Fake Followers? Don’t Shoot Yourself In The Foot.
Have you ever been tempted to purchase fake followers on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram? To be honest, it’s really not worth it. What’s The Story?
Yes, with a large social media following, you can certainly make people sit up and take note. You can look like the leader when it comes to your competitors; but if your following isn’t strictly ‘real’, then these arbitrary numbers of people who supposedly care about you aren’t just lies, they’re actually potentially hurting you when it comes to your real followers, too.
Last year, Instagram started to clear up their act with bought followers, making some people’s numbers somewhat drastically (and rather embarrassingly!) drop right down. Twitter is most likely going to be next, and whilst fake followers don’t do much to harm you right now, it’s not worth the risk. Facebook is where things really matter though, as every fake ‘like’ you have could cost you a genuine impression. You, see, Facebook’s algorithm works in a way that means it only reveals what you post to some people, some of the time. This is usually only a fraction of the people who’ve followed you. Yes, it’s frustrating – but is wasting half of these ‘reveals’ on people who don’t really exist going to do you any favours? The answer is a resounding ‘no’.
Facebook recently announced that it has cleaned up its act, too – so your likes may be about to drop as they remove any dormant, inactive or fake accounts which may be affecting your stats and engagement.
How Should I Utilise Social To Maximize Impact, Then?
Surely if you lose loads of followers, you’re taking a step back? Not exactly. In this context, less can certainly be more. When the false people have gone, a higher proportion of your genuinely interested ‘fans’ can actually find out what you’re doing.
Using the new data from people who genuinely care, will show you what sorts of things they respond well to. You can plan your posts accordingly, and source and create content to push things into their newsfeeds of things they’re actually interested in and proven to interact with. The more engagement, the more people who see your stuff. It’s simple math.
It’s not all just about the numbers game, either. It’s actually about conversions. Sometimes, you have to speculate to accumulate! Facebook is a free platform, but like any form of advertising, there’s a fee attached to it if you want to drive higher traffic to your campaigns (and drive more sales!). By being savvy, you can achieve certain things for free, but for a small fee, you can boost posts, and do some highly effective Facebook Advertising.
You social media efforts can also affect how well your site itself is performing. Make sure you’re regularly using tools such as Google Analytics to ensure you know where your referrals are coming from. You can now even track any calls that come through social channels, too, by using call tracking software such as this.
There’s No Magic Formula
Unfortunately, like with everything else, research and hard work and effort pay off. Whether you handle social media for your own business, or someone else’s, you need to make sure you’re clued up on exactly what it is you need to do. Simple and easy cheats and hacks might seem tempting, but they’ll come back to haunt you in the long run. Do your research, and do it properly, and hopefully you’ll soon see results.