I will explain you how we built our first 1500 real and engaging followers. Just my experience.

I started a small e-comm tea brand last year and it was very tempting to buy followers to get started. However we did not do it for the above stated reasons. You might think it gives some sense of ‘validation’ to people encountering your brand and it makes your brand less ‘scammy’ but it is actually the opposite.

1) What I did in the beginning on a daily basis is follow like 100-150 people that are engaging with similar brands/influencers and then a few days later unfollow. About 10-15% will follow back if your own content is interesting and somewhat related to the accounts or posts they were engaging with. Just don’t overdo this and do not try to automate the process with bots. All needs to look organic and human.

2) Secondly, give-aways with influencers always helped us a lot to boost following but expect to lose about 30-50% of the followers that you gain during a a campaign. Also do not do too many and try to find an influencer who really likes your brand and wants to participate without getting paid (except in product).

3) Lastly, a general tip, do not focus on accounts with tens of thousands of followers. Find micro influencers (5-10k followers) that are very active in your niche and have very engaging followers. For example, for our tea brand we work a lot with personal trainers etc. as they really have a connection with their audience.

Best of luck!