Every face-to-face conversation I’ve had with bloggers recently has seemed to centre around one thing: Instagram. Yep, bloggers are excited about Snapchat too (mostly because it’s not Instagram) but the original photo sharing app still seems to be leading the way when it comes to influence metrics and controversy. Snapchat is fun, Instagram is – quite literally – serious business. It’s easy to brush off Instagram politics as something that “doesn’t really matter” but if you make your living as a full time blogger/influencer then sadly it does matter. (As much as bloggers will debate to what extent paid work depends on a strong Instagram presence).
At time of writing, I have 6377 Instagram followers. It’s not “nothing”, but it’s definitely small-fry compared to other bloggers or my own following on Twitter. I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not very good at Instagram though. I seem to have developed a great strategy of “post a pic, lose a follower”. It’s really reassuring and makes me feel great, as I’m sure you can imagine.
I don’t think my photos are THAT bad, but I do reckon I’d have a stronger following if I had a bit more of a theme or style instead of a hodgepodge mix of breakfast, football and swans all pushed through a wild array of clashing filters. My grid is more random Tumblr than perfectly curated Pinterest board.
I can’t even be consistent with using a frame FFS.
Over the last six weeks or so I’ve tried to make more of a concerted effort with my Instagram, not changing up the content so much but using more hashtags and posting at more popular times. I post less overall too. Where I once might have posted all three courses of a meal as separate pics, I’ll now post one pic and only if I think it’s relatively decent. I’ve also stopped posting the same pic to Twitter and Instagram, so people actually have “a reason” to follow me on both platforms.
These little tweaks have meant my engagement has gone up and for the first time in forever I’ve had quite a few pics breaking the 100 likes mark which is a pretty big deal for little ol’ me. (I should add that I think the new algorithm has helped with engagement too, as people who might have missed my pics before now see them in their feed later on in the day).
I’m still struggling to gain followers though and the thought of having even 10,000 followers seems nigh on impossible.
Unless I buy them.
With 500 followers being as cheap as a fiver (they’ll throw in 500 likes for that, too) it’s no surprise that people are tempted when SO MANY people are doing it. It’s not a level playing field and if brands won’t look into the authenticity of follower numbers, then of course people will buy followers to try to keep up. People are missing out on paid campaigns because their numbers aren’t good enough and if your livelihood depends on this “nonsense” then a tenner here and there to gain followers/likes can understandably be seen as a worthwhile investment.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t really want to do it. Just a couple of weeks ago I decided I was going to cave and buy 250 followers that evening. Before I did though, I posted a pic of my nails which went on to get more likes than any pic of mine ever has before. I felt like the Instagram Karma Gods were looking down on me and saying that genuine engagement can be found – with the right hashtags and the right cliched shot. I didn’t buy the followers. I also haven’t had a post with even half as many likes since.
It’s not just buying followers/likes though, people are paying for bots to leave hundreds of comments and likes on their behalf with the idea being that people will reciprocate with a like or a follow. Ever wondered why you see “nice shot” under so many pics? These vague comments that have nothing to do with the pic are usually from bots. It’s also why using hashtags can be great for gaining likes, because bots like any pic that uses said hashtag. Then of course there’s the strategy of following loads of accounts, hoping a percentage will follow back and then unfollowing them all a few days later.
It’s just a mess isn’t it?
If you go to the “Following Notifications” tab on Instagram (click the heart icon on bottom right of screen then “Following” on top left) you’ll quickly see which accounts you follow are randomly liking and commenting on what are clearly spam pics. Unless some of my fave bloggers are really into cam girls, lasers and Chinese wholesalers…we have a serious bot problem.
I can’t complain that I don’t have a larger Instagram following when I know I don’t put in anywhere near as much effort as a lot of other bloggers. I haven’t bothered to learn how to take good pics, I take them all on my phone and I don’t spend much time editing them further than a quick brighten/sharpen. I don’t think about my content strategy and I totally should if I want to reap the benefits that some of the kickass ‘grammers have. I don’t have anything but respect and admiration for the women who have grown their Instagram game by being SERIOUSLY good at what they do. Because my god, some people are so damn good at it.
But I don’t want to see all the “gaming”. The fake likes. The bot comments. The temporary follows.
It feels like an arms race and if we don’t all stand up and say “I’M NOT DOING THIS ANYMORE” then people will inevitably keep faking to stay relevant. And lord knows Instagram HQ aren’t going to intervene.
What’s the solution? No idea I’m afraid. I guess we can hope brands bother to check whether followers/likes are “real” but often even if a PR knows something is shady then there’s someone higher up client-side who is demanding they just work with whoever has the highest numbers.
In the meantime I’m going to resist buying my 250 followers for a couple of quid. I could buy a slice of cake for that…and with the right filter and hashtag it might just make for a good Insta.
x
I’ve had a few likes from bloggers/Instagrammers I really admire and wondered how they find the time to keep up with it all, creating an amazing feed etc. Really disappointing to realise now looking at that Following tab how many people are using bots!
I also totally get the challenge of trying to grow, even when I’m putting in my maximum effort I lose half as many followers as I gain. Just trying not to take it all too seriously and go back to enjoying it like the good old days when the app first started.
I couldn’t agree with you more! Instagram doesn’t bother me as much, I’ve sat on or around my current follower levels for a long time now and every time I gain, I lose some sooner afterwards. However, it’s follow-for-follow-then-unfollow game on Twitter than really gets on my nerves. I see other bloggers doing really well because they have 8k followers, but I know for a fact they are purely follow-for-follows and/or bought.
I really wish and hope that PR start taking the time to look at people’s engagement and genuine follow ratings before they decide who is worth their time. I know it’s nigh-on impossible as they have so much to do, but buying your way to the top seems awfully unfair.
brilliant post and something I’m seriously pissed off with too but I refuse to play the game (on which this is a really good post, it’s not mine btw http://fashionistabarbieuk.com/2016/07/how-do-you-measure-success)
I didn’t think to look at the notifications but I am going to do it now, it’s so depressing how many are doing it and getting away with it. But I’ve been told by PRs that they know it’s going on and I think slowly it’s changing but unfortunately those big numbers are just too dazzling for some
don’t do it! I work for a fashion brand and I look for engagement over follower numbers these days.
I work with someone who doesn’t have ‘massive’ numbers (a good amount though) and this person went on to make one item the best seller of a season. Thats because the followers she does have are interacting and actually care about what shes posting.
a quick look on some pictures for #sp #ad you will see some people just saying ‘great pic’ or ‘your so pretty.’ I’, looking for ‘where can I buy that?’ or ‘im buying it now!.’ haha
couldn’t agree with you more, so frustrating when you see a blogger get more work than you when they mysteriously gain 10k followers over night…
I completely agree with you. I worry so much about my Instagram’s engagement, it’s exhausting.
I love taking photos and playing around with the editing, but all the strategies around when and what to post really kills creativity…
A great post about the definite downfall of social media. I love “I could buy a slice of cake for that…and with the right filter and hashtag it might just make for a good Insta.” Cake > fake followers. Much more satisfying too.
Hear hear! I refuse to buy followers, or to pay for fake engagement of any kind.
I don’t play the follow for follow game – I have disabled notifications for new twitter follows, instead when I get interaction from someone that seems genuine and relevant, I’ll check their stream and follow back if we seem to have interests in common. Likewise, if I follow an account I like, I don’t then unfollow it if they don’t reciprocate – I followed because I liked their content and that doesn’t change based on whether they like mine.
It is hugely disheartening though to see how many PRs don’t do their homework and are swayed by fake followers, fake engagement and sometimes even fake content (photos lifted from google or other bloggers).
It’s heartening to read Laura’s comment, above, but I fear those who understand the realities of genuine versus fake, as she does, are few and far between.
I should add that I don’t feel my follower numbers are unfair, they reflect my content which includes some really strong stuff but some less beautifully photographed or styled content too.
I’m glad you chose not to buy those followers. For every follower who loves a perfectly curated instagram feed of smoothie bowl after smoothie bowl shot on the same “marble worktop” (which we all know is a bit of sticky-backed plastic on a foam board, there is also someone who likes to see REAL LIFE in an instagram feed. I only have a modest number of followers but find enageagement is always greatest on those “real” posts rather than the staged ones. Forget about the numbers and live a real life!
Great read and a subject that has been close to my heart!
My heart sinks when I come across accounts with fake followers as they are usually so obvious. I had no idea about the bots and now realise why a photo I posted that was petty average had such an over the top comment made on it, was obviously a bot! Lets hope PRs stop rewarding fakery as in the long run it costs everyone if the advertising is being wasted!
Oh God, there’s one particular person who does it and it DRIVES ME MAD. I can’t bring myself to unfollow because I get a strange anger-kick out of watching when her likes go from 45 to 1,100 within a single page refresh. How she’s getting away with it I have no idea, because everyone knows. To be honest, though, she’s the only one I’ve seen doing it (and buying what must be over 90% of her followers) so maybe I’m naive or just not good at spotting! I’ll be on the lookout more from now on. Though I don’t know whether my nerves can take it..
there’s something strangely compelling about it isnt there? There’s several people I keep my eye on because I just cannot quite believe the behaviour of them! (I’m now curious as to who you’re talking about!) x
Not to mention the sticky point that if you’re taking sponsorship money for posting and you have a false following, it’s actually fraud. I used a bot commenter for two days at a very busy time thinking it was better than nothing – it was so embarrassing and nothing definitely IS better!! I use search now to find beauty posts and try to take the time to like or comment or respond to comments – the more interactive you are the better it is for everyone. It’s widely known that various *influencers* bought the majority of their followers.. everyone knows it, but until brands do their homework and discover this for themselves and stop engaging – and paying – then it will continue. Ways to see whether followers are bought is to :
a) when a following goes up a similar number every two to three days (anything between 500 and 3000) and the pattern repeats
b) when likes appear all at once and not over a period of time
c) the followers have an irrelevant feed (I saw one with pictures of football pitches) and have only posted four or five times themselves
d) fake followers will only have a few followers themselves
e) if you really want to drill down you’ll see the same bio picture repeated every few hundred or so.
Every so often, Instagram does a fake follower delete.. super entertaining 🙂
They do? Delete fake followers I mean. If so, why not make it a daily occurrence? I’d LOVE to see some of the big bloggers’ real numbers, wouldn’t that be a joke?
I’m a PR…no…please..stay!! I’m also a blogger from ye olden days (2010) and helped with events like Cybher with Sian – good PRs can see through #Instafaker (lets make that a hashtag) – I have a client who I’ve recently arranged an event for, fully researching relevant location of the bloggers I want to approach, style of their blogs, the content and background information and the look & content of their instagram feed and voice on Twitter – so much work goes into finding the perfect bloggers for these brands – I rarely approach anybody on the back of how many followers they have – I like to see if I can join in with the conversation, etc. You know, personable stuff which suit the brands I represent – which is what it’s all about. I may have to book you Poppy for a big ol PR talk at some huge PR Do to get this across – it’s important.
Let’s get one thing straight. 2010 is not ye olden days. It was more like the beginning of the decline. People who didn’t get social media saw it as a channel, fell for the completely unsubstantiated myth of influencer marketing (look at network theory not the junk produced by agencies). Eventually people will get wise – the YouTuber backlash is already beginning – some semblance of genuine authenticity will return and any benefits that accrue to bloggers will be tangential and more significant in the long run.
As a small blogger in a big pond with around 450 Instagram followers, this makes a refreshing read! To be fair, I don’t often keep track of the stats and my feed generally contains pictures of my cats and cake, so I am not begrudging of those who genuinely work hard to boost their following.
Bots and paid followers make me so sad. Blogging used to be a friendly community and it sometimes feels that the numbers game is priority. I follow a hugely popular blogger who has the most amazing, professional images on the blog and social media channels. Upon closer inspection, most of her following is bought and the actual content is poor, with numerous grammatical errors in every single post.
I may not have amazing stats but will always pride myself on writing decent, rich and engaging copy – even if my photograph skills are rather amateur! When it comes to opportunities, I have worked with some wonderful brands and been offered some fantastic experiences so I am holding hope that there a still a few PRs out there that see past the numbers and focus on good quality content!
Good post and url title. You should leave the link to it in your Instagram bio. It’ll be like giving the platform the bird.
Stick with long form content and let the Vaynerchuk zombies exhaust themselves out.
I loved your post. I’ve known for a while that this was going on because I can see it on my own account. Spam comments, bot comments, loads of follows followed by unfollows. That’s the thing that makes me the most pissed off and I do have a little bit of hate in me for everyone that does that. Shame on them!
I have a really small following even though my photos are OK (I honestly don’t understand how to get more people to follow me?) and it makes me a bit sad to see accounts with really shitty pictures but 10k followers. I do spend time on my photos but I was never one for planning and posting at “the best time of the day” F that, I post when it’s relevant. Sometimes my 11am photo on a Wednesday gets 50 likes, next week it will only get 20. I don’t care and as much as I wish my feed was all put together and minimalist and white, it’s never gonna happen. It’s just not me.
It’s sad, disappointing and annoying that insta owners do nothing at all about this and that in fact they make it possible to buy follows and likes. I religiously report and block anyone who spams my account, even if it does nothing to them, it makes me 100% happier in my online space.
Oh also I forgot to mention, one thing I do is, if someone with a huge following follows me and I don’t like their feed (which is most of the time because their content is just so generic) I will not follow them if only for the reason that I think: she has enough followers already, she doesn’t need me in her corner too. I prefer following mostly smaller accounts with a handful of big ones thrown in between. Also, if someone starts to get too blogger-y (see generic comment above) I will unfollow. I want to see pretty visuals AND brains behind the content too!
Love the honesty in this piece. It is a numbers game but it’s so important to stay authentic! Spam bots are SO annoying. Don’t be sucked in! Love your feeds <3
Very well written post. I am also sick of spammers, fake followers and people asking for likes without giving anything in return. My work is quite niche oriented: fine art photography. And I have some followers (great artists) which I for each one value more than 100000 fake followers. It is all about engagement. Engagement with real people!