Why should you have few ghost followers on Instagram and why are ghost followers bad? Are there ways to remove ghost followers and what influences does a low number of ghost followers have on the engagement and reach of my own Instagram posts? Is there an automatic to remove these ghosts and ghost followers or do you have to delete these ghost followers manually?

Problem with ghost followers due to new algorithm

Many questions that have reached us again after the last video and the changed reach on Instagram. The issue of “ghost followers” has existed on Instagram for a long time and was not a big problem.

Before Instagram changed the algorithm and when the posts were still displayed chronologically, one was sure, at a fixed time after publication, my picture reaches all my followers and the first likes are guaranteed.

In modern times and after the renewed change of the algorithm at Instagram (update Jan. 2018), the post is no longer delivered to all followers but to a group between 10-20% of the followers of the person. This group should also be composed of different combinations:

People who have just started following me will be preferred
People with whom I am regularly very interactive and also comment there regularly are more likely to receive my posts
A group of randomly selected users

From the interaction of these first 10-20% of my selected followers, we then look to see if my photo is acting well, if it would be worth placing the image on the Explore Page, and if it might be important to the community.

However, if the image is now randomly sent to my Ghost Followers, there is of course no interactivity and the image never has a chance of being delivered to the larger group.

What are ghost followers and how are they determined?

Ghost followers are inactive followers and you collect them quite automatically. On Instagram, this has happened very often with large and well-known accounts that have regularly landed on the Instagram Suggested Users list.

Message from Instagram when you are on the list.

You may have gained a lot of users in a short period of time, who also followed the account on Instagram’s recommendation, but later lost interest.

These users are still a follower, but often no longer even have the app installed on the smartphone. The account still exists, of course. For the app, every installation and every user counts.

The same goes for the frequently mentioned “image collectors” (attention copyrights!). One is not particularly active oneself, but only subscribes to thousands of Instagram users, without uploading, liking, etc. pictures oneself.

You often see a missing profile picture here, a very low number of people following these people and often a very high number of subscribed accounts.

Thus, due to the high number of accounts, it is almost impossible to like and comment on all the pictures.

Smaller accounts on Instagram – greater activity

This also often directly explains why smaller accounts on Instagram – often up to 10,000 followers – have a significantly higher like rate than larger accounts. But the longer you’re on Instagram, the more often the like rate drops, as does the number of comments.

Of course, there are some exceptions, but the majority of accounts have this phenomenon and you haven’t done anything wrong.

How to remove ghost followers and is it automatic?

Many even bigger Instagram users do it regularly and look through the accounts and filter out inactive ghost follower accounts directly.

If the account is not yet so big, you can make an effort and look through the profiles yourself and remove or block appropriate profiles. These are accounts that you do not want to be there or that you have never actively noticed.

You can either remove them using the “Block” function or, in the case of some accounts, by clicking on “Remove”. Of course, you can also unblock the blocked profiles again if you want the person to follow you again later.

What good is a follower who only looks at my pictures, doesn’t interact with me and also reduces my reach at the same time?

There are various tools on Instagram that scrupulously clean the account and also open it quickly when in order. A great that many great Instagram users use is Cleaner (iOS), for example – which is free in the trial version and otherwise costs just over 4 EUR, saving a lot of time. Those who want to remove larger amounts of ghosts and ghost followers or regularly use this interactivity.

With the change in the algorithm probably just helps to maintain and better control the accounts and simply remove people who do not interact with the account or follow mutely.

You can see just in recent weeks many accounts that have suddenly lost even with less than 5,000 followers quickly 100 or 200 likes per picture. The proportion of inactive followers in these accounts should be relatively high, the accounts have existed for some time and were more or less only sporadically maintained.

A serious clean-up is then urgently advised here and perhaps one should also sometimes take the opportunity to rethink what one uploads and how one communicates with the followers. Instagram should convey fun and joy and also be able to be connected with the person who wants to share their joy of life.