buying followers: the unspoken practice in the influencer industry
a conversation from how to be a woman on the internet
I have to admit - I’ve been in a slump lately. With social media, with this newsletter, with career stuff. I feel really uninspired and unmotivated and have been trying to rack my brain on what I can talk about, what I can share. And then I realized that this kind of mindset makes me start to resent what I’m working on to begin with. This pressure to post all the time or write weekly… This Substack is supposed to be an outlet - not another obligation on the to-do list. And releasing myself from the pressure of having to stick to a sort of cadence early last year, with Instagram for example, actually freed up time for this newsletter to happen in the first place. And all things Seen Library, which is what I’ve actually been spending a lot of time on these days.
So instead of throwing together something half-hearted, I want to share a piece I’m proud to have worked on for How to be a Woman on the Internet about buying followers, a common but unspoken practice in the influencer industry.
Buying followers was a big thing when Instagram and influencer marketing took off around 2013, but some find it surprising that it still happens today – and from my viewpoint, even more so, with it spanning beyond just buying followers, but also likes and even link clicks. I’ve found there’s actually a large amount of creators who are very aware of this happening, and it gets brought up a lot in my one-on-one conversations.
There are various ways to spot fake engagement on Instagram, which you can usually tell by very consistent engagement across posts, no matter what is being posted. For example, an outfit photo in color will likely do much better than a black and white product shot, but for people who buy their engagement, the likes are pretty much the same. You can also click on likes and see the types of accounts that are liking, and by clicking on a few of those profiles, can quickly see they’re a bunch of bots. Or you might notice massive upticks in people’s followings by simply refreshing their page at the right time and seeing the numbers jump tens of thousands.
My advice to brands and creators
To brands I would say: balance the importance you place on numbers with other aspects influencers have to offer. Focus on who you want to align with your brand based on the creator and their interests and passions and what they represent, versus solely that number on top of their page, especially when that number may be misleading. When approaching partnerships, ask questions like: What kind of community are we trying to build? What type of person do we want to align with? Because it’s difficult to tell who has truly high engagement from a glance, what other factors are important to us when partnering with someone – is it their content? Their style? Their expertise or career? What causes they stand for?
I know many people behind brands often work in such fast-paced environments that it’s difficult to find the time to stop and really think about these things and instead have to quickly put a campaign together. I spoke to a marketing manager who knew she was working with someone with inflated numbers, and basically didn’t care – she needed a certain type of content and hiring this person got her job done. Or there’s the brand director we spoke to for this piece. When she was overseeing the influencer program at a small fashion start-up she had to be very careful with her limited budget, so she’d do intense investigating around engagement before working with anyone. She said, “[buying followers] was happening so often I had a moment where I questioned – what the fuck am I even doing? Is this just one of those weird things that everyone does but no one talks about?”
I’d like for these conversations to be happening more openly with everyone, but specifically on the brand side, and for there to be more thoughtfulness going into these partnerships with a different value system because maybe that would change creators’ mindsets on what to focus on instead of numbers.
As for creators, it’s important to take a step back and reflect what is causing the temptation to give into the cycle of buying followers. Jane Park goes on to suggest, “Ask yourself - why do [you] want this? Is it optics? Or do you really want to share your lifestyle, opinions, POV with a real community? Do you fall into the Instagram trap of buying the same things everyone is buying or do you offer a lens that is uniquely you?”
The side effects of buying followers
It’s easy to think that buying followers is harmless – that there’s no negative side effect. But I think the reality is that the side effects are just hard to quantify. We know that it unfairly influences who gets opportunities and who doesn’t. But it goes so much deeper than that. It’s these things that Lauren Caruso mentioned – how this number can result in an inflated sense of self or temporary feelings of satisfaction and importance. And that makes me think – how else does this focus on numbers play into our real lives – bought or not? The more we are rewarded on social media, the more time we’re encouraged to spend there, even if it’s at the expense of our lives outside of it. The likes, comments, messages often provide a false sense of connection and constantly checking those notifications takes away from the interactions we’re having with those right in front of us. When is a follower count enough? Is it 100K? Is it 500K? 1M? There will always be someone with more followers, more brand deals – comparison is at our fingertips and that desire for more is always tempting. What else are we willing to do for these numbers? Rack up credit card bills to buy clothes to wear once in a photo? Or do whatever the platform tells us to – whether it’s making that full transition from photos to Reels or posting 3x a day to TikTok for maximum engagement – even if it’s not actually what we want to spend our time on? While it may benefit our social media presence, how does it affect how we show up in our lives and relationships?
Read the full piece with perspectives from an entertainment lawyer, a brand director, a community manager, and a fashion influencer. And make sure to subscribe to How to be a Woman on the Internet for more pieces on internet culture and for a part two on buying followers, which we plan to share early this year.