Many of us want to have more likes, comments, and followers, on social media, our websites, or blogs. Likes, comments, and followers that are generated from any non-human traffic are called bot traffic.
Nowadays, plenty of people can sell bot traffic. They do not charge much. I often get spam messages on Instagram with offers to buy non-human traffic. In the recent messages, the prices are about 10$ for 1000 likes. The question is whether to buy or not such traffic. I associate any traffic with attention and potential clients. My first thought is that it’s gross to buy someone’s love and attention. You pay to be liked.
Will they buy something from you?
No!
Will they be your clients?
No!
When real people like your post, it means that it is good and valuable. They are interested in following you and engaging with you and your brand. Isn’t that the point of being online?
Say, you bought some fake likes/comments/followers…
OK, you bought 20k followers, 1,5k likes, and bot comments. These are just numbers that might harm your account, by the way (I’ll tell you about it in a minute, wait).
My question is: how long will you be happy having so many fake followers/likes? A month? 3 months? At the end of the day, it is just f.a.k.e, delusional. Yes, it will allow you to trick some (but not many) people into thinking that you are “popular,” however, this is not the definition of being famous.
I do not collaborate with people who have fake numbers.
Let me give you a real-life example. No names. A “popular” online magazine contacted me. They offered me to write an article for them. To be published there I had to pay 50$. Their representative claimed that I would benefit from being published because many people engaged with their blog posts on social media where they post descriptions of articles. Yes, it is true that they have got many followers and likes on social media. For example, on Instagram, they have 23k fake followers. Each post receives about 1.5k likes. And 0 comments or a couple of comments, which are not that much related to the post itself.
Will I benefit from this?
Hell no!
I wanted to tell them that my decision was based on their lies, but I did not do it.
How to spot fake numbers
Ok, how did I know they had fake people on social media?
Buying fake likes/comments/followers is trendy nowadays. So, I check people.
There are free online programs that I use. You can see that an account got 2k or 5k followers over a night. Although, usually, they get 2 followers a day. Isn’t it suspicious? Then you can see that 1k people liked a post within 2 hours, and that is it. Usually, people like your posts within a day or a week. Thus, slowly, you reach 1k likes.
When companies or individuals tell me that many people buy their services, I check their social media accounts and websites. It is not easy to fool me. Throwing dust in someone’s eyes is not a marketing strategy. It is bullshit.
Fake numbers will harm your account
Bot traffic will ruin your engagement rate (which is essential for your account).
Instagram and Facebook are constantly changing their algorithms, so fake engagement will not work. They keep track of your numbers and activity all the time. And they can see when you cheat.
In addition, your account might get shadowbanned (it’s the practice of blocking or partially blocking a user or their content from some areas of an online community in such a way that it will not be readily apparent to the user that they have been banned; wiki). If your account gets shadowbanned, you will have to hire new people to help you resolve this problem.
The most important thing is that those fake things are illegal! In case someone doesn’t know.
Likes from non-real people will 100% reduce the quality of your Facebook page insights.
Also, fake accounts will not come to your webinar whatsoever, let alone buy any of your services.
Conclusion:
1) Quality over quantity;
2) Don’t jump on the bandwagon;
3) Build long-term relationships with your audience;
4) Fake likes/followers/comments are utter nonsense.
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