Visibility in this social media-driven world is important. With how crowded Instagram is quickly becoming, users & businesses are seeking ways to stand out. One such way is to buy Instagram views. However, is this the most efficient strategy, or is it a honey trap?
The Appeal of Buying Views
When you first look at it, buy Instagram views appears to be an easy way to increase your profile visibility. By having more views, you may be popular, so it may encourage organic user engagement by actual users. This view on social proof works wonders for businesses and influencers who are trying to gain credibility in the shortest time possible. When everything is video, and attention spans are at an all-time low, simply having a lot of plays on your videos can measurably increase the number of people who go on to see, like, and share it.
Short-Term Gains
If you want to feel like your video got a lot of views right out of the gate, purchasing views will give you a leg up. This can be particularly helpful for new accounts or promoting a new product or campaign. A lot of views on a video will see it surface on Instagram’s Explore page or in-content in user’s feeds driving additional organic reach and engagement. This initial boost can help jumpstart a virtuous cycle: the more views you get, the greater the potential interaction, which translates into visibility.
The Hidden Drawbacks
Purchasing Instagram views has its weaknesses, even so. The quality of these views is the main concern here. Most of the time, the views are purchased from bots or dead accounts that do not interact with the content, only existing to increase the view count. This lack of authentic interaction can be detrimental to your engagement rate, which is a key metric that Instagram also uses to push out content. If a high volume of views come in without accompanied likes or comments, Instagram will see your post as not very engaging, and less likely to show it to more users.
We also note that Instagram has been actively fighting fake activity. Accounts that are discovered to be purchasing views can have a penalty lowering their visibility, or their account may be shadow banned, or even shut down. These consequences will outweigh any short-term benefits and thus damage your reputation in the long term.