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Comment RSSFacebook: Cracking Down on Phony Likes
Written by Michael LevanduskiSeptember 3, 2012 # 9:24 pm # Industry News, Specials # 2 Comments
It’s not the proudest moment in the life of any marketer or brand when they have to start buying likes on Facebook or followers on Twitter in order to make their page more appealing. However, it is not uncommon for this to happen each day, making for a sort of unfair advantage for those who do the buying. Now, though, Facebook will be leveling the playing field, so that all the marketing that takes place on the network is absolutely genuine. Of course, they can only put so much effort into the removal of these phony Likes, which brings to question whether they will ever be able to stop the problem completely.
From their post on August 31st;
A Like that doesn’t come from someone truly interested in connecting with a Page benefits no one. Real identity, for both users and brands on Facebook, is important to not only Facebook’s mission of helping the world share, but also the need for people and customers to authentically connect to the Pages they care about. When a Page and fan connect on Facebook, we want to ensure that connection involves a real person interested in hearing from a specific Page and engaging with that brand’s content. As such, we have recently increased our automated efforts to remove Likes on Pages that may have been gained by means that violate our Facebook Terms.
It is a bit strange that something has not already been done about the issue in the past. These fake Likes have been around since the beginning of Facebook marketing, and Facebook knew that just as well as anyone else did. They assure us in their blog that they have never permitted the use of these purchased Likes, but they have not paid much attention to them until now. It seems a bit strange that Facebook has decided to act now, rather than much earlier.
Regardless, Facebook is now doing something about it, and so the fall back of buying Facebook Likes is now gone. It is absolutely a good thing too, because as Facebook said, these Likes are not very beneficial to anyone. For most Facebook users, the number of Likes is not quite as important as who has Liked the page. People are interested in their friends’ genuine Likes, or at least those that are clearly real.
They end the post noting the way that Facebook should be used in the future;
Facebook was built on the principle of real identity and we want this same authenticity to extend to Pages. We undoubtedly expect that this will be a positive change for anyone using Facebook, and we look forward to helping even more people share and connect with the friends and brands they care about.
The post offers some advice to those who think their pages’ security may be compromised, telling them to visit a page that can help with hacked accounts. Also, they advise that marketers should “vet” businesses that offer assistance with Facebook marketing, to ensure that they are genuine, legal business.
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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Hey Michael, First off great post! I just want to chime in because it is something that has bothered me since I started my marketing business. I always knew about buying likes or followers on twitter using u know who.. but I knew that those likes would do absolutely nothing for the page! If I have a new client and create a facebook page for their business I could make myself look like a hero and buy a thousand likes or what ever, but I know that those likes would do nothing for the page and have no interaction what so ever. The only benefit would be either the owner of the business would see so many likes and have a false hope of gaining customers out of them. Or anyone that does land on the page would be tricked into thinking there was a lot of fans. I mostly deal with small local businesses and if anyone had half a brain they would know something was fishy having thousands of likes.
It always bothered me because there are those people that are tricked and will like a page because it seems to have authority when in fact it doesn’t. I have built my small business on integrity and I plan on keeping it that way. I’m always honest with any clients and tell them that Facebook is a great tool but it takes time. Again most of my clients are small businesses and they don’t want to spend too much money so even using facebook ads is a far fetch so I have to rely on good old social posts and grabbing the attention of the local community. For instance I opened a page for a brand new pizza place which has real good food and is tied in with a donut shop that is very popular in my area. The coffee shop has just over 600 fans and the page is just over a year old. Now they have the pizza joint and I started that page 5 months ago and we just reached our first 100 likes this past week.
I write all that just to show what it takes to really work an honest page and gain likes via social media the way it should be. Now I do think it could go a little faster if I invested in ads or promoted posts but I’ve yet to work that angle for a client just yet. Sorry for rambling on but I look forward to the security measures that facebook is going to take and I hope it will help the honest guys / businesses that are trying to make it work the right way, by being social!
I look forward to any follow up’s on this topic and or comments.
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