Is It Safe To Buy Instagram Followers? Our Expert Advice

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Karen Lin

Instagram 101 | May 29, 2024

Want More Real Instagram Followers?

Are you looking to grow your Instagram following? You may have considered buying some to help give your account the kickstart it needs.

But is it safe to buy Instagram followers?

The answer is: Yes. But there is a catch. Much depends on WHERE you bought them and WHAT KIND of followers you bought. This article walks you through this minefield so you know what steps to take for safe and sustainable growth.

Picture of person scrolling through Instagram feed

What Are Instagram Followers?

A follower has chosen to subscribe to another user’s content. When you follow someone on Instagram, you will see their content in your feed, and they will see yours.

Instagram followers can be individuals or businesses that are interested in your content. They can be friends, family, acquaintances, or people you have never met. Followers are an essential part of building a presence on Instagram. They help increase your visibility, engagement, and credibility.

Having a large number of followers on Instagram can be beneficial for individuals and businesses. It can help them reach a broader audience, increase brand awareness, and drive traffic to their website. However, the quality of your followers is more important than the quantity.

Now that we know what followers are let us address the main question: Is buying Instagram followers safe?

Is It Safe To Buy Instagram Followers? The Dangers To Beware Of

Buying Instagram followers may seem like a quick and easy way to boost your social media presence, but it can have serious consequences. Here are some of the dangers you may face:

Photo of danger sign, like the danger of buying fake followers
  • Loss of Credibility: When you buy followers, you lie to your audience. People can usually tell when an account has fake followers, and it can damage your credibility and reputation.
  • Engagement Issues: Purchased followers are often bots or inactive accounts, so they will refrain from engaging with your posts. This lack of engagement can hurt your reach and make it difficult to measure your metrics.
  • Risk of Account Suspension: Instagram has strict rules against buying followers, and if they catch you doing it, they can suspend your account. This can be a major setback if you rely on Instagram for your business or personal brand.

It’s also worth noting that buying followers is not a sustainable strategy. While it may give you a temporary boost, it won’t help you build a genuine, engaged following in the long term. Only quality content, engaging with your audience, and legitimate growth strategies will get you that.

So, is it safe to buy Instagram followers? Yes, it is safe, but you must know these risks. And take steps to protect against them.

There is a right way to do it and a wrong way. The right way utilizes these to accelerate your growth. The wrong way risks suspension from the platform and losing your followers’ trust.

Is It Safe To Buy Instagram Followers: How to Spot the Fakes

The question “is it safe to buy Instagram followers” can be a tricky one. While purchasing followers can provide the traction your account needs to grow, fake followers only hold you back. Fake followers damage your reputation and credibility and can’t engage with your content or help drive real growth. Here are some tips to help you spot fake followers:


Picture of sign saying "scam alert", like the fake followers this section will help you spot
  • Look at Their Profiles

Real Instagram users have complete profiles with profile pictures, bios, and posts. Fake followers often need complete profiles, a profile picture or bio, and few/no posts. If you see a follower with no profile picture or incomplete profile, they’re likely a fake.

  • Check Their Engagement

Fake followers won’t engage with your content or interact with your account. If you have a lot of followers but low engagement rates, it’s a sign that many of your followers are fake. Check the number of likes, comments, and shares on your posts to see how engaged your followers are.

  • Look at Their Followers

Fake followers often follow a lot of accounts but have few followers themselves. If you see a follower with thousands but only a few followers, that’s another red flag. You can also check the quality of their followers by looking at their profiles and engagement rates.

  • Use a Fake Follower Checker

There are several tools available that can help you identify fake followers on Instagram. These tools analyze your followers, and provide a report on their quality (including how many are likely to be fake). Some of the most popular fake follower checkers include:

Using a fake follower checker can help you identify fake followers and take steps to remove them from your account.

Is It Safe To Buy Instagram Followers: The Benefits of Genuine Followers

When building your Instagram following, focusing on quality over quantity is essential. Here are some of the benefits of having genuine followers on Instagram:

  1. Increased Engagement: Genuine followers are likelier to engage with your content. They’ll like, comment, and share your posts, which can help boost your visibility and reach on the platform. This can increase brand awareness and provide more opportunities to connect with your target audience.
  2. Improved Credibility: When you have many fake followers, it cause irreparable damage to your credibility and shatter any trust you’ve built in your audience. On the other hand, a smaller (but genuine) following can enhance your credibility and make you more attractive to potential followers and customers.
  3. Better Analytics: When you have fake followers,making informed decisions about your content and marketing strategy is harder. With genuine followers, you can access more accurate analytics and insights, which can help you make smarter decisions and achieve better results.
  4. Long-Term Growth: While buying followers may give you a temporary boost, there are more sustainable strategies for long-term growth. Genuine followers are more likely to stick around and engage with your content over time, which can lead to steady, organic growth for your account.
Picture of someone studying a graph, like the analytics fake followers can make it tougher to read

When people ask the question of whether it is safe to buy Instagram followers, this is where the complication arises. There is no substitute for creating high-value content and properly engaging with your followers. That is the only sustainable strategy for growth on the platform. It’s that simple. But when you need that initial burst to get you going, buying followers can help if they are real people offering genuine interest in your brand or product.

This brings us neatly to our guide to buying Instagram followers safely.

Is It Safe To Buy Instagram Followers: The Safest Way to Organic Growth

Getting more followers on Instagram involves generating interest in your profile and getting your content and name seen by more people; those people, in turn, will check out your profile and follow you.

It takes time and careful consideration to build your Instagram account from the ground up, but when you hire an Instagram growth service, you’re getting a professional working on your behalf. So the issue of “is it safe to buy Instagram followers” hinges on this really.

Let’s look at the benefits.

  1. Real Followers and Interaction
    With an organic Instagram growth service, you won’t be spamming your account with fake followers or other accounts with fake comments or bot-generated engagements. Investing in a growth service that will generate real interactions for your account is the only safe way to buy Instagram followers.
  2. Targeted Followers
    The Instagram growth service will also cater to your niche based on the targets you provide. For instance, when you’re an influencer looking to attract women interested in luxury makeup brands, you want to avoid getting many teenage male followers from Texas! If you use a reputable Instagram growth service, you won’t experience these types of problems. You get targeted, authentic followers who facilitate organic, sustainable growth.
  3. Higher Engagement and Real Results
    Using an Instagram growth service, you’ll gain real followers connected to your niche in some way, boosting your follower count AND engagement.
    When you have a product or service to sell, you need followers who care about your content – who like it regularly, comment on it, and share it.
    You can get these results by using an organic growth service. You can’t get them by buying Instagram followers in bulk or using a bot.

Is It Safe To Buy Instagram Followers: Will Instagram Ban for Bought Followers?

Instagram does not ban accounts just to buy followers. So how do they react?
They limit your exposure.

You may think having a large following is enough to make your profile page appear on other people’s feeds, but that’s not always true.If they detect serious abuse- say, a thousand fake followers- they’ll disregard those followers to publicize your account, which means wasted money if you paid for them.

Is It Safe To Buy Instagram Followers: How To Get Away With It

If you need fake followers and auto-likes to raise your profile for a while, you should pay a premium to ensure those fake accounts can handle a background check.

The best way to get outed on Instagram is to have no activity and a growing number of fake followers. Ensure you buy followers who log some activity every week—real human followers with real human behavior.

Buying profiles can be challenging to spot. Some companies make their pages look so real that you’ll see tons of photos, personal information, and a ratio of 1:10 between the number of pages they follow and the number of accounts they follow.

A foolproof follower profile may have even caught your attention without knowing it. However, these followers come at a premium price, so usually, only celebrities and businesses can afford to use them.

Is it safe to buy Instagram followers this way? Yes. But it’s sure not cheap!

Person counting out a stack of money- like the amounts needed to pay for these premium bulk followers

Is It Safe To Buy Instagram Followers: The Bottom Line

Buying Instagram followers is a quick and easy way to increase your followers and boost your social media presence. However, it is important to consider the potential risks and drawbacks before deciding.

While some reputable companies offer real, engaged followers, many services sell fake or inactive accounts. These followers may not engage with your posts or add value to your account. In which case, what’s the point?

Furthermore, buying Instagram followers can violate the platform’s terms of service and lead to the suspension or termination of your account. It can also damage your reputation and credibility, as many users can easily spot fake followers and may view your account as untrustworthy.

So, is it safe to buy Instagram followers?

The answer is to ensure that the followers you buy are real, not fake.

And that’s where reputable organic growth agencies like Path Social come in.

We don’t deal with fake followers who put your account at risk. We utilize influencers and artificial intelligence algorithms to find people who are REALLY interested in what you are promoting. That’s right—real targeted people for real, sustainable growth.

You won’t fall foul of Instagram’s algorithms. We never ask for your login information. No contracts. We help you get a foothold in the market, and you take it from there.

Get started today and see for yourself! Check out our reviews to see why 24,000 influencers trust us to grow them safely and sustainably.