One of the most important marketing goals of businesses today is building a strong presence online.  They do it in various ways – SEO, search engine marketing (SEM), creating compelling content, using influencers, or even using marketing platforms such as Click2sell.co, DOZ, etc. In today’s world, social media marketing (SMM) is becoming increasingly important if you are a business owner, and if you want to create awareness for your brand online.   

Instagram, now with over 1 billion monthly users, is one of the most preferred social media platforms by marketing professionals. There are currently 25 million businesses on this image-sharing platform and more than 1 million monthly advertisers. On average, 7 out of 10 hashtags on Instagram are names of brands. A considerable number of users discover and follow companies and brands on Instagram. Compared to Facebook, IG has a higher interaction and engagement rate. With all these compelling numbers, advertising a business or various products and services on Instagram should be prioritized. 

Organically attracting and engaging followers for your Instagram account can take time. That is the reason why some businesses opt to buy Instagram followers. If you’re planning to buy Instagram followers in order to have a big follower count, it can be done quite quickly. Several services could help you achieve that. There are varying opinions on whether businesses should buy Instagram followers or not. Like any other important marketing decision, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Here are some pros and cons of buying Instagram followers:  

Pros

• It boosts your social media presence.

If you want your business to be noticed within a short amount of time, you can purchase a small number of followers to start with. This follows the principle that followers bring in more followers. This also instantly enhances your brands’ presence on social media. This is a good way to jumpstart your business’s authority on Instagram. 

• It costs less than your digital marketing efforts.

It doesn’t cost too much to purchase Instagram followers. However, if you calculate how much it would cost you to build an organic following on Instagram, you might be surprised at how big the amount is in the long run. Therefore, buying followers is an affordable strategy to boost your social credibility, at least at the beginning. 

• It leads a client to your website.

Buying Instagram followers might affect your bottom line. If you get an increase of followers, then it could lead to potentially more new leads or even sales – always a great thing!  In order to ensure that customers are visiting your site or landing page, it’s recommended to add a relevant link in the bio.  

Cons

• There is a negative stigma associated with purchasing followers.

There is currently a negative stigma attached to buying Instagram followers. Once real followers of your brand find out that you have done this, they may get turned off as you appear to be ‘fake’ or phony.  As a result, there is a possibility that you could ruin your good reputation and that’s the last thing that you want to happen. 

• Many followers that you purchase might not be real people.

In most cases, the followers that you get to buy are a combination of fake profiles or bots and some legitimate users. Instagram is aware of this, and it is working hard to detect fraud and eliminate fake profiles or accounts with a lot of fake followers.  Your account can get flagged and suspended, or worse, terminated. 

• You may get early engagement, but it will eventually taper off.

Even if you have thousands of followers, it will not matter if they don’t engage with you. If you don’t get likes or comments, then it doesn’t matter. From a digital marketing perspective, it doesn’t look good if you have a lot of followers, but they’re not engaging with your content at all. If you don’t have ‘real’ followers, then your posts, no matter how great they are, are hidden from everyone except for your ‘fake’ audience.