How To Start Follow-for-Follow and Like-for-Like in 2022
Does follow to follow strategy still work in 2022 to get free Instagram followers? Short answer, yes. Long answer? It has its repercussions (of course).
The follow-for-follow and like-for-like methods are among the oldest trick to growing your Instagram followers.
There are plenty of ways to do follow-for-follow and like-for-like. You can join engagement pods, find other people who engage in the same activity via hashtags or follow random people who might be interested in your content.
Engagement Pods
Engagement pods are a group of people who shares their posts within the group so other members can comment and like them.
You can find Engagement Pods through Facebook groups, Telegram, or within the Instagram app itself. Search hashtags like #engagementpod and you will see people recruiting members to their engagement group.
Each engagement pod has its own rules. However, the general principle is you don’t get free likes/ follows without returning the favor.
Hashtags
People who participate in follow-for-follow and like-for-like activities usually uses the following hashtags on their post:
- #likeforlike
- #like4like
- #l4l
- #followforfollow
- #follow4follow
- #f4f
- #ifollowback
- #teamfollowback
- #follow
- #followme
Search for this hashtag on the explore page, and you shall see posts from people who are willing to trade their likes and follows with you. But always check on banned Hashtags so you do not put your efforts to waste or worse, get banned.
Niche Followers
This one is more of a hit-and-miss thing. Go to a profile of a more successful Instagram user within your niche/ industry. Look at their most recent post and check the list of people who liked it.
Click on the profile to ensure that they are not bots. You can easily spot bots and fake accounts based on the number of their posts and their followers-following ratio. Follow the legit accounts and probably like a few of their posts, too (if their profiles are public).
In the early days of Instagram, you are free to follow as many people as you want. However, Instagram has now cracked down the follow-to-follow activity. We suggest limiting it to 25 accounts at a time and do it twice a day. So, 50 Instagram accounts followed in total.
Fine Print Of Engaging In Follow-for-Follow & Like-for-Like
Engaging in these activities can help get you started on Instagram. You can reach your first 1000 followers within a month if you religiously do it.
However, it has a lot of downsides too. Here are some of the disadvantages of Follow-for-Follow and Like-for-Like activities.
They Are Not Authentic
Of course, they aren’t. These people did not follow you because they discovered you and genuinely liked your content.
They followed you because you would return the favor. So, unless your content interests them, you might not end up keeping these new followers around for long.
Your Follower-Ratio Count Will Look Bad
A close follower-follow ratio is an obvious indication that you participate in follow-for-follow activities. Sure, you can unfollow them at some point (we suggest at least after a month). But then again, you should not forget that they can also do the same.
They Can Unfollow You Anytime
Nothing is stopping them from unfollowing you. You can threaten to unfollow them back, but chances are you wouldn’t even know they unfollowed you–unless you only have very few people on your followers/follow list, or you use a third-party app such as Unfollow and Follower Track.
You Don't Get Loyal Supporters
These people are more concerned with growing their followers instead of supporting you. So, again, unless your content truly interests them, they won’t care about you at all. They will only continue engaging with you if you do the same.
It Can Get You Banned
Instagram has a very advanced algorithm that detects spam activities. You will receive an “Action Blocked” error once the algorithm detects that you are commenting, liking, and following accounts too fast.
Action Blocks are frustrating because there is no particular turnaround time for Instagram to take them away.
Your Explore And News Feed Will Be Less Interesting
Because you will start following random people, your news feeds will be filled with content from them. Your erratic liking will disrupt the algorithm, and as a result, it will end up recommending you with content that you don’t like. Scrolling through your Instagram account will no longer be as fun as it used to be.
It's not A Long Term Solution
Follow-for-follow and like-for-like strategies are only good to get you started. Don’t expect the strategy to bring you to mega-influencer status. After all, we don’t tell celebrities to follow us back when we follow them, do we?
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