Why Fake Followers Affect Your Instagram + How to Remove Them Quickly

Instagram is one of the most powerful tools of personal branding and business growth today. With more than 2 billion users around the world, it provides a specific place to build a community and reach a global audience to promote your products, services, or personal brand.

No wonder people and even businesses, in particular, are so very keen to boom on this platform since a strong following can mean credibility, influence, and potential money.

Fake followers consist of either artificial or unused accounts that exist only to inflate numbers. These accounts are not interacting meaningfully with:

• Content
• Likes and comments
• Shares that could indicate real engagement.

They simply exist to inflate vanity metrics making you look like a big gun but not actually providing anything that is worth the like.

So while it may sound appealing in the short term, the fact is, buying fake followers does more harm than good.

In this blog, we will explore why and how fake followers negatively impact your account. It can also show you exactly how to find and block fraudulent followers to keep your account relevant, interesting, and ready for consistent growth within the ultra-competitive social media landscape.

How Fake Followers Harm Your Instagram Account

Fake followers might seem like a quick way to grow your numbers, but they can hurt the overall performance and credibility of your Instagram account.

They can distort your engagement metrics, including likes, comments, and shares. Fake accounts do not provide meaningful engagement with your content, and thus engagement rate drops.

Fake followers affect your credibility. If brands or future collaborators check out your account and they see that your engagement seems out of sync with your follower count, they will be reluctant to collaborate with you.

Instagram’s rules are becoming more strict, and accounts identified as having inflated fake followers face penalties including diminished reach or suspension.

Reduced Engagement & Reach

Fake Followers block real engagement and running reach. Most platforms, whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter use algorithms that speak to that theory, focusing on social proof (likes, comments, shares, saves) that pushes content to those that interact with you.

Instagram’s algorithm is based mainly on interaction, so it will only show your posts to a larger audience if they receive high engagement in terms of likes, comments, shares, and saves.

The characteristics that fake followers generally possess are listed below:

• They will not engage with your stuff, resulting in a less engaging feed overall.
• When your engagement rate shrinks, social media algorithms prioritize your posts less, which implies not just organic followers, but potential audiences won’t be seeing your content as often.
• This results in a vicious loop in which low visibility makes it challenging to gain real, active followers, which can lead to stagnancy in your organic growth and, in turn, weaken your online presence as a whole.

Interesting Fact!

Instagram has been combating fake accounts since 2018 removing millions of inauthentic followers and deploying AI systems to identify suspicious account activity.

Damage to Credibility & Brand Reputation

Fake followers can severely impact the credibility and reputation of a brand or individual. Audiences today appreciate authenticity, and finding many fake followers will drive away the trust of real followers.

It brings the owner of that account and their practices into question, which is particularly damaging for businesses that depend on transparency to nurture strong relationships with their customers or audience.

When the discrepancy between follower numbers and actual engagement becomes apparent, it not only raises concern for the audiences and potential partners or collaborators but also confirms for social media platforms that the account is not functioning authentically.

Both manufacturers and subscribers can recognize false followers. The very first thing that raises red flags are accounts with thousands of followers and almost no attention.

Brands and sponsors are becoming more sophisticated in their analysis of who they partner with. Many now rely on advanced tools and analytics to detect inauthentic activity, such as phony profiles, bot-like behavior, and generic comments.

 Interesting fact!

 Fake influencer marketing is estimated to cost businesses more than $1.3 billion every year.

Risk of Instagram Penalties & Shadowbanning

The most serious risk of inauthentic activity on Instagram, whether in terms of buying followers or otherwise using a bot, is the threat of punishment, including shadowbanning.

When an account is shadowbanned, Instagram hides that account’s posts from showing in hashtags and the feed even if the account owner is unaware. This may occur if the algorithms on their site catch suspicious or non-compliant activities.

So if you do this, they will penalize you by:

• Demoting your post in the search result
• They will limit discoverability through hashtags or may suspend the account completely.

Instagram uses sophisticated algorithms along with manual reviews to spot fake bots or inauthentic activities. Depending on the level of the violation, they could punish your account with lower visibility, shadowbanning, or even account suspension.

When suspicious accounts are identified, Instagram may remove such followers or remove them from engagement metrics as a way to alert the account owner.

How to Identify Fake Followers on Your Instagram

Having a strong Instagram presence isn’t just about numbers, it’s about genuine engagement. Fake followers can harm your credibility, lower your engagement rate, and affect how Instagram’s algorithm ranks your content

Key Signs of Fake Followers

Fake accounts often exhibit abnormal or unnatural patterns of activity, such as following and unfollowing many accounts in quick succession.

Genuine interactions along with original content seem to be their area of focus which is what exposes fake profiles as artificial. Some other characteristics include:

• Unusual Activity Patterns – Fake accounts often follow and unfollow many accounts in quick succession.
• Lack of Genuine Interaction – They rarely engage with content meaningfully and often post generic or spammy comments.
• No Original Content – Many fake profiles have little to no posts, or they repost low-quality content.
• Suspicious Usernames – They may use random numbers, strange characters, or appear auto-generated.
• Low Engagement Rates – Despite having followers, they get minimal likes or comments on their posts.

Recognizing these indicators enables people and organizations to remove deceptive followers, thus strengthening credibility and promoting real participation

Using Grum’s Fake Followers Checker

Managing your Instagram audience has never been easier with Grum’s fake followers checker. This tool allows you to quickly analyze your followers and identify fake, inactive, or bot accounts that could be hurting your engagement. By detecting these low-quality followers, you gain a clearer understanding of your audience’s authenticity.

Removing fake or inactive followers can significantly improve your engagement rate. When Instagram’s algorithm sees higher engagement, it prioritizes your posts, making them more visible to real users. This means your content reaches a more authentic audience, leading to better interactions and stronger growth.

How to Remove Fake Followers from Your Instagram

Cleaning up your Instagram account doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Here’s how you can remove fake accounts easily:

• Identify Suspicious Accounts:Look for followers without photos, suspiciously random or nonsensical username
• Remove Follower Feature:Visit your follower list on your profile,find the suspicious account,tap the “Remove” button next to their name
• Block persistent fake or suspicious accounts
• Use third-party tools to analyze

Analyze your follower list with trusted analysis tools to remove inactive or bot-like accounts These tools will allow you to detect suspicious profiles more quickly and effectively.

Manually Removing Fake Followers 

If you have a smaller account, you can manually remove fake followers one at a time. Although it can take a while, this approach puts you completely in charge of who remains on your followers’ roster:

• Go to your followers’ list and peruse the accounts.
• After you find suspicious accounts, click on “Remove” next to their name to get them removed as your follower immediately.

Manually removing followers can affect your follower count, but your engagement rate will improve as a result of having a real and active audience.

Using Tools & Automation to Remove Fake Followers

This is a time-consuming job for bigger accounts, but the correct tools can make a big difference.Automation tools like Grum will automatically analyze your follower list for the types of fake profiles that exhibit suspicious pattern,no profile pic, no postings, too many posts, spammy content, and so on.

You may also employ preventive measures in the form of adding filters or third-party apps, which will prevent unwanted bots and fake accounts from following your profile in the future.

With the right tools, as well as proactive strategies in place, you’re going to be able to achieve a high-quality audience.

• Even after deleting fake profiles, you need to regularly check your follower list and see if there are any weird accounts
• Watch out for the patterns, like a sudden flood of follows by people with generic usernames or accounts that show no real interaction.
• If you see these signs, act quickly, utilizing blocking or reporting features to prevent the gathering of fake followers.
• Not only does proactively managing your audience help keep your account authentic, but it also allows you to connect with a real, engaged community.
• A fresh, authentic follower base not only leads to higher engagement rates but an overall stronger online presence.

Did you know?

 A significant number of fake followers on an account can lead to 30% lower engagement on its content, according to studies.

The Right Way to Grow Your Instagram with Real Followers

The ratio of real social media growth is a process that is realized through regularity,authenticity and patience. If you focus on putting together a relevant and actual audience, you will be building a community that actually cares about what you are doing, and your goals as a brand.

With this authenticity comes your credibility, and this credibility will ensure that other users from other people on this platform to even potential partners and brands see your account as trustworthy and worth listening to.

More important, such growth offers the potential for sustained success, as platforms tend to reward high engagement with more algorithmic visibility.

A Quick Trick To Get Real Yet Free Followers

Real followers create real engagement as opposed to fake ones. Real influencers will build their followers organically by building relationships with genuine influence.

If you are really thinking of buying new followers, invest your money in genuine people whomatch your brand values and niche. But even better, you can get real followers for free.

Grum has a unique Instagram growth approach. They have the right audience for you with real, and active Instagram users who care what you post. And for free. Their real yet free followers option helps you grow organically, without spending a fortune.

Strategies to Attract Genuine Followers

While something like Grum will shave some time off your growth, there’s no substitute for organic, long-term strategies to gain real followers. Here are some tried and tested tips to help you build your audience the right way:

• Use High-Quality Content: As a visual platform, users are much more likely to engage with photos or videos that are stunning, well edited, and brand aligned
• Consistency is important, so you will want to post content on a regular basis to keep your audience engaged and coming back for more.
• Make It Interactive: Interaction is at the core of Instagram. Try to do more than just click “like” or comment.
• Incorporate personalized social proof, prompt thought-provoking questions in your captions, and have fun Q&A or poll-style events to get your audience involved with your content.
• Collab with Influencers: Get a collaboration with influencers who have loyal audiences those matches your niche. A strategic partnership exposes your profile to the right audience, paving the path for genuine growth.

It may take some time to build an authentic Instagram following, but every follower you gain will have real interest in your content.

Conclusion

Buying fake followers gives you a temporary numbers boost but in the long run, they only hurt your Instagram account.

They are a spammy kind of metric and they hurt your engagement rates, meaning that it’s going to be even difficult for you to reach your real audience. Investing the time to find and dispose of fake followers keeps your account credible and clears the path for real growth.

The number one golden rule to success on social media platforms is authenticity. Keep in mind that it’s never about the biggest follower numbers, it’s more about surrounding yourself with real people.

Grow a more authenticated Instagram by prioritizing organic engagement from genuine followers who appreciate your content and are engaged in the community.

Use Grum’s fake follower checker to purge fake accounts and purify your profile. Real followers increase trust, increase engagement, and grow your account organically.

All of that long-term Instagram success is a result of building trust, creating quality content, and fostering meaningful interactions.

Frequently Asked Questions

When managing your Instagram account, you may have concerns about identifying fake followers, using third-party tools safely, and maintaining genuine engagement.

Common questions often include how to spot fake accounts, whether removing them affects follower count negatively, and what strategies promote real audience growth.

Why fake followers are bad for your Instagram account?

Having fake followers will lower the credibility of your account and your engagement rate. As these accounts do not engage with your posts, they will appear to be more popular than they are, thus, discouraging those followers who may find value in your posts from discovering your profile.

What are the indicators of fake followers?

Fake followers frequently have empty profiles, no profile image, and no useful material. A few also exhibit suspicious activity, like following thousands of accounts but having very few followers.

What are the guidelines regarding fake followers on Instagram?

Fake followers and engagement do violate the Instagram`s terms of use, as they do not allow bots and fake accounts. Interacting with these low users can lead to a reduced reach or even account suspension!

Will taking away fake followers decrease my followers?

Although losing fake followers will decrease your follower count, your engagement rate will improve, and your account will be more attractive to real followers and brands interested in collaboration.