How to Buy Instagram Followers? (The right way)
It seems like everyone buys Instagram followers.
In August 2019, the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance carried out an audit on the Instagram accounts of several celebrities, and it turns out that all of them have a high rate of fake subscribers, such as Ellen DeGeneres, Taylor Swift or even Kylian Mbappé (49 %, 46% and 45% respectively for the mentioned accounts).
Taylor Swift's Instagram account audited by IG Audit. Results show an estimated 46% estimated real followers
Source: IG Audit
Granted, Taylor Swift probably isn't buying her Instagram followers herself. Many bots follow celebrities to attract other users (normally real ones this time) and appear more legitimate (if they have no subscribers, it's something fishy). Instagram usually suggests the most popular accounts to new users, since the platform does not yet know their preferences.
In any case, this activity doesn't seem to bother smaller brands or newly breaking-through influencers like (spoiler) Caroline Calloway, who recently admitted to buying tens of thousands of followers in her early days (much to my surprise).
We've heard for years that you have to have a certain number of subscribers to be taken seriously, especially in the beginning. It's all about image, after all, and popularity metrics are no exception.
However, we all know how difficult it is to get real followers on Instagram. Shortcuts can therefore be tempting.
We wanted to test this shortcut for ourselves.
I bought Instagram followers for my niece, Rosie, a budding influencer dog (well, I admit everything: it's actually an account on which I follow the life of my friend's dog closely ).
How to buy Instagram followers
Look for a known supplier first
Surprisingly, it is harder to buy Instagram followers than before.
For what ? Because in 2018, Instagram started cracking down on practices that violate its terms of service, like using fraudulent third-party apps, buying fake followers, and bots.
Also, brands are really starting to care about the $1.3 billion they're losing to fake Instagram followers. Since they don't want the money they invest in marketing to be used to target only fictitious accounts, they demanded that influencers become more accountable.
Since then, third-party verification tools have become increasingly popular. With all this pressure, some of the big providers I consulted first during my experience were already no longer available.
To buy Instagram followers, I had to visit several shady and disturbing websites that offer questionable security, logic and correction. You have the choice between a dozen services. Do you want to “get your small business off the ground”? Or maybe you prefer the "100% natural" option, even if I admit that I do not know what that means?
Unfortunately, my top pick, Dries Depoorter's "Quick Fix," which is basically a physical vending machine where you can buy followers with coins, wasn't an option. (Hootsuite actually refused to send me to a hipster art festival in Helsinki to try it out.)