Does buying fake likes help your business? Sure, the numbers may look good on the outside, but if you are selling products/services, you are selling to an empty crowd.
Facebook and Instagram just recently filed a lawsuit in US federal court against one company and three people based in New Zealand. According to the lawsuit, the New Zealand-based company earned approximately $9.43 million from selling fake likes, comments, and followers on Instagram. On top of the fact that fake likes violates their terms of use, below are a few other reasons why buying fake likes does a business a disservice.
Why buying fake likes does your business a disservice
- It is an empty audience. The goal of social media is to sell products and services correct? Buying likes is the equivalent to a symphony performance with no audience. Just imagine, you take the time to practice, perfect your musical craft, book the auditorium, but no one comes to hear you play. The effort put into a marketing plan promoted to an empty audience can be catastrophic.
- Trust is harder to gain. Social media is also about building trust. Customers work with and buy from businesses they know, like and trust. If you put off the impression of being phony, customers will translate that to how you run your business and treat your clientele.
- Creates an inauthentic brand. Be real and authentic. Period. The fake it till you make it strategy only works for so long. Fake likes create an initial abundance of follower numbers, but the likes on the posts do not match. For example, look at Instagram accounts that clearly just started but have 105K followers. Click on a recent picture and it only has 11 likes. That is how you can gauge whether or not the brand is not only new, but buying likes until the real likes start flowing in.
- Best strategy is to organically grow your following. This is always the best way to build a social media brand online. Join in conversations, engage with your audience and have a lot of fun doing it.
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