What Are Ghost Followers?
Ghost followers are followers who are either inactive or don’t engage with you by leaving likes or comments. They could be:
BotsLurkers (either strangers or people you know)Users who are only interested in getting followed back (and who will eventually unfollow you anyway)Users who were once active but then abandoned their accounts
The common theme among all types of ghost followers is that they offer you no real value other than a boost to your follower count.
How to Get Rid of Followers on Instagram
Tip #1: Avoid Using Third-Party Apps That Claim to Offer Bulk Follower Removals
Once upon a time, there were lots of free third-party apps that could connect to your Instagram account to help you manage your followers. One of the most helpful things they did was allowed you to remove unwanted followers in bulk.
Scroll through your Followers list until you find them, orStart entering a name in the search field at the top of the screen.
Many such apps still exist, but today, the ones that claim to do so are in violation of Instagram’s API Platform Policy. Worse, apps like these could be outdated or total scams and result in your account being compromised. It might be time consuming, but the security of your account depends on your willingness to manually remove followers on an individual basis. If you have many followers and, therefore, can’t keep track of which followers engage with you, verses which ones fit the role of ghost follower, you can use a service like Iconosquare (with a 14-day free trial) to see in-depth analytics of your follower engagement.
Tip #2: Remove Followers from Instagram.com by Blocking and Unblocking Them
Instagram.com doesn’t have as many features as the app, and the ability to remove followers is one of those missing features. Luckily, there is a workaround if you absolutely have to remove followers from a web browser: Blocking automatically removes them as a follower, but when you unblock them, they will remain a non-follower. This is a more time consuming process than using the follower removal option in the app. Not only do you have to navigate to each follower’s individual profile, but you also have to carry out two more steps: blocking them and then immediately unblocking them.
Tip #3: Make It Harder for Ghost Followers to Follow You by Making Your Profile Private
When your Instagram account is set to public, anyone can follow you which puts you at a higher risk of being followed by accounts that only want a “follow back” and will probably ignore your content. If you want the option to screen new followers, consider making your Instagram private. With a private account, you have the ability to control who follows you. Users will have to send you a follow request that you’ll have to approve before they can follow you. If you receive a follow request from a total stranger, with very promotional content, or one who follows a disproportionally large number of users relative to their follower count, they’ll probably end up a ghost follower and you’re better off declining their follow request.
