You may have heard of sites that claim to get you 1,000 new Twitter followers for $5. Sites like Fiverr and other professional marketplaces are full of these cheap, too-good-to-be true offers. Donβt get me wrong- buying a service like this will get you a thousand new followers overnight, and in that sense, you might be delighted, but not all that glitters is gold, people, and buying social media followers is a bad idea for so many reasons.
Buying fake followers will up your numbers, but those accounts wonβt generate any real activity or do anything at all except falsely inflate egos and maybe get your account banned. Here are 7 reasons not to do it.
Numbers arenβt everything.
Letβs start this off with a metaphor: imagine you had a thousand toasters. In theory, you could capitalize on having that many toasters by selling all of them, or starting a toaster rental company, or an industrial toast making plant. But if all those toasters donβt work? Youβre out of luck, my friend, because now all you can make is a piece of weird, post-modern art or something. A thousand broken toasters are worse than useless, theyβre actively a hindrance, because theyβre empty and broken and pointless.
Thatβs what youβre doing when you buy followers; buying a thousand useless profiles that do nothing and generate no revenue. Having a lot of something thatβs broken is worse than having one functional thing. After all, wouldnβt you rather have one functional toaster than a thousand broken ones?
They literally mean nothing. Literally.Β
The profiles that you get when you buy social media followers are empty burner accounts set up by people who then tell a computer program to follow your account. On the sellerβs end, the whole process takes about two seconds to do once the accounts are made, and then the accounts sit useless and empty, following you but never engaging with your content. There are no humans behind the accounts. Boring! Useless! Worse than a thousand broken toasters!
You will lose integrity.
Buying followers isnβt just pointless, itβs also really shady. If youβre buying followers youβre just trying to convince people that youβre something youβre not: established or popular or dynamic, when in reality, youβre buying an inflated number just to lie to people. Popularity and followers will come, but only if you populate your social media feeds with useful and interesting content and engage with your (real, human, living) followers.
Your real & potential followers will find out.
The average social media user is wise to the paid-followers scheme. Every socially literate person knows what to expect from a Twitter or Facebook account with a lot of followers, so if your profile has a big number of them but no interaction between you and these thousands of βpeople,β theyβre instantly going to know whatβs up. Internet scorn is swift and brutal, and teenagers have no mercy for people who are trying to seem more popular than they are.
Itβs not a question of if theyβll notice, itβs a question of when, and when it does happen youβll look like a huge desperate tool. Tough love, I know, but I donβt want that life for you! Donβt set yourself up for embarrassment later down the line.
Engagement is more important than followers.
Too often, people get caught up in the numbers game on social media. They think itβs better to have a thousand broken toasters, because, well, other people will see all their toasters and theyβll be impressed and trust them, right? NOPE. What counts on social media isnβt sheer numbers, itβs the quality of engagement that you get from your followers.
Real people who are really following you (functional toasters, I like to call them) are going to connect with you directly and get to know your brand on a more personal level. Promoting calls to action and using effective content sharing will get you more actual profit and engagement than having a lot of empties following you. Engagement is what builds brand loyalty and trust, and trust is what increases sales. Plus,
That money is better invested elsewhere.Β
If youβve earmarked some money to buy fake followers, consider using that cash somewhere else more productively. Hire a graphic designer to make you a custom Twitter and Facebook cover photo, or get a logo made that captures the vibe of your brand. You can find plenty of legitimate online services for this, and it doesnβt have to be terribly expensive, either. Invest that cash in something that will do more than just sit there, collecting dust. A good visual branding will build trust, which is the opposite of what fake followers do, by the way.
Or buy yourself a present! Just donβt be sleazy and try to buy your friends online.
Your accounts can be frozen, deleted, or bannedΒ
Finally, buying followers is against the rules of almost every social media platform out there, because social media companies know these fake accounts only clog up the system and donβt generate any real engagement. Buying followers can get you suspended or permanently deleted from sites, and it really does happen. You do the crime, you do the time, folks, so donβt buy social media followers. Donβt do it!
Readers, what do you notice first about accounts with fake followers? What do you think of the practice? Have you ever done it? Leave your thoughts below!
THIS. It’s so icky to see those accounts that have obviously bought followers. Great post lady!
Yasss! Thanks Cara. I knew you’d understand π
Love this post… the toast analogy was so funny!
It always makes me wonder what someone hopes to gain by buying followers… (Kinda takes the ‘social’ part of the ‘social media’ doesn’t it?)
I mean, you know they don’t really care about your content. They aren’t going to buy from you or share anything you post. So… what’s the point? Is it just for a little ego-stroking?
It cheapens a brand, and it’s a waste of time and money.
But as they say, a sucker is born every minute. So long as people are willing to pay for fake likes and followers, those services will stay in business.
Sharing now!
Brent
Oh it’s supposed to be an ego-stroke…. but only fake people benefit from it. I agree with you 100%. Here’s to hoping this post makes less suckers!
Great post about toasters Andrea π
Did I read it wrong?
Seriously, you are absolutely spot on – its pointless buying the ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ on social media. Much better to build a true following of people who like your content and will share it accordingly…without having to pay for it!
Cheers!
– David
Haha yes, David… toasters worked great as an analogy here… LOL. I have a soft spot for analogies.
Glad you liked it. And you’re so right. Building a true following is so much more rewarding than a fake one.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing. π
Hi AndrΓ©a Jones
its really helpful article for us ….paid traffic and followers always dangerous for site
good job
Great post AndrΓ©a! The quickest way to get banned on social media is to buy fake followers. Your money is better spent investing in legitimate paid traffic sources or hiring a social media marketer to do the work properly.
Thanks for stopping by, Sam! And you’re totally right. I wish more people would talk about this issue because some folks just don’t know!
I couldn’t agree with this more! When my business first started, I was busy. It was not until recently that my social media following has grown. Business is relatively the same (stable). But I always tell people that I was able to be stable financially without a big following!
first, I guess its my first comment on this platform second I think I would partially agree with it, not that I am involved in such practice, bet met i am on twitter since 2013 and I have are like around 1200 followers ;p so no i am not involved in it but
I think it does work like 1. people tend to follow those who have like thousands of followers, 2. they consider people with huge followers having immense influence, that is kind of obvious!
3. since over 2 billion people are online at present and it is obvious that all such people arent’ as hot as you or me in social media and psychology behind all this followers/likes thing, they trust such people, their reviews, blog posts, their opinions and so these people do make good amount of money in the end…
4. I didn’t see much benefit from my quality followers that I made ;p so that kind of says that it doesn’t matter though yeah whenever i share something on twitter i kind of get 80-100 views instantly and few subscribers now and then but that’s about it …
these bought or fake likes/followers are all about making that much needed credibility, hype, noise and yeah even if few social media savvy guys get to know about such things they don’t bother usually… plus the faker can block em or her easily so no damage done… ;p
Hi Arshad,
Thanks for the detailed response. I totally understand where you’re coming from but I have to disagree with you. While having thousands of followers can appeal to some at first; over time, it will damage credibility. Buying social media followers is a short term “solution” that causes problems in the long run for the following reasons:
1.) Those followers you bought are not real people. The can’t and don’t interact with your account. So new users who are potentially interested in you can see that your other followers don’t participate, throwing suspicion on you and your brand.
2.) If you’re a new brand and no one has heard of you, your followers are going to wonder how/why you’ve got such a big following for being new.
3.) At the end of the day, those fake follower you bought can not ever turn into customers.
4.) Everyone has to start somewhere. It’s way more appealing to be one of the 1st fans of a new brand then being one of thousands of a brand that has little credibility to begin with.
5.) Most social media platforms remove inactive, fake, and bot accounts. Eventually, those followers will disappear. In worst case scenarios, you could also have your account removed from that platform for not complying with terms of service.
I share this with you because I have experienced it personally myself! I wrote this blog post so that others don’t fall for the same thing I did. Buying followers on social media can really damage your reputation and cause the exact opposite reaction you’re hoping to get!
Spending the time to find people who are actually interested in what you have to say is far more valuable. I’d rather have 100 fans who are engaged and interested in what I have to say then have 3,000 fans who could care less.
I hope this helps you!
Best,
AndrΓ©a