Social media platforms have changed every aspect of our lives, including marketing. If you want to promote yourself or your brand, there’s no better way to start than on Instagram.
It allows you to keep up with trends and post quality content. Of course, without people who will see it, the content is nothing. You need to grow an audience, or it’s like you’re talking to a brick wall.
Luckily, there are many tools that help you build a targeted audience. There are various kinds of tools, from those that tout growth through automated actions to those that sell likes and followers. Today, I’m dealing with one of the former kinds of Social Buddy.
What is Social Buddy?
Social Buddy is an organic Instagram growth service that can help you grow your account. They have a good knowledge of TikTok and Instagram and how their algorithms work, so they say they can come up with a plan that will help you grow your following.
They say that if you use this Instagram follower app, you will get between 10 and 50 new organic followers every day. A review of Social Buddy on the website Trustpilot says that they promised a certain number of friends but were unable to do so. Instead, they got a user in trouble.
With similar names, you can find Social Follow and Social Boost. Check them out and compare.
How does Social Buddy work?
It is a growth service that should bring a targeted audience to your IG account. They do not state this clearly, but their strategy is implementing automated activities to achieve the goal. In other words, they like, follow, and unfollow other users instead of you.
The bot either doesn’t bring you the desired followers, or it suspends your account. You know how much of a hassle it is trying to recover, if you’ve ever had a ban on your account. If not, believe me, you don’t want to go through that ordeal.
If you want to use Social Buddy, here’s what you need to do:
Choose the platform you want to boost
As I said before, Social Buddy offers you to gain followers on TikTok and Instagram. So, you must choose which platform you want to be boosted. Once you have made your decision, click the button “Instagram followers” or “TikTok followers.” Now, let’s continue.
Fill out the registration
In order to register on their website you have to take some little steps. They ask you for your name, email, and Instagram username. The good thing is that they doesn’t require your password or other personal information. After the registration, they provide you with the link to the site named Virallized. Apparently, Viralizzed helps you to buy new followers.
Choose a pricing plan
On Viralizzed, they provide you with everything you want to know about Instagram growth. They have three pricing plans and you pay monthly. Once you decide which plan you want to purchase, you just have to click on it.
Proceed with a payment
Social Buddy, known to us as Viralizzed requires some personal details for the payment. They will need your Email and card information. After you fill out the form, click the button “subscribe” and that’s it. After the purchase is made all you have to do is to wait for your delivery.
What are Social Buddy features?
As I discovered, Social Buddy is not the best platform to use and trust. However, they have some features that we can not forget. The benefits of the Socialbuddy Instagram growth service are limited. For example, professional Instagram users can’t delete a lot of photos or send a lot of direct messages at once.
Buying followers
Social Buddy claims that they will help your Instagram and TikTok accounts grow. It seems like they are doing their job as best they can. However, as the prices are very high and the work is done not quite well, the company is very questionable. They let you buy followers, as well as other services for your social media account boosting.
Are company name followers real accounts or bots?
Social Buddy is a bot. They don’t work correctly and use fake accounts and bots for your feed. Social Buddy is not safe for your account. The amount of bots and fake followers they use is very risky because your account can be suspended at any time.
Automated Activity
They don’t mention this anywhere on their official website, but what you’re actually paying for are automated Instagram activities, which are characteristic of any bot. Once you’ve made your purchase, Social Buddy starts to activate its program. The problem is, that you don’t receive any personal help from the site. Every customer gets the same followers and the same amount of growth on Instagram.
Targeting Audience
On the surface, it seems that Social Buddy targets a specific group of Instagram users from your niche. They make it look that way because they ask you to note your competitors, hashtags, etc. But, in reality, all they do is randomly interact with fake and bot accounts that follow you in turn.
What is Social Buddy pricing?
Social Buddy is an expensive site compared to others. Moreover, the work they offer is not actually worth that much money at all. Their prices are located on Virallized and that’s where you make your purchase as well. They offer three different packages: “max,” “pro” and “standard.” “Max” is the most expensive of them.
Social Buddy gives you a discount once you register on their site for the first time. They offer a 50% sale on their services and yet they are still very expensive.
How much does “Social Buddy” charge for followers?
If you want to purchase a package “max” you have to pay 99$ for the first time. After one month passes, the price becomes 199$. This package offers you 750-4000 followers a month. They guarantee 100% growth.
The package pro costs 75$ with a discount. The real price after the first month is 149$. Paying this much money for 500-3000 followers a month is very expensive.
The cheapest package is called “standard. They offer you 250-2000 followers a month. For the first time, you have to pay 50$. After, the package costs 99$ per month.
Does “Social Buddy” offer a free trial?
Yes, company offers a 14-day free trial to their customers. However, there is only one free trial package available. You can get a free trial for your TikTok account.
Pros and Cons of Social Buddy
As I discovered so far, Social Buddy has many advantages and disadvantages. Compared to other similar sites, Social Buddy is not the best looking. In order to understand this company, let’s discuss its pros and cons.
Advantages of Social Buddy
Secure website
One thing we know for sure is that the Social Buddy website is safe. They promise you that your personal information will be safe. This company doesn’t require any of your passwords or other personal data. They won’t use your information without permission and guarantee your safety.
Helps you boost your account
No matter how Social Buddy does that, it will gain you followers. Once you purchase followers from this company, they immediately start to appear on your account. If you do not care about what others think, you can use their packages and gain bots as your followers.
Disadvantages of Social Buddy
Doesn’t work anymore
As we’ve discovered, company don’t work as a site anymore. They have a website in order to gain more customers. However, the main site you will visit after being registered on Social Buddy is Virallized. On Virallized you choose the package you want to purchase and buy it there as well.
Probably will get your account banned
Instagram has a strong policy and security system. Once you use Social Buddy you will gain a lot of fake followers and bots. Once Instagram spots that you are using other sites for your account boost, you will get suspended. Paying a lot of money for Instagram popularity and getting a suspension is not so fun.
Refuse to issue refunds
From the customer reviews it is clear that Social Buddy doesn’t offer any refunds. This way, customers’ trust is getting lower and lower.
Customer Reviews and Testimonials of Social Buddy
Social Buddy has 75 total followers on Trustpilot and 62% of them are positive. As we’ve seen so far, some of the reviews don’t seem real. Some of them just say the same things. However, the negative reviews have their explanation. Let’s discuss them together:
Reviews from Unsatisfied customers
Review from Unsatisfied Customer 1
“run the other way! only bot operator who gives u followers who never engage in your posts. u will end up with a high number of followers but a dead profile nothing happens and therefore the algorithm will avoid showing ur posts at all. u will have to delete ur profile and start a new one. That’s the outcome!”
Review from Unsatisfied Customer 2
“Rather insignificant results and some questionable things.
Bought the one-month program to boost followers. During the first two weeks, the results were a total of zero, and in the third week, they accumulated 100 new followers. Unsatisfied at that point I decided not to continue so I changed my Instagram password and I would have expected SB to contact me due to my inability to log in, but no. Either they did not even notice the error or did not care. In the end, results were one dollar per new follower. Via manual work, the same results are achievable with a couple of hours of work.
Yes, the story goes it’s slow in the beginning, but this is way too slow, better to find something else.”
Review from Unsatisfied customer 3
“Not only I haven’t been getting followers.
My account has started following strange accounts, with 10 followers and no posts, and I have started getting DMs constantly from doggy men.
Not at all happy with the service and canceled after a week even though I had paid for the month!
This was not what was advertised at all “organic social media growth.”
Customer Reviews from satisfied customers
Review from satisfied customer 1
“I’ve had a very positive experience with a social buddy so far. Most of my new followers have been targeted and some are engaging with my posts as well which is nice to see. It’s also nice having an account manager helping optimize our campaign where needed and giving suggestions when things have slowed down. It can be a bit of a process initially when trying to find the right targets for your account, but has proved to be well worth it in my experience.”
Review from satisfied customer 2
“Very happy with the growth progress on our business account so far.
I believe being a fairly well-known makeup/beauty store in our area but not having the social proof to back it up was hurting us. Now that Social Buddy is taking care of that for us, I feel it’s making a positive difference business-wise when potential customers check out our Instagram and see we have a stronger following and are continuing to grow daily.
Being able to focus strictly on content and having someone handle the growth is a huge plus. Hoping this trend will continue!”
Review from satisfied customer 3
“I signed up my restaurant to work with Social Buddy earlier this year. I’m glad I did. We were able to hit 10K followers right before Covid shut down everything and having the ability to add links to our stories helped push our takeout and delivery business during these tough times. I can’t praise the Social Buddy team enough for their efforts. Thanks”
Social Buddy vs Flock Social
There are many similar sites to Social Buddy. Some of them are very expensive, and some of them can be not as effective. In order to understand how this company works, we have to compare it to the other sites. We chose Flock Social.
Service Offerings and Features
Social Buddy: It offers engagement for TikTok and Instagram platforms. They promise, that they will attract a lot of followers to your account.
Flock Social: Flock Social is specialized in organic growth. They provide you with a lot of activity in your account. They put their attention on gaining real, active followers.
Follower Quality
Social Buddy: The followers you gain through Social Buddy are most likely fake. The company claims they will let you gain real followers; however, that’s not true. As we’ve seen from the reviews, the customers gained bots as followers.
Flock Social: Flock Social is based on real, organic followers. The company makes sure that the followers you gain are 100% real Instagram users.
Compatibility with Instagram Rules
Social Buddy: You can most likely get banned for using Social Buddy. Instagram policies are very strict. As they don’t work organically, there is a risk of getting a restriction on your account.
Flock Social: Flock Social uses legal ways to sell its offerings. Because of that, they are in line with the rules of social media platforms. With Flock Social, you are safe.
Long-Term Benefits
Social Buddy: Some of the reviews said that they lost their followers after some time. They mostly attract fake followers and bots, that’s why some of them can be banned and deleted.
Flock Social: Followers you get from Flock Social are more likely to lead to quality interactions and make your social media presence stronger. Organic growth takes time, but the results are real.
Final conclusion for Social Buddy
Is Social Buddy legit?
With all of this information and the fact that their service doesn’t work, yet they keep charging their customers, I’m pretty sure that Social Buddy is not legit.
Their team is not visible on the website, and the whole firm seems a bit shady. You cannot contact their customer support in any way except by email. And, according to reviews on Trustpilot.com, you won’t get any help from them.
Can you get banned from using Social Buddy?
Yes, you can get banned from using Social Buddy. At some time, Instagram will notice that you gain bots and fake accounts as your followers. There is a big risk that your account will be restricted or blocked forever.
Is Social Buddy worth the money paid?
Compared to other sites Social Buddy doesn’t offer a lot of benefits and is very expensive. In my opinion, spending that much money on fake followers is not worth it at all. You can always find a better site to boost your social media accounts.
Can Social Buddy give you the results promised?
Social Buddy will give you the followers you purchased. However, they won’t give you the exact amount of followers you want. Moreover, the quality of the followers will be very questionable.
Final verdict: Does Platypus recommend Social Buddy?
No, Platypus doesn’t recommend Social Buddy. Even if it had worked before, it doesn’t anymore. It seems like a complete scam. This bot is just too aggressive and will get your account banned. If you want to boost your follower count in the long run organically and with real people.