Ghost followers are accounts that follow you but never interact with your content — no likes, no comments, no story views, nothing. They're the silent weight dragging down your Instagram performance.
Instagram's algorithm heavily prioritizes engagement rate — the ratio of interactions to followers. Ghost followers inflate your follower count without contributing engagement, which tanks your rate. The result: fewer people see your posts, Reels get less distribution, and your overall reach drops.
TRUTH can help identify ghost followers by analyzing engagement patterns against your follower list. Download on App Store or Google Play.
Manual signs include: accounts with no profile picture, accounts following thousands but with few followers, and accounts with zero posts.
Go to your followers list, find the ghost account, tap the three dots, and select "Remove follower." They won't be notified. Do this gradually — removing hundreds at once can trigger Instagram's spam filters.
Related: Why your follower count dropped, Finding secret admirers
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