As a small business consultant who assists entrepreneurs with social media growth, I‘m often asked about sites like Boost My Followers that promise instant Instagram followers. At first glance, it can seem appealing – who wouldn‘t want thousands of new followers delivered in mere hours?
However, as an industry expert, I always advise clients to steer clear of services selling fake engagement. Here‘s an in-depth look at why Boost My Followers is not worth the risk.
The Perils of Buying Followers
While buying followers may seem like a quick fix to inflate your numbers, it can seriously backfire in the long run. Here are some of the major risks:
- Poor engagement – Fake followers are bots or inactive accounts, not real people, so they do not like, comment on or share your content. This tanks your engagement rate.
- No sales – Followers purchased in bulk may get you vanity metrics, but they won‘t convert to real customers or lead to revenue.
- Penalized by Instagram – Using third-party sites for fake engagement violates Instagram‘s terms of service. You risk account suspension or banned hashtags.
- Distrust from real followers – Savvy users can spot fake followers and may unfollow you or doubt your legitimacy.
- Reputation damage – If word gets out you bought followers, it can ruin your brand‘s credibility and trustworthiness.
As you can see, while fake followers may temporarily inflate your follower count, the costs far outweigh this superficial gain.
How to Spot Fake Followers
When evaluating a service like Boost My Followers, it helps to be able to detect fake followers. Here are some telltale signs:
- Generic, meaningless usernames like "user489593"
- No profile photo or stolen images for profile pics
- Zero or very low post count
- No followers and following hundreds of accounts
- Bot-like engagement behavior of liking hundreds of posts in minutes
These are clear indicators you are getting mere bot accounts rather than active, genuine Instagram users.
Real-Life Consequences
What happens when brands get caught buying fake followers? Here are just a few cautionary tales:
- Walmart – After an influencer marketing campaign, Walmart gained over 130,000 followers in 2 weeks. Instagram quickly deleted them for violating policies. Their reputation took a major hit.
- Martha Stewart – The lifestyle guru lost over 250k followers when Instagram culled fake accounts. This damaged her status as an influencer.
- Kim Kardashian – The mega influencer lost over 1 million followers in Instagram‘s 2018 purge of fake accounts. This precipitously dropped her follower count.
As you can see, even huge brands get burned when they manipulate followers. It‘s always better to build your audience organically.
Going Organic is the Only Sustainable Path
While growth hacking tactics like follower buys seem tempting, they don‘t support long-term growth. As a consultant, I always stress organic growth methods with clients:
- Optimize hashtags and locations
- Engage followers and like niche content
- Run promotions and contests
- Partner with micro-influencers
- Create shareable content and Reels
- Advertise selectively with Instagram Ads
It takes more time and effort than buying followers, but organic growth aligns with Instagram‘s algorithm and will serve you well in the long haul.
Experts Agree: Don‘t Buy Followers
I‘m not alone in warning against buying Instagram followers. Social media thought leaders also strongly advise against it:
"Fake followers can make your audience lose trust in your brand. It‘s always better to grow your presence organically." – Gary Vaynerchuk
"Any kind of manipulation or ‘hacking‘ on social media just isn‘t sustainable. Nothing beats good old-fashioned creativity and persistence." – Brian Peters, CEO at Bombbomb
"It may be tempting to take shortcuts, but anything inauthentic will ultimately backfire. Focus on delivering value." – Nehal Kazim, Co-Founder of Jux Media
The consensus among experts is clear – skip the fakes and do the work to grow your followers the right way.
My Experience as a Consultant
In my practice, I‘ve seen the fallout of fake followers firsthand with clients:
- A wellness blogger who tanked her engagement rate overnight.
- An ecommerce company who got banned from Instagram hashtags.
- An influencer who lost brand deals after being exposed.
I‘ve learned there are no shortcuts – put in the work creating content, optimizing hashtags, engaging your niche, and partnering strategically with other accounts.
Boost My Followers makes big promises but delivers only artificial followers. Trust me, I‘ve seen the damaging results. Invest your time and resources into growing organically instead. Your audience will reward you for it.
