Have you ever heard the term “I’m just playing the numbers?” It’s a strategy many marketers use when it comes to Instagram, and in our opinion, it’s not a sound growth strategy. While in some circles what we believe might not be considered best practice here at Think Tank Business Services is that we are advocates for reducing your followers when they are of low quality or are “ghost” followers.”
What Is A Ghost Follower?
- A ghost follower is an Instagram account that follows you but never engages with your page.
- Ghost followers can harm your engagement rate and take your organic posts away from the feed of genuine and real followers.
How Do I Spot These Ghosts?
Well before you get the proton pack and P.K.E meter ready the best way to spot these ghosts is that they usually have one or more of the following.
- 0 followers
- 0 posts
- No profile pictures
- High ratio of people they follow-for-follow
How Do I Bust These Ghosts?
Generally, there are two ways you can remove these spam bots, ghost followers or low-quality followers. You can do this manually or with a third-party app.
Manual
To block ghost followers manually, you need to start by finding their profile then tap on the (…) symbol in the top right corner and then hit block.
While this can be time-consuming, eventually you will have a clean account which will positively impact your engagement and reach.
Use An App
There are some paid and free apps out there like Cleaner, mass Unfollow and Follow Meter, all of these are available in the app store.
Just remember that even with these apps, Instagram has limitations on the number of actions performed in an hour, so use them wisely and conservatively.
Well, I hope this helps you bust some fakes and gets you back on track engaging with the people who do genuinely care about your brand, purpose and mission.
Blogged by Jason Armstrong
I started my career in hospitality working all aspects of a restaurant from back of house cook to front of house server, bar and management. The last 15 years of my career have truly been a journey of discovery. I have worked for some of the major telecommunication brands in Australia as Sales both in store and B2B, Manager, Trainer and Marketing. I have worked in the Job Services industry which in my role I was exposed to many different businesses and curious as to how they operated. I also returned to Telco only to discover I had a passion for wanting to do my own thing. I am a keen learner and Social Media was not only fun but the biggest change to marketing since television.
My first experience of sales and marketing was when I was 18 and I interviewed for a job with an electrical/telecommunications retailer who tossed a blue BIC pen on the desk between us and said “Sell me this pen” my natural instinct was to start talking, and to anyone who has known me for a very long time, I didn’t stop for a number of years.
Karen Denny is a real powerhouse who is both driven to succeed with a clear understanding of how to get there! Karen comes from a diverse background with a plethora of qualifications behind her.