Buying Twitter/Facebook Followers

[kchandler]

So i have a client that sends me a link once a week about buying followers for social media profiles. Each time i tell him if it seems to good to be true... then its too good to be true!

What are your guys thoughts, experiences, feelings?

Here are a few examples:

http://www.targetedtraffic.int.tc

http://www.fbfandamonium.com

[hireawizseo]

Numbers make a visual impact but there will be no interactivity or brand loyalty...

[JamesNorquay]

I would not advise on buying fans because usually you end up with low quality fans who have no engagement with the page, 95% of the time they are fake profiles too. Really why buy a bunch of fake fans, the only benefit is if you want to make your brand look like it has some likes! 
But overall in the future your page becomes a waste land where people do not even comment or any thing due to the fact you have no real customers to engage with.

[ChristopherGlaeser]

I tried a sweepstakes. The prize was a $620 electronic device for athletes. The majority of entries were either fake people or couch potatos who spent countless hours entering sweepstakes and would never consider using the device. Lesson learned.

[Tony-Karib]

My experience was a little different. I targeted and refined legitimate ads on Facebook to potential readers in the Philippians. They landed on a custom Facebook tab that encouraged them to "like" the page. Once they connected I have them move to a "Best of Our Website" page. The end results was about 3 cent per fan page follower and most of them visit our site immediately. These have stuck around and most visit the website again within one week of their initial like.

I've tried similar systems in a few other countries, but the cost was usually closer to 8 cent.

[KeriMorgret]

Just today YOUmoz published a piece about one person's experience with buying Facebook followers. Most of them appeared to be from Eastern Europe, and possibly under 13 years old. He did not have the best experience. This was also at the request of a client who wouldn't back down. It might be useful to read, add a thumb if you agree, etc. http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/social-media-fan-base-to-buy-or-not-to-buy

[USHoleInOne]

Whats the point if the followers or fans aren't really interested in the content. A better way to earn facebook and twitter followers would be to run a contest or sweepstakes.

Then when you build the fan base, write interesting content that will keep them there.

[MarieHaynes]

I don't think that having more fans puts you higher in the serps.  However, when fans share your stuff on facebook it definitely helps.

I'm not sure how much effect a "like" has though as opposed to a "share".

[kchandler]

Is there actually a published article with statistics that state that more followers/fans give you higher ranking in SERPs?

[kchandler]

Sounds like a pretty good return, $1 per fan. Especially if the were truely engaged fans, rather than the fictious fans that it sounds like you could get from these purchasing sites. Thanks for the info!

[MarieHaynes]

My experiment with facebook ads is on a REALLY small scale.  I have been running $2.00 per day ads for 5 days now.  I read somewhere that when you're trying to gain fans it's best to run CPM rather than CPC, but when I look at the numbers I'm not sure about that.

So far I've gained 10 extra fans on $2 per day at a cost of $1 per fan.  That's higher than I'm willing to pay.  So, the next step is for me to start optimizing the campaign by targeting particular demographics (for example, my site attracts more people in the 25-34 range who are female so I'll target those).  I'm also going to start playing around with my ad copy.

Back to the CPC or CPM, I'm currently paying $0.21 CPM.  I'm going to see how the ads run once they're better targeted, and with different ad copy.  If I can't get the cost per fan acquisition down then I'll try some CPC ads.

It's fun to play around with.  Once I get it figured out then if I can get good quality fans for a decent price I'll throw more money at it.

Although I've only gained 10 fans directly from my ads, I gained a lot more fans than I usually do over a week.  I'm not sure if this is indirectly because of my ads or not.

My fan interactions are improving as well and I'm really enjoying starting to have a fan base.

[Hurf]

Well, if he is expecting conversion from fake followers - tell him to think again!

If he is looking to build credibility through numbers and THEN gain converting followers after the fact, then that may not be so silly (based on the psychology that people follow the crowd.)

Don't forget the SEO benefits of having a larger number of followers/fans is known to give.

[Hurf]

@EGOL - You are absolutely correct. Quality is always preferable to Quantity. Now, we all know that the BEST WAY to make gains in the SERPS is to stick to the straight and narrow and work hard and eventually you will obtain the results you want. However, in the real world, we are competing  against huge numbers of SEO companies that all promise fast results - and deliver them - by using a variety of dark practices - and many of these companies are not getting penalised for it (and I have watched them prosper over the course of nearly 4 years using less than pure techniques.)

So as time passes I watch them continue to reap the rewards, thinking to myself 'Any minute now Google will see what they are doing and drop them off the face of the earth...' Well, I'm still waiting, and waiting, and waiting...

So what does the honest, wholesome, whitehat SEO do?

How realistic is it for an SME with say 400 inbound links and 50 facebook followers to HONESTLY outgun a competitor who has 320,000 inbound links and 3,000 fake facebook followers?

I have fought quite a number of battles for some time with clients and employers, all the time resisting the easy path in favour of the long haul, but I am getting rather worn down by it. The addage if you can't beat 'em - join 'em springs to mind.

There are certainly scenarios where a quick boost to your fan base numbers for credibility are essential - especially if part of your pitch to potential clients will be that you will be marketing product X using social networking sites (Let's say we are selling a targeted property listings site, which will also use facebook and twitter to further promote its listings) Now your potential client will want to see the audience you plan to promote their product to - BEFORE you win their business and therefore have a product to promote - so  you are faced with a dilemma - spend a lengthy and non-revenue generating period  while you earnestly build a following, or, spend $50 and build the numbers in a matter of days - show the customer your thousand/s of eager followers fans - win the business and THEN invest your time in gathering genuine interested followers and in turn build a number of followers who are genuinely interested in the products you promote.

There is safety in numbers at play here - for all parties - as @Dunamis said 'if I see a page that has cool stuff and is followed by thousands of people, I am more likely to follow it.  I'm  not as likely to become a fan of a page with 100 members even if the content looks decent. '

We can't fight human nature with the argument 'Hey, I might only have a few followers, but one of them is the Pope!' Numbers are a very quick indicator of Credibility  and we are manipulated by the power of numbers dozens of times a day and this will not change!

[kchandler]

Have you seen a good response with facebook ads? If you don't mind me asking, what is your average cpc and ctr?

[kchandler]

This client is a two man startup that truly has no knowledge of inbound marketing. He first came to me with the facebook fan link and i explained to him these wouldn't be targeted and probably fictitious accounts.

A week later he sends me the twitter link and asked the same question, "If i get 40,000 followers if only 20 of them convert i would cover cost."

So after his determination i figured i shoot the question out to the inbound marketing community that i have grown to trust, and to no surprise they have all agreed. It sounds like i should tell him to invest in facebook ads rather than fake facebook friends

[firstconversion]

Why is your client suggetsing this? Does he follow Dunamis's view or does he think these fake accounts will rbing sales?

I can understand s SEO doing this to boost the numbers they can report to a client, but why would a business want to pay for a load of dummy accounts that dont convert to sales?

hm, unless you have a middle manager who is also trying to report big numbers upwards imn their organisation. In that case, i might inflate the numbers and make them look good to their bosses

[EGOL]

I think that you could charge people who want to link to your site.

[MarieHaynes]

I agree 99%. 

The other 1% comes from the part of me that is more likely to become a fan of a page that has thousands of fans.  So, I have this thought that perhaps I will buy a thousand fake fans to make me look more credible.

But, then, the other side of my brain kicks in and says, "Look...you've done things by the book so far, so don't go looking for a cheap solution."  I want to create my brand with quality marketing, not cheap gimmicks.....but it can be tempting.    (It's that same kind of temptation that makes me want to go out and buy links sometimes.)

[EGOL]

I agree with all that you have said.

The variation that you have is tbat you are going after quality followers/likers.

That works.  Also, having a high count might attract a few extra people but probably not quality people..

But paying to have a bunch of drunks following you isn't directly going to be beneficial unless your mission is to give  away cheap wine.

[MarieHaynes]

It's funny you should mention this today.  In the past I've always been against boosting your facebook or twitter fans.  I'm seeing some benefit now though.

As an avid user of facebook, if I see a page that has cool stuff and is followed by thousands of people, I am more likely to follow it.  I'm  not as likely to become a fan of a page with 100 members even if the content looks decent.

I'm experimenting with spending a few bucks on facebook ads to increase my fan base.  These would be truly targeted fans who want to connect with me and my product.

I am finding that I am building some good relationships via facebook and getting some conversions as a result of my fan base.

Plus it's kind of an ego boost to post something and see a bunch of people liking and commenting on it. 

[Hurf]

To be clear -  I am NOT a fan of trying to game the system - I'd rather take the long haul than the short cut everytime -  but it's difficult see the results these fake fans bring and not be seduced by them (the results - not the fake fans!) and  it would be fairly difficult to categorically determine the validity of these fake accounts - they aren't overtly spammy - though they certainly lack some originality when they create names for the accounts - and quite frankly Facebook aren't likely to tackle this issue any time soon - They love to boast about their huge userbase: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics and as such they aren't likely to purge the untold MILLIONS of fake accounts as this will suggest a dip in popularity or, perhaps as bad, Facebook is riddled with face accounts gasps - which is bad for business and terrible for Sharholders. - However, I wonder what they will do when their stats show that facebook has more users than Earth has inhabitants???

[Hurf]

It does work. I have seen it in practice (aherm!)  'An associate'.... AHERMMMM! used http://www.socialkik.com/facebook_promo.html - and got tangible results. My 'associate' says don't bother with the targeted fans package as they are clearly ficticious accounts, so they cannot possibly be targeted. Furthermore it's amusing to see how many of the 'fans' have a surname that is also a forename Brian Christopher/Christopher Brian etc etc - they sound like a load of fancy hairdressers!

BTW Result was a No 4 position in Bing US for a facebook.com/exactmatchkeywordphrase - from somewhere on Page 3...

These sites all sell themselves very well, but they are all going to be either made up of fake accounts and/or 12 year old kids - signing up for some crummy scheme which will promise them a free iphone5.

However, these 'fans' do help boost your numbers, so you look credible/established to the real fans you pick up later.

Interesting article on the influence of Twitter and Facebook on Google rankings here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/facebook-twitters-influence-google-search-rankings

[EGOL]

Its not how many people are following you, its who is following you.

I always like to use the comparison... which is more important "100 drunks or one Pope?"

The real value of a follower occurs when they are paying attention to you and when they take an action based upon one of your tweets.

I don't think that the 100 followers for $5 people are going to be of any value.

.... but some people like to brag about numbers - even if they are meaningless.

I think that this client just doesn't understand how twitter works.  I'd email an article to him if you can find something appropriate.

[CodyWheeler]

Eeek. Sounds like one of those 5 signs that you've got a bad SEO client.

I'd be compelled to ask your client why he/she thinks this is a good business decision. Obviously the sheer quantity of followers you have isn't going to do a darn thing unless those followers are organic and relative to your business. It's just going to inflate his follower count artificially and add no value to the business.

I'd say the risks are worse than the rewards...