Growing the number of followers on your social networks is an arduous task, requiring several months of intensive work from your marketing managers. For this reason, many companies choose to buy followers – a strategy for rapid growth. However, in the medium to long term, this is not a viable strategy and could harm your account.
In today’s article we explore the dangers of buying followers and we’ll give you some tips to grow your social networks.
Why do you buy followers?
Social media management is more demanding than some might think, and getting results takes time. In this sense, several companies opt for shortcuts to convey the impression that they are successful. These are the main reasons for buying followers:
- Perception of Popularity: Many companies buy followers to appear popular and increase their social proof. As a rule, these companies consider that having a wide network of followers will make them appear more credible and trustworthy, and thus attract more real followers.
- Quick results: as we mentioned, getting results on social networks takes time and many hours of work. Buying followers boosts the number of followers on your networks, making it look like they have a larger audience and more interaction than they actually do.
- Lack of understanding: many companies do not understand the importance of having real followers, with genuine interactions with their publications, not being aware of the consequences of this action.
What are the consequences of buying followers?
When buying followers, we are bringing fake and inactive accounts, which will not interact with our content. Therefore, this action does not bring us any benefit, and may even bring problems to both our account and our online reputation.
Here are the main consequences of buying followers:
- Fake followers: Most self-purchase followers are fake accounts generated by bots. These accounts will not interact with our account, which will lower the engagement rate.
- Account suspension: Social media platforms are actively working to detect and delete fake followers, and if they detect that your business is buying followers, your account could be penalized, including being permanently suspended. Thus, when buying followers, you are risking the existence of your account, as well as the possibility of reaching your audience on social networks.
- Loss of credibility: sooner or later, your real followers are likely to realize that you bought followers, damaging your credibility and, consequently, trust in your brand.
How to sustainably grow your audience?
As with any other marketing activity, to grow your social networks you need to outline a strategy. Here are some essential tips for formulating your strategy:
- Defining your target audience: It is the first step of any strategy. Before starting any work, you need to understand who you want to talk to. Who is your ideal client? What are their interests and what kind of content are they looking for? Understanding your target audience will help you customize your content to their interests, making them more likely to follow your account.
- The key to success is consistency. Sharing content that is relevant to your target audience will help you attract more followers.
- Using hashtags: Hashtags are a great way to reach a wider audience. When you use hashtags relevant to your business, your posts will appear in search results for those hashtags, exposing your content to users who most likely wouldn’t have found it otherwise.
- Collaborate with content creators. Partnering with content creators in your niche market can help you reach new audiences and grow your following.
- Turn to advertising. Use advertising options made available by platforms, such as promoting a certain post or your account. With advertising you will be able to reach more people and increase your number of followers.
- Measure results and adjust the strategy. It is essential to measure your results! Use analytics tools to measure your results and adjust your strategy accordingly. Regularly monitoring your results will help you understand what is working and what is not, allowing you to make decisions about what to do next.
Growing your social networks requires a huge investment of time and effort on your part. However, with a good strategy in place, you can build a strong community that relates to your content. Remember that your focus should be on offering value to your audience!