I have never completely understood the concept of purchasing "followers" on social media. Although, after some contemplation, it would appear that it is ultimately derived from the idea of wanting to appear more popular as an individual, or to make your business, product or service appear more successful than it may actually be in reality?
If you have found yourself purchasing followers in the past, or if you have ever contemplated purchasing them, I'd like to share Laura Nunemaker's 5 main reasons why you absolutely shouldn't!
1. The 'followers' you have purchased are not your customers or clients
This is particularly relevant if you own a business of your own, or if you represent an organization/company trying to sell products, services or experiences. The followers you have purchased, will not be interacting with you in any meaningful way, and will consequently not be spending any money with you. In fact, its unlikely that they are even real people.
So, you have to ask yourself, what is actually the point?
The purpose of social media is NOT to have the largest following, but rather to be able to connect and engage with people. And, if you are a business, those people are all potential clients! If you're not engaging with anybody because you've purchased a bunch of computer generated bots, then what is the point?
2. A reduction in overall engagement
Adding hundreds, or even thousands of followers that do not interact with your account actually results in a decrease in the percentage of engagement on your account, which in the long term, will act against you!
The computer generated algorithms of Facebook and Instagram respectively would associate a marked reduction in engagement on your account with the mere fact that people aren't at all interested in your feed.
The result?
The algorithm will allow fewer of your posts into the news feed organically, meaning you reach fewer people, and engage with even fewer. A viscous circle of sorts!
3. A waste of money!
If your posts aren't reaching as many people, and your engagement is dwindling, you are forced to spend money on adverts to boost your posts. But, all you will be doing is essentially boosting your posts to reach the fake followers that you've already bought!
So, you've spent money buying followers, and now you'll need to spend additional money placing adverts... doesn't seem like the most financially logical decision to me?
4. Spam
The fake followers that you've spent your money on, now have access to your account, and would use this to their own advantage to push spam and adverts to your followers! This is not so great for your 'true' followers, who are now likely to un-follow you on the basis of meaningless spam.
5. Reputation Damage
Perhaps most important of all, is the potential damage to reputation either in your personal capacity, or that of the organization which you represent. What it demonstrates, is that you've sought the 'easy way out' instead of putting in the hard work required to build a true following organically.
In summary...
Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are incredibly powerful, and they are a great way to share valuable and meaningful material with people. Like I've already mentioned, social media is ultimately about positive social engagement and interaction.
If you think social media is about how many followers you can gather up, and how many likes and shares you can achieve, you've missed the point entirely!
There is no replacement for simply having the right attitude! Hard work, and dedication to your profession will always triumph over those who take short-cuts.
Be HONEST, be TRUE to YOURSELF, be REAL, and be AUTHENTIC!
Especially during these times, people want to connect with real people, the beauty of it all is that we are all unique and that should be our focus and what we should be putting online.
DON'T BE SOMEONE YOU'RE NOT!
It's the only way!
Until next time,
Trevor
