When it comes to Twitter (and social media in general), not all followers are created equal. And because follower numbers translate into social proof, it’s important to be conscious of the difference between good and bad followers. Good followers increase improve your rank on Twitter and Google; bad followers get you punished (or worse, banned). When it comes to purchasing followers, different vendors offer different quality, so be sure you know how to tell the good from the bad.
The important thing to remember throughout this explanation is that you really don’t need to worry about bad followers as long as you stay educated on how to avoid them. Yes, they’re a dangerous part of buying followers, but with the right knowledge they’ll never affect you or your Twitter profile.
What is a Bad Follower?
A couple different types of bad followers exist. The most common type of bad follower is obviously fake, with features like no profile picture, no bio, a completely random username with a gibberish real name, and little to no tweets on its profile.
The second type of bad follower you may encounter is even worse: accounts with explicit imagery and tweets. Although it is rare to get followers like this from a paid service, they do exist and you need to be aware of them. Typically, these followers end up on your profile if you try to use sketchy free services, or too-good-to-be-true deals like 100,000 followers for $4.99. Avoiding them is easy – just make sure you use a reputable provider (of course, there is a 0% chance of encountering these if you stick to our Top Providers).
How ‘Bad’ is a Bad Follower?
You might still be wondering how these profiles can negatively affect you. Yes, they’ll still add one to your total follower count, but there is always going to be a handful of follower profiles that show up on your profile when someone visits your page. If you have a large amount of fake followers, and some of them are bad, you run the risk of people seeing bad followers on your page. This can hurt your credibility.
Social proof is a two-way street; it can help you or it can hurt you.
Avoiding Bad Followers and Finding Good Followers
The trick to staying clear of bad followers is to simply buy from reputable vendors. Don’t try to find the cheapest followers can buy, and never give out your account password or agree to authorize unknown applications on your account. If you’re buying high-quality followers from a reputable provider, there is no reason to provide any more account information than your Twitter handle.
You can verify a vendor’s reputation by doing a bit of Google research – reading reviews, checking guarantees, and validating information. To start, we recommend taking a look at our reviews of the Top 10 Twitter Follower providers on the market.
Buy with Confidence
Now that you know how to avoid bad followers on Twitter, you can get to work and start scoping out a few different vendors. There are quite a few to choose from, so don’t hesitate to explore your options. Remember, look for high-quality followers and verified positive reviews, and you can’t go wrong.