Buying Followers is Risky – Grow Instagram Organically

As a social media consultant for small businesses, I‘m often asked about services like Hypez that promise quick and easy Instagram growth. But are these follower "growth hacking" services worth it? Or do they do more harm than good?

In my experience, buying followers or engagement is fraught with problems. Let‘s take an in-depth look at services like Hypez to see why you should avoid the temptation and focus on organic growth instead.

What is Hypez?

Hypez is an Instagram growth service that lets you buy followers, likes, views and comments to rapidly inflate your numbers. Packages start at $2.97 for 100 followers up to $69 for 10k.

At first glance, Hypez seems like an easy shortcut to growth. But looks can be deceiving…

Why Buying Followers is Risky

While services like Hypez deliver vanity metrics like followers fast, the results are unsustainable:

  • Fake and inactive accounts – Over 95% of purchased followers are likely bots, fakes or inactive users. This looks obviously inauthentic.
  • No demographic targeting – You can‘t select country, gender, age range or interests. Followers won‘t match your audience.
  • No real engagement – These ghost followers don‘t interact with your content. Your engagement rate tanks.
  • Account risk – Having fake or purchased followers violates Instagram‘s terms and could get you banned. It‘s simply not worth the risk.
  • No long-term strategy – These services just inflate numbers temporarily. They don‘t help build real relationships or grow your community.
  • Followers disappear – Up to 60% of purchased followers drop off within months. So you have to keep re-buying just to maintain counts.

As you can see, growth services like Hypez offer only short-term vanity metrics with many downsides. Let‘s look at smarter ways to grow.

Focus on Organic Instagram Growth

Here are a few organic growth strategies I recommend over buying followers:

  • Improve your content – Post high-quality photos and videos that engage your target audience. Use relevant hashtags.
  • Optimize your profile – Craft a compelling bio. Include a link to your website. Keep aesthetics on brand.
  • Engage followers – Reply to comments, ask questions in captions, jump into hashtags related to your niche.
  • Leverage influencers – Partner with microinfluencers in your industry to tap into their engaged followers.
  • Analyze performance – Use Instagram Insights to see what content works best. Find your optimal posting schedule.
  • Employ ads strategically – Use paid ads to complement organic efforts and reach new audiences. But start small.

The key is cultivating an audience that genuinely cares about your brand. Quality over quantity. Slower growth now leads to a more stable foundation for the long haul.

The Bottom Line

While growth hacking services like Hypez are tempting, focus on building relationships with real, engaged followers. Stay patient, consistent and strategic in your approach.

Buying followers or engagement is risky business with too many negatives. Always be skeptical of any tactic that seems too good to be true for Instagram growth. Trust that doing it the right way will pay off over time.