While some artists may consider purchasing likes and follows as a quick route to success, the reality is that these fake social purchases are easily identified by any industry professional looking into your band.
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Guest post by Michael Brandvold of Michael Brandvold Marketing
Seems like every year I end up writing another article about fake likes. “If I want a audience I’d just pony up the cash, buy me a whole bunch of likes and downloads.” Does this sound familiar? Have you thought about doing this? Well you should understand it is not difficult to spot if someone has purchased fake likes, followers or plays. Anyone in the “industry” can spot fake likes.
How you can spot fake likes, followers and plays.
Facebook:
Look at the number of likes on the page vs. the amount of engagement happening on the page. Looks at various posts and pay attention to comments, likes and shares. If there is a large number of page likes but very little or no engagement it is a red flag that the page has purchased fake likes.
Twitter:
It is pretty easy to get a idea of fake accounts on Twitter by using the website www.TwitterAudit.com. Here are a couple screen captures of two of my Twitter accounts. If you subscribe to TwitterAudit you can easily and quickly remove fake followers.
YouTube:
Look at the number of plays on individual videos, are they consistent from video to video or is one or a couple extremely large and the rest very small. Also look at the amount of comments on the videos, are they in proportion to the number of plays? One million plays and zero comments is a red flag. Finally, how many subscribers does the channel have? If the videos have lots of plays, but the channel has hardly any subscribers, another red flag that fake plays have been purchased.
Soundcloud and others:
Similar technique, look at the number of plays and followers. High plays and low followers is a red flag for fake purchases.
Downloads:
Well that is pretty hard to fake and it is impossible for anyone except the account holder to see actual download data.
Do you have a basic understanding how fake likes even work? Purchasing fake likes wouldn’t give anyone a audience… they are FAKE accounts, not real people. They will NEVER click play, NEVER click like, NEVER leave a comment, NEVER share a post. When you buy fake likes you will only get a large number and nothing else, nothing more, no future engagement. The reality is that large number will actually hurt your real engagement as Facebook will see none of those likes engaging with your posts and will show your posts to even less real people. Understand that all social networks are also always clearing out fake likes, followers and plays. So you spend all that money to buy a big number and tomorrow morning you wake up to see they are all gone. Don’t buy fake likes, followers or plays.
Additional resources related to fake likes, followers and plays can be found in these articles.
- Analysis of the Impact of Buying Facebook Likes, You Loose Money, Likes and Engagement with Real Fans
- On The Black Market You Can Actually Buy and Sell Bundles of Facebook Account Credentials
- Your Goal Should Not Be the Most Fans, It Should Be Fans That Will Support You
- Fake Likes Crisis: It’s Not The End, Bands: Do’s and Don’t’s For Bands and Fans
- If You Spend $1000 to Buy Spotify Plays You Need Help With Your Online Strategy