Anne Felicitas, editor at AdvertiseMint, Facebook advertising agency
You didn’t think this day would come, but here it is. Buying those fake Instagram likes and follows is now going to bite you in the derrière.
As announced by The Verge, Instagram is implementing its Community Guidelines and Terms of Use by stripping accounts of fake likes and follows bought from third-party apps. Instagram’s machine-learning tool finds accounts that increase followers and engagement then automatically removes those fake likes and follows.
Instagram will notify the accounts that use those third-party apps about the removal. It will also require those accounts to change their passwords in case the apps compromised their account securities.
Instagram’s Community Guidelines emphasize the importance of creating genuine interactions, urging users to keep the platform free of spammy behavior by “not artificially collecting likes, followers, or shares.”
Keeping the social media app spam-free is especially important now, when marketers, advertisers, and influencers rely on the platform to grow brand presence and revenues. While some are willing to play by the rules (paying for ads and growing followers and engagement organically), some are not, relying on engagement groups and bot farms to beef up their profiles.
While Instagram purges accounts of fake likes and follows, it’s time to change your marketing strategy. You either pay to play or put in the hours to organically acquire real followers and genuine likes.
Written by Anne Felicitas, editor at AdvertiseMint, Facebook advertising agency
