SEOClerks

Why Fake Likes & Followers Could Hurt You.



Write the reason you're deleting this FAQ

Why Fake Likes & Followers Could Hurt You.

Dear Freelancers,
Recently I answered a quite common question these days. It's about Likes and Followers.

You can find the topic here:
What happened to Facebook and instagram likes?

However I'll show you my reply in this topic too, so there's literally no need to check the other topic.

My reply:
Why Fake Likes & Followers Could Hurt You.


So there you have it. The reason you can't buy or sell these Facebook or Instagram services anymore. Not on SEOClerks or any other Ionicware owned Marketplace, and you will most likely have a hard time finding these services elsewhere in the nearest future too.

That being said, hundreds or perhaps even thousands of topics regarding Fake likes and followers have been created during the years, both on SEOClerks and literally everywhere online. - People are eager to have tons of followers, fans and likes on their content and pages.

And why?
I'll name a few reasons I can think of, and let me just tell you that I've been selling these services previously too, even though I haven't sold it for a very long time now.

Anyhow, people want to be popular. Hence the reason for them to have thousands of followers. It looks cool and it's also easier to get likes from REAL humans if you already have a bunch of likes on your content. People follow people's actions. It's like a wheel.

If you find something you like then you'll either like it or share it. Or perhaps leave a comment. Perhaps you'll even do all three actions, right?

That said, if you find a funny video, a good article or whatever, but there's literally zero people who've liked or replied, then you'll probably not be the first one to do it either. That's just how things are.. - Someone has to take the first step! - And that's also where these Fake profiles come in. You give yourself a small advantage. A head-start so to speak.

What most people don't think of, is how these things could potentially hurt your business. Especially in the long run.

Fake likes are easy to spot, even if they are of high quality.

Let's say that you create a new Facebook page for your new service or product. You suddenly, from nowhere get 5,000 new fans, all of them look real and they have decent profile pictures, and content on their profiles, all to look as real as possible.. - But NONE of them interacts with ANY of your content on your page... Doesn't that look weird? - Of course it does!

And why would something like that hurt your business? - This is actually common sense to most people.

If I find a decent product and I look at their page, and within seconds I find out that they've bought fake likes, or that they are using fake likes to increase their numbers of fans.. Well, then I'll stay away. Which means that I won't purchase their product and they lose a potential customer.

And why would I ignore the product due to the use of fake likes? - It's simple!

If they have THAT superb product or service, but not even ONE person have bothered to give them a nice review or to interact with ANY of their content.. - How good could that product really be?

In my book, it has zero value and that's why I won't bother with it.

Potential customers are looking for real reviews, honest feedback, great feedback. That sort of thing. - Just look at SEOClerks marketplace for instance. Everyone knows that it's easier to get sales as long as you have good reputation, great reviews and superb recommendations.. So why wouldn't it be the same outside of SEOClerks?


Best Regards,
hitmeasap

Comments

Please login or sign up to leave a comment

Join
chetaseo
If a seller sets up a facebook page, he must get real likes and followers to show that his product is well noticed and appreciated even though no one has comment on it. same goes for youtube videos. i have a facebook page and i thought of buying some facebook likes and a thought stroke my head about facebook ads and i went for it and VIOLA, even after my ad has expired, my likes keeps increasing daily little by little and i have gotten soem few comments
So i will advise that the seller go for facebook ads to boost his likes and even the traffic is also targeted based on niche and geographical location- thats double advantage.



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

Corzhens
Social media, particularly Facebook, is now verifying the numbers on your posts so you will notice that if you have fake number of “likes” and followers” the number will change back to the correct amount because Facebook had verified it. Once your account is caught with those fake numbers then I guess you will be sanctioned like having your account suspended for a time.



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

idealmike
It's very true what you say, and for most cases, you can spot fake followers/fans because their posts have no engagement. If a person had say 50,000 followers on Facebook or fans on his/her Fanpage, it would stand to reason that the posts on that Fanpage would have some engagement on them by way of likes, shares and comments etc. However one way around that, is to purchase more likes/shares and comments etc for each of your Fanpage posts. That way it's really hard to tell unless you do a bit of research and are able to see that the engagement on those posts isn't made by their actual fans. Not everyone has time to do that and most just presume that it's all real engagement by their followers/fans.

And as Jkeyz pointed out, in some cases, that's actually turned out well for them that have purchased bulk amounts of fans etc as it's helped secure them a job or get hired by other people for something. And take Instagram for example, you can make money using Instagram if you have a lot of followers by joining up to services that sponsor your posts. Some don't accept you unless you have a certain amount of followers. But a lot of people manage to get that work by just buying fake followers to their account.

But it's a cheap and sleazy work-around and nothing can compare to actually having real followers, fans and likes etc. For having real followers etc means you'll actually get real engagement on your posts and updates and that works out better all round! Why Fake Likes & Followers Could Hurt You.



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

Lynne
Mike that is exactly what I was going to say when responding to your post, it is a sleazy way to go about it in my opinion. I have built up my mommy blog page over the last 5 years to have over 40 000 followers and it has taken hard work, plus a bit of financial investment for Facebook advertising.

It annoys me when I see other pages with fakes followers!



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

idealmike
Yeah it's basically just cheating your way to the top! I would have a lot more respect for someone that earned all those fans/followers/likes etc on their own through hard work, blood, sweat and tears than through someone that just purchased them all. Although I can see why they do it but yeah. Earn it! Why Fake Likes & Followers Could Hurt You.



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

Lynne
Well it is not easy to do it, so yes I can understand... just like you can cheat your way through an exam too, or cheat your way to a job by having fake followers. No thank you!



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

MusicMoguls
This is almost true every single time except i can think of one exception. The music industry is the main purchaser of fake likes, followers, plays, ETC. This alone is not enough to get your rich or popular but if your in the rite situation these boosted numbers could take you to the next level in your career. I know people who have gotten distribution deals, Endorsements, and full blown record deals from this type of fake marketing. Even well known artist boost numbers especially on YouTube to make them look more popular than they already are. Time has a great article about this.



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

procoder
Totally agree with you, these services are nothing but only a way to increase the number of followers/likes and make your profile looks popular, even though that most of people know what's behind them, they still keep buying them because without fake likes they think that they will not succeed, but seriously they should understand if they've arrived to that point it means that they've failed already. It's better to have 2 real persons following you , than 200K followers who are all generated by some bot softwares. I don't understand why wasting time on fake followers/likes while there are many ways to increase them in organic ways.



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

Lynne
I have had people contact me and make me an offer to promote my websites and offers via their social networks. I always go and have a look... I can see immediately whether there is any engagement or not. If your selling point is to promote my websites to thousands of fake followers I am not very impressed. I had someone contact me last year, wanting me to buy services from him. He claimed he could rank me on page one of Google very fast, and he could get me buckets of traffic by promoting my website on his Twitter account.

I asked him for his Twitter handle and I saw his 200 000 odd followers, all doing nothing but following. I then ran it through a website that checks for fake followers and every single one was fake. This kind of thing really does my nut in.

For me personally, I would rather have 10 real followers than 10 million fake ones.



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

hitmeasap
I would rather have 1 real follower than 10 million fake followers, so I totally agree with you Lynne. It's a shady thing to do, and I've actually seen a handful of people selling tweet services.

Like this:
"I will send your message as a tweet on my twitter account"

And they have anything from 1000 followers to 500,000 followers.. And sure, why wouldn't you buy that service? - It's an insane amount of eyeballs you'll reach.

The biggest problems is that the same seller often provides Twitter Followers too.. - Isn't that a little too obvious?



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

EliteWriter
I know that the whole concept of buying such likes and followers is to increase the total number you have showing on your page. But honestly, I cannot stand the fact that one needs to resort to such fake likes and followers because it is sort of cheating to some extent. I know that it may seem unprofessional to have a couple of hundred likes and followers at the start, but I would prefer to take time and gain followers and likes the right way. At the end of the day it is more worthwhile in my opinion. S, yes I totally agree with you.



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

MendasDigital
It doesn't just apply to Facebook, or Instagram. Fake anything, for any site, has the potential to hurt you. Real will always be better quality, but both fake and real have their pros/cons. Which to chose depends on what you're trying to do, how much time you have, funding, etc.



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

hitmeasap
That is very true areyubskrelcoes! - Fake anything has the potential to hurt you or your business. As others have stated in this topic, there's people out there who've gained a lot by using fake likes, followers, fans or whatever they've used and I personally believe it's horrible. I would never want a job because I've faked my resume. - If I want a record deal or a job, then I would want it because I was worth it. Not because I was clever enough to fake my way to it. - That's ugly, unethical and I actually think it's sad. It's a sad action from shady people.



Are you sure you want to delete this post?

Order Now
Process Time: 0.70699596405029

Possible Duplicate queries found!
MatchCountSQLScript
SELECT * FROM `questions` as q JOIN categories_faq as c ON q.catid=c.CATID WHERE (q.status=1 OR (q.status=2 AND userid='') ) AND q.quesid='20483'1SELECT q.*, c.seo as CatSEO, c.name as CatName, c.parentid FROM `questions` as q JOIN categories_faq as c ON q.catid=c.CATID WHERE (q.status=1 OR (q.status=2 AND userid='') ) AND q.quesid='20483'

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/viewfaq.php 496 () ()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='6160'1SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='6160'

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/includes/member.php 445 GetAllUserDetails() ()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID=61601SELECT googleplus_profile FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID=6160

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 16914 GetGooglePlusProfileFromId() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faq as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=20483 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faq as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=20483 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM answers a, seoclerks.members b WHERE a.quesid='20483' AND a.userid=b.USERID and b.status='1' AND a.status=1 ORDER BY a.combined_votes DESC, a.date_answered asc1SELECT a.answer, a.USERID, a.upvotes, a.downvotes, a.ansid, a.parentid, a.combined_votes, a.date_answered, b.username, b.userlevel, b.profilepicture FROM answers a, seoclerks.members b WHERE a.quesid='20483' AND a.userid=b.USERID and b.status='1' AND a.status=1 ORDER BY a.combined_votes DESC, a.date_answered asc

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/viewfaq.php 1245 () ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111540 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111540 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=168666 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=168666 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111551 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111551 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111590 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111590 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111593 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111593 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111596 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111596 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111534 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111534 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111544 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111544 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111586 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111586 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111744 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111744 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111612 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111612 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111625 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111625 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111743 LIMIT 51SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=111743 LIMIT 5

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()

UPDATE questions SET total_views = total_views + 1 WHERE quesid='20483'1UPDATE questions SET total_views = total_views + 1 WHERE quesid='20483'

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 1765 update_Faqviewcount() ()

SELECT * FROM questions WHERE quesid!='20483' AND status='1' AND (question like '%Why Fake Likes & Followers Hurt You.%' OR question like '%Fake%' OR question like '%Likes%' OR question like '%&%' OR question like '%Followers%' OR question like '%Hurt%' OR question like '%You.%') -- ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 151SELECT quesid, question, seo, userid FROM questions WHERE quesid!='20483' AND status='1' AND (question like '%Why Fake Likes & Followers Hurt You.%' OR question like '%Fake%' OR question like '%Likes%' OR question like '%&%' OR question like '%Followers%' OR question like '%Hurt%' OR question like '%You.%') -- ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 15

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() ()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='337' limit 11SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='337' limit 1

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_member_profilepicture()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='1856' limit 11SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='1856' limit 1

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_member_profilepicture()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='11598' limit 11SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='11598' limit 1

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_member_profilepicture()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='9' limit 11SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='9' limit 1

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_member_profilepicture()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='6845' limit 11SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='6845' limit 1

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_member_profilepicture()

SELECT * FROM members_ledger WHERE script='/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/viewfaq.php' AND querystring LIKE '%id=20483%' AND added>=UNIX_TIMESTAMP(NOW())-1200 GROUP BY USERID 1SELECT USERID, username FROM members_ledger WHERE script='/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/viewfaq.php' AND querystring LIKE '%id=20483%' AND added>=UNIX_TIMESTAMP(NOW())-1200 GROUP BY USERID

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() ()

SELECT * FROM categories1SELECT * FROM categories

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() parseRedundantQueriesCache()

select * from categories_software order by name asc1select * from categories_software order by name asc

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_GetSoftwareCategories()

select * from categories_wanttobuy order by name asc1select * from categories_wanttobuy order by name asc

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_wantcategories()

select * from categories_wanttotrade order by name asc1select * from categories_wanttotrade order by name asc

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_tradecategories()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='198791.jpg'1SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='198791.jpg'

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='600657.jpg'1SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='600657.jpg'

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='272.jpg'1SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='272.jpg'

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='306632.jpg'1SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='306632.jpg'

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='139192.png'1SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='139192.png'

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='377074.png'1SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='377074.png'

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='6160.png'1SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='6160.png'

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='212316.jpg'1SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='212316.jpg'

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()

SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='486532.jpg'1SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='486532.jpg'

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()

select * from categories_faq order by name asc1select * from categories_faq order by name asc

/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_GetFaqCategories()

Invalid SQL

count(*)sql1error_msg

Expensive SQL

Tuning the following SQL could reduce the server load substantially
LoadCountSQLMaxMin

Suspicious SQL

The following SQL have high average execution times
Avg TimeCountSQLMaxMin