Fashion and beauty influencers are important to the people who follow them. They are trusted for their expertise and advice, so it’s important that they have an organic follower count. An organic following means that every single one of the people following the influencer is a real, live person. There are fake accounts and profiles on social media that are bots meaning the there is not a real person behind it. The bot may just be there to act as a follower and make people think the influencer is being followed by more people than they actually are. Bots can also be used to interact with followers, repost messages, and even comment.
Here are 3 ways influencers organically grow their social media follower count:
Fake Follower Avoidance & Auto-blocking
You may think that bots are beneficial because they make an influencer’s account seem more popular than it actually is, helping them to attract more Instagram followers and influence more people, ultimately building their brand and business. Unfortunately, many people on social media know the difference between a bot’s account and a real human’s, so they are able to tell when an influencer is using dishonest approaches, and they’ll be less likely to follow them.
There are disadvantages to having bots follow you:
- Follower Disconnect
While in some cases, you can choose to have bots follow you, in other cases, someone may program bots to do something else entirely. Bots can do more than just sit in your followers list. They can interact with your social media pages and your followers themselves. They can actually become malicious and post comments on your photos, reply to your comments, and create an overall negative feeling with your social media account. This will make people unfollow you and never return to your page.
- Dishonesty
The use of bots makes followers believe that the influencer is dishonest, hurting their overall brand. Sometimes bots are used to interact with posts and that’s where they can really prove that they are not human, letting the real followers know that the influencer is using dishonest practices and doesn’t actually care to interact with them.
An influencer who uses bots is also dishonest when they’re just using bots to increase the perception of their popularity. You may think that the more followers (human or bot) an influencer has will attract others and make potential followers trust that influencer, but many social media platforms are cracking down on fake accounts. This means that when all of those bots are deleted or forced out Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, the follower count will drop, proving that the influencer isn’t someone who can be trusted.
- Bot Error
Social media is better left to humans. Bots are not always correct and they can easily retweet or comment something that is off-brand or offensive. The bots may not always stay on topic and they definitely do not understand your values and what truly makes your followers connect with you. They can easily cause distrust among your audience with one bad post.
- Brands Won’t Work With You
Many influencers make money by working with brands and companies that share their values. Influencers promote certain products and advertise them to their followers while persuading them to buy. If an influencer is using bots and counting them in their followers, a brand will not want to work with them. Bots do not buy products, people do, so it’s important for brands to know that the followers are real people who might make a purchase.
Auto-blocking
Auto-blocking is the easiest way to prevent bots from negatively impacting influencer social media accounts. Bots will be blocked without the influencer having to do anything in order to block them. This provides an extra layer of protection because influencers won’t have to worry about constantly screening their followers and manually blocking the bots, sometimes missing more than they realize.
Daily social media management and engagement
Regular management of their social media accounts is another effective way for influencers to organically grow their follower count. By actively engaging with their followers, responding to comments and questions, and liking other’s posts, they’re able to naturally build a community of their own of followers who have the same interests and values. Influencers do this every single day to make sure their followers keep coming back and rely on them for fashion and beauty tips.
Audience targeting
Targeting your audience can grow follower count exponentially. It also allows an influencer to find the followers who they want to reach, people in the same area, and those with the same interests. Hashtag targeting can allow you to find people with similar interests. When you reach followers whose values align with yours, you’re more likely to keep them following you for a long period of time. This will also show brands that all of your followers are potential customers because they share your interests.