One thing I’m quite happy to voice my opinion about online is the current discussion around those who choose to fake their way through Instagram. If you’re familiar with the topic already you may have read In The Frows latest blog post (which is really fab) talking about how to spot fake followers and why this is damaging to the blogging community.
For me an authentic way to grow your Instagram audience is improving your content, working with/ tagging brands, using relevant hashtags and engaging with the community and your audience. It’s honest and still focused around what's important for me, fashion, lifestyle and blogging- the whole point of why we’re posting in the first place right?
If you’re using bots, apps or tactics that mean you’re gaining followers and likes from accounts that either aren’t real or are not interested in your posts they just want a like back, this isn’t growing an authentic audience. If a brand is paying you or giving you free products, that’s because they want to access your audience to promote their brand. At the very least you’re scamming companies by accepting payment or product based on a following count that isn’t legitimate or actually interested in you.
I managed the Influencer Outreach for a brand earlier this year and I’d say 85% of the bloggers & influencers that contacted me had fake followers. It’s quite easy to spot if your know what you’re looking for thanks to a combination of Social Blade, physically looking at their followers and who likes their posts and of course common sense, ever see an account where the posts aren’t that great and the followers/likes look suspiciously high? Have a look around their account and you’ll usually find it filled with heavily emoji’d blank accounts eventually.
I’ve know of people who’ll lie through their teeth and claim their following is real when you can quite clearly see otherwise, I saw one these ‘influencers’ scamming people on Depop, making fake listings and stealing hundreds from young girls online. The same people are now blacklisted from PR lists and companies refuse to work with (or even employ in one case)- says a lot really! There is always repercussions to your actions online.
I think people can become blinded by an easy answer to what they think success looks like. It’s not hard to become detached from reality, which is bloggers, PRs and brands talk about these things IRL. Creating content and using Instagram from the comfort of your home in private, it may not feel like you’re doing anything that wrong. The bottom line is, it’s lame and desperate (harsh I know, but there’s no point in me sugar coating it!).
I have huge respect and admiration for the ladies and gents I follow that work hard and grow honestly. You can see they’re innovative with their content, passionate about what they do and enjoy sharing what they create because that’s what motivates them.
If you want to grow your audience to share your content with more people then faking followers is never going to help you achieve this, if you want to a higher followers number because you think it makes you more valued, unfortunately only the opposite will happen.
Let me know your thoughts too, either below or over on my Instagram: @olivia_wh !
Olivia xx
O U T F I T D E T A I L S
(I bought the dress to wear as a skirt in a size 10 and it's not very roomy, I usually wear a size 6-8 so size up if you're planning to do the same!)
