Should I buy Instagram followers?
Thinking about buying Instagram followers in 2026? Here's why it's a worse idea than ever, what Meta's doing about it, and what actually grows your account. An honest, strategic answer for small business owners
Okay, so people are still asking me this and this month I noticed almost 1000 people read this blog post, which tells me the temptation hasn't gone anywhere - but neither has my answer. It's still a terrible idea. Actually, it's a worse idea now than when I first wrote this post in 2022…here’s why.
Meta's actually cracking down, hard
This isn't just me nagging you. Earlier this year Meta pulled fake and inactive followers from some of the biggest accounts on the planet like Cristiano Ronaldo and Taylor Swift as part of a broader push against bot farms and coordinated fake activity in an extensive cleanup effort. Some of these accounts lost millions of followers overnight. If Meta will do that to global superstars, they will absolutely do it to your small business’s Instagram profile.
I personally dropped around 120 in the clean up - not because I purchased followers, but because over the ten years I’ve been on Instagram, that many accounts following me were abandoned. I welcomed the purge (after a little ‘yikes’ moment), as finding them myself was definitely in the ‘too-hard’ basket. Now when I notice a dodgy looking account start following me, I just get rid of it myself.
You should know that these purges are not a one-off. Meta has been explicit that Instagram prohibits misrepresentation, fake accounts and artificially inflating popularity, and automated systems now flag suspicious activity across comments, tags, story views and followers. Translation: the fake accounts you'd buy today are more likely to get caught, and caught faster, than ever before.
How to spot them (so you're not fooled by a "growth service")
If someone's pitching you followers, engagement, or views, watch for the classic tells: incomplete profiles, no profile photo, odd usernames, little original content, low activity or generic copy-paste comments.
The risk isn't just "your account looks a bit ick." Buying followers or fake engagement can violate Instagram's rules and damage your account's performance, and if it's used to deceive people commercially, it can even create legal trouble. As a small business, that's a lot of downside for a vanity number.
It’s worth noting here that some social media managers have been known to purchase followers to inflate their skills and results for you. Make it explicit in your contract that you do not want this and please keep an eye out for anything suspicious in your growth. Check in from time to time on who is following you - you’ll know it if you see it, but reach out to me if you want me to check for you.
Why fake followers still don't do anything for you
The reasons I originally wrote this post haven't changed one bit:
👉 Fake people don't comment
👉 Fake people don't share your posts
👉 Fake people don't message you
👉 Fake people don't buy stuff
👉 Fake people don't write reviews
👉 Fake people don't tell their friends about you
👉 Fake people don't give algorithms anything useful to learn from
If anything, that last point matters more in 2026 than it did before.
Instagram's whole system is built around figuring out who your content is actually for, then showing it to more people like them. Feed it a wall of fake, inactive accounts, and you're teaching the algorithm to show your gorgeous small business content to... nobody. Or worse - to other bots.
My advice hasn’t changed because it still works
Don't try to outsmart one of the most sophisticated recommendation systems on Earth. Spend that time and money on the marketing basics instead - a strategy, a decent content framework, showing up consistently, and being genuinely useful or entertaining to the humans you actually want as customers.
Slow and real beats fast and fake, every single time.
If you've already got some fake followers hanging around from a past mistake (no judgement), don't panic and don't mass-delete overnight as that can flag your account too. Quietly trim them back as your real, engaged following grows, and you'll get there.
This isn’t a lecture and it’s not about judging anyone who’s considered it or done it already. Because if you’ve ever been tempted, I get it.
Growth can feel slow.
You look at competitors with bigger numbers.
You wonder if you’re behind.
You want to look established.
Buying followers looks like a quick fix. The problem is that it fixes nothing that actually matters.
You don’t need a bigger audience - you need a more connected one.
Buying followers damages your engagement (and that hurts your reach) and Instagram doesn’t reward follower count, it rewards engagement.
When you have thousands of fake accounts sitting there doing nothing, your engagement rate drops. And when engagement drops, the algorithm assumes your content isn’t resonating.
That means:
Fewer real people see your posts.
Your growth slows even more.
You feel frustrated.
You post less or more.
The cycle continues.
It’s not just unhelpful, it actively works against you.
It can increase your ad costs
This is something most people don’t realise. If you ever run paid ads, Instagram uses engagement data to optimise performance. An account full of inactive or fake followers creates weak engagement signals.
That can:
Reduce ad effectiveness.
Increase cost per result.
Make your campaigns harder to scale.
So the shortcut you thought would help? It can literally cost you money later.
It hurts your credibility in partnerships
If you ever want to:
Collaborate with another business.
Work with influencers.
Pitch to media.
Secure brand partnerships.
They won’t just look at your follower count, they’ll look at your engagement. If you have 12,000 followers and 15 likes per post, that’s a red flag and credibility is hard to rebuild once it’s questioned.
Let’s talk about the real reason you’re considering it
Buying followers usually isn’t about strategy, it’s about comparison.
It’s about:
Feeling behind.
Feeling small.
Feeling invisible.
Wanting to look “legitimate”
Wanting to look popular.
But marketing decisions made from insecurity rarely lead to good outcomes.
Most small businesses don’t have a follower problem, they have a strategy problem. Buying followers is avoiding the hard work:
Clarifying your audience.
Strengthening your positioning.
Creating content that actually connects.
Showing up consistently.
Engaging intentionally.
No shortcut can replace clarity.
What if you’ve already bought followers?
Firstly don’t panic - you’re not the only one. Here’s what to do instead of doubling down:
Stop immediately.
Don’t try to “balance it out” with more.
Focus on increasing real engagement.
Start building genuine connections.
Gradually remove the ones you know are fake and start in the ‘followers’ section where it says ‘deactivated accounts’.
Gradually dilute fake followers with authentic growth.
The solution isn’t drastic, it’s strategic
So what should you do instead of buying Instagram followers?
If you want real growth - the kind that leads to enquiries and sales - focus on these things:
Build connection, not just content.
Show your face, if relevant.
Share behind the scenes.
Talk about real client problems.
Answer FAQs.
Teach something useful.
People buy from businesses they feel connected to.
Engage like a human
Reply to comments.
Start conversations in DMs.
Comment thoughtfully on other local businesses’ posts.
Instagram is social media - not broadcast media.
Prioritise clarity over volume
You don’t need to post more.
You need to post with purpose.
Who are you talking to?
What do they struggle with?
What transformation do you provide?
When your messaging is clear, growth becomes easier.
The bigger picture
Follower count is a vanity metric. Revenue is not. 1,000 real followers who trust you will outperform 10,000 fake ones every time, because good business isn’t built on appearances, it’s built on relationships.
And good business should feel easy - for you and your customers.
If you’re feeling stuck, don’t resort to hacks or shortcuts. If you’re considering drastic tactics like buying followers, it usually means one of three things:
You’re not seeing traction.
You’re unsure what to post.
You don’t have a clear strategy.
That’s not a failure. It’s just a signal that you need support, not shortcuts. This is exactly what I do. I help small businesses and community organisations in regional, suburban and small towns with:
Authentic, sustainable marketing strategies.
Clear positioning and messaging.
Social media plans that actually convert.
Growth without gimmicks.
You don’t need to game the system, you need a plan that fits your business.
If you’re ready to build something real - without cheating, buying numbers, or chasing trends that don’t align with you - let’s talk.Because growth should feel intentional, not desperate and you deserve a business that grows the right way.
Hi, I’m Erika McInerney - a marketing and customer experience strategist working with regional, suburban and small-town businesses.
I help you see where customers and revenue are leaking, build practical marketing strategies around your real capacity, and create systems that actually support your business (and your life).
Alongside one-on-one work, I partner with councils, business groups and organisations to deliver practical workshops that build marketing capability across entire communities.
If you’re ready for clearer strategy and more confident visibility, you can book a free discovery call, send an email or connect on social media.
This article was first posted in 2022. Updated in 2026.
