Although it’s a much-appreciated gesture, by now when a contact in your professional network shares the now-open secret about how Instagram can result in torrents of hot leads and traffic, it would be a story you’re all too familiar with. Sure, those of us who do indeed use the Gram to create a buzz around our brands or businesses may not entirely get the apparent narcissism depicted by individuals who are on the same platform for the social element, but either way, it’s all about engagement and numbers.

As a result of the popular social networking platform’s popularity, competition for the requisite attention has become seriously tough. It is understood that marketing at Instagram is competitive, but it is never tough. While marketing to the 1.16 billion Instagram users, doing a bit of preliminary research might help in finding the required target audience. This research can vary from reading up blogs like The Small Business Blog, defining metrics, seeking the services of influencers, and even reaching out to experts who can reflect on the particular topic. I mean, at times, it may seem ridiculous that someone posting a filtered pic of themselves in a bikini gets more engagement than a business account’s post parading a product or service that solves a real-world problem, but that’s just the way it is sometimes. Often, these accounts that post generic bikini pictures buy automatic Instagram likes monthly to get the following that they do. It really is that easy to get a decent following on your account! It’s also true that the eyeballs drawn elsewhere might very well have resulted in the creation of a qualified lead, perhaps a qualified lead that leads to a conversion even, if only those eyeballs fell on your Instagram content just once! That is probably why brands frequently switch to buy Instagram followers to artificially boost their numbers. The reason being, building a solid following is difficult, and unless you have a viral video or achieve celebrity status, you’ll be stuck with slow growth over a longer period. However, before you invest money in anything of this nature, make sure that you choose a well-established website to ensure that you receive followers from credible sources and avoid fake profiles, bots, and inactive accounts.

Cue the GetInsta app, which comes into focus as a very useful utility to boost your Instagram account with the potential to tap into an unlimited number of followers and engagements such as likes. More about using it to get likes and followers in a bit. For now, here’s a first-hand account of its use.

So it’s a quick and easy download, from the official website. I’m more interested in the free Instagram followers than the likes, well, because I reckon the likes would come naturally after bumping up the number of followers. Come to think of it though, it’s probably true the other way around too…

It’s an easy-enough download and installation, with none of those warnings about it being “potentially harmful to your system” Windows 10 often throws up even when you’re downloading from a supposedly reputable vendor. It’s easy enough to create an account and login too, with a 300 coin credit for the first-time login.

You can register an account with a different username and email to your Instagram account, well, because you might want to add different actual Instagram accounts to receive the free followers and likes.

So, are the promised free Instagram likes and followers really free?

By default, yes, but instead of spending money you have to invest a bit of time and effort. It’s very minimal time and effort though, because you “work” by logging in and in a game-like fashion, you “like” and “follow” other people’s Instagram accounts to accumulate coins. Those accumulated coins can then be redeemed for likes of your own and it’s a rather fun and interactive platform which requires you to “show some energy” by being quick to like and follow accounts displayed to you.

It’s basically a crowd-sourced engagement exchange and pretty darn genius if you ask me!

The fact that real accounts are being circulated for inter-engagements puts to bed all safety concerns.