Why You Should Never Buy Followers on Social Media

Buying followers can be tempting. Everyone wants to grow their social media following quickly but sometimes you're better off being patient. 

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Buying followers will often result in more trouble than you bargain for. Here are a few reasons why bought followers are an absolute no no. 

Bought Followers aren't Real - 

We're talking about the 'F' word here. Fake. Not only are fake followers obvious to even an untrained eye, they don't bring you any of the perks that real, organically grown followers can. They won't like or retweet you - they are just dead accounts. 

To make it worse, if someone wants to check, there are apps out there that tell you how many fake followers a user has. People will know if you're trying to pull the wool over their eyes.

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If you are interested in trying one of these apps out on your enemy, try Status People. It will give you a breakdown of how many inactive users they have, how many are deemed "good" and how many are "fake." You can try this out on your own account and despite never paying for followers, you're bound to have a few fake already - so don't let this spiral out of control by buying more.

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No Engagement Means No Growth -

As I said above, fake followers aren't going to engage with you on any level. If people don't engage with you and share your obviously brilliant tweets, then no new users are going to see you and your followers simply won't increase.

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It's common sense. 

If you want your account to grow you've got to get people talking with you and about you. The more your name spreads around, the more likely people are going to click on your username and follow you.

If you go out and engage with them, they're more likely to engage back. 

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Don't Confuse Followers with Audience -

If you have ever looked at your insights/analytics you might have seen the words "reach" or "impressions" floating about. This is your audience. Whilst your followers gives you a good idea of how well you're targeting your posts and who you appeal to most, the number of people you reach is a more accurate audience figure.

You may only have 10 followers but you can reach 1 million people with the right post, conversely you can have 1 million followers who are all fake and reach only 10 people.

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Finally, Bought Followers Don't Look Good - 

Most of the time bought followers don't have profile pictures. So if someone happens to take a look at your followers and they're all faceless, it's pretty obvious where they've come from.

A lot of the time when you buy your followers you don't get a say in what sort of account you'll get following you. This means that they might be from the wrong countries, speak the wrong languages or maybe be the wrong gender or age.

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If you grow your account organically, you can make sure you're only getting followers who are of the right demographic. This will help your overall credibility which on social media can be vital. Followers are famous for judging everything on face value - if your account doesn't look good, it simply won't grow.

Bearing all that mind, we think it's best you avoid paying for followers and do things the right way.

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Megan Herdson

Megan is a country girl who moved to the city with some big dreams. She is studying her MA in Creative Writing whilst also managing an American Football Team.  She loves her blog and wants nothing more than to have her words read. That and to win the Championship, obviously. Follow her @MeganAtSMF

 

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