Diving Deep on the Risks of Using VIP Likes and Purchased Instagram Services

Instagram has exploded into one of the top social networks today, with over 1 billion monthly active users and 500 million daily actives. For businesses and influencers, the platform‘s highly engaged user base offers major opportunities to promote themselves.

However, standing out requires building an audience and profile. Organic growth takes significant time and strategy – leading some to seek shortcuts through services offering instant likes, followers and engagement.

VIP Likes is one of dozens of companies selling such Instagram growth hacking solutions. But do these services deliver as promised? And can they jeopardize your account?

This in-depth analysis examines the follower growth industry, evaluates VIP Likes, and outlines safer growth strategies for your brand‘s Instagram presence.

The Landscape of Paid Instagram Growth Services

To understand VIP Likes, we must first explore the broader ecosystem of companies selling Instagram engagement.

This industry aims to capitalize on the platform‘s popularity along with users‘ desire for rapid growth. Services like VIP Likes sell packages promising thousands of followers, likes and comments from just $10-20 monthly.

Calibrating exact market size is difficult as many players operate in black hat areas. But one estimate valued the industry at over $1 billion in 2022.

These services thrive on people‘s psychological tendencies. Having more perceived influence through vanity metrics like followers counts taps into social proof bias.

However, as we will cover, purchased services often fail to clearly warn of the significant risks involved.

Key Demographic Data on Instagram Users

Instagram has broad demographic appeal, but skews younger compared to Facebook:

• Over 60% of Instagram‘s user base is 34 and under compared to less than 50% on Facebook
• The highest engaged age group is 25-34 year-olds
• Women make up over 60% of Instagram users
• On average, users spend 30+ minutes daily on Instagram

For businesses marketing to women under 40, Instagram is likely essential for awareness and engagement.

But to genuinely connect with these users, authentic content and engagement is crucial. As we‘ll see, artificial follower growth can backfire severely.

Problems With Paid Follower & Engagement Services

While purchased Instagram services promise shortcuts to social proof and discovery, they fail to warn of serious downsides like:

Fake, Low-Quality Followers

Services like VIP Likes rely on bot accounts, click farms and underpaid laborers to fulfill orders. These followers have no real interest in your brand – they are inactive accounts or people paid pennies per task.

Consequently, the growth is completely superficial. Fake users lower your engagement rates, and even worse – are culled in regular Instagram purge sweeps.

One audit found over 95 million Instagram accounts were inactive or fake – showing how massive engagement fraud is.

Violates Instagram Policies

Instagram prohibits any tactics like bots or third-party services aimed at artificially boosting growth and engagement. This includes fake accounts and coordinated behavior like mass-liking or following.

As per their terms:

"You can‘t attempt to buy, sell, or transfer any aspect of your account."

Violating these policies can lead to account suspension, removals of fake followers, or long-term reach and visibility restrictions.

Yet most growth services fail to adequately warn customers about these outright bans being common consequences.

Hurts Your Account‘s Reputation

Audiences recognize when follower and engagement numbers seem inflated. Savvy users will check your ratios like followers-to-likes.

Seeing more followers than your content quality warrants raises suspicions of fakery. This hurts perception of your legitimacy and likeability.

In 2022, trust and authenticity are crucial brand attributes – using services like VIP Likes sacrifices both.

Account Bans Are Increasing

While once lax at enforcement, Instagram has since ramped up efforts against engagement fraud:

• Over 6 million accounts were purged in a Nov 2022 wave removing likely fake or abusive accounts
• 2 million accounts were banned suddenly in Oct 2022 to reduce coordinated inauthentic behavior
• 2022 saw the most aggressive algorithm changes yet to curb reach of accounts with sudden growth spikes

Getting banned can wipe out years of legitimate growth efforts overnight. Yet risks are rarely highlighted by companies selling Instagram services.

Specific Issues Around VIP Likes

Thus far we have covered industry-wide issues. Now let‘s analyze VIP Likes itself as a case study of risks buyers should watch for.

At surface level, VIP Likes seems to offer a solid value proposition: rounds of thousands of followers for just ~$25. For time-strapped business owners, this can be tempting.

However, assessing the quality and safety issues around their offering reveals the true problems:

• No verification processes or transparency around worker policies
• Lack of post-purchase accountability or customer tracking
• No case studies, client reviews or testimonials available
• Website and branding seem aimed at quick sales over professionalism
• Too affordable to feasibly provide real human engagement at scale

In essence, VIP Likes shows little proof they can provide real, lasting value safely to buyers. Their model likely relies on short-term inflated numbers from fake accounts.

Without post-purchase visibility or accountability, clients have no recourse for failed deliveries or bans. You must simply trust VIP Likes blindly.

Expert Predictions on Instagram Algorithm Changes

Looking ahead, Instagram is likely to ramp up efforts against artificial growth and engagement tactics.

Industry experts predict machine learning will power more sophisticated detection of problematic behavior patterns. Expect tighter restrictions punishing engagement mismatches, unusual growth spikes and inauthentic comments/messaging.

For brands focused on influencer marketing, experts also expect stricter tracking around disclosed partnerships and affiliate links.

Overall, tactical growth hacking techniques are expected to face stiffer consequences. Brands must pursue organic community building or risk facing bans.

Legal Issues Around Selling Social Media Services

Paid growth services often operate in gray areas of legality – but some face lawsuits or FTC sanctions. Devumi, a major Twitter follower seller, settled an FTC complaint around selling fake engagements.

Specific infractions can include:

• False advertising via unsubstantiated claims of growth quality or safety
• Violating platform terms explicitly banning paid services and fake accounts
• Artificial engagement from click farms, bots and fake users

Lengthy legal battles also emerge if followers or engagement is not delivered as advertised. Without formal purchase protections, clients have limited recourse however.

This table compares VIP Likes to other paid Instagram services on key metrics:

As we can see, VIP Likes matches other low-budget providers in lacking accountability, reviews or guarantees – all signs of unreliable services.

Safer Alternatives to Grow Your Instagram Account

While the lure of shortcuts is understandable, purchased engagement jeopardizes accounts. Instead, more ethical and sustainable growth options are:

For Photographers & Artists

• Host Instagram takeovers with theme/style-relevant influencers
• Curate your photo feed with a defined style and color palette
• Use targeted artists hashtag and get featured/credited in similar content
• Create free art giveaways or print bundles to purchase via captions

For Ecommerce Brands & Online Stores

• Showcase new products, styles and inventory with Shoppable posts
• Offer limited-time sales and discounts to incentivize follows
• Partner with relevant micro or mid-tier influencers to boost credibility
• Create polls and UGC contests for customers to showcase purchases

For Bloggers & Media Publishers

• Share infographics and quotes as Stories Highlights for easy discovery
• Give exclusive previews for followers of upcoming pieces before public release
• Curate routine Stories Q&As, opinions and site updates/announcements
• Reply consistently to commentary and turn followers into active community members

The tactics above focus on value, creativity and engagement over vanity metrics. Marketers must shift away from treating followers as pure numbers.

Now more than ever, account safety through organic growth should be the priority – not growth hacking shortcuts.

Long-Term Consequences of Getting Restricted or Banned

If tactics like paid services do successfully inflate your followers, engagement or visibility temporarily, consequences eventually emerge.

Instagram‘s algorithm eventually identifies suspicious activity like:

• Rapid subscriber spikes or lulls
• High comment volume but low comment sentiment
• Engagement rate mismatches the industry baseline

Once flagged, restrictions get applied which severely limit reach and discovery via hashtags, the Explore page, and followers‘ feeds.

Getting restricted means only 6-7% of your followers will see your content – decimating your growth investments. Stuck accounts see follower drop-offs as existing fans also lose interest.

Recovery takes months, requiring posting consistently despite low views while hoping restrictions lift. Or starting over new with no guarantee the algorithm won‘t flag again.

While restrictions are bad, outright bans are worse. While rare a few years ago, account bans now occur regularly:

• 5.7 million Instagram account bans were recorded in 2022 as of July
• Both primary accounts and creator studio/manager accounts face termination
• Appeal success rate is less than 1% according to insiders

Without a verified account, creators also lose access to special features like swipe-up links. Brand trust also nosedives when accounts suddenly disappear.

Is gaining some fake followers really worth putting years of legitimate Instagram brand building at permanent risk?

Key Takeaways – The Rise In Risks

In summary, while Instagram growth services exploit people‘s psychology around social proof and popularity, the superficial rewards come at substantial risk.

Purchasing engagement leads to temporary vanity, hurts brand authenticity, and still results in follower drops weeks later. Services often outright scam buyers without recourse due to lax regulations.

Worse still, Instagram now punishes fake growth more aggressively than ever. The threat of restrictions throttling organic reach or outright terminations is higher than ever.

For brands focused on long-term business-building rather than quick profits, buying followers or automation solutions is never worth the risk. Protect your account‘s safety and cultivate real engagement instead.