Does blocking ghost followers actually work?

rkearn17 · Mar 31, 2019

My engagement has been **** lately after weeks of incredible reach with hashtags.
Theory is that I targeted likers and commenters.
With hashtags performing so well, crappy followers started jumping on board.

I am going to start scraping my own posts and in a few months, all non-engagers will be canned.
Is there hard evidence that this actually works, or just theory?

Fishandchipsboy · Mar 31, 2019

I heard this in the past but like you said it sounded like snake oil to me.

gumspit · Mar 31, 2019

I don't think that it's worth any of the effort honestly, you'll always have ghost followers no matter what type of niche you're in or however you manage your account. Once you block them more will start following you after time, just keep posting quality content and you'll get as much engagement as you can if you go about it the correct way, maybe try suggesting to your followers to engage with your posts. For example, post it on your story, or caption it something like "comment your favourite colour", etc.

rkearn17 · Mar 31, 2019

gumspit said:
I don't think that it's worth any of the effort honestly, you'll always have ghost followers no matter what type of niche you're in or however you manage your account. Once you block them more will start following you after time, just keep posting quality content and you'll get as much engagement as you can if you go about it the correct way, maybe try suggesting to your followers to engage with your posts. For example, post it on your story, or caption it something like "comment your favourite colour", etc.

i am a dev. it's not much effort. i just need to know before and after if there has been any data that backs it up.
Example: a decrease in followers + increase in engagement per post over a course of 15 days and 15 posts would be solid data

socialdaddy · Mar 31, 2019

rkearn17 said:
i am a dev. it's not much effort. i just need to know before and after if there has been any data that backs it up.
Example: a decrease in followers + increase in engagement per post over a course of 15 days and 15 posts would be solid data

No, never seen any data like this.

rkearn17 · Mar 31, 2019

socialdaddy said:
No, never seen any data like this.

Exactly, I've been searching for a few days, and have come up without nothing but theories and guesses.

Triton91 · Mar 31, 2019

It's not about just "ghost followers". It has to do with ratios. Instagram will test your picture to a random amount of users. Lets say they'll start with 10. If your profile only has ghost followers, those 10 accounts will not engage with your posts. This will make instagrams algorithm think your post doesnt have any value.
If you have lets say 80% legit followers and instagram serves your picture to 10 random followers, your picture would get likes. This will make ig think your picture has value and will test it on some of your other followers.

Hope this explains it a bit.

driulis · Mar 31, 2019

There are actually lots of tests made but all I seen are on private forums. The latest I saw was 12k business account with 1k likes on average. It had 8.2k ghosts. The owner decided to get rid of the ghosts quickly. After two weeks he had 4k followers and 2.6k likes per post.
The only way it does not work is if you target "ghost" followers - people who do not post and have only one picture. Most people do this and end up blocking their most active followers. Just look around, most of your friends are not interested in being famous - they have an account to not be outcasts. They have profile picture, follow some accounts and like photos from time to time without posting anything. Most of the ghost removing strategies get rid of people who do not have a picture, did not post in the last 60-90 or something days and so on. This leads to blocking the most active followers and no results.
So, blocking ghosts bring amazing results, just make sure to block people who do not like or comment instead of the "ghosts"... (real people who are not interested in getting fame)

rkearn17 · Apr 1, 2019

driulis said:
There are actually lots of tests made but all I seen are on private forums. The latest I saw was 12k business account with 1k likes on average. It had 8.2k ghosts. The owner decided to get rid of the ghosts quickly. After two weeks he had 4k followers and 2.6k likes per post.
The only way it does not work is if you target "ghost" followers - people who do not post and have only one picture. Most people do this and end up blocking their most active followers. Just look around, most of your friends are not interested in being famous - they have an account to not be outcasts. They have profile picture, follow some accounts and like photos from time to time without posting anything. Most of the ghost removing strategies get rid of people who do not have a picture, did not post in the last 60-90 or something days and so on. This leads to blocking the most active followers and no results.
So, blocking ghosts bring amazing results, just make sure to block people who do not like or comment instead of the "ghosts"... (real people who are not interested in getting fame)

Yes, I'm specifically talking about followers who have never commented or liked.

I know even nothing has changed, engagement fluctuates +-40%. On some days you will get 1400 likes, others 600 likes. This is a normal variance.
I am still skeptical when people say it works, when it can just be normal variance.

driulis · Apr 1, 2019

rkearn17 said:
Yes, I'm specifically talking about followers who have never commented or liked.

I know even nothing has changed, engagement fluctuates +-40%. On some days you will get 1400 likes, others 600 likes. This is a normal variance.
I am still skeptical when people say it works, when it can just be normal variance.

Well, fluctuations happen once in 10-15 posts for me. I post low quality photo, get 40% less engagement; post high quality one +40% - that is true. But, we are talking about the average here. Average went from 1k to 2.6k, not for a single post

biffer123 · Apr 1, 2019

There's no concrete data that you can copy to your niche/audience that will work

In extreme cases it will help (80%+ fakes)

Otherwise, from my personal experience, I have not seen much benefit

Does blocking ghost followers actually work?

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