketing data inaccurate

Without real followers your posts are essentially hidden from everyone except the ones you bought and will throw your analytics and performance metrics way off so you won’t even know who or where to target your marketing,

• Fake followers put your reputation at risk

People will find out that you bought followers and you will no longer be deemed credible or authentic which will decrease any engagement you did initially build.

• Violation of platforms terms of service

Fake followers directly violate the terms of service on Instagram. The fine print on “You shall not participate in any “like”, “share”, “comment” or “follower” exchange programs which could have your account deleted if found out.

• Bots and spam

There are as many as 95 million Instagram bots which is approximately 9.5% of its total user base as of 2018 – these bots can assume the identity of a real people and spam with highly inappropriate comments.

•  Instagram will purge your account

Anyone remembers when many celebrity’s follower counts dropped significantly when Instagram carried out the purge and removed fake accounts on the app. They will find you, no matter who you are!

• Inactive accounts

Your posts will get no engagement and won’t show up on the explore pages or even on your real audiences’ newsfeeds.

• Fake Followers unfollow

Fake followers do not stay on your page long term and will unfollow you ready for the next person to purchase.

• Fake likes does not equal to real business

With no engagement you cannot make money from fake followers because all they do is make you appear more popular than you actually are with no ‘influence’.

• Buying followers is cash loss

Companies or individuals selling followers and making promises almost never deliver on their word.

So in 2021, let’s all sign up to the NOT BUYING FOLLOWERS resolution.