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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
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Most see “buying friends” as a bad thing. Why else would every sorority member who’s accused of buying her sisters’ friendship deny it so furiously? Yet in the marketing world, the stance isn’t always so clear.
If you’re facing the dilemma of whether or not to buy Twitter followers, Facebook Page likes, YouTube views or any other social media followers, consider these pros and cons:
Pro: You get more followers and high follower counts look impressive.
Twitter followers and Facebook Page likes are often called “vanity metrics” because they give a perceived popularity score. Even if those followers and purchased Likes don’t do anything else in terms of engagement, they can help a brand look more impressive to key stakeholders, including investors, partners and the end consumer. If vanity metrics are important, buying them is a fast way to grow those numbers.
Con: You’re likely to see decreases in engagement.
Purchased followers typically don’t engage with content, and based on Facebook’s April 2014 algorithm update, this could mean hurting the reach of your individual posts and causing your brand’s Page to lose positioning in the news feed. Purchased Twitter followers also skew metrics about the reach of your Tweets, as more followers suggest a higher reach even though those followers are not active.
Con: Purchased followers typically aren’t paid to stick around.
Buying followers to meet a quarterly goal has the potential to drop you into the vicious cycle of repeating the process quarter over quarter, as purchased followers begin to unfollow your brand (they didn’t have a compelling reason to follow you in the first place, after all).
Pro: It’s the only way to add followers on some social networks.
Unlike Twitter and Facebook, which allow you to use platform advertising to get your content in front of people from the start to grow the fan base, you must have more than 1,000 followers on Google+ before you can run +Post. Some might argue the only way for marketers with a small Google+ following to get in front of and grow a larger audience is to purchase those followers. This is less of a “Pro” and more of a justification. A little like saying, “Diet soda is a healthy option, because we don’t have regular soda.”
Con: Buying followers can be a violation of a social network’s TOS.
Each social network has its own terms of service (TOS), many of which include policies surrounding how followers and other key metrics can be attainted. YouTube, for instance, doesn’t count views from some third-party services, and trying to purchase views using one of those services could result in disciplinary action against an account, including the removal of the video or account suspension. Facebook also explicitly prohibits buying likes, stating: “If we detect that your Page is connected to this type of activity, we’ll place limits on your Page.” In other words, buy at your own risk.
Although buying Twitter followers, Facebook Page likes, YouTube views or any other social media followers can help your business achieve short term goals, it isn’t the strongest way to build a social media following. Genuine friends—the kind that vouch for you and want to spend time with you—can’t be bought; the same goes for social media followers.
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