I deleted thousands of my client's Instagram followers. Here's why (and how) you should, too.

Feb 16

When business owners hire social media managers to grow their accounts, they typically don’t expect to lose thousands of followers.

However, that’s exactly what I did for my client that has over 30,000 followers.

Since then, I’ve also begun removing hundreds of followers for other clients with smaller accounts.

Why remove Instagram followers?

Improve your engagement rate

When you have a large number of followers, it's easy for engagement to slip through the cracks. I believe that engagement rate is more important than follower count.

Would you rather have 1,000 followers – all of which are random accounts that don’t engage with your content – or 100 followers who regularly interact with your content AND convert into sales?

Having many followers doesn’t always mean having genuine relationships. A smaller, engaged audience is always a good indicator of a strong, healthy online presence.

Quality over Quantity

By removing irrelevant followers, you can focus on building a community that aligns with your business goals and values.

Some followers may be bots or fake accounts, which typically don’t engage with your content (and if they do, it’s always spam-y and inauthentic).

Spam accounts can harm your reach because they make Instagram believe that your content isn’t valuable, due to the lack of engagement from your own audience.

Side note: If you have ever used a third-party app to buy or gain followers, STOP! Instagram is cracking down on activity that goes against their community guidelines, and inauthentic followers are definitely a major way to get penalized on the app.

How to remove harmful Instagram followers

Here are some ways to help determine if you’re dealing with an account that should be removed:

Fake and inactive accounts

If their Instagram handle is made of many, very random characters
If they don’t have a profile photo
If their last post was more than a year ago
If they have little to no posts and/or followers

Irrelevant accounts

If they clearly don’t match your target demographic
- Example: for my client’s Cigar-selling business, I removed dozens of accounts that bring no benefit as followers, such as:
  - Teenagers
  - Maternity clothing businesses
  - Newborn baby apparel businesses
  - Dog toy businesses

But first…know your limits

Before you go on a removal frenzy, it’s important to know that Instagram can lock your account if they notice too many followers being removed at once.

Why? Because that is sometimes a signal that your account has been hacked, so Instagram tries to stop activity on your account in case you were, in fact, hacked. Instagram’s follower removal limits are:

60 accounts per hour
120 accounts per day

Stay within these numbers and you’ll be fine!

In short, removing Instagram followers can be a positive step toward improving your overall growth on the platform. A healthy engagement rate is more important than your follower count, so don’t be afraid to remove accounts that are not aligned with your business goals.

Need help cleaning up your followers list? Contact me today!