Instagram offers multiple ways to reduce interactions with annoying and unwanted people on the platform. Users can remove, restrict, or block disruptive followers on Instagram, with each method having its own pros and cons. While restricting a follower helps users hide those people's comments, likes and direct messages without letting them know anything is amiss, blocking prevents them from interacting with the account entirely, including commenting, liking or direct messaging.
Users can also remove followers to reduce their interaction with irritating people on Instagram. When a follower is removed, that person isn’t notified of their removal. The only way they'd know is if the remover's account was set to 'Private,' in which case the removed user would no longer be able to see the remover's posts, etc. Also, when someone is removed as a follower, their previous likes and comments will remain on the remover's posts.
The option to remove followers was not initially available for 'Public' accounts, but that changed a few years ago when the feature was rolled out for all Instagram accounts, irrespective of whether they're set to 'Public' or 'Private.' To remove a follower, tap on the profile avatar at the bottom-right corner of the Instagram home screen and then select 'Followers' to see the entire follower list. Now locate the follower that needs to be removed and hit the 'Remove' button next to their username. Instagram will ask for a confirmation, so hit 'Remove' once again, this time on a slide-out menu, to confirm the decision. Once that is done, the follower will be removed for good.
Removed Followers Can Re-Follow Public Accounts
Mass followers
Instagram has imposed a “following” limit of 7,500. Who honestly wants to follow 7,500 accounts? How many of them do you actually see on a daily basis, or even really care about?
The people who do follow 7,500 accounts are only doing so to gain followers. The “I’ll follow them in hopes they follow me back” play. We’ve all done it, but hopefully not to this extent.
They will never see your posts, and you can verify this by checking “ghost followers”, explained later.
Inactive followers
Some people have taken a break from Instagram or have stopped using it altogether.
The “dormancy” period is up to your discretion, but I’m comfortable with 180 days. If they’ve been out for more than six months, they’re most likely not just “off the grid” on vacation.
Chances are high they’ll never be back, and you can remove these Instagram followers if you wish.
“Ghost” followers
Accounts that are following you but haven’t interacted with you for some time, if ever. I use the Unfollow app and set it to tell me who hasn’t interacted with my last 100 posts.
The list of “ghost followers” most often includes “mass followers,” people following more than a couple thousand accounts. They never see your posts among the thousands of others. It will also include inactive followers.
It will also identify business accounts that obviously followed you in the hopes you’ll follow them back and/or give them business. Like the advertising agency in Sicily – I’m sure you do great work, but seriously?
How to clean Instagram followers
Manual removal
Identifying bad accounts can be extremely tedious, especially if you have a large following.
You can remove Instagram followers by going to their profile.
- Go to your “followers” list to see all accounts following you.
- Tap on the profile you want to remove.
- Tap on the three dots on the upper right in that profile.
- Select “Remove Follower” from the menu that pops up, and confirm the removal.
These Instagram followers will be removed from your account. They will no longer be following you, and they won’t be notified you did this.
Using automation to clean Instagram followers
There are a few apps that can clean Instagram followers for you automatically, or at least aid you. They’re finicky and not without their problems (mostly due to Instagram limiting third-party apps), but they’re better than nothing.
The app I use is Unfollow (available for iOS). It’s free. Some people also use Cleaner (iOS | Android). No doubt others have come out after this was published. Instagram is constantly changing third-party app access, and these apps are also always changing. Look on the app store and find one with the highest, most-recent reviews.
I hate full automation. I don’t trust it, so I use this as a tool to help me identify accounts I may want to remove. I have it tell me who hasn’t been active for 180 days, and who hasn’t interacted with my last 100 posts.
Then I assess the account and manually remove them on the Instagram app. Remember that if someone hasn’t interacted with your last 100 posts, maybe it’s just because Instagram chose to not show them your posts. If it’s an honest account, active, with similar interests, not following thousands of people, I’ll leave them be. I don’t want to alienate a potential sincere audience.
But if they haven’t interacted with my last 100 posts because they’re following 6,000 people, they add no value to my community.
The other thing I don’t like about the full automation is that it can’t “Remove” Instagram followers from your account. It can only “Block” them, and I don’t want it to block thousands of people without my input.
Cleaning your Instagram followers manually is tedious and time-consuming. But I think it’s the most effective middle-ground to maintaining your audience.
Some final thoughts on cleaning Instagram followers
Community. I’d rather have a close-knit group of folks gathered in a small room. Having an arena full of countless zombies doesn’t seem fun.
I was shocked to learn how much of my audience was either fake, dormant for a year or more, or hasn’t interacted with my photos for over a year. But it made sense looking at my engagement rates. It hurt, but call it necessary housecleaning.
I’ve been at it for a week and have removed over 33% of my followers, with much more to go.
Stay on top of it by removing or blocking obviously fake or dishonest Instagram followers as they follow you.
Now, this doesn’t mean you should go deleting all but your most loyal ten followers to get an engagement rate of 100%. That’s not the goal. Audience size is still a factor – you still want to maximize your reach – but you should also be looking at your engagement rate as a more important metric. Clean the spam.
Objectively ask the question: Will this person add value to my community, or will they detract from it? This makes it easier to determine which Instagram followers to remove.
Please leave your thoughts or questions about cleaning Instagram followers in the comments below!