Buying Instagram followers is a common practice. More and more monitored by the social network, is it still possible? And what is it for? The High Tech journalist from L'Express Tendances played the game of buying "fake accounts". He tells.
The technique is simple. Type "buy Instagram followers" into your search engine and dozens of sites capable of increasing your number of followers are available to you. For a hundred euros, it is possible to go from 20 subscribers to 200,000 in a few hours.
The goal of this practice? Increase its visibility to try to increase its e-reputation. A very widespread system that the social network is trying to eradicate. How do these fake subscribers act on an account? What are professionals and Instagram doing to make them disappear? The time to investigate, I slipped into the shoes of an influencer looking for new subscribers.
Initially, my account is followed by 343 people. To boost this figure, I go to the first French-speaking site referenced on Google, Followersparcher.com. On the main page, the site offers me to become "an Instagram influencer". It then directs me to the purchase page which allows me to acquire 100 to 500,000 subscribers at one time. Prices range from 2.99 euros to 899.99 euros.
I choose to "order" 2500 subscribers, which costs me 24.99 euros. So that the number of likes follows, I add a package of 50 likes per photo for 4.99 euros. If one wishes to acquire subscribers, it is generally in order to be able to obtain commercial partnerships with brands. However, these are aimed at accounts that are not only powerful but also capable of eliciting the engagement of their followers through likes and comments. A "big account" that collects few likes attracts suspicion about the veracity of its community.
Once the purchases have been made, I enter my pseudonym, choose the rate of delivery (once or 100 subscribers per day) and the extended warranty, which allows you to replace deleted accounts. For a month, 100 subscribers and 50 likes are effectively added to my account daily.
Even though I am the author of the subterfuge, seeing my number of subscribers grow day by day is something joyful. Especially since each photo also gets a significant number of likes. By posting only seven photos during this month, my account reached the bar of 2956 subscribers.
Three months after the end of the operation, my number of subscribers plummeted to 2,200: once the plan is over, the accounts purchased disengage or are deleted by Instagram. In addition, they are inactive: they do not comment or like my photos anymore. They have no use, apart from increasing - on the front - my number of subscribers.
The hunt for fake accounts
During my experience, Instagram toughened its policy towards fake followers. In July, three sites for generating likes and comments - Instagress, InstaPlus or PeerBoost - were deleted at the request of the social network. Many accounts having subscribed to false subscribers would now be penalized by the algorithms, causing them to lose visibility with the public. Already in 2014, the social network had deleted more than 300 million fake accounts, losing more than a million followers in one day to celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber. If Instagram tries to get rid of fake accounts, the professionals in charge of relationships with Instagrammers start cleaning up their network. For Camille Clance, press attaché at the Parisian agency Pop and Partners, it all started in 2016. "With the arrival of the SocialBlade site, we can now see the fluctuations in audiences on the accounts and check how many followers an influencer gains or loses per day. If the subscribers are too unstable, we deduce that he buys some. " A technique which made it possible to carry out the first sorting. "The moment a purchase of followers is noticeable, we are no longer proactive with them."
As the data provided by SocialBlade remains limited, other tools now make it possible to prove the authenticity of a community. This is the case with Fohr Card, an intermediation site between brands and influencers. "For each brand to invest intelligently in a legitimate influencer, Fohr Card will scan all the data of a community, in order to assess the authenticity of the account," says Arnaud Chanteloup, founder of the VeryGoodLord blog.
A practice that can continue
According to Challenges, the influencer marketing business on Instagram in the United States is estimated at one billion dollars. A new market that inevitably attracts its share of opportunists. And despite the arrival of regulators, the purchase of fake subscribers should remain for some time. "These are new jobs that involve new skills," said Delphine Desneiges, digital strategy advisor and creator of the DeedeeParis blog. Integrating them takes a long time. For press agencies, this means sifting through and verifying the source. account communities before advising them to brands. This work must be highlighted with advertisers to see things evolve. "
"When news agencies are looking for accounts that match the universe of a brand, the number can be limited to five or six. If three of them are not very clean, they will still offer them, otherwise their choice would seem too weak ", tempers, pragmatic, the blogger Arnaud Chanteloup.
A taboo topic
The cards are more in the hands of agencies, brands, and Instagram. "If we want to move towards the professionalization of
influence, professionals must react by scrutinizing all the accounts with which
they work and sanction those who buy. Otherwise, nothing will change,"
said Arnaud Chanteloup. “This assumes that we look beyond a number and that we
pay more attention to commitment, continues Delphine Desneiges. Unfortunately,
many people still have the reflex to go to an account with a lot of 'subscribers.
"
Buying fake followers doesn't mean your community
is fake, though. "An account with 100,000 followers which has bought 10%
of false subscribers still has a community of 90,000 people, recalls Delphine
Designs. But we are on a playground that is over-invested, where each
Instagrammer knows he can be replaced. . Some want to take a step up to
continue to exist. "
However, in this rapidly expanding environment, the subject remains taboo, as Arnaud Chanteloup attests: "Since I have been a
blogger, I have never heard anyone admit that they have bought followers."