So you’ve been on Instagram for many years and your number of your followers is close to nothing. There is a follower growth trick you’ve heard about that usually works for many Instagram newbies, “follow as many people and you will see your followers drastically increase too.”
Maybe you have tried this to no avail. As an influencer or brand, you just need to grow followers. Moreover, what use is your Instagram account if it doesn’t give you any leverage against your competitors?
Here is a secret used by many people like you. You heard that right! Of course, none of them would tell you how they did it. They use “Instagram growth service.”
What is an Instagram Growth Service?
Instagram growth services help you to increase your Instagram followers and likes using different strategies. The strategy employed by one company might be different from the other. However, they are all after the same goal, growing your account followers and significantly improving your reach and engagement.
This service should not be confused with “buying followers”. Even though, the same company might offer the two services. Buying followers is a trick you should never use. The followers are more likely to be bots and aside from that, you may get your account deactivated by Instagram.
Who uses growth services?
Who uses growth services? Like seriously! To better answer the question, it needs to be rephrased to “Why on Earth should you be worried about growing your Instagram followers?”
Irrespective of your intention, having a large follower comes with the prestige of its own. Looking away from that…
As an Influencer
You will be able to charge up to $100,000 for a sponsored post. The more your followers and engagement your account commands, the higher the amount you can earn.
As a Brand
About 72 percent of Instagram users purchase products they see on the platform.
Is that not enough to go all the way to ensure your Instagram followers consistently improve? People who can leverage on a large pool of followers include…
Businesses
To promote their products and gather customers’ feedback (such as skincare manufacturers). Glossier is a typical example of a beauty company that leverages its Instagram followers to promote its products. Such a company is more likely to use Instagram growth service tools that offer post scheduling and insights features.
Artists
To significantly improve their exposure. It can increase album and tour ticket sales.
The screenshot below is an example of an artist that may boost his Instagram followers with the use of Instagram growth service ― a reliable one anyway, because there are lots of charlatans out there (more on that later).
Professionals
Doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc. can use it to improve their relevance in their fields. Doctor Mike is a typical example of a professional using Instagram to promote himself.
Bloggers
Instagram is a platform to promote blog identity, especially if you are a travel blogger. It costs nothing to host all of your travel pictures ― post them for free on Instagram to gain more followers and include your website link in your bio to drive traffic. Meg Jerrard is an example of a travel blogger leveraging her Instagram followers.
Financial Institutions
Companies offering loans can engage more prospective customers through a short video commercial for instance. Navy Federal uses its Instagram account to post content that veterans and other prospective clients can relate to.
Celebrities
Generally, includes people who came into limelight either through their profession (artists, actors, etc.) or accidentally by an event in their lives.
NGOs
To show the community how many lives they are impacting, Non-Governmental organizations like Unicef are using Instagram. The more exposure an NGO gets, the higher their chances of getting donations for any project they are planning. Pencils of Promise in 2017 took to Instagram to announce their largest fundraising success ― more than $2.2 million.
Note: All of the used examples are just for illustration purposes. It is not meant to signify any of them are using Instagram growth services which they might be using especially in managing their volume of posts. A growth service was reported to help a company called LACE save about 15 hours in a week.
Other benefits of using a growth service aside from saving you the time of managing your account…
Boosts Customer Satisfaction
As an influencer, social media manager, and digital agency, consecutively increasing your followers or that of your clients’ (depending on the task nature) significantly improves your customers’ satisfaction.
More Sales
As a brand or product seller on Instagram, more followers on your account means more exposure and thus more sales potential. There are many features on Instagram that now make selling easier.
Increased Engagement Rate
Especially as an influencer, having a high following is as important as having a high engagement on Instagram.
Improve Social Credibility
Brands with high followers tend to be more respected than others. Generally, people believe something favored by a lot of people is authentic. Psychologists call such belief “argumentum ad populum”. Since it works, you should leverage it too.
How To Find Out If They Are Using Bots
There are four major methodologies employed by Instagram growth service companies to grow clients’ accounts.
“Likes” Strategy
This method is used to achieve the steady growth of your account. Ideally, the Instagram growth service algorithm will like user’s posts (most of the time randomly). An advanced algorithm will target people that are more likely to be interested in your brand.
When these users see that you liked their post, they will visit your profile and if the content captivates them, they will follow your account.
The only risk here is that you may get your account banned. Why? There is a limit to the number of actions allowed to be performed simultaneously on Instagram. If the action performed by the company’s algorithm exceeds that, it may be recorded as spam. Thus, your account gets banned.
But if done correctly, it is the most reliable method of increasing your followers because the users are not forced to follow and like your posts.
“Follow/Unfollow” Strategy
The unfollow part of this strategy is what could happen after the initiation of the strategy. Here is the trick, the Instagram growth service company will automatically follow an account on your behalf. The followed account will want to check out your profile and in reciprocity, follow you back.
Your followers may exponentially increase but might drop after some time because the account may unfollow you later (probably after a few days).
“Auto Message” Strategy
You may have received a random comment and/or DM on your Instagram account. It is from an Instagram growth service company trying to promote their client’s account.
Just like the two previous strategies, it is the bait to make you visit the profile. That is exactly what they will do with your account.
This method is intrusive and might offend the receiver. How did you feel when you received such a message?
“Engaging Posts” Strategy
The best way to retain gained followers and also gain more is through consecutive posting. Experts recommend posting at least one to three times per day. Major brands reportedly post about 1.5 times daily. Maintaining this consistency might be impossible for you, probably due to your daily schedule. Instagram growth service companies have the in-house bots they use to continually help you post content. You may also submit content to be automatically posted at a scheduled time of the day.
Before choosing any company for your Instagram account, make sure they deliver organic followers and not bots. If your followers are bots, Instagram may ban your account or delete the bot followers.
Here are some tips to detect and avoid growth service that uses bots…
Promise a Specific Number of Followers
It is impossible to determine the exact number of followers an account can amass using a growth service tool. The best thing the company could present is an estimate.
When an Instagram growth service company is very sure of delivering a certain number of followers to your account, the probability that they use bots is high, otherwise, how could they be so sure of the figure.
Instagram Account Likes Versus Followers
Check their Instagram page to see how what they are selling is working for them. It is okay if their followers are not in millions, probably because their tool is attracting organic followers only.
If you observe their likes is more than their followers or on the higher end compared to what their number of followers should get them, that is a sign they may be using bots.
Past Customers’ Testimony:
Online reviews have made it easier to detect dubious companies. Before settling for a company or tool to grow your Instagram followers, check what others are saying about them online. This will give you a picture of what to expect.
Preloaded Accounts
Buying an account with a sufficient number of followers already might be tempting. It means you can start leveraging on the high followers immediately. But that is not usually the case. First, most of the followers might not be people interested in your brand. Secondly, most companies that offer such service use bots. If their technique could work in gathering the number of followers on the account they want to sell, then they should be confident enough to implement the same to your account.
An Instagram account is as useless as not creating one at all if you do not have substantial followers that would enable you to leverage the platform. Using an Instagram growth service saves you a lot of time and stress in building your followers number.
However, it is important that you watch out for any cue that might indicate the company you are considering to hire for such is trustworthy and does not use bots. Being negligent in this aspect could get your account suspended or banned.
Which Instagram growth service do you use? What was your experience? Do you have a better suggestion on how to increase Instagram followers and engagements? Drop your comments below.
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