Some companies enjoy boasting 6,000,000,000 Twitter followers or 50,000,000 Facebook fans. But, believe it or not, not all of these fans are legitimate (not all the time, at least). If you’ve thought about buying your way to Facebook fame, you’ll want to think again.
Don’t Buy Your Social Media Following: Build It
Some companies enjoy boasting 6,000,000,000 Twitter followers or 50,000,000 Facebook fans. But, believe it or not, not all of these fans are legitimate (not all the time, at least). If you’ve thought about buying your way to Facebook fame, you’ll want to think again.
A recent Forbes article describes blackhat practices on social media: individuals and companies will “buy” Facebook fans or Twitter followers. These companies belabor under the delusion that the quantity of fans is more important than the quality of their fans, but their endeavors will soon be in vain thanks to a Google update.
As Forbes’ John Rampton writes, “if all your ‘friends’ are from Croatia or India but your company is based in California, something is amiss,” referring to companies buying their fan bases. Google will find these companies’ pages and “take action” against them by pushing them back in the search rankings or imposing other penalties. Basically, if you buy fake followers for your company’s social media pages, your company will look popular until Google finds out and punishes you for it. That money you spent buying 25,000 Twitter followers? Not only have you wasted it, but your company now has a worse social media reputation because of your error.
Twitter’s Jim Prosser comments, “There’s no upside [to buying fake followers]. In the end, their [the companies’] accounts are suspended, they’re out the money and they lose followers.” So why would you want to put down your money and risk being punished by Google when there’s a better way to cultivate a great social media following?
Instead of buying large groups of fake followers who can’t interact with your company, pursue the construction of a brand ambassador programs. Don’t focus on the quantity of your fans: 1,000,000 quiet users are worth less than 5 vocal advocates. Focus on finding your company’s biggest fans, providing them with your brand’s best content, and incentivizing them to share your message to boost your social media engagement. According to a recent Nielsen report, 92% of consumers are more willing to listen to a friend’s recommendation than an advertisement, so if you can build a legitimate brand ambassador base, you can see new success for your business!
At SocialToaster, we help identify and incentivize your brand’s biggest fans. Want to learn more about how SocialToaster turns your best fans into Super Fans? Click here to find out how SocialToaster works today!
