The Ins and Outs of Buying Instagram Followers and Likes

Jon Stojan
·8 min read

For most people, the number of Instagram followers they have or the number of likes they get on their posts has no bearing on their lives. It doesn’t matter if their selfie gets three or 300 likes.

But it’s a different story for brands and businesses trying to expand their reach, build trust, and drive sales through Instagram. Numbers are everything to them, so they keep a close eye on their social media signals and employ complex marketing strategies to increase their following and drive engagement.

Some even purchase likes and followers to give their Instagram page a boost. If you’re wondering how this works and if you should follow suit, here’s a closer look at this side of social media marketing.

Why Are Followers, Likes, and Views Important to Brands and Businesses?

So why are brands, businesses, and influencers determined to grow their following and get people to view, like, and comment on their Instagram posts? There are a couple of good reasons for this.

For one, engagement has a snowballing effect. If you upload a photo on the platform and people immediately engage with it, you’ll catch the Instagram algorithm’s attention. It’ll see your post as worth sharing with others and will feature it on the Explore page. That gives you a much higher chance of going viral and tapping a larger audience.

Another reason why engagement is crucial is because of social proof. This is particularly important for business accounts on Instagram. Consumers are growing more skeptical of brands and their advertisements. They’re more willing to trust fellow customers and what they have to say about the products and services they’ve tried. So when they see that many others are following, liking, and commenting on a brand’s posts, they’re more likely to join the bandwagon and make a purchase.

Having a sizeable following and high engagement on Instagram can open more opportunities for you, which is why it’s worth putting in the effort to grow your numbers. However, not everyone gets the results they want despite the work they put into their content. It can be hard to get the Instagram algorithm to work in your favor since it’s known to keep changing its behavior. That’s where purchasing followers and likes come in.

There’s a Social Media Marketing Niche That Sells Followers, Likes, and Views

The need to look popular, professional, and credible on Instagram has created a different social media marketing niche. There are now companies selling followers, likes, and views as marketing products to anyone who needs a boost on Instagram. They offer regular users, brands, and businesses a way to circumvent the algorithm and achieve their target numbers on the platform. They can then look more attractive to potential customers.

You don’t need a massive marketing budget to buy Instagram followers and likes, making it an even more enticing solution. For example, Stormlikes can give you 50 likes from real users for just $1.39. If you want 250 likes, that’s just $4.49. The more likes you buy, the bigger the discount you can enjoy. Another affordable company you can tap is Blastup, offering a hundred Instagram followers for $2.99 and a thousand for $9.99.

Instagram bots are another quick fix to your Instagram woes. For a subscription fee, an Instagram bot will take over your account, interact with other users, and farm followers and likes for you. Their basic package, which promises to give you organic followers, is $49 a month. But if you want extra fast results, you can unlock their advanced Instagram bot for $79 a month.

What Does Instagram Think About Buying Followers and Likes?

Instagram prides itself as an authentic space where users can enjoy valuable content and businesses and content creators can form meaningful partnerships.

So you can imagine how the company feels about its users buying followers and likes. It disapproves of the practice, saying that inauthentic followers, likes, and comments harm the community and go against its guidelines. As a solution, it developed a new technology that helps the company track accounts that purchase followers and likes from third-party services.

Instagram also thought about eliminating the like count to reduce the pressure on the platform. But through its testing, the company discovered that doing so made little to no difference. It troubled people more than anything because many users refer to like counts to determine trends and the popularity of a product or service.

Instagram invested more than two years testing the removal of the feature only to scrap their plan in the end. While users can now hide their like count, likes are still a vital metric of success on the platform.

Does Instagram’s Boost Feature Count As Authentic?

If Instagram is adamant about maintaining authenticity on the platform, it’s only fair to question its Boost feature. Users with a Business profile can pay Instagram to turn their content into promotional ads and expose them to a larger audience.

When you apply the Boost feature to your in-feed posts and Stories, even people who don’t follow you can see and interact with them. They can even land a coveted spot on the Explore feed. In short, the Boost feature is a paid way to get more followers, likes, and comments. It’s not an organic method to grow your audience and drive engagement, yet Instagram doesn’t have a problem with it.

So what’s genuine and what’s cheating? It’s Instagram’s world, so it gets to lay down the laws. The Boost feature disrupts users’ regular feeds to make way for paid ads. But of course, Instagram has exempted it from its authenticity rules. After all, the company makes billions in ad revenue yearly, and the figures will only get bigger.

Are There Legitimate Companies Behind the Selling of Followers, Likes, and Views?

Instagram may frown upon those who sell followers, likes, and views, labeling the practice inauthentic. But there are legitimate companies within this social media marketing industry that go above and beyond for their customers’ needs. Some examples are Stormlikes and Blastup.

Stormlikes

Stormlikes is the only company that delivers likes from real and active Instagram users, not ghost or bot accounts. It was also the first provider to offer country and gender targeting, allowing customers to get Instagram engagement from specific people and locations.

The company also gives customers control over the delivery of their orders to make their likes look more genuine. For example, you can specify how many likes you want to allot to each post. That way, it appears random and not as if you planned everything out. You can also adjust the delivery speed to prevent the likes from coming in at a suspiciously fast rate.

Stormlikes appears to provide affordable likes packages, with their most basic package priced at $1.39 for 50 likes. The mid-tier package comes with 100 likes for $2.49, while their most expensive package provides 250 likes for $4.49. That gives you a 35% discount. There’s also a sliding tool on its website, which lets customers customize their packages with as many likes as they want. You can purchase as many as 7,500 likes for $50. That shaves 76% off your bill. Stormlikes will deliver your order immediately after receiving your payment.

It also offers another product called Automatic Instagram Likes. Like how you subscribe to Netflix, you sign up for these subscription-based packages that automatically give likes to your chosen posts. They’re ideal for those who post consistently on Instagram as they provide many discount opportunities.

Stormlikes has a 4.78 rating out of 5 on its website, collected from 36 reviews. Most customers expressed satisfaction with their orders, saying they weren’t expecting likes from real people. And though the company has received rave reviews, these reviews may be too few to pass judgment on Stormlikes. But you can always go for the free trial to see if its products suit your social media marketing needs.

Blastup

Blastup has a similar business concept to Stormlikes. However, it also offers Instagram followers and views aside from likes. It’s big on quality, providing its customers with unique followers with active profiles and views from real accounts. If you don’t like making separate purchases for each Instagram post, you can subscribe to their Automatic Likes packages. These will give your content an instant boost the moment you post them.

Blastups’ products are budget-friendly. Its most basic followers package is $2.99 for 100 followers, while 1,000 followers will only set you back by $9.99. If you experience a follower drop within 30 days of your purchase, Blastup will automatically give you a refill. As for views, you can get as little as 500 for $1.99 and as much as 250,000 for $250.

Should You Buy Followers, Likes, and Views for Your Instagram Page?

Having impressive numbers on Instagram can open various opportunities for your brand or business. And given that companies are selling followers, likes, and views, there’s an undeniable demand for higher social media signals.

While it’s a convenient solution, buying your way into Instagram fame can have a negative impact on your social media reputation in the long run. The best thing to do is to supplement your purchases with traditional and ethical social media practices. And it never hurts to stick to the basics of Instagram marketing: learning about your audience, creating high-quality content that resonates with them, and posting consistently.

Sources

McClatchy newsroom and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content.