Social media platform is a free marketing resource that all sorts of works, small or big, can use as well as get benefits. They have allowed brands to connect with a huge audience size as compared to traditional marketing channels.
Twitter is a very popular social media platform and it is widely known as a reputed news and information source, has built itself as a front-runner in the social media marketing landscape. Nearly every significant political figure, celebrity, brand, institution, business, etc, use Twitter. That makes Twitter one of the most powerful social media platforms.
Although, as every user wishes to improve the social media presence, the huge follower count has become a sort of a status token. Social media managers and marketers are usually under tremendous pressure to increase followers. Major businesses and brands usually have fixed targets (as the number of followers) to achieve each quarter.
Every business, brand, or marketer, wants to scale the business to the next level, but achieving a high follower count is surely not that easy. Now, social media users are more informed, they seek information that can add value, and content is abundant. Catching the attention of users with only several updates and posts is no longer possible.
Most of the businesses, users, and brands, put resources, effort, and time, to get the attention of users. Yet some users would preferably take the short route to success, despite how short-lived it might be, by buying fake followers.
What are fake followers?
Fake followers have normally automated bot software that utilizes the Twitter API to communicate with different users. These fake followers or bots can be programmed to do some particular tasks. You can even configure it to comment, like, Tweet, share, retweet, and much more.
Not every bot is a fake follower and can be helpful in many different ways. The customer support bot is a great example of a valuable Twitter bot. Although many firms or websites simulate social media management agencies sell Twitter bots to twitter users. That helps them in increasing their follower count in a very short time.
Purchased followers can help these users generate an illusion of fame. Some users use that popularity to get new followers, but after the users could not find any engaging content, users will eventually unfollow the users.
Some users buy fake followers to do influencer fraud. The fake influencers buy engagement and followers to attract collaborations and brand sponsorships. Influencer fraud has resulted in a loss of nearly $1.3 billion in 2019 and the losses in 2020 are expected to be more than $1.5 billion.
Huge follower numbers on social media look majestic. To achieve this goal, most of the people turn to fake followers, which are inaccurately suggested to be bots.
If you’re getting frustrated with a client who just cares about likes and followers, you might get tempted to pay for fake followers. After all, if you energetically fight against bots and report them regularly, there’s no way to remove each fake account that follows you. Why not just take the advantage of the inherent flaw for the advantage?
Actively pursuing fake followers will give you a low short-term gain, but it means nothing to those who know how not to rely on an effortlessly manipulated metric. Apparently, having lots of followers suggests that people are interested in the brand and having a heavy following will make the following grow even bigger by giving the page more exposure.
And in reality, that could be the case at one point, but it has not been the case lately. It’s been stated a million times, but it’s worth repeating: organic reach is nearly non-existent, particularly for those who don’t already follow the brand. Furthermore, the fact that followers can be bought is not anymore a secret.
Fake followers don’t engage
Even when you buy fake followers the high follower count is just a number, it could not give any other benefit. Follower count has been replaced by engagement as the most important metric. A huge follower base that is not engaging is of no use to marketers and brands. If you have 12,000 followers, but not even a thousand followers interact with the content, what help are they?
Follower count is certainly an important metric, but if the follower base is not interacting with the posts, they would not help you in increasing conversion rates also. After all, the accounts are not genuine users that need the brand’s services or products.
Fake followers damage the credibility and reputation
Fake followers can really help you generate an illusion of popularity, which will then help in attracting the attention of different users. But if the users don’t get engaging content, they will begin questioning the authenticity and credibility of the followers. Ultimately, the new followers will unfollow you, and this will not even be the worst thing.
Lower engagement rates might force brands to examine the authenticity of the followers. With confirmation, you would not just lose the brand sponsorship, the brand can also blacklist your account. The chances are that brand may never again approach you to promote the brand.
It’s easy to find fake followers
The previous decade has shown us a big surge in the quantity of fake accounts on social media platforms. But great technological advancements have been seen as well. One of that beneficial technologies is a software tool to recognize bots or fake followers.
Buying fake followers is the digital media equivalent of an athlete using steroids. You will get caught in hindsight, but when the shady practices catch up with you there will be notable blowback. Twitter has been regularly updating its algorithm to forbid fake followers from their platform. But all the websites selling fake followers just keep coming up with new loopholes to exploit.
Fake followers can get your account banned
Buying fake followers will inflate the Twitter follower count. But when you buy a lot of fake followers, it will distort that follower/following ratio. That Twitter algorithm will spot accounts with that kind of uneven following/follower ratio. As getting fake followers is against Twitter’s terms of services, the Twitter account will ultimately be banned. All that money that you have invested in getting fake followers will just go to waste at the end.
Fake followers can distort the performance metrics
Buying too many fake followers will distort the follower metrics. Most of the social media users will go through the followers to see who you draw and ensure that the account is genuine.
If you are not one to follow several accounts, it may be the starting point for the followers to find other people or businesses who provide complementary or similar content to what you’ve been providing.
Those interested in your brand will go through the followers and might get suspicious if you have many accounts that look shady or are bots set up for the only purpose of sharing other’s content. This will hugely distort the engagement rate, that is the most important metric for marketers and brands.
Likewise, it will also distort growth predictions and metrics which can hamper the Twitter marketing strategy.
Conclusion:
Building your Twitter follower count naturally is not that easy, but definitely worth your effort. On any particular day, a few genuine followers will benefit you a lot more than fake followers that don’t even interact with the content. While it may provide your Twitter profile or brand a little boost, in the long run, it will tarnish the credibility and reputation.
Rather than buying followers, put the effort and time to cultivate a huge engaging follower base that will help you propel the brand or Twitter profile to the subsequent level.
