mass following is not suitable for targeting format
Before we answer that question, let us define mass following.
In a sense, mass following is a form of spam which includes rather prominent, aggressive even, following of large amounts of profiles with consequent unfollowing profiles that did not follow back later on. It results in an active process of promoting your account amongst users and expanding your follow base.
With targeting becoming more and more widespread on Instagram mass following and mass liking is not as relevant as it was but is still being used by many. In 2017 in the US a huge number of automation services were closed so it is expected to see less and less such platforms in Russia as well. Right now, though, they still exist and are just as helpful for some as problematic for others.
Mass following is a grey method of promotion and is considered grey marketing. It imitates ordinary user actions and generates traffic for selected profile. Some years ago it was considered an effective mean of promotion for the users but not for the market as a whole. The popularity of mass following is gradually lower than it used to be. Nowadays, people prefer communicating and sharing news and stories over visiting strays of questionable profiles which desperately try to sell them diet pills, phone cases, elastic stockings and whatnot. People started to manage their following themselves, making their profiles private so that ad profiles, which seemed to be more and more prevalent on the network at one point, would not follow them.
The way SMM people and traffic cheaters see it, they can create a user database so perfect for their clients, the moment those users see a profile which sells hand-made jewelry it will occur to them that they always wanted it and immediately buy it. In reality, most of those traffic cheats usually include follows by spam accounts, other sellers, people from other countries who probably would not be able to purchase your product but never potential clients. Neither product sales nor even general demand will grow with such methods. The promoters, however, will try to convince their clients that a lack of sales is temporary while focusing on the fact that obtaining such massive pseudo-following somehow improves brand’s image.
But in reality, black and grey marketing creates a lot of problems for reasonable and official promoting methods. The aforementioned methods manipulate their audience and trick them, their long-term efficiency is vague but the damage they do to companies is very much real. People will not come back to targeted ads from the company that just the other day irritated them with mass following. Finally, Instagram itself condemns mass following and takes action against profiles who use mass following for their promotion: mass following leads to profiles getting suspended, pessimized or shadow banned. After that, no target ads will recover brand’s reputation or relevance.
How Instagram fights against automation services
In 2017 Instagram moderates and intervenes in automation services’ work, prevents mass following, auto-posting and auto-liking. For owners of those services and their clients this is nothing but bad news. And it all started in April 2017, when Instagress, one of the biggest automation services, has been shut down. It caused uproar amongst American users because the service had immense popularity in the US. According to Instagress itself they were forced to close their website by request of Instagram.
A month later other automation and promotion services, such as Peerboost, Instaplus, Fanharvest and Massplanner, also stopped their work. None of them disclosed any details on why they ceased their work but all of them referenced requests from Instagram themselves.
Those services were easy to terminate because they were working on the US territory and were affected by the US law so Instagram had no problem with them. It is speculated that Instagram does that with sole purpose of turning more people to targeted advertisement which, consequently, results in more revenue for the company. For small companies targeting is too expensive, however: right now only large companies can afford official advertising on the platform. Small business still lives on automated promotion from smaller services that are not as popular to be shut down directly by Instagram.
Some automation services are more precautious than others so when Instagram decides to change something those services already know how to handle the changes and adapt to them without losing their business. Such services will keep functioning until Instagram finds a way to shut them down. For automation platforms operating from Russia and some other countries the situation is still uncertain due to the fact that Russia does not fall under the jurisdiction of the US, therefore Instagram cannot shut them down on legal grounds. On many forums Russian service are already known as “Russian Offshores”. Hopefully, Instagram will be more considerate towards Russian automation services and that they will be able to keep functioning.
How Instagram became the largest advertisement platform for small, medium-sized and large businesses
Instagram promotion platform grows tremendously, in part due to a decent start, but also on account of new features being added constantly plus by making promotion easier for both small and large businesses. Advertising on Instagram can be described as fast, convenient and accessible. This is why according to recent surveys, 34% of America’s largest ventures prefer Instagram marketing for their brands.
Instagram combines Facebook’s most advanced advertising technologies and allows to focus on different segments of consumers. The ad targets users of certain interests, age and locations. Instagram constantly develops the functionality and regularly implements new advertising tools, staying among top largest advertising platforms for all businesses. With Instagram ads it is possible to notify your clients about new products and services and even conduct deals without leaving the app. For the most part, advertising on Instagram was mostly suitable for large businesses with established names and recognition. Later on the developers updated the system to be more small-business friendly with additional options such as:
– adding long promotional videos;
– adding panoramic images and videos for carousel ads;
– a premium Marquee feature
By constantly adding new features for more comfortable advertising, Instagram managed to create stable income which grows even bigger the more popular the app gets.
How can thousands of advertisers create the audience and make money on Instagram
A popular account on any social network and in particular on Instagram is a long-term investment which is helpful for when you decide to start your own business. The economy is uneasy at all times, and the fear of downsizing and unemployment enables people not only to create their own businesses but also effectively promote them via Internet – the best promotion platform in this day and age. Instagram is the most efficient way to help you with that, but, why Instagram exactly?
Remember that your Instagram profile is your personal space and you can do whatever you want with it: according to Terms of Use, you are responsible for any activity that occurs through your account. Since Instagram most certainly is not going away any time soon, your ownership is practically indefinite which means the opportunities are endless as well. The problem of effective Instagram promotion is on many companies’ minds: for some the promotion is already potent, others have only just started their long way to become Instagram famous, and for some it is easier to let companies, created specifically for Instagram promotion, to handle it. Instagram offers huge prospects and it still has a long way to go, unlike many social networks. More and more companies now try to start their Instagram profile promotion and make it lucrative as soon as possible.
Your course of action:
Work on a theme and develop your message. For many advertisers it is important to reach wide audiences by offering them something to relate to: not too personal but not too general, something that holds