I can hear you now “what is she on about now? Ranty Friday and fake likes? What?” What even is a “fake like”? Well let me tell you because this week on Ranty Friday I am both mildly ranty but actually really sad that social media has come to this.
Below is a copy of an email I received this recently:
My name’s Ben and I design apps for Apple . I also specialise in Social media management helping to build businesses and also give your Social media pages the wow factor.
We have a database approximately 500,000 people whom have all completed a lifestyle survey , so we have a ideal indication of what interests our users . When someone submits an order through us unlike most of our competitors, We then submit your link through our database and in turn people then like your page.
Prices from :-
£50 for 2,000 Facebook Likes
£50 for 6,000 Instagram followers
£45 for 7,000 Twitter followers
£50 for 30,000 YouTube Views
Buying followers on Twitter? Buying likes on Facebook? Why would you do that?
This bothers for me two reasons. Firstly social media is that. Social. Buying followers and fake likes is not social. It is daft. What does it prove? It shows you have a complete disregard for the platform and £45 to waste. Are those followers going to interact with you? They don’t even know you? Hell, they won’t even exist. They will be fake accounts. What have you achieved? “oooh I have 7000 followers more than you”. And? It’s pathetic.
Secondly we see companies increasingly asking people to achieve likes on Facebook in order to win a competition. I hate these sorts of things, its a popularity contest and heart breaking when you put in all that effort to try and get votes only to see somebody else win. Is the winner buying likes? If I was in line to win a big prize and all I had to do was get the most likes on my page on Facebook would I just write a cheque for £50? What does that say about me as a competitor?
It’s hideous.
I don’t understand the mentality of somebody who does this. It’s sad. Pathetic.
And to run a business that does this?
Well that is just shameful.
Image of social media icons courtesy of Shutterstock
Ooh I got this. I think I reacted with an “eh?” a few times reading it. Makes no sense does it?
Well said. I don’t get why someone would want followers that don’t interact with you – I never check how many people follow or like a page – if it / they is interesting I will do it.
I did ask my daughters boyfriend how he had over 50,000 followers and apparently there’s an app for that!
I do know of someone who bought 1000 likes for a Facebook page a long time ago, and now regrets it as she has no idea which ones are real and which not. And the discrepancy between the number of followers, and stats like post reach and interaction, is difficult to work with.
It’s ridiculous isnt it 🙁 It’s been going on for a few years as used to be friends with someone who set up her own business. She actually set up the selling “likes” thing too and advertised it on her page…. doesn’t exactly instil confidence!!
I hate it and I hate the fact that people taking things so seriously that they’d buy fans. It’s all a bit sad really.
I got that mail too! I am afraid I wrote a slightly rude reply back. If I have to pay money for people to like my blog, and follow me on social media, then need to examine why I’m there in the first place! I nearly wrote a Ranty piece about this today, glad it’s not just me!
It’s quite extraordinary isn’t it. But I suppose I can say that from the comfort of writing a blog purely for pleasure; if people don’t want to read my blog or follow me on twitter then that’s fine by me (obviously they’re missing out massively!!). But if more followers etc won you a competition, or got you better seo to promote your business, I can see why it would be tempting as a marketing expense, though I’m not sure I’d ever go down that route myself.
I don’t even read these anymore, just hit the delete button.
Ohhhh i’m not sure if i should be saying this but i have bought likes/follows on behalf of companies at agencies i have worked for. Its been around for years and is pretty common practice to be honest.
However the reason that most (or at least the ones i have worked with) brands do it is when they are launching a new campaign along with new social media channels. If you are driving people to a new twitter page with 0 follows it does not appear legit, so genuine followers would be put off. Bumping up the numbers at the beginning is a springboard if you like.
Other than this though i totally agree with you.They are not true fans, they won’t stick around and they certainly won’t interact.
Yes, as a business we used to get plagued by emails from these type of companies too, thought they’d died out a bit. Right now we get loads of emails from SEO companies from India telling us our site is very poor!