How awesome does “#1 Organic Instagram Growth Service in 2021″ sound? This caption aims pretty high, but whether the product delivers upon the claims remains to be seen. Today’s review focuses on Social Boost as I check out if there is any worth behind their words, and right off the bat the situation looks grim for the contender.
Social Boost is another one of those services that have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain in recent years; some with the intent on dethroning the established services, and some with the intent of capitalizing on the growing trend by helping unfortunate Instagramers part with their money in fraudulent ways.
As content creators come in waves bigger than ever before and Instagram tightens its hold on already-established names, it has become increasingly difficult for newcomers to establish a presence on Instagram.
Users look for content that comes from big names, while the promotional algorithm favors exponentially expanding accounts. Regular Instagram Joes and Janes are left with nothing. The response of the market? A surge in popularity of social media growth services that has never been seen before.
Social Boost emerged in this wave and promised organic growth by the means of campaign optimization and expert account management. Capturing the attention of users looking for a fighting chance on Instagram with bold claims and high stakes, Social Boost quickly established itself enough to be heard.
But is it that good? I’ve struck out to see that for ourselves and write this review.
What is Social Boost?
I’ve heard the premise (promise?) and it’s the usual. Social Boost claims to provide real, authentic growth that is levels above bought likes and followers. This they accomplish by offering dedicated account managers who are experts in the field of social media marketing.
The basic offer includes various extra features like advanced targeting, followers and likes that come from specific locations, and insight analysis that is supposed to boost the advantages of your profile while fixing the downsides as best as possible.
So yeah, authentic growth that leaves behind a trail of true followers that don’t even know they’ve been expertly driven to your Instagram pages. I went over the features in an effort to put the story to the test and it goes even further.
The best of the dedicated account management by real people with mastery over Instagram apparently gets combined with the best of AI-powered analytics and optimization features that automatize follows and unfollows and provide targeting that is precise and focused.
Whew, that was a mouthful. Extravagant promises, flashy presentation, dream-come-true theory. But what about practice? In practice, what I got from all that was that someone isn’t being quite honest. To be the best of both automation software and dedicated account management is too good to be true.
Combining and synchronizing real people with automation software is by itself extremely tough to pull out, let alone having a base that can get both to work to increased efficiency. Auto-features just don’t go hand in hand with real dedicated account managers.
This means that Social Boost employs not real professionals, but bots. Whew! So much for experts in the field and organic growth! And I was really looking forward to this one…
What’s more is that Social Boost actively represses negative voices by reporting every one-star review on trustpilot.com. Reporting those reviews turns them invisible to other users, which effectively masks the overall grade. My review there would also be reported, so that was another reason to publish this here.
I despise censorship in all its forms.
But let’s retrace our steps a bit. Social Boost employs bots and Social Boost actively suppresses negative reviews about them. Why do you think those two go hand in hand? Why would Social Boost never want to admit to using bots?
I’ve done my research after I found this out. Here’s the catch: did you know that using bots can get your account suspended?
There’s some red alarms, and things just go south from here.
Other Popular Instagram Growth Tools
| Service | Rating | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Growthoid | 4.75 | Check Price |
| Growthsilo | 4.2 | Check Price |
Why Is Using Bots Bad?
I personally never liked using bots.
Growing my online presence frequently needs a bit of a helping hand because time is of the essence, and I just never seem to have enough time to dedicate to Instagram brand building. I used a plethora of services, which is the source of my fascination with different methods of expanding on Instagram. This review is a direct result of my hobby, after all.
My experience has taught me that using bots actually does more harm than good to your social media presence. Bots rely on spam tactics, or high-frequency simple actions that do manage to attract some people, but others get repelled by them.
I’ve even witnessed hilarious situations when bots interact with other bots to make clusters of fake profiles. This just won’t do for people who take their Instagram presence seriously. But an even bigger danger lurks behind the corner. Even if bots do manage to grow your Instagram presence, using them puts you in a heavy breach of Instagram terms of agreement.
Penalties for breaching them? Permanent removal of your Instagram account. Which no one wants, as far as I know. Certainly not me.
Social Boost Features Overview
Advanced Targeting
How advanced is Social Boost’s targeting? After you help calibrate its software, it goes to look for age, gender, location, and similar profiles. For a professional service, this really isn’t enough to be called advanced targeting. These criteria certainly can’t precisely sketch an outline for a new niche or ideal audience.
Couple this with a bot service that is guided by “the more, the better” philosophy, and you will certainly target a group that perhaps will follow you back, but it certainly won’t engage much with your content, and might drop off within weeks or even days.
Random likes and obscure, unrelated followers will not look good on your profile, and this is where we come back to the reputation topic from before. When I build my Instagram presence, I want a lasting legacy and a firm fanbase.
I don’t play with Instagram, Instagram helps me put food on my table and helps my brand to flourish. Follower count that drops over time just isn’t gonna make the cut. Sub-par quality of my followers also goes below the cut. Social Boost, in this regard, fails to deliver on its promise.
Advanced targeting? Sorry to inform you, but no.
Auto Following/Unfollowing
The same goes for the auto- features that Social Boost provides. Even if we skip over the fact that Social Boost pretends to be a dedicated account management service while using automated software (bots), we have to pinpoint in which direction the auto- features lead your Instagram profile.
It has many names. I like to call it – spam. I avoid it, and so should you. There’s nothing smart in mass following people. If you form an audience by mass following, expect an abysmal engagement rate and blown-up numbers that will deflate as soon as you say “bot service”.
Data Scientist
Social Boost includes a “data scientist” in their Premium and Turbocharged packages. Apparently, a data scientist is a guy who manually goes through the metrics and insights of your Instagram performance. I guess that a data scientist comes as a means of further optimization of your content placement.
Let’s draw a conclusion here based on my previous experiences with Social Boost. How likely is it that Social Boost employs a “data scientist” who “manually goes through the numbers” if they have bots instead of account managers? I’d say pretty unlikely. Impossibly unlikely.
After all, Instagram offers free Insights tools for every Business profile. Even if there was a “data scientist” here, you’d still be better off with what you have at your disposal already. I say this smells a lot like another trick to impress naive customers. Boo!
Instagram Growth Calculator – powered by AI
As another fancy sleight-of-hand move that is supposed to impress you with Social Boost technical prowess, Instagram Growth Calculator does a quick analysis of your Instagram profile and gives rudimentary tips on how you can improve it.
It goes through basics like the number of posts, engagement rate, profile setup, follower count, and followers-to-following ratio and it gives a couple of advice like setting your profile on public, going business, and publishing highlighted stories. It’s an interesting piece of coding that isn’t anything groundbreaking, but it is entertaining. I commend it.
But we again come back to the topic of authentic manual growth and real people behind the team. In small caps below the calculator stands – powered by AI. How fitting this little project is to a service that boasts “manual growth”?
Pricing Plans
Another confusing and sometimes contradictory aspect of Social Boost remains interwoven within its pricing plans. According to their site, only the Turbocharged package (€249/month) offers “Dedicated Account Manager”.
How come? Why is suddenly the basic premise of their account management not included in their Basic and Premium bundles? This seems rather fishy, and it puts the final nail in the coffin of the authenticity of their manual growth promises.
In fact, the Basic package offers only auto-follow/unfollow, advanced targeting, monthly grow reports, and 24/7 “live” chats. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that these three represent the basic functions of any social media growth bot.
Team
The final seed of distrust towards Social Boost that their offer has sprouted in me is in their team page.
Two things.
The first is obviously the stock photos that don’t even fit their frames right. It’s the only visual flaw in their otherwise brilliant presentation. There’s even an Elene M counted among the team that has a duplicate picture of an older male that can be found at the bottom of the team section of the page. So much for trust on the first sight if you ask me.
The other is that there are no full names listed here. You’ll find first names and initials, while the company director is a “Josh” with no picture attached. Totally not suspicious, no.
Review Conclusion
I don’t want to sound too harsh, but it is obvious to me that Social Boost presents itself as something that they aren’t. They promise authentic followers and organic growth, while in fact behind the bold words and boasts stands a thinly-veiled bot.
Several conclusions can be drawn from this review. One is that the Social Boost team has lots of expertise in fooling others into believing that the services they provide come from authentic experts. Another is that they have a good presentation that has little to support their outlandish claims.
Don’t get me wrong, though. An automated service such as Social Boost can in fact help you get more followers and more engagement. However, it cannot be overstated how risky it is to rely on fake accounts, bots, and spam.
Even if the system doesn’t get you immediately, a bad reputation will come swiftly. If you have real followers, you’ll start losing them and eventually end up with fewer “organic” followers than you had before you hired the “organic growth services” from Social Boost.
Finally, does Social Boost help you get more followers and engagements? Yes.
But is Social Boost ultimately going to help you boost your Instagram presence? Not only a big no, but a big danger sign as well. Sometimes it’s just better to let a service go and stick with something that is less dishonest and more reliable.
Get Your Services From Verified Providers
Sometimes it pays off to stick with reliable social media growth services. Learn from the mistakes of people whom curiosity burned.
I’ve gone through the ordeal of reviewing Social Boost just to show how much harm blind trust can bring. Think about what I wrote and don’t commit to deals that can put in danger much more than you can afford to bargain with.
After all, growing your Instagram should by no means be a gamble. And there’s a lot of services out there that can help you with Instagram growth. My advice – stay clear of Social Boost.
