Do you want to buy followers on Instagram? This is what happens when you do

 These are the reasons why you want but shouldn't buy followers on Instagram. We also tell you how to grow honestly.

Everyone buys followers on Instagram, or so it seems.

In August 2019, the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance conducted an Instagram audit of a long list of famous people, and it turns out that many people, from Ellen to Taylor to Ariana, have an exorbitant percentage of fake followers on Instagram: 49%, 46%, and 46%, respectively.

In fairness, Miss Swift probably didn't buy those Instagram followers. There are many bots that follow reputable users to attract other users (hopefully real users), to make themselves look more legitimate (the first red alert is when they have no followers). Also, Instagram tends to suggest important names to new users on the platform, since it still doesn't know much about the preferences of each of them.

However, this doesn't put off smaller brands or newbie influencers like (spoiler alert) Caroline Calloway, who recently admitted to buying tens of thousands of followers when she was just getting started (what a surprise…).

This idea that you need to have a certain following to be taken seriously - especially when you're just starting out and raising your mark - has been floating around for years. At the end of the day, these vanity metrics are just based on appearances.

We know all the work that goes into getting real followers on Instagram, and why shortcuts can be tempting.

This is why we wanted to try this particular shortcut ourselves, so I bought some Instagram followers for Rosie (my niece) who is a rising canine influencer. (Ok ok, I admit it: it's actually just an account where I'm a fan of my friend's dog.)

That little face deserves a little more love, so to get it; I used two different services to buy 1000 followers. I would not say that "love" was the result. In recent years, Instagram has taken quite drastic measures to uncover false and fraudulent practices. Still, buying followers is very easy, but also a bit, empty and… embarrassingly obvious.

Let me guide you through the whole experiment

How to buy followers on Instagram

1. Try to find a reliable supplier

Surprisingly, buying Instagram followers has become more difficult than it used to be.

Why? In 2018, Instagram began cracking down on practices that were in opposition to its terms of service. This includes fraudulent third-party apps, fake followers, and bots.

Ever SMM Panel, brands have really started to worry about the $ 1.3 billion they are going to lose this year as a result of having fake Instagram followers. Brands don't want the dollars they're spending on their marketing strategies going to ghost accounts, so they've been demanding more credibility from influencers.

As a result, third-party auditing and verification tools are becoming increasingly popular. And with all this pressure, some of the top salespeople I first consulted for my experiment were no more.

Generally, when researching places to buy Instagram followers, you have to dig into a dark pit of puzzling websites with questionable security, logic, and descriptions. There are dozens of services to choose from: “Would you like to 'have the ability to do wonders for your small business? Or maybe you prefer the “100% organic” option? (I do not know what that means).

My first option was “Dries Depoorter's Quick Fix”, a vending machine that allows you to buy followers with coins. Unfortunately, it wasn't a viable option (Hootsuite didn't want to take me to a hipster art festival in Helsinki to try it out).

So, in the end, I settled on two services: StormLikes and Mr. Insta.

2. Choose your method: buy fake followers in large volumes or through a "drip" system

Because auditors on Instagram, the software brands use to uncover fake accounts, almost always look for spikes and irregularities in follower acquisition, you can now pay to get followers with a less suspicious growth rate.

Sure, the followers keep looking super suspicious:

I decided to go with the first option because I figured that contacting the customer service department to cancel the monthly charge to my credit card could be… difficult.

3. Enter your Instagram username

Now that Instagram has eradicated third-party apps, the process for buying followers is more straightforward. You no longer need to download an app and enter all your account data.

This makes things easier for those who insist on buying fake followers, given that Instagram monitors any user accounts that are associated with third - party apps of dubious quality, and has threatened to punish those accounts.

Of course, buying followers is against Instagram's terms of service, whether you use an app, a website, or a Finnish vending machine.

Still, companies that sell you followers love to promise you that they do it in "the safest way that doesn't break any Instagram rules" (that's a lie).

4. Pay for your followers

The last time Hootsuite ran this experiment - it was in 2017! - Someone much smarter than me insisted on using a prepaid credit card. I skipped that step (and am already preparing to deal with my identity theft).

I was curious to see if the price made any noticeable difference, so I ended up trying two services. I bought 1,000 followers from StormLikes (for @akaprincessrosebud), and 1,000 from Mr. Insta (for my backup account, @ princessrosebud2thesequel).

For 1,000 followers, StormLikes charged me $ 12.99 USD, while Mr. Insta charged me $ 35 USD + $ 1.75 HST (a Canadian excise tax). Where I live, we don't have HST, but does Mr. Insta care about international sales tax regulations? Not.

After I made the payment, StormLikes sent me a receipt for “Online Shopping”. The receipt said my money was sent to a random guy's Gmail address (hi, bakerbenjamin788).

One additional comment: I also tried to buy 1,000 "organic" followers from one of the companies that used to be huge in this space: Socials Growth. They offer a whole super complete introductory package (bonus followers, likes, etc.) for $ 29.99 USD, but their “payment system was down” until October 1st. Oh, wait, if today is October 10. That's weird! I wouldn't be surprised if your service isn't working for reasons that have more to do with the disapproval of Instagram than administration issues.

What happened when I bought followers on Instagram

After an hour, my fake followers started to fall. The notifications were exciting for a second but quickly turned into a gloomy burden and mindless drain on my cell phone battery. Is this how Taylor Swift feels? Although she probably has her notifications turned off.

After 48 hours, I already had my two blocks of 1,100 followers (approximately) on Instagram.

The cheapest StormLikes followers were popping up steadily, reaching 1,052 followers. A week later, they dropped to 973.

The followers of Mr. Insta (the most expensive) appeared faster, but they were only 944 (and a week later I only had 822 - I am already preparing my complaint letter to the Better Business Bureau).

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