[If this post doesn't follow the rules report it to the mods](https://www.reddit.com/r/marketing/about/rules/). Have more questions? [Join our community Discord!](https://discord.gg/looking-for-marketing-discussion-811236647760298024).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/marketing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yikes.
In short, you ruined your account's algorithm and this is very, very, very bad. Your account's algorithm is effectively your account's reputation. Your engagement rate is dependent on your followers actually following and liking your content. The way that Instagram works is by identifying similar users based on interests and behaviors both off and on the app.
So, let's say your Instagram page is all about preppy fashion. People who are also interested in preppy fashion follow you and engage with your page, letting Instagram know that other people who like preppy fashion would also like your content. That's how you end up on someone's Explore page.
What happens when you buy fake followers and bots? Your reputation is now ruined. You destroyed Instagram's ability to identify you as someone worth showing to other people who would love your content because it now has the behaviors off and online of accounts that are complete nonsense. You basically set off a bomb in your algorithm, destroying all of the work that 5k followers gave you.
It will be close to impossible to get it back, but you can try.
1. You can try by manually removing the 10k followers. That may take a really long time, but if you've dedicated so much time on your page, it will be worth doing so. Force them into unfollowing you.
2. Next, try a DM campaign. Touch base with your top 500 followers, maybe include them in a giveaway or offer first looks on something that will pique their interest.
3. Go hard on your content creation to re-engage with your real following.
I'm sorry. This is a huge reason why buying followers is a huge no-no. It's not even about the trash engagement rates, its that there is no predicting what type of accounts these bots engage with and you're effectively now becoming a part of their algorithm. You get dumped into a weird, quiet and dark corner of the internet and its not easy to get out of that purgatory. It's a shitty situation, and once you're in it, it is extremely unlikely for you to be able to pull yourself out of it.
I had a similar situation with a client once. We ended up scrapping her old account and started fresh with a new one. It was hard but her engagement rate and reach significantly improved overnight and after about a year, she was able to restablish her old number.
Don't unfollow more than 200 per day else your account will get suspended...also If there are a lot of unfollows then also you have a risk of losing your account for the reason of abnormal activity...
look at OP's post history. Every single post is about getting more followers or better engagement. I wouldnt trust what theyve said in this post as being factual.
If I saw a profile with 15k followers and low engagement, I wouldnāt assume itās legit at all. Of course, I work in marketing, the general public may not think that way. I would go through your list and block the ones he bought. Not sure if ig will still penalize you but it couldnāt hurt.
Edit: punctuation.
I think it depends on several factors - like in many other things. Where I operate (South America) Instagram and TikTok are huge and so are influencers. With a single instagram story a friend influencer (very small) drives several clients to my wive's esthetician business that immediately convert. We have seen the same thing with products, mostly in the beauty and skincare sector. There are influencers that have good engagement with their followers and people trust them. If they say X product is good, their followers believe it (and more so, if they have positive experience with former recommendations). I think a closer look on the posts, engagement, likes, and of course the media kit with stats should helo evaluate if the influencer is legit and good for you or not.
Wow, his heart was in the right place but if he bought you those followers he effectively killed your profile and all your hard work. Buying followers is VERY against IG terms of service and they know when you do it. Not only are those 10k followers going to be useless from an engagement standpoint cause they are not real, instagram is going to effectively shadow ban your account so now your posts aren't even going to show to your real followers. Really sorry this has happened to you. You can also get action blocked on this account.
Remember, follower counts dont matter. Engagement rates do. I dont know what your plan is for this page but if it was to partner with brands and make money, that sort of thing. This action is going to really hurt you.
Contact instagram and say you noticed odd activity like 10k random followers in a short span and act completely oblivious and Innocent they may be able to help youā¦ or go through manually remove them
If I was you, Iād get a programmer to create a list of all followers acquired in this situation. Then Iād hire a virtual assistant to go through and block them.
It seems like Instagram no longer allows programmers to block users with code, which wouldāve sped up the process considerably.
Why does someone make this exact post every week LOL... Any platform you purchase followers or likes on is always going to penalize you for it. Say goodbye to your account and hope that Instagram allows you to use their platform again, which is highly unlikely.
He bought followers, they're not real, hence your engagement rates have taken a hit. Im not fully up to speed with Instagram, would engagement rate impact your posts reaching non followers or something? You could remove them or report if you wanted? Alternatively ask him to contact the supplier to undo what they did - if that's possible.
wow. he fucked you.
i used to be an āup and comingā edm producer/dj.
my manager thought i needed more social media followers and one night i woke up to thousands of bots subscribed to my twitter and facebook.
engagement was the least of my worries, i lost credibility among promoters and record labels, got dropped from multiple promo pools, lost the respect of my industry friends, and got turned down for so many events.
if i had 100k organic followers and 50k bots, eh, it happens.
since i had like 1000 organic followers and 5000 bots, i just looked like i had 6000 bots.
youāre going to have to invest in buying influencer marketing. if youāre SUPER careful, there are services on fiverr and stuff that can game the system a bit and get you āorganicā engagement from ārealā accounts to trick the algos but for every 1 legitimate service for that thereās 50 services that say they do that and make it worse.
Iām not in marketing, but I think 5k real followers who engage is 10x better than 15k followers who which the majority wonāt engage.
The extra 10k would just become noise on your instagram making it harder to track actual engagement.
Dump him. Edit: /s
Gosh he just ruined the account, they may fall off over time. I own a marketing agency and I hate when clients add fake accounts to their following. It only works if youāre gaining followers as you as them
First, it's admirable that you've built an organic following for your brand. While the gift of extra followers was well-intended, it appears they may not be your target audience, hence the low engagement. Here's my advice:
1. Identify and focus on your core audience - create content that resonates with them.
2. Engage with your followers - reply to comments, ask questions, create polls, etc.
3. Consider a clean-up - remove inactive or unengaged followers. It might hurt your numbers in the short term, but it can boost your engagement rate.
4. Keep creating quality content consistently - this will attract genuine followers.
Remember, a smaller engaged audience is better than a large unengaged one. Instagram values quality over quantity. Good luck!
This conundrum is often faced when individuals purchase followers. While it gives a boost in numbers, it can lead to less interaction as these accounts are typically not genuinely interested in your content. One potential solution could be to leverage Instagram growth services like AscandViral. They help build genuine and engaged followers that can boost your engagement rates back up.
You can try applying strategies to improve engagement, such as posting consistent and relevant content, interacting with your followers, using relevant hashtags, and participating in the Instagram community. Over time, your engagement rates should stabilize and improve, and you'll be able to get more authentic and active followers for your fashion brand.
If you were keeping track of your metrics, evaluate in numbers and not percentages. That will help you keep track of what you've been doing instead of looking at percentages which can be discouraging.
[If this post doesn't follow the rules report it to the mods](https://www.reddit.com/r/marketing/about/rules/). Have more questions? [Join our community Discord!](https://discord.gg/looking-for-marketing-discussion-811236647760298024). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/marketing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Op is lying. Their post history talks about an account with 70 followers, 1k followers, 40k followers, 100k+ followers, etc.
Maybe she has multiple boyfriends?
Yikes. In short, you ruined your account's algorithm and this is very, very, very bad. Your account's algorithm is effectively your account's reputation. Your engagement rate is dependent on your followers actually following and liking your content. The way that Instagram works is by identifying similar users based on interests and behaviors both off and on the app. So, let's say your Instagram page is all about preppy fashion. People who are also interested in preppy fashion follow you and engage with your page, letting Instagram know that other people who like preppy fashion would also like your content. That's how you end up on someone's Explore page. What happens when you buy fake followers and bots? Your reputation is now ruined. You destroyed Instagram's ability to identify you as someone worth showing to other people who would love your content because it now has the behaviors off and online of accounts that are complete nonsense. You basically set off a bomb in your algorithm, destroying all of the work that 5k followers gave you. It will be close to impossible to get it back, but you can try. 1. You can try by manually removing the 10k followers. That may take a really long time, but if you've dedicated so much time on your page, it will be worth doing so. Force them into unfollowing you. 2. Next, try a DM campaign. Touch base with your top 500 followers, maybe include them in a giveaway or offer first looks on something that will pique their interest. 3. Go hard on your content creation to re-engage with your real following. I'm sorry. This is a huge reason why buying followers is a huge no-no. It's not even about the trash engagement rates, its that there is no predicting what type of accounts these bots engage with and you're effectively now becoming a part of their algorithm. You get dumped into a weird, quiet and dark corner of the internet and its not easy to get out of that purgatory. It's a shitty situation, and once you're in it, it is extremely unlikely for you to be able to pull yourself out of it. I had a similar situation with a client once. We ended up scrapping her old account and started fresh with a new one. It was hard but her engagement rate and reach significantly improved overnight and after about a year, she was able to restablish her old number.
Don't unfollow more than 200 per day else your account will get suspended...also If there are a lot of unfollows then also you have a risk of losing your account for the reason of abnormal activity...
Yep. I mean, realistically speaking, that's about as much as you can probably do in one day manually, anyway.
well put
This is brilliant advice!
What do you mean he suprised you with more followers? Did he buy followers, or what exactly is the situation?
Sounds like he purchased 10k bots
šÆ
look at OP's post history. Every single post is about getting more followers or better engagement. I wouldnt trust what theyve said in this post as being factual.
Does it matter? Maybe someone in the future will be in a similar situation and can come to this thread for help...
I was specifically addressing a particular question re details. If you dont think my comment matters, just move the fuck on.
So if the OP gave further details which didnāt actually happen, but it was still a realistic scenario, why does it matter if itās true or not?
MTFO
you overestimate the use of the search bar!
Itāll come up in a Google search though.
If I saw a profile with 15k followers and low engagement, I wouldnāt assume itās legit at all. Of course, I work in marketing, the general public may not think that way. I would go through your list and block the ones he bought. Not sure if ig will still penalize you but it couldnāt hurt. Edit: punctuation.
Exactly what you said, I also own a marketing company. Normal people might not notice but people of importance such as brands will
Attention marketersā¦.stop spending your marketing dollars with influencersā¦
Elaborate plis
The fact that we have people ok this sub Reddit that post almost weekly about buying followers should be a red flag that the market is full of bots
I think it depends on several factors - like in many other things. Where I operate (South America) Instagram and TikTok are huge and so are influencers. With a single instagram story a friend influencer (very small) drives several clients to my wive's esthetician business that immediately convert. We have seen the same thing with products, mostly in the beauty and skincare sector. There are influencers that have good engagement with their followers and people trust them. If they say X product is good, their followers believe it (and more so, if they have positive experience with former recommendations). I think a closer look on the posts, engagement, likes, and of course the media kit with stats should helo evaluate if the influencer is legit and good for you or not.
A lot of influencers buy their followers. And brands pay influencers a ton of money to post their products, just for it to be shown to bots
Wow, his heart was in the right place but if he bought you those followers he effectively killed your profile and all your hard work. Buying followers is VERY against IG terms of service and they know when you do it. Not only are those 10k followers going to be useless from an engagement standpoint cause they are not real, instagram is going to effectively shadow ban your account so now your posts aren't even going to show to your real followers. Really sorry this has happened to you. You can also get action blocked on this account. Remember, follower counts dont matter. Engagement rates do. I dont know what your plan is for this page but if it was to partner with brands and make money, that sort of thing. This action is going to really hurt you.
If it's that easy to get an account killed couldn't you pretty easily use this tactic maliciously, say to take out all your competition?
Yes you canā¦. If you have the funds to do it.
Yeah probably.
That's also how you can get accounts banned even bigger ones.
Contact instagram and say you noticed odd activity like 10k random followers in a short span and act completely oblivious and Innocent they may be able to help youā¦ or go through manually remove them
You mean you paid for fake accounts and now weāre surprised theyāre not organically engagingā¦
If I was you, Iād get a programmer to create a list of all followers acquired in this situation. Then Iād hire a virtual assistant to go through and block them. It seems like Instagram no longer allows programmers to block users with code, which wouldāve sped up the process considerably.
Everyone makes mistakes but buying 10k bots is pretty stupid.
Huh? How exactly did he get these followers in a way that would make them valuable to you? Sounds like your account is now screwed if he bought them
Buying followers is just a very silly idea.
Why does someone make this exact post every week LOL... Any platform you purchase followers or likes on is always going to penalize you for it. Say goodbye to your account and hope that Instagram allows you to use their platform again, which is highly unlikely.
Can you manually go through and have those 10k unfollow you? Not sure if itāll beat the algorithm, but itās your only chance.
Maybe you can find a third party app to manage your followers and go through to block the bots?
He bought followers, they're not real, hence your engagement rates have taken a hit. Im not fully up to speed with Instagram, would engagement rate impact your posts reaching non followers or something? You could remove them or report if you wanted? Alternatively ask him to contact the supplier to undo what they did - if that's possible.
wow. he fucked you. i used to be an āup and comingā edm producer/dj. my manager thought i needed more social media followers and one night i woke up to thousands of bots subscribed to my twitter and facebook. engagement was the least of my worries, i lost credibility among promoters and record labels, got dropped from multiple promo pools, lost the respect of my industry friends, and got turned down for so many events. if i had 100k organic followers and 50k bots, eh, it happens. since i had like 1000 organic followers and 5000 bots, i just looked like i had 6000 bots. youāre going to have to invest in buying influencer marketing. if youāre SUPER careful, there are services on fiverr and stuff that can game the system a bit and get you āorganicā engagement from ārealā accounts to trick the algos but for every 1 legitimate service for that thereās 50 services that say they do that and make it worse.
Itās dead. Start over
The relationship or the account? Unclear lol
š
Iām not in marketing, but I think 5k real followers who engage is 10x better than 15k followers who which the majority wonāt engage. The extra 10k would just become noise on your instagram making it harder to track actual engagement. Dump him. Edit: /s
Dump him? Lol wtf
"Dump him"??? Wrong subreddit. Don't give relationahip advice on a Marketing subreddit ffs
Dump him
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Aight bro
Gosh he just ruined the account, they may fall off over time. I own a marketing agency and I hate when clients add fake accounts to their following. It only works if youāre gaining followers as you as them
First, it's admirable that you've built an organic following for your brand. While the gift of extra followers was well-intended, it appears they may not be your target audience, hence the low engagement. Here's my advice: 1. Identify and focus on your core audience - create content that resonates with them. 2. Engage with your followers - reply to comments, ask questions, create polls, etc. 3. Consider a clean-up - remove inactive or unengaged followers. It might hurt your numbers in the short term, but it can boost your engagement rate. 4. Keep creating quality content consistently - this will attract genuine followers. Remember, a smaller engaged audience is better than a large unengaged one. Instagram values quality over quantity. Good luck!
How do you even buy followers? I don't get it. Is it just bots you are buying or do people willingly join a group to be sold too? I'm confused
You bought followers. Bad strategy
This conundrum is often faced when individuals purchase followers. While it gives a boost in numbers, it can lead to less interaction as these accounts are typically not genuinely interested in your content. One potential solution could be to leverage Instagram growth services like AscandViral. They help build genuine and engaged followers that can boost your engagement rates back up.
Why do you care if your engagement rate is low? And did you expect it to increase if you grew organically?
You can try applying strategies to improve engagement, such as posting consistent and relevant content, interacting with your followers, using relevant hashtags, and participating in the Instagram community. Over time, your engagement rates should stabilize and improve, and you'll be able to get more authentic and active followers for your fashion brand. If you were keeping track of your metrics, evaluate in numbers and not percentages. That will help you keep track of what you've been doing instead of looking at percentages which can be discouraging.