Buying Likes and Followers on Social Media

Are you tempted by the idea of boosting your brand’s visibility instantly by buying likes and followers on social media? You’ve spent so much time working on those social media accounts you made to help boost engagement with your business. However, upon searching for how to make the numbers on those accounts really sing, you might come across the solution of buying the likes or followers you feel you need to get your business’ online presence off the ground.

However tempting this quick fix might appear, I ask that you think about those crash diets we all obsessed over a few years back. Remember how you would lose weight like *that*, and then gain it all back again the second you put cream cheese on your breakfast bagel? It’s the same paradoxical situation that applies to most things in life that we really want: if there’s a way that seems too good to be true, it usually is. Just like simply moderating diet and regular exercise diligently is one of the only surefire ways to keep the pounds off in the long term, getting the authentic results you crave for your business calls for its own reliable and concrete (albeit slow and steady) solution. Only by investing your blood, sweat and tears into establishing a genuine relationship with your legitimate client and social base can you hope for your business to really spread its wings and soar online.

As a side note, if you’re reading this article to try and convince yourself that buying likes and followers on social media is the way to go, just make sure you’re aware not only of the perceived benefits, but also the negative consequences of doing so to your overall brand image. Net Branding’s digital marketing experts suggest you refrain from succumbing to this highly and deceptively appealing concept.

How Can Buying Likes and Followers on Social Media Hurt My Business?

With major social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook dominating the playing field of maximizing brand visibility, you might be considering buying likes or followers to compete with the rivals who may well have resorted to that same trick you may be thinking about using! However, increasing your engagement numbers artificially can do more harm than good to your business. And it might turn out to be more than just a complete waste of your investment – it can also harm your business significantly.

When you tamper with the existing system of earning likes and followers on social media accounts, it can only decrease your overall engagement while destroying your business’ reputation as a brand. It only tends to create a “spammy” appearance, with the little engagement provided by these fake accounts often resulting a very unflattering impression of your brand in front of potential as well as existing customers.

Why Not Buy Likes or Followers?

On the surface, having tons of followers or likes might appear valuable, but it really only makes a significant positive difference through the honest and organic route. The appearance of creating more engagement through fake likes or followers might deliver short-term benefits, such as creating a good impression off the bat to some potential customers interested in following your brand. However, there are several negative impacts you can end up inflicting on yourself or your business.

  • Making Your Brand Appear Shady: In case the real followers of your brand’s social image, any true patron of your brand who seems engaged in your social media accounts will quickly realize the fact that the vast majority of likes or other followers associated with your business are spam accounts. You will end up consequently driving away existing as well as potential customers by highlighting your shady or dishonest brand image.
  • Instagram May Punish You: If moderators of a social media platform whose system you are abusing comes to know of the fact that you have bought followers or likes online, they will ultimately block your business or individual account. If you happen to be a repeat offender, Instagram straightaway goes with the step of banning your account altogether. Does this really sound worth all the empty numbers?
  • Fake Likes # Real Business: Irrespective of the number of likes or followers you have on social media accounts, this will ultimately never produce an increase in business for your brand for obvious reasons. While as we mentioned these followers and likes may garner some interest for your business, as soon as your brand’s legitimacy is questioned, the flow of business can run dry at the drop of a hat. Invest that time and money into real customers that can provide you with real business.
  • Judging A Book By Its Cover: The total number of likes as well as followers on one’s social media accounts are widely used by potential customers to vet your brand and ensure it is not only authentic and can be trusted upon for reliable transactions, but also to have a sense of the response of other clients for whom you have provided a service. If you have 100,000 followers on Instagram, 50,000 likes and little to no comments, let alone any reviews commending your business – well, that’s just plain shady. While it can be difficult to garner positive reviews, they truly are one of the basic necessities for proving to those interested in your business that you are worth their patronage.

Really, by this point it is truly obvious that more often than not, more harm than good will come from deciding to buy likes or followers on social media platforms. It is far more worth your time to invest your money and energy into generating likes and followers organically on social media. With love from your friendly neighbourhood digital marketing superstars here at Net Branding.