In today’s digital age, having a strong presence on social media platforms like LinkedIn is crucial for establishing credibility and driving engagement. As LinkedIn continues to grow as a powerful tool for networking and lead generation, more and more people are exploring ways to quickly grow their number of followers and connections.
One strategy that has become increasingly popular is buying LinkedIn followers. Services and sites offering LinkedIn followers for sale have proliferated, touting it as an easy way to artificially inflate follower counts and make profiles seem more influential at first glance.
But does buying LinkedIn followers actually help your brand in any meaningful way? Or is it simply a waste of money and effort? Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of buying LinkedIn followers.
The Benefits of Buying LinkedIn Followers
At first glance, purchasing LinkedIn followers can seem tempting, especially for those looking for quick growth and increased visibility. Here are some of the purported benefits of buying followers on LinkedIn:
- It leads to an instant increase in your follower count, making your profile seem more established and influential.
- A higher follower number lends a sense of social proof and credibility.
- It can expose your brand and content to new audiences organically as your bought followers are included in feeds.
- It encourages real users to follow you as people tend to gravitate towards profiles with higher followings.
For business owners, marketers, and professionals looking to quickly build up their LinkedIn presence and get more eyes on their brand, buying followers can seem like an easy shortcut to grow reach and authority.
The Downsides of Buying LinkedIn Followers
However, there are also significant downsides to consider when it comes to buying LinkedIn followers. Here are some of the major cons:
- Bought followers are often fake accounts or bots that do not actually engage with your content.
- These inactive fake followers can actually hurt your engagement rates, making your profile appear less genuine.
- Purchased followers may disappear over time as bot accounts get shut down by LinkedIn.
- It goes against LinkedIn’s terms of service and could get your account restricted or banned.
- The artificial inflation of followers provides no actual business value.
- Buying followers can damage your brand’s reputation if discovered.
While the initial vanity metrics boost seems promising, low engagement and disappearance of bought followers over time ruins any potential benefits. Worse still, getting caught buying followers can undermine credibility and lead to penalties from LinkedIn.
Does Buying Followers Improve LinkedIn Account Metrics?
Beyond potential reputational risks, buying followers often fails to move the needle on key LinkedIn account metrics that matter most for brands:
- Engagement rate – Fake bought followers do not interact or engage with your posts and content. This drags down your overall engagement rate.
- Share of voice – Increased followers do not help you stand out in crowded feeds or gain share of voice.
- Lead generation – Inflated follower counts do not lead to more inbound leads or sales opportunities.
- Content reach – Bots and fake accounts do not actually help expand the reach of your posts.
While buying followers may boost your vanity follower number, it does little to improve actual LinkedIn metrics that provide business value. Engagement, reach, lead generation, and share of voice remain unaffected or even hampered.
Do More Followers on LinkedIn Lead to More Connections?
One potential benefit put forth by sellers of LinkedIn followers is that a higher follower count will encourage real users to connect with you. But does a inflated follower number actually translate into more connections?
Studies indicate this effect is marginal at best. According to social media analytics firms, fewer than 3% of users follow back a profile simply because of their high follower count. The quality of your brand, profile, and content remains the key driver of attracting real connections.
Bought followers can actually dissuade real users from connecting once they realize your follower base consists of bots and fake accounts. While a reasonable follower count lends some social proof, disproportionately high follower numbers can raise suspicions and have an adverse effect.
Is Buying LinkedIn Followers Safe?
Beyond ineffectiveness, purchasing LinkedIn followers also carries significant reputation and account risks. LinkedIn’s User Agreement explicitly prohibits buying followers and fake accounts. If discovered, LinkedIn may:
- Restrict your account access
- Remove bought followers
- Penalize your content reach
- Suspend or ban your account
These penalties threaten crucial brand visibility and access to LinkedIn’s powerful professional network. The short-term vanity gain of more followers is simply not worth the potential long-term damage from getting caught violating Terms of Service.
Are There Any Legal Risks?
In addition to LinkedIn penalties, some legal risks exist as well when buying followers. While laws vary between jurisdictions, there are potential issues to consider:
- False advertising – Artificially inflating followers to deceive customers and investors.
- Fraud – Intentionally misleading users for gain.
- Unfair competition – Artificially inflating follower counts to get an edge over competitors.
- Non-compliance – Violating LinkedIn Terms of Service.
Brands and professionals looking to buy LinkedIn followers should carefully weigh whether potential legal issues make it worthwhile. Violating Terms of Service also nullifies any recourse with LinkedIn in the event of account restrictions.
What Are Safer Alternatives to Buying Followers?
Rather than buying followers, brands are better served by focusing on proven organic growth strategies. Some more effective and lower-risk alternatives include:
- Creating engaging, valuable content for your target audience.
- Leveraging employee networks to expand visibility.
- Running contests and social campaigns to incentivize follows.
- Using relevant hashtags and participating actively in LinkedIn Groups.
- Encouraging follows through email newsletters and marketing channels.
- Getting employee endorsements and recommendations.
- Promoting your LinkedIn across other social channels.
- Advertising through LinkedIn’s marketing tools.
While these strategies take more effort, they drive real, engaged followers and visibility. Investing in valuable content and community-building pays off far more than buying fake followers ever will.
Key Recommendations on Buying LinkedIn Followers
Based on an analysis of the pros and cons, here are some evidence-based recommendations on buying LinkedIn followers:
- Avoid buying followers as benefits are marginal and short-lived at best.
- Focus efforts on creating quality content and organically engaging users instead.
- Be aware of LinkedIn’s terms against buying followers to avoid account restrictions.
- Consider potential legal issues like fraud and false advertising before buying followers.
- Employ safer, proven growth strategies like employee advocacy and social campaigns.
The Verdict: Don’t Buy LinkedIn Followers
In conclusion, buying LinkedIn followers offers little tangible business value and carries significant reputation and account risks. While a swollen follower count may provide an initial vanity boost, low engagement and potential loss of bought followers erodes any benefits over time.
You are better off investing your time and resources into creating high-quality content, engaging with LinkedIn Groups, and employing other organic growth strategies. This leads to real, lasting growth in meaningful followers that actually engage with your brand and content.
In today’s digital landscape, authenticity and community-building are more valuable than ever. Leave the artificial follower inflation behind, and let your brand’s reputation speak for itself on LinkedIn.
Pros of Buying LinkedIn Followers | Cons of Buying LinkedIn Followers |
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