Nowadays, individuals who are actively working and particularly earning income on Instagram spend a lot of time and effort attracting followers. In fact, having more followers signifies greater credibility and popularity, and ultimately, more income generation.
Even those who enjoy being active in the virtual space see the fruits of their labor and efforts with an increase in followers. All these benefits last until one faces the decline, ghosting, and loss of followers. We can consider this issue a common and natural problem that affects both small and large Instagram pages. However, during times when a page is losing active followers, a competing page might be growing and gaining followers because the competition on this platform is very intense and tough. Therefore, regaining lost Instagram followers will likely be the first solution that comes to mind.
Generally, with a bit of research, one can find various methods to revive ghost followers and reactivate them, thereby once again boosting the engagement rate of the page. However, not all these methods can be trusted as reliable and practical, and understanding Instagram’s algorithm and user behavior is necessary. For this reason, we will discuss important points on this topic, explaining everything you need to know about regaining followers, ghost followers, and other related issues.
What Is A Ghost Follower?
Generally, a ghost follower or ghost account on Instagram is a type of follower that does not engage with your page. In other words, this type of follower does not react or interact with the content, including posts on your Instagram page, and merely adds a number to your follower count. Every page can have ghost followers in varying numbers, impacting it to some extent.
However, it’s important not to misunderstand their lack of activity on your page. In fact, a ghost follower isn’t always a fake account. It could be an ordinary personal page that is active on Instagram but does not interact with the content on your Instagram page, meaning it doesn’t react to them, such as not liking posts or leaving comments, thus becoming a ghost Instagram follower.
These types of followers can exist anywhere from the pages of famous individuals and celebrities to ordinary personal pages. But the question is, where do they come from? A ghost follower could be the same real and old type that has lost interest in the page’s content. It could also have been added to the page through the purchase of followers. In any case, they can significantly impact your Instagram, so it’s essential to understand the reasons behind their ghost status and how to re-engage them with your Instagram content.
Reasons For Followers Becoming Ghost Followers
Certain actions can lead to the ghosting of Instagram followers, and it’s not always due to the actions of the page owner. In some cases, ghost followers emerge on their own, making their presence in pages with a large number of followers inevitable. However, by understanding the main reasons behind the emergence of these types of followers and making efforts to re-engage them, you can significantly mitigate their negative effects. In summary, these factors can lead to followers becoming ghost followers:
1.Purchasing An Established Page: When you buy someone’s page or personal account with the aim of gaining Free Followers for launching your business or activity on Instagram, you should be aware that you will likely have a significant number of ghost followers. The followers of the page were interested in the content that the previous owner published, and there is no guarantee they will engage with your content. In this case, there’s a high possibility of follower loss.
2.Buying followers: Many people are against Buy Followers, and their ghost status is one of the main reasons for this opposition. It’s interesting to note that this concern is valid, but the source from which you make the purchase also plays a crucial role. Some reputable companies sell active followers, so you can trust them.
3.Inappropriate content: In many cases, using inappropriate content, such as posting repetitive or unattractive images, can cause Instagram followers to ghost.
4.Page inactivity: As mentioned, followers becoming ghosts is not always due to a specific problem with your page. In some cases, the follower themselves may deactivate their page or have minimal activity on Instagram.
The Impacts Of Ghost Followers On Instagram
There are many reasons why it’s important to focus on converting ghost Instagram followers back to active status. In fact, these types of followers can have several negative effects on your page, the most significant of which are as follows:
1.Decreased Credibility: One of the most damaging effects that fake followers, including ghosts and fakes, have on your Instagram page is reduced credibility among customers and audiences. Most people compare the number of followers to the number of likes and comments, and when there’s a significant discrepancy due to inactive followers, they lose trust.
2.Reduced Engagement Rate: Having ghost followers will significantly reduce your engagement rate because these types of followers do not interact with the content on your page. This drop in engagement can even lead to your content and posts not appearing in the Explore section.
3.Decreased Sales: The presence of a large number of ghost followers alongside fake ones leaves few actual people on a business page to purchase products. Hence, preventing sales decline is another reason why you might need to regain Instagram followers.
4.Loss of Followers: The real followers’ trust decreases when they notice a significant difference between the number of followers and the likes or comments, leading them to unfollow you. This way, you’ll gradually lose even your real followers over time.
5.Page Closure: Instagram’s algorithm is complex, but nearly everyone knows that this platform is sensitive to pages with fake and ghost followers. In many cases, having a large number of such followers can lead to the page being closed or banned by Instagram. Often, this requires the page to be relaunched.
Therefore, considering the impact that each ghost follower can have on a page, preventing the increase and, importantly, regaining them is essential for those who place great importance on their Instagram page.
Methods To Convert Ghost Followers Into Active Followers
It can be said that sometimes having ghost followers is worse than having fake followers because once fake followers are identified, you can easily remove them from your page. However, dealing with ghost followers, who are often real but do not interact with your content, is a more challenging task. Nonetheless, we have tried to introduce 6 easy and quick methods that are often effective for regaining followers.
1.Know The Interests And Trends
Losing interest in the content of your Instagram page is one reason followers may not interact with your posts or even your stories, and therefore, do not like them. That’s why content creation on social networks can’t be considered simple; to attract the audience’s attention, you first need to understand their interests and even the current trends on the platform and then produce captivating and appealing content based on the gathered information. This approach greatly increases the chances of activating some of the ghost followers.
2.Get Familiar With Instagram’s Algorithm
Most people currently successful on this platform and have attracted a large number of followers are well-versed in Instagram’s algorithms and rules. Understanding and utilizing this knowledge helps your posts be seen by more people, thereby increasing page interactions. These actions not only lead to regaining followers but also increase the number of Instagram followers. Therefore, if you’re serious about your activity on this platform and even making money through it, you should actively work and familiarize yourself with its rules, principles, and algorithms from the get-go.
3.Use Proper Hashtagging
Using appropriate hashtags under each post is crucial and affects your Instagram followers. Hashtags not only allow you to categorize and describe the content theme of your post but also attract more audience. This way, your page’s content has a higher chance of appearing on the Explore page, and along with increasing the number of followers, you’ll attract the attention of your ghost followers and increase your chances of activating them.
4.Choose A Suitable Profile Picture
In many cases, merely changing the profile picture has attracted the attention of many ghost followers to the concerned page. Essentially, changing the Instagram page’s profile picture signifies an overall appearance change. This might encourage followers to open the page and review its content. If the content quality is high, they will like it and start valuing following the page’s posts again. However, note that if applicable to your page’s content, using a personal picture for the profile can have a significantly greater impact. The main reason is that typically, your audience on Instagram likes to know who is behind the posts.
5.Go Live
Going live on Instagram can be a major shock to ghost followers and greatly help in regaining Instagram followers. When you go live on your page, your page will be displayed in the stories section of all your followers and grab their attention. Notifications will also be sent to users. Even if they don’t join your live session, they are likely to glance at your posts afterward and you’ll capture their attention. If you’re unsure about what content to go live with, paying attention to your followers’ interests and the focus of your activity or business can help. For instance, if your Instagram page is for business and selling products, you can go live with the packaging or dispatching of products, hitting two birds with one stone because, besides attracting ghost followers’ attention, you’ll also gain their trust.
6.Increase Your Activity
Finally, we can introduce increasing your activity as the best method to regain Instagram followers. When your content and page are constantly visible in your followers’ feeds, including ghost followers, their attention will inevitably be drawn. However, if posts are uploaded incessantly without planning and engaging content, there’s also a risk of being unfollowed. Thus, it’s crucial to be careful and pay attention to relevant aspects when uploading any content, including posts, reels, stories, and contests, for continuous growth and desired results.
- Post: If it’s been a long time since you last posted, the time has come. With proper planning and the creation of unique and original content, upload an engaging post. Choose an appropriate time for posting so it gets seen more and attracts the attention of the ghost followers on your Instagram page.
- Long Video: You can use the feature to upload long videos or what is known as IGTV. Since these types of videos do not become popular in the Explore section and cannot attract the audience there, the app will show them more to your Instagram followers. Depending on the type of content and the number of followers you have, you could even upload up to 3 videos every week.
- Story: As you know, stories are shown more than any other type of content on Instagram. Use this opportunity to turn ghost followers into active Instagram followers and post stories with proper planning. Since choosing content for stories is usually easier than for posts and reels, you can do it more often to increase page interaction. You don’t always have to post content related to the topics of your posts and activities. Occasionally, you can use riddles, challenge topics, catchy content, and even humorous materials.
- Contest: Hosting a contest and offering a prize is one of the main and most useful tricks for business pages to attract Instagram followers. If you have the opportunity, organize exciting contests with selected winners and reward them. The prize or gift doesn’t have to be something complicated; based on your activity field, it could be a free product, a percentage discount, or even free shipping.
Also, remember that in addition to carrying out the mentioned actions to increase activity and turn ghost followers into active followers, your interaction with followers should not always be one-sided. Occasionally visit the pages of those who have a public profile and attract their attention to you with likes and comments. Overall, attracting and retaining Instagram followers can be time-consuming and sometimes challenging, but it’s not impossible or complicated.
Detecting Fake And Ghost Followers
After becoming familiar with ghost followers, due to the many similarities, most people want to know how they differ from fake followers. In response, it can be said that in most cases, fake followers are created by bots and lack signs of activity, profile, posts, and other similar characteristics. In contrast, ghost followers are usually just regular followers who might be active on their own page and other Instagram pages but do not react to your content. We mentioned suitable solutions to address this issue.
Summary
In conclusion, considering the negative impacts of ghost followers on an Instagram page, removing them from your page is very important, and its significance should not be overlooked. Therefore, by dedicating some time and using the methods discussed in this article, you can easily convert ghost followers back to active ones and achieve desirable results.