After I began freelancing in social media, my inbox has been filled with questions in regards to building an Instagram following organically and boosting engagement. I decided that for the rest of summer, every Tuesday, I will give you all a little trick of the trade! You’ll have to let me know if this is helpful at all or if there are any questions you have!

Tip Numero Uno: Do not hop on the follow/unfollow train thinking it will help you gain followers (that would only make you an internet jerk). Furthermore, don’t follow spam accounts or pay for followers. You are not fooling anyone when you suddenly go from 1,200 to 3,200 followers overnight. People and brands alike are able to look up when you gained followers and if it was an organic process or not.

“Grow organically and win the race.”

When you start to lie about followers on your social channels, your customers/friends/followers will wonder what else you are lying about. Seriously. Think of it this way; you tell your friends at college that you threw a party with 300 kids from your hometown and then they find out that only 20 friends were there. Wouldn’t you doubt everything else they tell you? What else are they lying about to seem popular or cool. People are put off by bots for the same reason they are put off by liars.

Another reason that you should not try and get “bots” to follow you is because it is an easy way to get banned from the app. Instagram has been known to crack down on fake accounts in the past and why would you want to risk that? These fake accounts cannot drive revenue or engagement for you so there is no reward in using them.

Fake accounts are only a quick fix. If you want your brand to be in it for the long haul, let it happen organically (or hire me).