{"id":3148,"date":"2021-10-29T21:43:59","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T21:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/?p=3148"},"modified":"2021-10-29T21:44:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T21:44:00","slug":"avoid-ghost-followers-on-instagram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/avoid-ghost-followers-on-instagram\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Practical Tips You Can Follow To Avoid Ghost Followers On Instagram"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When you\u2019re in the groove and posting regularly, you want to make sure your posts are being seen by real people, not ghost followers on Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t know what ghost followers are, they\u2019re accounts that follow you without saying anything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They don\u2019t like or comment on your posts and they certainly aren\u2019t going to convert into customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having ghost followers can not only hurt your metrics on Instagram, but it can also be demoralizing. If you put time and energy into creating new posts and showing up in Stories and only a very small fraction of your audience is engaging with your posts, you might feel like giving up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of doing that, let\u2019s focus on how you can avoid attracting ghost followers in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you think you have a legion of ghost followers, it might be worth it to take the time to scrub your list and remove ghost followers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might be hard to see that follower count go down, but it\u2019s better in the long run. We\u2019ll talk more about this later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Tips You Can Follow To Avoid Ghost Followers On Instagram<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are plenty of ways you can avoid ghost followers, but here are our top five tips that you can put into practice today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Have A Private Account<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When you have a private account<\/a>, you have to accept every follower that you get. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means you can do a little research and make sure they\u2019re a real user. It\u2019s also more difficult for fake accounts to follow private accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re interested in switching from a public to private account, simply go into your Instagram settings, and then tap \u201cPrivacy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the top of that page you\u2019ll see a toggle button to turn on (or off) \u201cPrivate Account.\u201d Simply tap that toggle and you\u2019ll be private!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s a downside to this solution, though. You can\u2019t be private as a business account. So, if you want to do this, you\u2019ll need to switch to a personal account first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means you\u2019ll lose access to analytics, the ability to easily share contact information, Instagram shops, advertising and other business-specific options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll have to consider this before you make the switch to a private account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the right decision for some users but not for everyone. (Oh – and if you use hashtags with a private account, they won\u2019t show up on the search page for that hashtag.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Avoid Buying Followers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When you buy Instagram followers, there\u2019s a good chance that some of your new followers will be ghosts. If you\u2019re buying from someone who\u2019s guaranteeing you a certain number of followers, the chances that you\u2019ll be getting ghost followers increases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, if you\u2019re going to get real followers, they have to make that decision for themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you can guarantee that someone will follow you, they\u2019re most likely not really interested in your page and won\u2019t engage with your posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, focus on attracting real followers for Instagram<\/a> only. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This way, you\u2019ll know that the people you have following you have chosen to do so and are excited to see your posts and learn about what you\u2019re sharing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They might not engage on every single thing you post, but they\u2019re generally interested in your content. This will help your engagement and it\u2019ll also increase the likelihood that some of your followers will convert into customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you have real people following you, they can see your content, form opinions about it and your business and then act on those opinions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media marketing only works when real people are seeing your content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Do Not Buy Likes Or Comments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Just like buying followers, you want to avoid purchasing likes and comments, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, this will just give you a boost of engagement that won\u2019t last. It might help one or two of your posts to do well, but it won\u2019t impact much long-term. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond that, posts that get a lot of engagement out of the blue can also attract bots and fake followers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They might join in the liking and commenting spree and then begin to follow you. After that, though, they\u2019ll go radio silent and turn into ghosts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one wants to see that happen, so it\u2019s better to just steer clear of these kinds of purchases from the beginning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, the best kind of engagement is real engagement from your interested followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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4. Avoid Acquiring Pre-existing Instagram Accounts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Did you know that this is technically an option? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are people who will build a following on an Instagram account through whatever means they choose to use, and then they sell that Instagram account to someone looking to grow their business<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea is that they\u2019ll have a built-in group to market to and have followers ready to engage with their posts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it sounds like a great idea in theory, there are a few reasons it\u2019s actually probably going to fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, it\u2019s very likely that this account\u2019s following was built through some of the methods we mentioned above, notably buying followers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that\u2019s the case, we already know they\u2019re probably ghost followers on Instagram. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, even if the account seller grew the following through organic ways, chances are they aren\u2019t in the same industry as the business that purchases the account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this, there\u2019s no guarantee that the followers will even be interested in the content that the buyer is posting.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let\u2019s say the buyer and seller do everything right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seller built up the account organically with real followers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then they sold it to someone in their niche because they\u2019re tired of their brand or business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if the new account owner is a great fit for the existing followers, that new owner hasn\u2019t built up any trust with the audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Followers will probably go silent after the switch and they might just stop engaging altogether. Some might even forget why they followed the account if someone else is running it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stepping into a pre-existing Instagram account might sound like a great shortcut, but it\u2019s not worth the headache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Remove Inactive Followers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Finally, let\u2019s circle back to one of our initial suggestions. If you have people following you who aren\u2019t engaging, it\u2019s time to remove them from your account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might feel difficult to delete followers because we\u2019re so focused on watching our follower number grow, but it\u2019s really going to be beneficial to your account in the long run if you do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, do you really want fake Instagram followers<\/a> clogging up your account? Having a large following is great, but if they aren\u2019t engaging with your posts, Instagram could penalize you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why You Should Avoid Ghost Followers On Instagram<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We alluded to this a little bit earlier, but let\u2019s talk for a minute about why you want to avoid ghost followers now that we\u2019ve talked about how to avoid them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ghost Followers On Engagement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Having ghost followers can really hurt your engagement rates on Instagram. We\u2019ve said many times that ghost followers don\u2019t engage with your posts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they can also keep real followers from seeing your posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you create a post on Instagram, the platform will show it to a small percentage of your followers. Then, if they respond well to it with plenty of likes and comments, Instagram will see that your post is valuable and they\u2019ll show it to more of your followers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This pattern continues and eventually will land your post on the explore page if it\u2019s performing well enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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However, if your post is initially shown to a group of ghost followers, they won\u2019t be engaging with your post, so Instagram might think it\u2019s not a good post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this, the platform might decide not to show it to more of your followers, and the process ends before it really begins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this, you want to remove ghost followers as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ghost Followers On Credibility<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ghost followers can also hurt your credibility on Instagram<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you\u2019re looking for a brand or influencer deal or you\u2019re just focused on the decisions your potential real followers are making, you want to pay attention to your credibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brands and influencers will always look at your follower count, but they\u2019ll also look at your engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they see that you have thousands of followers but are only getting 50-60 likes on your posts and 10-15 comments, they might think something\u2019s fishy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either your content isn\u2019t very good or your following is weak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your engagement rate is too low, you might lose out on the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, potential followers might see how active your current following is when they decide whether or not to follow you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they see a big gap in follower count and engagement, they might think your posts aren\u2019t really that good or that there\u2019s some other problem with your content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They might decide it\u2019s not worth it and click away without tapping the follow button.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time To Bust The Ghosts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Whether you currently have ghost followers or you want to avoid them at all costs, you should now have a few tips to help you move forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most importantly, remember that while follower count is great, your engagement rate is the most critical metric in boosting your social media presence<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your audience shows you what posts they do and don\u2019t like by how they engage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they aren\u2019t engaging with anything, you\u2019re missing out on that feedback. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019ll also hurt your credibility, so it\u2019s time to remove any ghost followers on Instagram that you have and think about how you\u2019ll prevent them in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you\u2019re in the groove and posting regularly, you want to make sure your posts are being seen by real people, not ghost followers on Instagram. If you don\u2019t know what ghost followers are, they\u2019re accounts that follow you without saying anything. They don\u2019t like or comment on your posts and they certainly aren\u2019t going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[292,320,289,296,735],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3148"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}