Nicholas Kalavas, CEO of CFM Group, writes:
Unfortunately, there is a real-world use case for fakes. I personally was contacted by an agency not that far from Cambridge, offering me a guaranteed 1000 (!!!!) likes and follows per month for 12 months. When I asked if they would be local and genuine users, I never got a response back.
There are many different opinions as to the importance of likes but let’s be honest.. the number of followers and Likes a page or person has, does make a perceptive difference. I am a strong believer in genuine likes (hence potential clients and advocates of your brand) and I will explain why below.
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The problem is that buying fakes can hurt your brand a lot more than you can imagine. So let’s have a look at four important reasons why you should not engage in acquiring “fake likes” for your brand or company.
- Illegality
First off, it’s against the Facebook platform practices which means that if you were caught (which you would eventually) you end up being completely banned and deleted from the platform - which can have a much more serious effect on your business.
- Insight and Analysis
Second, but equally importantly, if you are seeking to get genuine results from your social media marketing, it will make your tracking and insights very difficult to monitor. If your audience is full of fake profiles, then your data is effectively worthless, negating your efforts completely.
- Cleaning up the mess
Very very hard indeed! Facebook does not have a mechanism to remove your followers in bulk, so the only way to do so is individually..yes, you read right..One by one. Which would be a nightmare for you if you have already accumulated a few thousand likes.
- Getting caught out
Finally if someone really did want to find out whether what you are “presenting” is true, it is becoming easier to do so today with tools such as Twitter Counter, Fanpage Karma or SocialBlade which can highlight odd fluctuations and activity, pointing to suspicious methods. You probably think no one would ever do that but the reality is why take the risk (Also always consider what rival companies may do).
CFM GROUP WILL GIVE YOU AN OVERVIEW OF ANY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT’S FOLLOWER/FOLLOWING GROWTH
These are not necessarily tools that everyone uses in the industry but nonetheless it only takes one to call you out and ruin your reputation.
In most cases, it’s fairly obvious who’s legit and who’s not, and users are growing more wary of such tactics. It might seem like a good way to go, but I’d definitely advise against it. As social media becomes a more important element in modern business process, the value of your social presence is also increasing in-step. It’s simply not worth risking for the sake of vanity metrics.
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