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Comment RSSBlackHatters: Stop Trying Fake Likes: They Don’t Work
Written by Michael LevanduskiSeptember 18, 2012 # 7:20 pm # Marketing Insights, Specials # 2 Comments
Everyone has heard all of the stories about the fake Likes and fake Tweets; pretty much anything that has to do with social media marketing can be faked. Marketers are under the impression that these fake responses on their social media marketing campaigns will help them significantly, but that just is not the case. They could even potentially hurt the brand or business more than help. Despite that, though, they continue to pop up. There have been efforts toward stopping them, but there are still going to be ways around them. While I’m sure these paid social media results will end someday, upon marketers’ realizations that they really are not necessary, but for now and apparently for the near future, they are here to stay.
Gartner, one of today’s leading information technology research companies, released some information regarding their predictions for fake social media results in the near future, and why they are so present in the marketing world.
From their post on their website press page;
“With over half of the Internet’s population on social networks, organizations are scrambling for new ways to build bigger follower bases, generate more hits on videos, garner more positive reviews than their competitors and solicit ‘likes’ on their Facebook pages,” said Jenny Sussin, senior research analyst at Gartner. “Many marketers have turned to paying for positive reviews with cash, coupons and promotions including additional hits on YouTube videos in order to pique site visitors’ interests in the hope of increasing sales, customer loyalty and customer advocacy through social media ‘word of mouth’ campaigns.”
People trust what they hear or see on social media sites more than anywhere else on the web. That sounds plausible, yes, but how long will that stay true of marketers keep putting phony Likes or fake page posts all over their accounts on these networks. Gartner stated that they expect 10-15% of all reviews on social media sites to be fake reviews by the year 2014. That does not seem like improvement to me. If things do eventually end up getting that bad, and consumers start to find out about it, it will eventually end up making these fake social media marketing techniques less and less successful. It’s like a cycle of wrongful use of social media marketing.
Gartner believes that although consumer trust in social media is currently low, consumer perception of tightened government regulation and increased media exposure of fake social media ratings and reviews will ultimately increase consumer trust in new and existing social media ratings and reviews.
This is exactly what I mean. If marketers quit putting fake information and creating phony reputations on social media sites, and people find out about it, they are more likely to trust what they do see from businesses on the networks. On the other hand, if they find out that the companies are using fake methods, why would they trust them at all? I have never seen the point of the dishonest reputation building that takes place on social networks, as it eventually comes back to bite businesses in their asses anyway. An honest social media campaign will be more successful than a phony one every time.
Written by Michael Levanduski
Michael Levanduski is a news reporter at Performance Marketing Insider. He’s been a writer at one level or another for the past 15+ years. He has three kids and lives in Grand Rapids, MI.
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Fakers gonna fake.
But it will be interesting to see how far their blackhat methods will get them. I believe in the proverb “What goes around, comes around”, so I think it won’t be too long before they get their comeuppance.
Gartner? Gartner? WTF man. Screw anything Gartner says, especially about marketing about which they know nothing.
Gartner is fake evaluations of IT bullshit paid for by the very companies it evaluates. Why isn’t the FTC investigating Gartner?
The purpose of fake likes and followers is legitimate – to meet the “weight requirement” when real customers come to your page. If you don’t have any likes no one will like you. No one wants to like a company’s page with only 5 likes or even 100 likes. It’s a herd mentality, a jump on the bandwagon thing. Of course the fake people won’t buy anything from you. That’s not the point. It’s to give the impression that “enough” people already like you to make you look legitimate and a safe choice for real customers to raise their hand without feeling like they are dealing with a loser company that nobody else likes.
Eeww you liked that loser company? Look how few likes they have. Why would you like a company like that? Can’t you find one that people like?
Liking a loser company makes you a loser. That’s why we need fake fans – to overcome the inertia. That’s all. No biggie. Just part of the overall strategy to be perceived as a successful company. Like all social media, it’s PR.