Like any social network, Instagram has fake and bot profiles that could make their way to your account. While this can boost your followers in the short term, the lack of engagement will hurt your brand. In this guide, the snsflow.com team shows how to spot fake Instagram followers on your account and someone else’s.
Only real followers can get you the interactions you need to ride Instagram’s algorithm and grow your brand. With this in mind, it’s important that you learn how to tell these ghost accounts apart from real ones. By focusing on organic and real followers, you can guarantee your profile has a strong future ahead of it.
Why Are Fake Followers Bad?
Though fake accounts can make your profile look more popular, they come with many problems for your brand. They aren’t sustainable for long-term growth and even prevent you from making good business decisions. Here are just a few ways fake followers hurt your profile:
- Fake follower data: Do you think you have more fans than you actually do? This could affect your profile’s content strategy over time. For example, you might work to boost your engagement rate without realizing these followers will not interact with your content.
- Low engagement rate: With only real people following you, your likes and comments should grow with your follower count. However, bots can slow this down and leave you with a profile in poor health; this takes time to rebuild.
- Damaged brand credibility: Even if you don’t see the fake followers, others may notice and think less of your brand. People who view your account and spot spam profiles might believe you paid for fake bots just to look popular.
- Possible Instagram suspension: Instagram is always on the lookout for people trying to game their platform. This includes using spam or ghost followers. If the site thinks you’re trying to get around their terms of service, they might even delete your account.
How To Spot Fake Instagram Followers on Your Profile
Fake followers don’t just mean paid bot accounts. You might even have fake profiles that limit your brand. Learning how to identify these followers lets you get rid of them, such as by blocking or reporting their accounts. Here are the main signs you have fake followers:
1. Limited Engagement
If you have thousands of followers but just a few likes per post, many of these accounts may be fake. An engagement rate under 1% can point towards bot profiles. You should calculate this for yourself and see if the numbers fall below your expectations.
2. No Profile Details
Some people simply enjoy their privacy on Instagram, but empty accounts are a red flag. If your account has a lot of followers with no profile photo, for example, they might be fake. Blank bios and low follower counts can also be suspicious.
3. Spam Comments
If some of your followers post generic comments with no personality, they could be bots. In most cases, fake profiles leave no comments at all. However, bot-like comments might drive your real followers away. The accounts might even try to trick your followers into clicking their profile.
4. Unexplained Growth
Everyone hoping to build their brand on Instagram wants to wake up to dozens (if not hundreds) of new followers. If this happens to you, you should definitely check that these are all legitimate accounts. Otherwise, your account might be a new target for spambots.
How Do You Get Fake Instagram Followers?
There are many online services that offer fake Instagram followers at a low cost. Accounts wanting to inflate their brand might buy these, though a lack of engagement will lead to no long-term benefits. You can only buy the benefits of more followers if you get real ones who interact with your content. In either case, growing your business organically is the key to success.
It’s also possible for fake Instagram accounts to simply start following you for no clear reason. If this happens, it may raise alarm bells, but it’s often just because they mass follow accounts they come across. Locking your profile allows you to be more selective with the followers you let into your account. However, private profiles struggle to reach real followers beyond their network.
Big accounts and popular posts are far more likely to attract fake followers. This is because they can easily reach a lot of possible targets by commenting on a high-engagement post. Instagram bot followers are often a problem for accounts of all sizes, however. Fake profiles aren’t always a sign of someone trying to get ahead; virtually every account has some of its own.
Can You Get Free Instagram Followers?
The best way to get Instagram followers for free is to share high-quality content. Engaging with the genuine followers you already have should also boost your content even further. Some fake follower services offer free trials but will most likely save the best results for buyers. If you want to get more followers, you usually need to pay for quality.
Sites offering free followers might also have other ideas. For example, they might use your free trial to get your banking details. Alternatively, they may claim they need access to your account. If you decide to test out these services, be very careful. These low-quality profiles will never give the same results as real people choosing to follow your account.
Getting a surge of new followers generally takes time, money, or effort, sometimes all three. For example, you might spend both time and money building a strategy that shows which posts are most popular. Alternatively, you could use a high-quality paid follower service that actually helps your brand. Free Instagram followers might sound too good to be true — and it usually is.
Why You Should Use an Instagram Follower Tracker
Keeping an eye on your followers lets you make sure none of them are bots. It also gives you a full view of your audience and how you can create content they enjoy. Once you get over 10,000 followers, Instagram no longer displays the number in full. This means you could benefit from an Instagram follower tracker.
These tools read your profile data to turn, for example, 14.5K followers into 14,573. Knowing the specific number can show you if you’re losing or gaining followers; this is essential for long-term follower growth. Follower trackers usually take the form of a website where you can simply post your username and get an answer.
If your profile goes beyond 100,000 followers, you’ll only see the first three numbers. There may be a wide gulf of hundreds of followers you won’t be able to check. This might seem like a minor issue, especially with a high follower count. However, your account decisions may depend upon knowing if you’re steadily gaining new followers.
How To Tell if Someone Has Fake Followers
Just like with your own account, there are telltale signs of somebody having fake followers. Again, you should pay attention to their engagement rate. A social media profile with many followers but a low number of likes and comments could point toward ghost accounts. This may be due to spambots flooding their brand, but it can also suggest they don’t take care of their profile.
A fake influencer might use bot followers to inflate their popularity and get brand deals. In fact, roughly a quarter of Instagram’s influencers pay for fake followers. You can spot these tactics through spam comments that seem like real engagement at first glance. Figuring out how to tell fake Instagram followers allows you to quickly notice these signs and avoid suspicious profiles.
Instagram tries to cut down on fake followers, but new ones always spring up. When the website conducts a bot purge, you can usually tell because big accounts lose a lot of followers. If you’re wanting to learn how to tell if someone has fake followers, remember that almost everybody has them. The presence of ghost accounts doesn’t always mean someone is paying for them.
Why You Should Avoid Buying Instagram Bot Followers
With the right services, you could pay for high-quality followers on Instagram. However, some of these services still try to scam you by only offering bots. This may help you get ahead for a short while, but you might soon face worse engagement than ever. Instagram bot followers are never going to help you develop your account or brand.
You can spend your money on much better services, including ways to boost your profile. In some cases, buying an Instagram ad could give you the engagement you need. This allows you to reach potential customers for any products you offer. These new followers may stay with your account and could even become regular buyers in the process.
The answer to ‘How do you get fake Instagram followers?’ is to buy real ones instead. Some services offer organic account growth with genuine profiles who engage with your content. Their comments will be a lot more specific instead of defaulting to generic bot-like speech, for example. This is the only way to make sure your investment pays off.
Learning how to spot fake Instagram followers can show you which profiles to avoid or block. By focusing on real, organic growth, your brand will get better engagement. At snsflow.com, we can connect your Instagram with active accounts that help your brand thrive.
Our team can begin boosting your profile with likes, followers, and views immediately after your first payment. Contact the snsflow.com team today to discover for yourself how real followers beat fake ones every single time.
