Why people buy Instagram accounts
Considering buying an Instagram account? Discover the risks and gains, and get tips on how to make your account a success.
Instagram, one of the biggest platforms on the internet, has become a platform where many brands and individuals have taken their businesses to in order to expand their customer base and audience or to generate more income.
From fashion to lifestyle, beauty to medicine, you can find over a thousand accounts promoting various topics. It can be a really competitive space and sometimes, the competition can get to some users.
Many brands, in order to reach a new goal or height at a certain point in time or for one reason or the other, buy paid Insta followers. They may even buy Instagram followers and engagements whether fake or genuine (likes, comments, story reposts and saves).
Although on Instagram, it is general knowledge that it is illegal and a breach of terms of use to purchase or sell one’s Instagram account, people still go ahead and purchase them regardless. Why do people buy Instagram accounts?
This article highlights some of the reasons why people do so, the risks involved in buying Instagram accounts and what to do before buying an Instagram account if you are considering purchasing one.
Five reasons why people buy Instagram accounts
As mentioned earlier, there are a number of reasons why people and brands purchase Instagram accounts. Below are five reasons why people buy Instagram accounts.
1) It gets you off to a good start
Usually, buying an Instagram account is a good way to start off a business. An account that is to be bought will have a certain number of organic followers and posts. This makes it easier for new brands that are just starting off on Instagram because the said account will have already generated and gained its own audience.
All that will need to be done is for the said brand to navigate and understand the likes and preferences of the current audience of the account being bought, so as to benefit and get a return on their investment.
2) Easier monetization
Many Instagram accounts that already have a good number of audiences get recognition and attention much faster than brand new accounts by hitting the top easier with the use of hashtags and staying on the explore page, and they gather new audiences faster.
New brands find it easier with these kinds of accounts and once they have gained the trust or understood the preferences of the present audience, they can easily monetize the account and be able to introduce and sell their products without much complications.
3) A lack of time
To gain an audience on Instagram requires time and a lot of effort. Many brands that want to introduce their businesses to Instagram do not have the time to start building and gathering an audience from scratch.
They would either need to get a professional to build an audience from scratch for them or purchase an Instagram account with the kind of audience that they are looking for, and most brands would rather go for the latter.
4) You need an involved audience
Many brands buy Instagram accounts out of the need for an audience that would not just purchase their products, but engage with their posts and provide feedback. For example, taking part in polls and questionnaires, commenting, liking, saving and sharing their posts and content.
With all of this taking place, the brand will come off as a genuine one when new audiences come across them and this further helps in the increase of audiences and boosting of sales.
5) To make money
Some people who buy Instagram accounts do so to resell at a higher price to people or brands who demand it. They can also buy Instagram comments cheap or follower for instant growth.
However, buying the accounts from people who no longer need them, grow the audience by getting genuine followers and engagements or fake bots, and resell them to brands or people who demand it at a higher price to make more income.
Four key risks involved with buying Instagram accounts
There are a number of risks involved when buying Instagram accounts. Instagram accounts are not sold and bought on platforms that are verified and trusted, but are instead sold by individuals and are thus not guaranteed. Below are four of the biggest risks involved with buying Instagram accounts.
1) It could be a scam
When buying Instagram accounts, one can never know if the person selling to them is genuine or not. The seller could just take the money and ‘ghost’ the buyer, provide an account with different or wrong login details or provide an account that doesn’t match the buyers’ preferences. Buying an Instagram account is not always guaranteed to be safe, no matter how much research you make before purchasing an Instagram account.
2) You could be sold a fake account
If you want to purchase an Instagram account, unless you are familiar with Instagram and know when to spot fakes, you could easily be sold accounts with fake followers and bots as the audience.
An account with bots as the audience would make it difficult for the brand to get good and genuine interactions and engagements, which could make it difficult for new audiences to be formed.
3) It’s a breach/violation of Instagram’s terms of use
It is general knowledge that it is prohibited for users to sell or purchase accounts on Instagram or transfer any aspect of their account to another user.
If Instagram should find out that the account being bought has been sold or purchased, the account would most likely get seized or deactivated, and the money and effort that had been put into the said account would then be wasted.
4) Limited use of accounts
As a business that is looking to buy an account, it is advisable that you buy a public account and not a personal blog. A personal blog with a good number of followers would most likely have grown with more time and intentionality, and its audience was probably attracted to the aesthetics and the kind of unique content that was being created.
You cannot just buy that sort of account and replace that personality, especially if the content that is going to be created and posted on the account doesn’t match the content that was being posted before.
Introducing a different kind of content from the ones that attracted the current audience might cause you to lose a number of followers because that wasn’t what made them follow the account in the first place.
What to do before buying an Instagram account
Now that you know the reasons why people buy Instagram accounts and the risks involved with purchasing one, here three things to do before buying an Instagram account, if you are considering purchasing one.
1) Research and study the account
If you are considering purchasing an Instagram account, you should study the account. Check that the audience is genuine and not made up of bots or fakes by going through the followers and the current engagements on the account.
If the ratio of likes and comments to the follower count is not equal or fairly good, then the followers are fake. Bots and fakes do not engage on posts; these fake and bot accounts get deleted or blocked after a while, and this causes the follower count of the account being bought to drop.
Check the comments on the posts on the account; lots of comments indicate that the engagements on the contents of the account are genuine and real and are from genuine followers. Knowing and understanding how the audience communicates and engages with the content on the page can help you further manage the account and deliver the best content to your audience.
2) Learn and study about how to manage an account
If you are considering buying an Instagram account and have little to no prior knowledge about managing an account or maintaining engagements, you should take courses on account management and content creation and management.
Understanding how to manage an account and provide quality content for your products can help you keep your audience entertained and engaged. If you think this is too much and that you cannot handle the management of an account, another way to go is to hire a professional social media manager.
A social media manager is skilled in the management of various social media accounts, including Instagram, and the creation of unique content to match the topic of the account or what it is promoting. The latter option could be way less stressful, but it would cost you more money than you intended to spend.
3) Maintain secure transactions
After you have studied the account to be bought and you are sure you want to proceed with the purchase of the account, make sure to keep your payments secure. Don’t give the seller your bank or credit card information, or anything else that could cause problems.
Try to avoid shady sellers as much as possible. As you study the Instagram accounts to be bought, try as much as possible to research the seller. Make sure that the seller is someone who is credible and has good reviews from past buyers, so as to avoid a scam.
You need to keep your audience engaged and entertained
Please take note that buying an Instagram account involves actually putting in the effort to keep its audience engaged and entertained. The audience was attracted to the account because of what they saw and the effort and consistency the previous owner put into it.
The audience will not know that the account has been bought, and they will expect the same level of commitment and consistency, so be prepared to match their pace and expectations.
With the information provided in this article, I hope you found what you were looking for and will take the necessary steps when purchasing an Instagram account. Good luck!
