An article published in the journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management states that social media has a very high potential to transform businesses. However, whether the transformation will yield positive or negative results depends upon companies and how they monitor their customer behaviors online.
This does state indirectly that credibility does matter. Because as long as you are providing credible and real-time information, it becomes easy for you as a brand to monitor responses.
However, an HBO documentary, Fake Famous, says the opposite by analyzing 3 influencers as they risk their credibility when they buy real Instagram likes. And to everyone’s surprise, companies and brands did buy their fakeness and started giving them sponsorships and free stuff.
However, since we’re talking about social media for sales, it wouldn’t be wise to consider influencers, although if we do think of them making sales via sponsorships, then by all means, yes, you can.
The first step toward building credibility is having a good number of followers. Here’s where you can act smart and buy followers for Instagram.
But..
Does credibility even matter?
Here’s a case study of an Instagrammer called Arianna Renee (@arii).
Based in Miami, Arianna, with over 2.6 million Instagram followers, was tasked to sell at least 36 T-Shirts online for the brand she was tasked to promote for the first run of products to continue the line.
Although she did say that she received so many positive responses and good feedback, people loved it and bought the shirts. They just didn’t.
Perhaps her assumption that followers can translate into sales was a false one, sadly.
Now consider this CNBC make it Article that talks about how influences can (if they want to) fake things and eventually get paid for doing so. While the influencers under discussion in the article were busy faking their fame, brands were busy sponsoring them. This resulted in not only an increased number of followers and comments on their posts but also quite a lot of money, both from brand promotion and from selling sponsored products.
So, in a nutshell, Credibility does not matter as long as you play safe and know your limits. But the question remains, how to play safe? (not in terms of protection and STDs)
Followers
The higher the number of followers you have, the more you radiate a credible look if the follower count is exceptionally high.
Along with looking quite legit, a high follower count also motivates anyone who wants to spy on your followers to look for any bots or fakes. So it’s a double-edged sword. On the other hand, having a high follower count is making yourself look credible in incredible ways. And that is okay.
If you don’t have enough followers, our advice is you could probably use some. It’s only going to benefit you, just like we said before. You could ask your friends to give you shoutouts, or you could buy followers for Instagram and fast-track to couple thousand followers overnight. Both ways are equally okay; the latter is easier and faster, though.
Engagement and image quality
Another way to improve credibility is to simply upload high-quality pictures professionally taken with the right angles edited professionally. Then, just hire someone to do the job. Then, it is not as heavy on the pockets.
The same goes for the videos; if you are not a videographer and you still try to shoot some, it’s probably going to look like crap. Don’t do that. It is a big stain on your online appearance. Make sure the videos are professionally made with the proper lighting and sound quality. Don’t make any compromises.
Also, make sure the engagement on your posts is skyrocketing as well. Ask questions, do polls, ask for thoughts… you know, do all those things every brand does. You could do that, or you could buy real Instagram likes and comments.
Conclusion
And that is it for our thoughts on Social media credibility and whether it truly affects sales on Instagram. We hope you liked the article, enjoyed it, and found it helpful, all at the same time.
Cheers.