How do website owners gain from facebook scams like this?
-
I've noticed two things that are going wild on Facebook this week:
and
In the first scenario, you supposedly just click share and they'll send you a $25 Tim Horton's gift card. (For those who don't know Tim's it is a very popular coffee shop in Canada). There's no way this is happening...they claim to have something like 5000 cards to give away.
In the second one they're apparently giving away 1000 ipods.
Yeah...OK.
So, they're obviously scams that are just trying to get a few zillion facebook shares. But why?
-
Thanks Sha, but I still don't get it. What's the benefit of having ten thousand social mentions on a domain that will never get used for anything else? Or do they eventually build something else on that domain and then create a backlink to one of their sites?
-
The reason is fairly obvious...gaming search engines with social mentions.
This will never go away because there will always be masses of people out there who will think "what have I got to lose?". People recognize that if it's a scam all they lost was a click and if it isn't they'll get something for nothing.
The general public has no idea that a share is "worth" anything for a website and values a click at zero.
Sucks to be them if someone sees it and decides to let the engines know what is going on though eh?
Sha
-
Yeah I see a tonne of this stuff but to be honest I just always use my better judgement and assume it as a scam, closing the window. However, you're quite right... not all web users are used to seeing this stuff and having that reaction, therefore there is bound to be some people that through no fault of their own are naive enough to fall for the scam and end up getting screwed over in some way or another.
I guess there must be something in it for the people who do it though, or they wouldn't continue doing it... sort of like the emails I get from Nigeria asking for my bank details... some people must give them or they'd have stopped by now. Such a shame, but in time with the younger generations being so internet savi I assume it'll die out, or at least I hope so.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Facebook Like to Download and Page SEO
Hello, I am adding a Facebook Like to Download button for each piece of free content on my website and wondering if a feature like that would be bad for the page SEO.
Social Media | | ollie3450 -
Facebook Business page query
Hello Expert, I want to check how many facebook pages do my competitor have created? Is there any way to check or tool available? Is there any way to check profile page of competitor from there facebook page? I am providing 4 services on my website so do i create seperate page for all services? or one common page for all 4 services? what type of name should i create for profile and business page?
Social Media | | bkmitesh0 -
We got 10,000 facebook likes overnight from people in another country. WHY? How do I get rid of them?
Our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/MobileAttic received more than 10,000 likes over night. We only had about 250 likes prior to this. I know this hurts our engagement numbers as well as limits real customers / community from seeing our posts. Is there any way to get our fans down to a real "non-spammed" number?
Social Media | | jstallings0 -
Facebook Businees page or personal account?
Buon giorno 🙂 With more & more clients creating facebook pages theyve no idea wether they should create a personal account or a business page and neither do i. One question: Is this https://www.facebook.com/Natureflex a business facebook page or a personal account & how can you tell? Grazie,
Social Media | | Nightwing
David1 -
Same posts on facebook and google+. Is this a problem?
I plan to publish same posts on facebook and google+. As they are in 10 different languages, I would rather not make modifications for facebook and google+ respectively. Do you see any problems with this? Do you think it matters whether I first publish on google+ or first on facebook? Any problem if I publish posts on one social media account which I already published in another social media account for another company of mine some months ago? thanks
Social Media | | lcourse0 -
What is the value of getting a Facebook like?
Is requesting people to like your facebook page of any real value for a small business? Is it better to encourage people to write a comment/testimonial about your product or service on their own status with a link to your website and/or Facebook page? I have a lot of clients getting more and more into the concept of social marketing so I am now wondering how best to guide them in the right direction with regards to Facebook specifically
Social Media | | NeilD0 -
Do you need legal rights to pictures in Facebook posts
When I add an image to a Facebook post (for a FanPage) does it need to be something I own or have credited, or can I use whatever images I like? Is this something that is at all monitored? Thanks!
Social Media | | theLotter0 -
Qualty of Likes, Shares etc
People often say that Social Media shares are all about the quality of them but not the volume when it comes to a factor in SEO. However, as far as I know, Google does not have any in depth access to the likes Facebook and Twitter's API, so how can they tell the quality of likes. Most Facebook accounts are hidden or restricted so Google can't tell from that either.
Social Media | | gazza101uk0