How To Purchase Followers: What Are the Risks?

Gaining followers on social media apps like TikTok can be pretty tricky. Perhaps this is why people sometimes choose the easier way of paying for them. There are often questions about how to purchase followers and the potential risks that follow.

You can buy social media followers from several sites online. These sites offer different numbers of followers across various social media platforms for a fee. While this practice is not legal on apps like TikTok, it remains popular. So, this article discusses all about it. 

Read on to discover the pros and cons of buying followers as well as the process.

4 Reasons Why People Purchase Followers

Usually, people buy followers to boost their follower count and increase their visibility and relevance on social media apps. Having a high number of followers is a big deal on these platforms. So, people often find ways to quicken the process. 

Since this practice is becoming even more popular, you may wonder why more people opt for it.

1. To Boost Their Follower Count

Having many followers on your profile can be such an advantage. Typically, people will trust individuals and brands with a higher follower count regarding business. This is one primary reason people buy Followers on TikTok and other apps. 

Followers also count when it comes to influence and relevance. However, this technique offers a quick option since organic growth consumes energy and time. While there are questions about this practice’s effectiveness, people go for it anyway.

2. To Appear More Credible

When it comes to social media marketing, brands with a higher number of followers tend to appear more credible. People just trust them more, and there are reasons why they may have attracted that much attention. 

So, brand owners often leverage this factor and buy followers to draw this reaction from potential customers. This is tricky because you could lose all of that credibility if word goes out that you bought fake followers. Anyways, you’re safe as long as people do not know.

3. To Get Improve Engagement

Social media algorithms are tricky to understand. But sometimes, they seem to favor accounts with massive numbers of followers. For instance, the TikTok algorithm may recommend your posts if your account enjoys a certain level of growth.

So, people often try to leverage this factor to grow their accounts even more. If the social media app pushes your content to more users, it may increase engagement and followers. 

4. To Monetize Their Accounts

Getting brand deals and endorsements as an influencer is among the most popular ways of monetizing your social media account. To do this, you must grow your followers enough to attract brands willing to work with you. 

Besides that, social media platforms like TikTok offer direct monetization options. Still, there are minimum requirements regarding your number of followers. For this reason, some users opt to buy followers to meet up.

Also, if you’re running affiliate marketing on TikTok or any other app, you’ll need a reliable audience. Other activities, like running a shop or a blog, also require a high number of followers. Still, buying followers may not always be a good option. 

6 Risks of Purchasing Followers

While there may be some benefits to buying followers for your social media accounts, there are some significant downsides. Besides affecting your credibility, they distort your account’s performance and could pose violations. 

So, here are six risks that come with purchasing followers.

1. Purchasing Followers Dents Your Credibility

Typically, having many followers can prompt more people to follow your profile. While this is not always true, people sometimes buy followers to exploit this loophole. But when word goes out that you’ve purchased fake followers, the reverse may be the case. 

Remember that identifying fake followers on platforms like TikTok is easy. For instance, followers may become suspicious if your large audience does not engage with your posts. Sometimes, these fake followers may leave spammy trails on your posts. 

When people realize that you’ve not been entirely authentic with your growth, they may lose trust in your brand. This is especially problematic if you do not have the quality and authenticity to back it up. 

In the long run, you can lose your reputation completely. You may lose customers and potential clients if you engage in marketing activities. If you’re an influencer, you may lose gigs as brands may not hire you anymore.

2. Buying Followers Affects Your Engagement Metrics

You must track your engagement metrics frequently if you’re running a marketing or influencing campaign on TikTok. This information helps you understand how much your audience connects with you and your content. 

However, tracking your performance metrics can be difficult when you purchase followers for your account. In this case, bots and fake users also make up your follower count. Thus, tracking activity from your real followers alone is practically impossible.

For instance, purchasing followers can lower your engagement rate than expected. The followers you buy comprise fake accounts that do not interact with your posts. For this reason, your engagement is lower than it should be.

Most social algorithms pay significant attention to engagement metrics. Therefore, purchasing followers is not usually a long-term solution. Instead, experts recommend targeting organic growth. 

3. Purchasing Followers Is Often a Waste of Money

Most social media platforms, including TikTok, remove fake users occasionally. This can be a problem for people buying followers since most come from these fake accounts. These apps also remove the accompanying likes, comments, and shares. 

If this happens, the person buying followers is wasting money. Buying thousands of followers can be quite expensive, and seeing them vanish in thin air can be discouraging. 

While you may have vetted your sources before buying followers, you can’t always be sure how long they’ll last. Buying followers is not typically sustainable since you can’t keep buying followers as they drop off. 

4. You Risk Shadowbans by Buying Followers

Many social media apps decrease your visibility and reach when they notice suspicious activity on your account. For instance, buying followers can trigger this response from social media apps, including TikTok.

Shadowbans could also be prominent when a social media app removes fake followers from your profile. Lower engagement rates from buying inactive followers can also reduce your reach dramatically. 

5. It Violates the Policy on Some Platforms

For some social media apps like TikTok, buying followers violates their policy. The platform’s community guidelines insist against trading or marketing services that deceive the app’s recommendation system.

Therefore, if it finds out, TikTok removes fake followers and other fake metrics, such as likes and comments. The app also makes the content ineligible to appear on the For You Page, FYP (also called the For You Feed).

In the same way, other social media apps do not condone this practice. The practice of buying followers is highly associated with bot activity. For this reason, it is not healthy even for accounts that simply buy. 

6. You Will Not Get Engagement From These Followers

Engagement is critical on all social media platforms. People target more followers for multiple reasons, including increased engagement. However, buying followers is not an effective way of increasing these numbers. 

In fact, this practice does not help and affects your chances of getting more visibility and engagement. The fake followers you pay for are mostly inactive accounts that simply add to the follower count on your profile. 

If any social media app discovers these accounts on your profile, it may shadowban you. On the other hand, they may simply remove your content from its recommendation systems.

Should You Buy Followers?

You shouldn’t purchase followers if you’re targeting increased visibility and influence. This practice only increases the number of followers on your profile without substantial differences. It simply does not add any value to your account. 

If you’re trying to grow your account on a more general basis, organic growth helps. Organic followers offer views, likes, and comments, increasing visibility and engagement. A few active followers create better results than thousands of fake followers.

If there are no likes, comments, or shares, your posts may not make it to other users’ news feeds. They may not also appear on the FYP or other recommendation feeds. 

So, you must consider all of these factors before deciding to buy followers. Otherwise, you’ll likely hurt your account or your reputation. In the best case, you may waste your money without any positive results. 

Instead, use standard growth practices that attract real attention to your profile. Create content for a specific target audience and grow your online presence. If you consistently do this, you’ll get the desired results. 

How To Purchase Followers on TikTok

Many sites offer TikTok followers for sale. You’ll need to visit the site, choose the number of followers you want, make payment, and receive your order. Despite this practice’s risks, you must still vet these sites beforehand. 

UseViral, InstaFollowers, and Social Wick are among the most popular sites where you can buy TikTok followers. So, here is how to purchase followers on TikTok from these sites:

1. Choose and visit the website from which you’re buying followers.
2. Navigate the menu to choose the option to buy followers on TikTok.
3. Since most sites offer multiple options regarding the number and quality, choose a suitable package. 
4. Enter your TikTok username or the link to your profile in the designated area. 
5. Choose a suitable payment method and make the payment. Credit and debit card payments are the most popular options available. 
6. Wait for the site to deliver your order. Depending on the site you’re working with, this may take an hour to a day. 

Since buying followers on TikTok has become a popular practice, most sites have made the process more accessible. There is a wider range of options available, and most sites promise high-quality followers. 

Still, you cannot be sure about the source of followers. Experts have warned that most come from TikTok Follow bots and fake accounts. So, consider helpful options instead of putting your account in danger. 

3 Alternatives To Purchasing Followers

Why not invest in organic growth instead of buying followers for your social media profiles? There are several valid options for you to consider. These include creating content that draws attention and using the best practices to increase your reach. 

So, here are the three most valuable alternatives to purchasing followers.

1. Share Quality Content

Share content that people like to attract followers on your social media profile. These include photos, videos, GIFs, user-generated content (UGC), boomerangs, or polls. Great content builds excitement, attracting followers who are interested in your brand. 

Post consistently and use great captions for a better effect. While at this, stick to a specific brand personality and keep your content around that personality. This way, you can attract the attention of real users and grow from there.

2. Engage With Other Users

Massively engaging with other users is more helpful than you may have imagined. These engagements include liking, commenting, and sharing their posts. This practice helps you expand your reach and draw followers.

From your comments, people can visit your profile and follow you. But besides that, this practice improves your chances of getting on the recommendation system and going viral. Again, engagement is crucial on all social media platforms. 

3. Use the App Features to Your Advantage

Modern social media apps provide multiple features that can help your growth. So, your role is to use them to your advantage. For instance, trends and hashtags can help increase your reach significantly if you understand how to use them. 

You can tag along since users follow hashtags and trends to keep up with exciting topics. Still, you should determine which hashtags and trends to use or join since you can’t always keep up with everything.

FAQ

Can you legally buy followers?

Yes, you can legally buy followers on several social media sites, like Instagram. There are no clear rules against this practice. 

However, other apps, including TikTok, have clearly warned against it. 

What is the best website to buy followers?

According to several recommendations, UseViral is among the best sites to buy followers. Others, like Social Wick, InstaFollowers, and Media Mister, fall within a similar category. 

Still, you cannot be sure about their source and quality.

Can you get banned for buying followers on TikTok?

No, you will not get banned for buying followers on TikTok. However, you may face other risks, such as a shadow ban or decreased visibility. 

In short, TikTok removes your posts from its recommendation system if it discovers that you bought followers.

Grow Your TikTok Followers With High Social

Instead of buying TikTok followers, why don’t you grow your followers organically for even better results? This process can be challenging, especially for people unfamiliar with the app or new to social media.

That is why High Social, a TikTok growth agency, helps you attract real and organic followers. This growth service enables you to target followers based on age, location, and gender, beating the need for fake users and bots. 

Instead of worrying about how to purchase followers, why don’t you let High Social do all the work? Get followers who will engage with your content. Start your TikTok growth now!

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