Why You Should Remove Followers on Instagram

Do you have hundreds or thousands of followers, but your engagement is super low? Maybe you’ve never broken the rules by buying followers, but it’s still possible that you have ghost followers lurking in your list and making your content perform poorly (yikes!!) 

Wait wait wait… ghost followers? Ghost followers, also known as "dead accounts" are accounts that followed you at one point, but have since stopped using Instagram, or specifically the account that is following you. ⁠

But, why is that a bad thing? I thought having more followers was better? 

It is… ONLY if those are real, engaged followers who are actually on Instagram interacting with your content

Ghost Followers Hurt Your Reach

First and foremost, ghost followers hurt your reach! These abandoned accounts are taking up valuable space that your posts are being distributed to, and with nobody there to interact, your post will get less reach because of the lack of interaction. ⁠

When your posts get less interaction from the initial accounts it’s shown to, Instagram interprets that as your post not being valuable, and therefore the amount that they are going to distribute it decreases. Meaning it’ll be harder to find your post on the home feed, it’ll easily get buried in bust hashtags, and you can kiss any chances of landing on the Explore page goodbye. 

Ghost Followers Hurt Your Engagement

Once again, they're not going to engage with your content because they aren't active accounts. So, if you're a business this means that Instagram categorizes your content as "less valuable" and ranks it "lower" in the algorithm, therefore showing it to less people. ⁠

Not only does this look concerning to potential clients or partnership offerings, but it also doesn’t feel good, and severely limits your account growth. 

When your engagement goes up, your reach goes up, and you actually have the ability to grow your business through Instagram, which is what we're here for, isn't it?!)

I've gotta say, I've done this quite a few times on my own and my clients' accounts, and it ACTUALLY works!!⁠

When was the last time you removed ghost followers from your account? If you’re feeling overwhelmed with all that Instagram is and does, that’s totally normal – and it’s both my job and my passion to help you through it. Click here to check out my package offerings, and learn how we can work together to make Instagram work for YOU, instead of the other way around.